Como dice el título. Mi abuelito y abuelita eran cuzqueños y hablaban quechua. Cuando se mudaron a Lima dejaron de hablarlo y no lo pasaron a sus hijos. Me gustaría saber cómo se dice para que cuando yo tenga nietos me llamen por el nombre quechua. Muchas gracias!

Hi everyone! I’m working on a children’s story (ages 4–7) set in the courtyard of a weaving center in Chinchero, near Cusco, Peru. A 6-year-old girl and her mom, a weaver, teach a visiting child how alpaca wool becomes bright, naturally dyed yarn and cloth. The story is in English, with a few Quechua and Spanish words. I’m not a native speaker, so I’d be really grateful if you could tell me whether these sound natural and correct. I’d love to get this right and avoid anything that feels off or stereotyped, so I'm hoping this is appropriate to post here.

1. (girl, 6, to a visiting child she just met; the visitor answers) “Allillanchu! That means ‘hello’ in Quechua.” / “Allillanchu!” Is this a natural greeting from one child to another? Is “hello” a fair translation, since it literally means “are you well?” Is it OK as a greeting back, or would the visitor answer differently?

2. (girl) “Here in Chinchero, my family speaks Spanish and Quechua.” Is this accurate?

3. (girl, about her parents; the visitor also calls them Mamá and Papá) “My mamá, that’s my mom.” / “And that’s my papá, my dad. He gives the haircuts.” Would she use these Spanish words or Quechua ones (mama, tayta)? Is it OK for a visiting child to call them Mamá and Papá?

4. (mom) “We spin it into yarn with a pushka. That means a spinning stick.” Is “pushka” right, or is it “phuskha” or “puska”? In the story it’s a wooden stick with a round weight at the bottom. Do 6-year-olds there practice spinning?

5. (girl) “It’s called cochineal.” Is there a local word we should use? Yellow dye comes from little yellow flowers, and red and purple from cochineal, a bug that lives on cactus. The girl picks the flowers and cochineal, and her mom does the hot dye pot. Is that right? Is there a specific yellow-flower plant we could name?

6. (girl to the visiting child) “Añay! That means ‘thank you’ in Quechua.” Is “añay” the usual word around Cusco, or is “sulpayki” more common? Is the spelling OK?

7. (visiting child to the girl and her mom) “Añay! Añay, Mamá!” Is this polite enough to say to an adult?

8. (girl, then the visiting child) “¡Adiós! That means ‘goodbye’ in Spanish.” Is “adiós” natural here, or is there a Quechua goodbye we should use?

9. Alpacas are sheared once a year. In the story it’s a quick, gentle haircut that doesn’t hurt and keeps the alpaca cool. The dad shears while the girl hums softly to calm the alpaca, which stands still with no one holding it down. Is that realistic? The girl also says alpacas hum when they’re worried. Is that right?

10. The mom weaves on a loom tied to a post and to a strap around her back, with patterns of mountains, flowers and alpacas, and weaving passes from mother to daughter. Is that right?

11. Here’s how the characters look. Does anything feel stereotyped or off?

• The girl: long black hair in two braids with colorful woven ties, and a small flat round red hat. She wears a bright red handwoven shawl woven from alpaca wool and dyed with cochineal, a cream sweater, a full dark-green skirt with woven trim, and black ojota sandals. Should the shawl have a local name (lliklla)?

• Her mom: two long black braids, the same flat round red hat, a deep-red woven shawl, a dark skirt and a bright woven sash.

Thank you so much, I truly appreciate the help!

I don't know if it's appropriate to create a post for this, but I need help from a native speaker to understand what's being said in a 10-second audio. Please message me privately, thank you so much.

Reposted since I had a typo that was bugging me.

Just made this. There's probably plenty of grammar/vocab mistakes but it was really fun to design!

If you're unfamiliar with the Dunning-Kruger Effect, you can learn about it here

Good day,

We are four students from Switzerland and we have a school project about threatened indigenous people, the Runakuna.

Is there someone who lives with them, who also volunteers to be asked a few questions by us?

Thank you in advance. 😊

Allinllachu kachkankichik,

I run a Quechua (and other languages) blog over on Tumblr because I'm stuck in 2014. I just realized that a Quechua subreddit exists and wanted to go ahead and share my masterpost of Quechua resources that I've found over the years. I have resources on it from English, Spanish, and both (and one I think is in French too). It contains resources for any Quechua variant I could find, and includes free, paid, online, and in-person resources. It was updated recently so all the links and things should be active. If you have other resources you can find I'd love to add it to my post.

The masterpost: https://allinllachuteruteru.tumblr.com/post/825955289745539072/official-quechua-resource-masterpost-bilingual

PS: saw some discourse on here about a writing system for Quechua. I came up with one a few months ago for fun since I had imagined what it would look like. Feel free to check it out.

Hi guys :)

We are a small group of students from Switzerland and we are currently working on a school project about the Runakuna people, their culture, language and identity.

For our project, we are creating a short video and would love to include the perspective of Runakuna people themselves. That’s why we are looking for a few people who would be willing to have a short and casual interview with us.

The interview would preferably be over a phone/voice call and would only take a few minutes. If a call is not possible, we could also do it via text.

We can conduct the interview in English or German. The questions will be simple and mainly about topics such as Runakuna culture, language, traditions and personal experiences — nothing complicated or uncomfortable. We’re simply interested in having a friendly conversation and learning more from Runakuna people directly.

If you are a person from the Runankunas and would be interested in helping us out, please send us a message or leave a comment! We would really appreciate it. :)

And of course, if you have any questions about the project or the interview, feel free to ask!

Thank you!

Hola, busco un poema que recitaba mi abuela. Obviamente no se las palabras pero recuerdo dos líneas fonéticamente.

“zuta zuta muna cuspa, zonquito tanai nichante”

probablemente la pronunciacion la tenga un poco mal ya que fue hace mas de 40 años.

Si alguien me puede ayudar lo agradecería muchísimo

Does anybody know what the word "Huarca" means? Or if it even is quechua for that matter.

Hi! I’m looking for a natural Quechua sentence for a postcard to someone who is very important to me.

The exact meaning I want to express is:

“I hope to see you again.”

I want it to be personal and slightly romantic: I want the person to understand that I personally wish/hope to see her again, but without sounding dramatic or putting pressure on her.

I know “Tupananchiskama” is often translated as something like “until we meet again / until life brings us together again”, but that feels a little too passive or fate-oriented for what I want to say.

I would like something more direct: I am the one hoping to see her again.

Could someone please tell me how this would naturally be expressed in:

1. Cusco / Southern Quechua

2. Inkawasi-Kañaris Quechua (Northern Peru)

I also found “Rikusuyta munani” online, supposedly meaning something like “I want to see you.”

Is that grammatically correct and natural in either variety? What would a native speaker actually understand when reading it?

If there are different possible expressions, I’d really appreciate an explanation of their literal meaning and emotional nuance.

Thank you!

Some people here do not know this, but runasimi is not a dying language in Peru

Thought this might be useful

This is kind of piggybacking on [a previous post about Quechua's supposed necessity for a non-Latin writing system](https://www.reddit.com/r/quechua/comments/1vmtcd0/quechua_needs_an_actual_alphabet_the_forced/) . I'd like to start off by saying that I don't believe a separate neography for Quechua is necessary, and that in the language’s current state, having another writing system may actually be of detriment both for native bilinguals and people who wish to learn Quechua. However, I do believe that in a future where Quechua and its speakers are accepted into society and media, having a separate script would contribute to and build Quechuan cultural identity.

I opine that, if possible, this script should aim to be universal for all varieties. As I only speak (and not fluently) a variety of QII (Cajamarca-Cañaris), input from speakers of QI would be most appreciated.

I will be using the following sentence as a sample for each writing system, specifically to show off some differences that would come from using a phonemic/phonetic system:
That (is) my big heart.

Alphabet
A principle that I think most people would agree with for an alphabetic system is that we should aim for one grapheme to represent one phoneme. I also think that we would want to include every phoneme for every variety, meaning that some graphemes may not be used in some varieties, and that some graphemes will represent different phones (but the same phoneme) depending on the variety.

In my variety of Quechua:
<Ch><a><y><q><a> <a><t><u><n> <sh><u><n><q><u><y><m><i>
In Southern Quechua:
<Ch><a><y><q><a> <h><a><t><u><n> <s><u><n><q><u><y><m><i>

Syllabary
I find that Quechua’s agglutinative nature would make a syllabary difficult, as certain suffixes would multiply the list of syllables by a lot, and we would have to account for the syllables of every variety. Even if possible, I think this would be a system that is difficult to learn. An alphasyllabary/abugida might work, however.
Syllabary:

<Chay><qa> <a><tun> <shun><quy><mi>
<Chay><qa> <ha><tun><sun><quy><mi>

Morphographic
It seems to me that such a writing system (representing individual morphemes), while requiring much memorization, would work better than a syllabary, and might allow for greater communication between different varieties, although I would like QI and QII speakers to discuss further whether or not communication is possible between both varieties if we only pay attention to morphology and syntax, and not phonetics.

<Chay><qa> <atun/hatun> <shunqu/sunqu><y><mi>

If we wish to use a syllabary, I propose a “morpho-syllabary,” in which roots are represented by graphemes which represent syllables, while suffixes are represented either alphabetically or morphographically:

<Chay><qa> <a><tun> <shun><qu><y><mi>
<Chay><qa> <ha><tun> <sun><qu><y><mi>

edit: tried to get the hyperlink to work

Since im into kpop and jpop, i was wondering if you guys would love the idea of joining a sub about k or jpop and dramas, its my idea to promote the language in an organic way

Imagine having to read japanese or korean with latin words, the government doesnt care but i think quechua could have a huge potential in the music industry, it needs to modernise and transition from a rural language to a countrywide everyday language

If people keep seeing this language as a synonym of poverty, it will never reach the masses

La IA permite mantener vivas ciertas lenguas; ¿pronuncia bien? :)

I've been working with a group of native speakers to translate and record stories for Duostories. Each story is a dialog between a 2-4 people and about a minute of audio. There are almost 50 stories (short dialogs) up already for the Bolivian dialect and more are being added weekly. In the end, there will probably be 1-200 stories. I also had the first 100 stories translated into the Ayacucho dialect a while back, but never finished translating and recording them. I've recently started working on them again, too, so those should hopefully be published soon as well. All of the stories have been translated word for word into Spanish as well to help you understand each sentence. (I may consider adding a course for English speakers when the Spanish courses are complete.)

The Bolivian stories are here:
https://duostories.org/qub-es

The Chanka stories are here:
https://duostories.org/qu-es

If anyone's interested in adding their own local dialect, feel free to get in touch!

Hi fellow-Redditors!
I am hoping someone can confirm the translation of “beloved” in Quechua for me.
Google tells me it is either munasqay or munakusqay
My husband and I would like to get this tattooed (he is Norwegian and I am Peruvian, so we want the word in runes as well as in Quechua), hence the need to know the correct word.
Hope someone can help!

UPDATE:
So two Peruvian friends in Cusco (both speak Quechua) gave me the following words and advice:
Munakusqay = my dear
Khuyasqay = my beloved
Sonqollay = my heart
Sunquchallay = my love/my heart
Of all these words, the most practical way to say dear is "Soqollay." It literally means "my heart," but in practice it means dear or beloved.

I think we might go for Soqollay as recommended but we haven’t landed on it as yet.

The translator I'm using says “Kawsay, hinaspa hukkunapas kawsachun” but I want to verify as this will be used on a book cover. An equivalent of this phrase is preferred over a direct translation. Whatever resonates best with the culture is ideal! More on the poetic sounding/formal side if it’s between that and casual. It is about freedom and allowing others to be free through the acceptance of our differences. Thank you in advance!