Quechuan languages

Quechuan languages
Family of closely related South American Indian languages still spoken by some 12 million people in southern Colombia and Ecuador, Bolivia, and northern Argentina.

Southern Peruvian Quechua, one language of the family, was a koine and administrative language within the Inca empire and was spread by Inca colonization.

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      the languages of the former Inca Empire in South America and the principal native languages of the central Andes today. According to archaeological and historical evidence, the original languages were probably spoken in a small area in the southern Peruvian highlands until about 1450; after that their geographical range was rapidly enlarged by the Inca conquests. When the Spanish conquered the empire in 1532, Quechuan languages were spoken in western South America from what is now southern Colombia to central Chile and from the Pacific coast to the borders of the Amazon Basin.

      Although the languages are still spoken by a large population of Indians, many of whom are monolingual, they are slowly losing ground to the Spanish language, which is the language of government and education. Some scholars place the Quechuan languages and the Aymaran languages together in a Quechumaran grouping.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Aymaran languages — Infobox Language family name=Aymaran altname=Jaqi, Aru region=Central South America, Andes Mountains familycolor=American fam1=Quechumaran ? child1=Aymara child2=Jaqaru Kawki iso2=queAymaran (also Jaqi, Aru, Jaqui, Aimara, Haki) is one of the two …   Wikipedia

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  • Aymaran languages —       a group of South American Indian languages spoken over a fairly large region in the southern Peruvian highlands and adjacent areas of Bolivia. Some scholars classify the Aymaran group and the Quechuan group together in the Quechumaran stock …   Universalium

  • Mesoamerican Indian languages — Introduction also called  Middle American Indian languages        group of languages spoken in an area of the aboriginal New World that includes central and southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, parts of Honduras and Nicaragua, and… …   Universalium

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