Computerized archive and dictionary of the Jaqimara languages of South America

Abstract

The three extant members of the Jagi (Jagimara) family, Aymara, Jaqaru and Kawki, are spoken by over one million people primarily in Peru and Bolivia, but earlier members of the Jaqimara family were probably spoken throughout the whole area of present-day Peru. This paper gives an outline of some of the salient structural features of these languages and reports on progress in the preparation of a computerized dictionary of the Jagi languages presently being adapted for the computer at the University of Florida. Each item of the Jaqi languages is encoded according to a number of categories any one of which or any combination of which may then serve as indexers for machine printouts: machine item number, language name, entry, allomorphs, derivations, grammatical class or classes, historical origin, dialect of item, source of information, English glossez, Spanish glosses, citations, dialectal and/or language cognates, coded dialect and/or language of cognates, reconstructed proto forms, variant spellings, date of entry, and name of transcriber. It is hoped that the dictionary will be useful as a source for bilingual dictionaries for Peace Corps or government use as well as for work in the reconstruction of Proto-Jaqi. Further plans include a computerized archive to include as much as possible of the structure of the Jaqi languages. (FWB) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS HEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE Dr. M. J. Hardman-de-Bautista PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT, POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS Dept. of Anthropology STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION University of Florida POSITION OR POLICY, CsJ COMPUTERIZED ARCHIVE AND DICTIONARY OF THE JAQIMARA LANGUAGES OF SOUTH AMERICA i, 44) The Jaqimara languages are spoken in the Andes mountains tr of South America, primarily in Peru and Bolivia. There are now three known extant members of the family: Aymara, spoken by approximately one million speakers in t.1.1 Peru and Bolivia, is of political, social, and economic importance in Bolivia. Jaciaru, spoken by about two thousand people, is little known. It is spoken in a town only some 200 miles from Lima, the capital city of Peru. However, since the children are still learning Jaciaru, now along with Spanish, no date can be predicted for its demise. Kawki is spoken in the village located in the valley over the mountain from where Jaciaru is spoken. There remain only some twenty speakers of the language, and, since they are all over sixty, the language will probably be completely gone within twenty years. From toponymital evidence it appears that the Jaqimara family formerly had a much wider extension, most likely throughout all of the area that is today the .country of Peru. The dominant non-Indo-European language of the area is Quechua, the language of the Inca empire. Rather than a single language, some investigators consider this a family of languages. Whether or not the two families, the Jaqimara and the Quechua, are related or not, is still an open question. The work now in progress on the Jaqimara family is a prerequisite to any reaennable statement as to their relationship. The two families have been in intimate contact for at least 2000 years, and probably more. From archeological and mythical evidence, it appears that the groups have been on top of each other alternately, which has doubtless led to layerings of borrowings, first heavily in one direction and then in the other. Therefore, the reconstruction of proto-Jaqimara and of proto-Quechua must be completed independently and then the layers of borrowings sorted out, before their degree of relationship, if any, aan be determined. Before explaining the computerized work in which we are now involved, I would like to give you a brief outline of some of the salient structural features of the Jaqimara languages. The languages differ more phonologically than they do in grammatical patterning, although there are some striking differences there also.