Talk:Quechuan and Aymaran spelling shift
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This needs to be merged with a more general article on Andean culture. I thought, when I read "Indian" I was about to discover the new spelling of "Bombay." --Wetman 17:55, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Q and K
If Q becomes K, how is it quwi and Qusqu? --Error 00:42, 26 October 2005 (UTC)
Spanish "qu" which is pronounced as "k" (as in "¿qué?") is replaced by a "k"... In Spanish, to represent a "k" sound before the letters "e" or "i" it is written "qu"... however, the Andean languages have a hard "k" sound that is usually written with a "q" and this is generally not written with a "k" as it isn't exactly the same sound. Anyway, I'm glad this article exists. When I visited Bolivia I was fascinated by the overlapping names many places have, the original Aymara or Quechua name, and a Spanish variant. For example, Tiwanaku/Tiahuanaco, Qosqo/Cuzco, Quta Khawaña/Copacabana. Murple 16:23, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
ANSWER: Q does NOT automatically become K! This is a popular myth. Spanish uses two letters to represent the same one sound: <c> in ca, co and cu, but <qu> in que and qui. The consonant is pronounced exactly the same in all cases. English, meanwhile, uses <c> as in cat, <k> as in key, and even <ck> as in back. All to represent the same one sound.
Quechua has two completely different sounds: one that is the same as the Spanish (and English) one, and which in Quechua is always spelt <k>. The other sound, the one spelt <q> in Quechua, has no equivalent in Spanish or English, but Spanish-speakers cannot distinguish it from the first one. So Spanish spellings fail to represent the difference: they use their c/qu system to represent either Quechua <k> or Quechua <q>. So you cannot automatically tell from the Spanish what the correct spelling in Quechua is.
One tip is to look at the following vowel in the spelling. The rule of thumb is that Spanish <qui> and <cu> will normally correspond to Quechua <ki> and <ku>; while Spanish <que> and <co> will normally correspond to Quechua <qi> and <qu> (often misspelt <qe> and <qo> using the old Spanish-influenced alphabet). Hence Spanish <Corikancha> = Quechua <Qurikancha>.
In fact, it's actually more complex than this, because (Southern, including Cuzco) Quechua in fact has three variants of its <k> sound, and three of its <q> sound: normal unaspirated <k> and <q>; aspirated <kh> and <qh>; and ejective <k'> and <q'>. Six completely different sounds. And Spanish spelling cannot distinguish any of them - except that you may see things like <cc> as attempts to represent these.
