Classical Quechua

[13] This identification was also traditionally maintained by the local elites and intellectuals in later centuries and continues to be advocated by the Cuzco Language Academy (Academia de la lengua quechua).

[18][19][20] A more widespread view in the scholarly literature nowadays, however, is that the Inca lingua franca was actually based on a variety of Coastal Quechua spoken on the central-southern coast of Peru, which was rich, populous, had a strategic location and contained the important realms of Chincha and Pachacamac.

[22] Since that important area was depopulated after the conquest and came to be settled predominantly by Spaniards and Africans, leading to the extinction of Coastal Quechua, the dialect is not attested in later times.

[32] Further, in Santo Tomás' variety, the penultimate stress pattern that is nearly exceptionless in most other forms of Quechua is made significantly more complicated[27] by various subrules taking into account morphological boundaries and syllable weight.

[33] There is some evidence that the Spanish, too, did initially use the Inca lingua franca or a related form of Coastal Quechua for religious and administrative purposes from the beginning of the conquest of Peru in 1532 until some point in the 1560s (for instance, using a pronunciation landi- instead of ranti- for 'to buy').

In the orthography, the codifiers opted for not marking the aspirates and ejectives typical of Cuzco,[40] contributing to the resemblance of the written form to the modern Ayacucho dialect.

[11] In any case, both the principle of avoiding Cuzco-specific lexemes and the one of not marking the ejectives, the aspirates and the uvular-velar contrast were deviated from to some extent in many subsequently published texts in Standard Colonial Quechua that sought to reflect Cuzco usage more faithfully.

A different view is expressed by Itier (2000: 48, passim), who believes the Third Council norm to have been based on an innovative Southern Quechua koiné that had emerged spontaneously in the preceding decades in response to the development of the mining industry and urbanisation and was clearly distinct from the traditional and archaic (albeit prestigious) Cuzco dialect associated with the Inca past.

[47][48] The focus on Cuzco in particular is explicable in view of its status as the former Inca capital, which led to be it being seen as 'the Athens, the Rome and the Toledo of the Quechua language', as Oré put it in 1598.

[52] Standard Colonial Quechua was adopted as an instrument of proselytisation by the Catholic Church, following a general policy of using vernaculars in religious instructions as advocated by the Council of Trent (1545–1563) in connection with the Counter-Reformation.

[60] Besides its clerical use, Standard Colonial Quechua was the primary native vehicle of written communication, seen in personal letters and, to some extent, in legal and administrative contexts such as the writing of petitions and titles to land and office.

[62] The standard is reported to have been understood to some extent in most of the country, including the Central Quechua areas as well,[63] although the degree of competence in it was smaller in lower social strata and women.

The most typical examples of this trend are the works of Diego González Holguín (1607–1608) and Juan Pérez Bocanegra (1631),[70] although César Itier also believes it to be present in Alonso de Huerta (1616) and Torres Rubio (1619).

Some argued that priests working in these areas needed to acquire competence in Central Quechua in order to be able to communicate properly with the parishioners, while others objected by asserting that the standard variety was sufficiently comprehensible there and was more refined, closer to the Incas' speech and thus more appropriate for its purpose.

Some contributing factors may have been a controversy regarding the linguistic and theological quality of Quechua-language preaching that took place in the 1650s, and an official Hispanisation policy that the Spanish monarchy embarked on in the 1680s.

From the mid 17th century, it came to be dominated by clearly regional varieties, above all by Cuzco Quechua,[11] which were now promoted by the elites of that city, who sought their legitimisation in the Inca past.

[52][81] Indian Quechua speakers also produced their own informal devotional texts in manuscript form, partly continuing the tradition of the official ecclesiastical literature of the classical period.

The lenition of syllable-final consonants that is typical of modern Cuzco-Collao Quechua (/k/ after front vowels > /tʃ/ > /ʃ/ > /s/, /t/ > /s/, /p/ > /ɸ/ > /χ/, /q/ > /χ/, /w/ > /y/, /r/ > /ɹ/[84]) had not yet taken place in the language of the Third Council[85] or in that of the Huarochirí Manuscript: thus, the second-person plural is /-chik/, not /-chis/, and the progressive aspect ending is /-chka/, not /-sha/.

[86] From Juan de Aguilar's grammar of 1691, the first clear signs of such lenition in Cuzco Quechua begin to appear, and later texts display various stages in the process.

[96] The religious texts were complemented by a grammar and a dictionary, both of which were published anonymously in 1586 and printed in Lima by Antonio Ricardo (specifically summoned from Mexico for this purpose[64]).

[102] Another important text is the Ritual Formulario (1631) by Juan Pérez Bocanegra, which consists mostly of bilingual questionnaires dealing with the Sacraments, the Commandments and different religious 'errors'.

While it generally adheres closely to the Third Council's standard[106][93] and is identified as belonging to Quechua IIC, it exhibits, in addition, some features resulting from the influence of Aru, which was probably the mother tongue of the editor.

At the same time, the tradition had an offshoot in the informal production of devotional manuscripts by indigenous Quechua speakers that became abundant in the 18th century: they contained mostly copies of earlier texts, but also some apparently new litanies and translations of psalms and hymns.

In the 17th century, the Cuzco dialect was said to be characterised by an especially 'guttural' sound and appears to have already had the ejective and aspirate series it has today – they were occasionally expressed in the orthography by some writers, albeit inconsistently.

Taylor does not, however, believe that the editor of the Huarochirí manuscript had the distinction between /s/ and /ʂ/ in his own speech, but rather that it was a feature of the Standard Colonial Quechua variety that he was trying to emulate (he expresses some doubts even on this subject, unlike most scholars[138][139]).

[145] In the rest of this article, the element that is sometimes absent (the vowel and possibly a following consonant in the first type of alternation and the syllable -ñi/ni in the other) will be written between parentheses: -m(i), -(k)ta, -p(aq), -(ni)y.

The interrogative pronouns and adverbs are pi 'who', ima 'what',[169] imana (optional contraction of ima-hina) 'how',[156] mayqin 'which',[167] hayka 'how much / how many',[170] may 'where',[160] maypacha or imaypacha 'when' (the latter more typical of Cuzco-influenced texts).

[189] The so-called future tense, which usually has the modal meaning of the speakers' desire or assessment of obligation, is expressed somewhat irregularly by a portmanteau suffix that simultaneously encodes person and even number.

The past participle may be combined with the copula (which is absent in the third person) to form a compound perfect tense expressing resultative state, sometimes with a nuance of surprising discovery.

[240] RunaRunayndioIndioñiscapñiŝqapmachonkunamachunkunañaupañawpapachapachaquillcactaqillqaktayachanmanyaĉanmancarcakarqanchaycachayqa......Runa yndio ñiscap machonkuna ñaupa pacha quillcacta yachanman carca chayca ...Runa Indio ñiŝqap machunkuna ñawpa pacha qillqakta yaĉanman karqan chayqa ...If the ancestors of the people called Indians had known writing in ancient times, then.........hinantinhinantincausascancunapaskawsaŝqankunapaŝmanammanamcanancamapaskanankamapaŝchincaycucchinkaykuqhinachohinachucanman.kanman.... hinantin causascancunapas manam canancamapas chincaycuc hinacho canman.... hinantin kawsaŝqankunapaŝ manam kanankamapaŝ chinkaykuq hinachu kanman.... all the things they have lived certainly would not have kept disappearing like this until now, either.HimanamImanamviracochappaswiraquchappaŝsinchisinchicascanpaskaŝqanpaŝcanancamakanankamaricurin,rikurin,hinatacmihinataqmicanman.kanman.Himanam viracochappas sinchi cascanpas canancama ricurin, hinatacmi canman.Imanam wiraquchappaŝ sinchi kaŝqanpaŝ kanankama rikurin, hinataqmi kanman.In the way the valorous acts of the Spaniards (Huiracochas) are still seen, too, so it would have been (with theirs as well).ChayhinaChayhinacaptinpas,kaptinpaŝ,canancamakanankamamanamanaquillcascaqillqaŝqacaptinpas,kaptinpaŝ,Chayhina captinpas, canancama mana quillcasca captinpas,Chayhina kaptinpaŝ, kanankama mana qillqaŝqa kaptinpaŝ,And, things being as they are, and since nothing has been written until now,caypimkaypimchuraniĉuranicaykayhuchukyayayucyayayuqGuarocheriWaruchiriñiscapñiŝqapmachoncunapmachunkunapcausascanta,kawsaŝqanta,caypim churani cay huc yayayuc Guarocheri ñiscap machoncunap causascanta,kaypim ĉurani kay huk yayayuq Waruchiri ñiŝqap machunkunap kawsaŝqanta,here I present the lived (experiences) of the ancestors of this (people) called Huarochirí, which has one father,ymaimafeeniocchafeeniyuqĉácarcan,karqan,ymayñahimahinaĉcanancamapaskanankamapaŝcausankawsanchaychaychaycunacta.chaykunakta.yma feenioccha carcan, ymayñah canancamapas causan chay chaycunacta.ima feeniyuqĉá karqan, imahinaĉ kanankamapaŝ kawsan chay chaykunakta.whatever faith it may have had and however it may be living to this day – these things.ChayriChayrisapasapallactanpimllaqtanpimquillcascaqillqaŝqacancakanqahimahinaimahinacausascampaskawsaŝqanpaŝpacariscanmanta.paqariŝqamanta.Chayri sapa llactanpim quillcasca canca himahina causascampas pacariscanmanta.Chayri sapa llaqtanpim qillqaŝqa kanqa imahina kawsaŝqanpaŝ paqariŝqamanta.Afterwards, in each region it shall be written down how it has lived since its beginning.AnchaAnchañaupañawpapachacapachaqahuchukhuacawakañiskasñiskaŝyanañamcaYana ÑamqaTutañamcaTuta Ñamqasutiocŝutiyuqcarcan.karqan.Ancha ñaupa pachaca huc huaca ñiskas yanañamca Tutañamca sutioc carcan.Ancha ñawpa pachaqa huk waka ñiskaŝ {Yana Ñamqa} {Tuta Ñamqa} ŝutiyuq karqan.They say that in a very ancient time there were (two) gods (''huacas'') named Yana Ñamca and Tuta Ñamca.CayKayhuacacunactacawakakunaktaqaquipanpiqipanpihuchukhuacatacwakataqHuallalloWallalluCaruinchoQarwinchusutiocŝutiyuqatircan.atirqan.Cay huacacunactaca quipanpi huc huacatac Huallallo Caruincho sutioc atircan.Kay wakakunaktaqa qipanpi huk wakataq Wallallu Qarwinchu ŝutiyuq atirqan.These two gods, however, were later overcome by a god named Huallallo Caruincho.ÑaÑaatispasatiŝpaŝcanankananrunactarunaktayscayllataiŝkayllatahuachacunampacwaĉakunanpaqcamarcan.kamarqan.Ña atispas canan runacta yscayllata huachacunampac camarcan.Ña atiŝpaŝ kanan runakta iŝkayllata waĉakunanpaq kamarqan.Now, having defeated them, he obliged the people to give birth to only two (children).HuctasHuktaŝquiquinkikinmicorcan.mikurqan.Huctas quiquin micorcan.Huktaŝ kikin mikurqan.One of them he ate himself.HuctasHuktaŝmayquintapasmayqintapaŝcuyascantakuyaŝqantacausachicorcankawsachikurqanyayanyayanmaman.maman.Huctas mayquintapas cuyascanta causachicorcan yayan maman.Huktaŝ mayqintapaŝ kuyaŝqanta kawsachikurqan yayan maman.And one – whomever his father and mother loved (the most) – they let live.