Pacaraos Quechua is a variety of

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

spoken until the middle of the 20th century in the community of Pacaraos ( Pacaraos District) in the

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

vian

Lima Region The Department of Lima () is a department and region located in the central coast of Peru, the ''seat of the Regional Government'' is Huacho. Lima Province, which contains the city of Lima, the country's capital, is located west of the Departm ...

in the

Chancay Chancay is a small city located north of Lima. Its population is 63,378. The Chancay culture was a pre-Columbian archaeological culture, later part of the Inca Empire. History It was founded in 1562 under the name of Villa de Arnedo. The ma ...

valley up to 3000 m above sea level. The Quechua of Pacaraos was investigated by the Dutch linguist Willem F. H. Adelaar in the 1970s, when it was still spoken by women in their sixties and older. Around the year 2000 there were possibly no active speakers left, but there are probably some people with passive knowledge who grew up with their grandparents. A peculiarity of Pacaraos Quechua is that it does not belong to any of the two main branches of the Quechua family ( Waywash and Wampuy). In contrast to other Quechua varieties, the Quechua of Pacaraos has phonemic word accent, which is either on the penultimate or the ultimate syllable. Like the Waywash varieties but in contrast to Wampuy, it distinguishes between short and long vowels. The first person of the verb and the possessive form for nouns is expressed by accent on the last syllable and addition of -y, e.g.: tarpuy "to sow" (root: tarpu-) - tarpúy "I sow" (cf. Waywash: , Wampuy: tarpuni) - tarpunki "you sow" - tarpun "he/she sows". The vocabulary of Pacaraos Quechua corresponds in part with

Southern Quechua Southern Quechua ( qu, Urin qichwa, es, quechua sureño), or simply Quechua (Qichwa or Qhichwa), is the most widely spoken of the major regional groupings of mutually intelligible dialects within the Quechua language family, with about 6.9 mil ...

(e.g. kunan "now"), and partially with Waywash (e.g. yarku- "to rise", akshu, "potato"). Furthermore there are many loanwords from

Jaqaru Jaqaru (''Haq'aru'') is a language of the Aymaran family. It is also known as Jaqi and Aru. It is spoken in the districts of Tupe and Catahuasi in Yauyos Province, Lima Region, Peru. Most of the 2000 ethnic Jaqaru have migrated to Lima. Kawki, ...

or other

Aymaran languages Aymaran (also Jaqi or Aru) is one of the two dominant language families in the central Andes alongside Quechuan. The family consists of Aymara, widely spoken in Bolivia, and the endangered Jaqaru and Kawki languages of Peru. Hardman (1978) pro ...

(e.g. achara "old", uni- "to hate", wilka "sun"). Some words of Pacaraos Quechua are unique, e.g. arapu- "to answer", "clothes", "both". Pacaraos Quechua shares many suffixes with Waywash, e.g. -ĉaw "in, on, at" or , -piq "from, out of". The accusative suffix -kta has a long form -kta and a short form -k, the latter being combined with final stress. The negation suffix -su (<*-chu) is often shortened to -s. The gerund is expressed with -shpa, as in all Wampuy varieties. The /q/ of Proto-Quechua is a fricative, at the end of a syllable or near a voiceless consonant it is voiceless and otherwise voiced In contrast to other Quechua varianties it distinguishes between a simple (tap, e.g. "they both") and a vibrant r(e.g. rraqak "girl"). As in some dialects of Ancash Quechua /č/ has become (e.g. say "that") and /s/ has turned to (e.g. huti "name", haĉa "plant", "snow"). The

retroflex A retroflex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal (Help:IPA/English, /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated betw ...

/ĉ/ has been preserved.

Bibliography

* Adelaar, Willem. 1987. Morfología del Quechua de Pacaraos. Lima, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. * Willem F. H. Adelaar, Pieter Muysken (2006). The languages of the Andes, pp. 242–249. A sketch of a Peruvian Quechua Dialect (Pacaraos).

References

{{Languages of Peru Languages of Peru Quechuan languages