Huaylas Quechua/Grammar
Contents
Background
Huaylas Ancash Quechua is a Central Quechuan variety spoken in Callejon de Huaylas, Ancash, Peru. More information is available on the main page.
Language Typology
Huaylas Ancash Quechua is a polysynthetic, aggluginative language [1]. Prepositions, conjunctions, and relative pronouns are indicated with inflection suffixes [1].Primarily a verb-final language, with a preferred word order of SOV, Huaylas Quechua additionally allows OSV, SVO, VSO, OVS, and VOS [2]. Despite a diverse word order, the grammatical arguments of a sentence remain easy to identify due to a large and rich system of markers that indicate grammatical arguments, subjects and objects, and case.
Parts of Speech of Huaylas Quechua
Nouns
Noun Phrases
Similarly to English, nouns can directly modify the following noun in a noun phrase [1] [3]. For example, the noun phrase hara chakra, meaning corn farm, is composed of the noun adjunct hara (corn) first, and the modified chakra (farm) [4] second.
Noun Inflection
Plural=
Plural nouns are formed by attaching the suffix kuna to the end of the original morpheme.
Possession
Possession is indicated by attaching a suffix to the original morpheme.
| Huaylas | Classification | English gloss |
|---|---|---|
| V or nii | first person singular | my |
| kuna | plural | - |
| wan | comitative-instrumental case | with (the, a) |
Combining Inflections
Because Quechua is agglutinative and polysynthetic, inflections are added to the original morpheme. Nouns inflect in the following order:
- Categories of person (possessor) → Number (singular/plural) → Case
| Huaylas | Inflection Type | English gloss |
|---|---|---|
| ki | possessor | your |
| kuna | plural | - |
| wan | comitative-instrumental case | with (the, a) |
Examples:
- maki<n><pos><pl><com><ins> ↔ makikikunawan
- wayi<n><pos><pl><com><ins> ↔ wayikikunawan
- warn<n><pos><pl><com><ins> ↔ warnikikunawan
Case
Verbs
Present Tense
In the present tense, the verb only takes a personal suffix. The suffix -ya(a) before the personal suffix indicates plurality.
| Person | Suffix | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| First person singular | lengthen vowel | <p1><sg> |
| Second person singular | nki | |
| Third person singular | n | |
| First person plural (inclusive) | ntsik | |
| First person plural (exclusive) | yaa: | |
| Second person plural | yaanki | |
| Third person plural | yaan |
Let's test this with the regular verb stem wiya (to hear).
- wiya<v><tv><pres><p1><sg> ↔ wiyaa
- wiya<v><tv><pres><p2><sg> ↔ wiyanki
- wiya<v><tv><pres><p3><sg> ↔ wiyan
- wiya<v><tv><pres><p1><inc><pl> ↔ wiyantsik
- wiya<v><tv><pres><p1><ex><pl> ↔ wiyayaa
- wiya<v><tv><pres><p2><pl> ↔ wiyayanki
- wiya<v><tv><pres><p3><pl> ↔ wiyayan
Preterite Tense
Future Tense
Verb Transitions
Verb inflection from subject to object, or transitions, must comply with the following rules:
none of the suffixes indicates the the third person as an object
if the object is the same person as the subject (reflexive), none of the suffixes can indicate the object
when the first person is the object, you use the suffix -ma(a)
when the second person is the object and the first person is the subject, you use the suffix -q (except in the future tense)
when the second person is the object and the third person is the subject, you use the sequence -shu…nki
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Parker, Gary John. Gramatica Quechua (Ancash-Huailas) / Gary J. Parker Ministerio de Educacion Lima, Peru 1976
- ↑ Julca Guerrero, Felix Claudio. The person-marking system in Huaylas Quechua
- ↑ try saying that three times fast!
- ↑ Chakra refers to a specific type of farm with no direct English translation [1]
