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Quechua (Quechua, Runa Simi) is an American Indian language native to South America and related to Aymará, both members of the Quechumaran linguistic stock. It was the official language of the Tawantinsuyu ( Inca Empire), and today is spoken in various dialects by some 8 to 13 million people throughout South America. The language's dominion spans the entire South American continent starting as far north as southern Colombia and Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, and northwestern Argentina and northern Chile. The dialect as it is spoken in Colombia and Ecuador is known as Quichua (Quichua, Runa Shimi), and because of its frequent unintelligibility with the main branch of the language, it borders on being classed as separate. Despite this, all dialects are nonetheless considered a single tongue, consequently making it the most widely spoken of all American Indian languages in the Americas.

The language was extended beyond the limits of the empire by the Catholic Church, which chose it to preach to Indians in the Andes area. It has, along with SpanishThis article is about the international language known as Spanish. For other languages spoken in Spain see Languages of Spain Spanish is an Iberian Romance language, and the third or fourth most spoken language in the world. It is spoken as a first langua and Aymará, the status of an official language in both Peru and Bolivia. Before the arrival of the Spaniards and the introduction of the Latin alphabetThe Latin alphabet also called the Roman alphabet is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and most of the languages of western and central Europe, and of those areas settled by Europeans., Quechua had no written alphabet, instead, it had a system of accountance with khipuKhipu or quipa or quipu were recording devices used used in the Inca empire and its predecessor societies in the Andean region. The term khipu is an orthographic rendering of the Quechua word for "knot". A khipu usually consists of colored cotton cords wi-strings.

Quechua is a very regular language, but a large number of infixes and suffixes change both the overall significance of words and their subtle shades of meaning, allowing great expressiveness. It includes grammatical features such as bipersonal conjugation and conjugation dependent on mental state and veracity of knowledge, spatial and temporal relationships, and many cultural factors.

1 Quechua loanwords

A number of Quechua loanwordA loanword (or a borrowing is a word taken in by one language from another. The word loanword itself is a calque of the German Lehnwort''. A calque or loan translation is a related process whereby it is the meaning or idiom that is borrowed rather the lexs have entered EnglishThe English language is a West Germanic language, originating from England. It is the third most common "first" language (native speakers), with around 402 million people in 2002. English has lingua franca status in many parts of the world, due to the mil via SpanishThis article is about the international language known as Spanish. For other languages spoken in Spain see Languages of Spain Spanish is an Iberian Romance language, and the third or fourth most spoken language in the world. It is spoken as a first langua, including cocaCoca Leaves of the coca plant. Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Malpighiales Family: Erythroxylaceae Genus Erythroxylon Species coca Binomial name Erythroxylon coca Coca Erythroxylon coca is a, condorVultur gryphus ''Gymnogyps californianus Note that "Condor" is the NATO reporting name for the Russian/Soviet Antonov An-124 transport aircraft. Condor is the name for two species of bird in one of the vulture families. They are the largest flying land bi, guanoGuano (from the Quechua 'wanu') is the name given to the collected droppings of seabirds and bats. It can be used as an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of nitrogen. Soil that is deficient in organic matter can be made much more productive by a, gaucho, jerky, inca, llama, pampa, potato (from papa via patata), puma, quinoa, and vicuña . The word lagniappe comes from the Quechua word nyap ("something extra") with the article la in front of it, la ñapa, in Spanish.




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