This unit describes Quechua phonetics so that you can become familiar with the main sounds. We invite you to click on the play icon by each vowel and consonant. With this practice we are looking for you to become familiar with the sounds and spelling conventions of the language. Follow each of the exercises out loud. We will begin with the vowels and then the consonants and repeat each exercise as necessary.

Before starting, we will look at some of the main characteristics of the language.

Quechua Language Characteristics

Quechua is characterized by being agglutinating (when a suffix is added to a root, it changes the meaning) which means that the root of a word will change with suffixes and infixes that are added.

For example: look at what happens with the word ¿Mikhurankipunichu? which means Did you actually eat?

¿Mikhu-ra-nki-puni-chu?:

• Base word or root: ‘mikhu’ which refers to eat or food.
• When we add the suffix ‘ra’ it becomes past tense;
• When we add ‘nki’ it refers to the second person (you);
• ‘puni’ strengthens the assertion;
• ‘chu’ makes it an interrogative.

In many cases infixes will be placed. In this example it could be the infix, ‘ra’ if we remove it, it becomes present tense and would be ¿mikhu-nki-puni-chu? which means Do you actually eat?

Another characteristic of Quechua is that the tonic syllable is almost always the penultimate syllable of a word, we will see this in examples we practice later on.

The Grammatical Structure of Quechua

Quechua grammar consists of the following forms:

• V (vowel) A
• VC (vowel – consonant) Apay, asiy, alaláw, aliqa, amiy.
• CCV (consonant, consonant, vowel) Chaki, chachara, chakma, chakra, chichu.
• CVCV (consonant – vowel – consonant – vowel) Wasi, wawa, waka, wara, kuru.
• CV (consonant – vowel) Puriy, p’itay, punku, tullu, tuta, p’anay.

Additionally, the structure of a Quechua sentence follows the form: Subject – Object – Verb (S-O-V)

Here are some more examples:

Next, the main sounds in Quechua: click on the play icons and repeat the sounds out loud.

Alphabet / Achahala

Unlike other varieties, the Cusco-Collao dialect has the following characteristics:

Let's look at the following phonemes that characterize this Quechua dialect:

Note: Remember that the vowels 'I' and 'u' make sounds similar to 'e' and 'o' in some words when they are by the consonants 'q', 'qh', and 'q', but in writing there are three vowels.

Keep in mind that these are words that are repeated throughout this unit and are important to remember to continue enriching your vocabulary.