Aymaran languages

      Jaqi, Aru
      Central South America, Andes Mountains
      Linguistic classification: Quechumaran ?
      • Aymaran
      Ethnologue code: 17-324
      Aymaran languages.png


      Hardman (1978) proposed the name Jaqi for the family of languages (1978), Alfredo Torero Aru 'to speak', and Rodolfo Cerrón Palomino Aymaran, with two branches, Southern (or Altiplano) Aymaran and Central Aymaran (Jaqaru and Kawki).

      Quechuan languages, especially that of the south, share a large amount of vocabulary with Aymara, and the languages have often been grouped together as Quechumaran. This proposal is controversial, however; the shared vocabulary may be better explained as intensive borrowing due to long-term contact.

      Family division

      Aymaran consists of 2 languages:

      • Aymara. Southern and Central dialects divergent and sometimes considered separate languages.
      • Jaqaru (Haqearu, Haqaru, Haq'aru, Aru). Kawki dialect (Cauqui, Cachuy) is divergent.

      Aymara has approximately 2.2 million speakers; 1.7 million in Bolivia, 350,000 in Peru, and the rest in Chile and Argentina. Jaqaru has approximately 725 speakers in central Peru, while Cauqui had 9 surviving speakers as of 2005. Cauqui is little documented, though its relationship with Jaqaru is extremely close. Initially they were considered by Dr Martha Hardman (on very limited data at the time) to be different languages, but all subsequent fieldwork and research has contradicted this and demonstrated that they are mutually intelligible but divergent dialects of a single language.

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      Last modified on 19 April 2013, at 05:05