Quechuan languages

Quechua, also known as Runa simi in its Southern variety, is a language family whose origins lie in central Peru, from where it spread across the Andean region. Descended from a common ancestral tongue called Proto-Quechua, it is the most widely spoken indigenous language family in the Americas, with an estimated 8 to 10 million speakers in 2004 and nearly 7 million according to census data up to 2011. In Peru, roughly 13.9% of the population—about 3.7 million people—speak a Quechua language.

History

The family’s expansion began long before the Inca Empire, and it was already the primary language family within Inca domains. The Inca themselves, based in the Cuzco region, spoke a form of Quechua that had been heavily influenced by Aymara, which accounts for distinctive features of that dialect. Regional dialects and languages had already developed, shaped by contact with local languages, before the Inca promoted Quechua as the empire’s official language. After the Spanish conquest, Quechua remained widely used as a common language among indigenous peoples.

The Spanish administration officially recognized it, and many Spaniards learned it for communication. Catholic clergy adopted Quechua for evangelization, producing the oldest written records, such as Domingo de Santo Tomás’s 1560 grammar. Missionary use helped Quechua continue expanding in some areas.

However, in the late 18th century, colonial authorities banned its administrative and religious use following the Túpac Amaru II rebellion, also prohibiting loyal Catholic texts in Quechua. After independence, the language saw a brief revival but then declined in prestige, becoming primarily spoken in isolated rural areas. Today, roughly 7 million people speak Quechua across South America, more than any other indigenous language family in the Americas.

In Chile, Inca expansion led to bilingual Quechua-Mapuche communities, and Quechua is the indigenous language that has most influenced Chilean Spanish. Quechua toponymy extends as far south as Osorno Province in Chile. Recent milestones include the first thesis defense in Quechua in Europe (2017) and the first novel written in Quechua without a Spanish translation that same year. In 2019, a Peruvian student completed the first thesis in the language group at the University of San Marcos.