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The 'Quechuan languages' are a family of related languages in South America.
It has between two and 46 members, depending on how one counts languages and dialects. All of them can be called varieties of Quechua; the best-known variety is the dialect of Cusco, an early variety of which was the official language of the Inca Empire.
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.

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Subdivisions

Samples

External links

Subdivisions

This macrolanguage is subdivided as follows, at least according to the traditional classification (though this is increasingly challenged):

★ Quechua I or ''Quechua B'' or ''Central Quechua'' or ''Waywash'', spoken in Peru's central highlands and coast.

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★ The most widely spoken varieties are Huaylas Ancash, Huaylla Wanca, Northern Conchucos Ancash, and Southern Conchucos Ancash.

★ Quechua II or ''Quechua A'' or ''Peripheral Quechua'' or ''Wanp'una'', divided into

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★ Yunkay Quechua or ''Quechua II A'', spoken in the northern mountains of Peru; the most widely spoken dialect is Cajamarca.

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★ Northern Quechua or ''Quechua II B'', spoken in Ecuador (Kichwa), northern Peru, and Colombia

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★ The most widely spoken varieties are Chimborazo Highland Quichua and Imbabura Highland Quichua.

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★ Southern Quechua or ''Quechua II C'', spoken in Bolivia, southern Peru, Chile, and Argentina.

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★ The most widely spoken varieties are South Bolivian, Cuzco, Ayacucho, and Puno.
For a number of reasons, the homeland of the language family is believed to have been somewhere in Central Peru, and not, as has often been popularly assumed, the Cuzco area. The Incas only contributed to part of the expansion of Quechua (notably to Bolivia); most areas to the north of Cuzco already spoke their own forms of Quechua long before the Incas.

Samples

A sampling of words in several Quechuan dialects:

	Standardized Southern Quechua	Ayacucho	Cuzco	Bolivia	Ecuador	Cajamarca	San Martin	Junin	Ancash
'ten'	chunka	chunka	chunka	chunka	chunga	trunka	chunka	trunka	chunka
'sweet'	misk'i	miski	misk'i	misk'i	mishki	mishki	mishki	mishki	mishki
'he gives'	qun	qun	qun	qun	kun	qun	kun	un	qun
'one'	huk	huk	hux	ux	shuk	suh	suk	huk	huk
'white'	yuraq	yuraq	yuraq	yuraq	yurak	yuraq	yurak	yulaq	yuraq

External links

★ The Origins and Diversity of Quechua

★ Ethnologue report for Quechuan (SIL)