Allin p’unchay - Indigenous languages of Latin America

This we learn from the new, and very first, issue of Allin p’unchay - the newsletter from the department of Romances Languages dedicated to Indigenous Languages and Cultures of Latin America: 

The Quechua language is most popularly recognized as being the language of the Incan Empire, which was located in what is now Peru and had spread across the Andean region (referring to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia), expanding from southern Colombia to parts of Chile and northern Argentina. Even before the Spanish arrived to America, the Incans had conquered surrounding indigenous populations in the nearby region. This resulted in an extensive reach of the Quec- hua language, as the language was imposed upon the newly acquired populations following Incan takeover. 

While it’s true that Spanish and Portuguese are currently the most widely spoken languages in Latin America, some believe there were approximately 2,000 separate languages already being spoken by the various Amerindian populations when the Spanish conquistadores arrived to the Americas in the late 15th century. Among the most powerful Latin American indigenous groups during the Colonial peri- od were the Nahuatl and Maya of Mesoamerica, the Quechua and Aymara of the Andean zone, the Guaraní of the Paraguayan area, and the Mapudungun of Chile (Escobar 2013). 

Indigenous languages represent a world of discovery about who we are, how we communicate and the history of human development. Scientists fret as languages disappear around the world, and we all should, as we lose just a little bit more of ourselves with the passing of each last speaker. But we should aslo rejoice at the efforts to study, celebrate, revive and spread the speaking and understanding of indigenous languages. Kudos to our faculty and students in Romance languages, who are involved in something even greater as they learn - preservation of important world culture and heritage.

Image: Logo for the (Southern) Quechua language Wiktionary, via wikimedia commons.