Quechua alphabet

The Quechua alphabet (Quechua: Achahala) is based on the Latin alphabet.[1] It is used to write the Quechuan languages. The Quechua alphabet has been use in Peru since 1975, following the Officialization of Quechua by Decree Law in May 1975 that made Quechua co-equal with Spanish.[2]

Current orthography

For native words

The number of letters employed in writing Quechua highly depends on the Quechua dialect. However, the following are the core letters generally used:

UppercaseAChHIKLLlMNÑPQSTUWY
lowercaseachhiklllmnñpqstuwy
IPAæɑtʃhɪɛklʎmnɲpqstʊɔwj

In Ecuador and Bolivia, however, J(j) is used instead of H(h) because ⟨h⟩ and ⟨ʼ⟩ are used to express aspirated and ejective sounds:

UppercaseChhChʼKhKʼPhPʼQhQʼShShʼThTʼ
lowercasechhchʼkhkʼphpʼqhqʼshshʼthtʼ
IPAtʃʰtʃʼkʰkʼpʰpʼqʰqʼʃʂtʰtʼ

In writing some dialects, the [ɪ ɛ] and [ʊ ɔ] variations are distinguished by using the letters ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩, respectively, resulting in the use of five vowel letters instead of three. In some dialects, vowel lengths are distinguished by doubling vowel letters to indicate that a vowel is long:

UppercaseAaIiUuEeOo
lowercaseaaiiuueeoo
IPAæːɑːɪːɛːʊːɔːɛːɔː

In yet other dialects, with additional sounds, additional letters are employed:

UppercaseTrʼTsZ
lowercasetrʼtsz
IPAʈʂtsz

For loanwords

Quechua employs additional letters to write loanwords, mainly originating from Spanish. In careful speech, the letters may represent a Spanish sound, but generally the Spanish sound is replaced with a native sound.

UppercaseBDEFPhGIKwORRrTrUVWY
lowercasebdefphgikworrrtruvwy
IPA/b//d//r/∅/e̞/[ɛ][ɪ]/f//f//ɡ//i//ɪ//kw//o̞/[ɔ][ʊ]/d/~/ɾ//r//tɾ//u//ʊ//b/~/w//b//ɡ/

For phonetic transcription

For phonetic transcription, four additional letters are used:

UppercaseČĈŠŽ
lowercasečĉšž
IPAtʃʈʂʃʒ

See also

References
  1. "Ima hinataq runasimita sumaqta qillqay" (in Quechua). 2008-05-07. Archived from the original on 2008-05-07. Retrieved 2023-01-23.
  2. Fishman, Joshua A. (1993). The Earliest Stage of Language Planning: The "first Congress" Phenomenon. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 233–250. ISBN 978-3-11-013530-5.
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