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[OM] Re: USA Southwest

Subject: [OM] Re: USA Southwest
From: "Wayne Culberson" <waynecul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 08:46:33 -0400

> >I wish I could speak Spanish, and also Quechua, ......
>
> Wayne, do you know what you are getting yourself into with Quechua? What
is spoken in Ecuador isn't  the same as that of Central Peru which isn't the
same as that spoken in Cuzco nor Bolivia. Then again are you sure you
weren't hearing Aymara? Or something else?
>
> What you could do is learn a few words, e.g. the numbers 1>10 as spoken in
your area. Raises a few eyebrows and gets a few smiles in the markets :)
>
> Mike

Yes, you are right, there are significant differences between the Quechua
languages/dialects spoken in the different countries you've mentioned. I've
been going to Bolivia for 10 years, and it is the Bolivian Quechua that I
was referring to that I wish I knew. The mission I work with started a new
SW radio station in Bolivia, as the Quechua people there could not
understand the Quichua that was broadcast from HCJB in Ecuador. So a new
radio station was started about 4 years ago in Cochabamba, and the 2 times I
was in Bolivia this year, we were giving away fix-tuned radios that receive
that station. It is the only radio station in the world that broadcasts in
the Quechua language that Bolivians understand.

There are several million Quechua-only speaking people there, but yes there
are other language groups as well. In the past I have also worked with
Bolivians that speak Aymara, and it so happens that my wife and I support a
little girl there that is Amayra.

Then there are smaller language groups, like the folk we worked with in
2000, who live on the Altiplano, called Chapaya.

In the jungle area it gets really complicated.

I have learned some Spanish, and a few words in Quechua, Aymara, and another
language or two, but hardly enough to carry on an intelligent conversation.
We always have fun with the kids, as they teach us their words, and we teach
them English words. Kids are the easiest to learn from by far, as they are
brutally honest when you make mistakes, and they don't get bored helping
you. We also have one song we sing in 4 languages - English, Quechua,
Spanish, and Amayra, as almost every group of people in the Bolivian Andes
countryside will have some there from the 3 language groups.

Wayne


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