| Aymaran | |
|---|---|
| Jaqi, Aru | |
| Geographic distribution | CentralSouth America,Andes Mountains |
| Linguistic classification | Quechumaran?
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | ayma1253 |
 Dark color: current extent of Aymaran languages. Light color: former extent, as evidenced by place names. | |
Aymaran (alsoJaqi orAru) is one of the two dominantlanguage families in the centralAndes alongsideQuechuan. The family consists ofAymara, widely spoken in Bolivia, and the endangeredJaqaru andKawki languages of Peru.
Hardman (1978) proposed the nameJaqi for the family of languages,Alfredo ToreroAru 'to speak', andRodolfo Cerrón PalominoAymaran, with two branches, Southern (or Altiplano) Aymaran and Central Aymaran (Jaqaru and Kawki). Other names for the family areJaqui (also spelledHaki) andAimara.
Quechuan languages, especially those of the south, share a large amount of vocabulary with Aymara, and the languages have often been grouped together asQuechumaran. This proposal is controversial, however; the shared vocabulary may be better explained as intensive borrowing due to long-term contact.
The Aymaran family of languages includes:
Aymara has approximately 2.2 million speakers; 1.7 million inBolivia, 350,000 inPeru, and the rest inChile andArgentina. Jaqaru has approximately 725 speakers in central Peru, and Kawki had 9 surviving speakers as of 2005. Kawki is little documented though its relationship with Jaqaru is quite close. Initially, they were considered by Martha Hardman (on very limited data at the time) to be different languages, but all subsequent fieldwork and research has contradicted that and demonstrated that they are mutually intelligible but divergent dialects of a single language.[citation needed]
The Aymaranlinguistic homeland may have been the southern Peruvian coast, particularly the area of theParacas culture and the laterNazca culture. Aymaran speakers then migrated into the highlands and played a role in theHuari Empire. Sometime between the collapse of theTiwanaku Empire and the rise of the Inca, some Aymaran speakers invaded theAltiplano, while others moved to the northwest, presumably ancestral to the Jaqaru and influencingQuechua I. Aymaran varieties were documented in the southern Peruvian highlands (including Lucanas, Chumbivilcas, and Condesuyos) by the 1586 Relaciones geográficas, and they appear to have persisted up until the 19th century. The eastern and southern Bolivian highlands were still predominantly Aymara-speaking around 1600, but may have adopted Quechua as a result of development of the mining industry.[1]
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with theKechua,Kunza,Leko,Uru-Chipaya,Arawak, andPukina language families due to contact.[2]
Aymaran languages have only threephonemicvowels/aiu/, which in most varieties of Aymara and Jaqaru are distinguished by length. Length is commonly transcribed usingdiaereses in Aymara andlength diacritics in Jaqaru.
Though Aymaran languages vary in terms of consonant inventories, they have several features in common. Aymara and Jaqaru both contain phonemic stops atlabial,alveolar,palatal,velar anduvular points of articulation. Stops are distinguished byejective andaspirated features. Both also containalveolar,palatal, andvelarfricatives and severalcentral andlateralapproximants.
Aymaran languages differ from Quechuan languages in that all verbal and nominal roots must end in a vowel, even in loanwords: Spanishhabas ("beans") became Aymarahawasa and Jaqaruháwaša. This feature is not found in other Andean languages.
Like Quechuan languages, Aymaran languages are highly agglutinative. However, they differ in that many agglutinative suffixes trigger vowel suppression in the preceding roots. An example is the loss of final vowel in the wordapa ("to take"), when it becomesap-su ("to take out").[3]
