Abstract
The perception that the numerous similarities in lexicon, phonology and structure which unite the Quechuan and Aymaran language families in the Middle Andes region are due to intensive language contact prior to the stage of their proto-languages, rather than to a common genetic source as was previously assumed, has made it possible to visualize some of the originally inherited characteristics of each of the two linguistic lineages. This new perspective opens up multiple fields of further investigation, for instance, (a) determining the directionality of loan words (mainly from Quechuan to Aymaran, and rarely the other way around); (b) reconstructing the the structural profile of each of the two lineages prior to the beginning of their contact relation; and (c) creating the conditions for a separate external comparison of each lineage with other language families and isolates in the wider surroundings. In more general terms, it now appears possible to access earlier stages in the historical development of the Quechuan and Aymaran than that of the two proto-languages, to locate the original homeland of each lineage in relation to the newly established chronology, and to speculate on the societal context of the initial contact.
Highlights
The last few decades have witnessed substantial advances in our knowledge of the lesser known languages of the world, including their structure and typological features, their vocabulary and loan relations, as well the social and historical conditions which determine their survival or imminent disappearance (Cf. REHG & CAMPBELL, 2018)
Both the intensity and the systematic character of the contact situation suggest that the ancestors of the two linguistic lineages shared the same geographical area during the formation of the proto-languages, a deviation from earlier representations in which Quechuan and Aymaran used to be located in separate, albeit marginally overlapping, areas (e.g., Torero [1970], who incidentally refers to Aymaran as Aru ‘language’)
The determination of the directionality of lexical and structural borrowings between Quechuan and Aymaran, which had remained stagnant for a long time, was made possible by the recognition of fundamental phonotactic differences between the two linguistic lineages and the hypothesis that on this basis criteria could be developed in order to establish this directionality (ADELAAR, 1986)
Summary
The last few decades have witnessed substantial advances in our knowledge of the lesser known languages of the world, including their structure and typological features, their vocabulary and loan relations, as well the social and historical conditions which determine their survival or imminent disappearance (Cf. REHG & CAMPBELL, 2018). In other areas, such as Latin America, the study of the linguistic past is dramatically restricted by a scarcity and incompleteness of data and information, the legacy of massive language shifts and extinctions which took place before the languages in question could be properly documented. In Andean countries such as Peru and Ecuador, for instance, hundreds of family names originating from poorly known and undocumented extinct languages continue to be in use. In some areas, these names appear in clusters as a legacy of ancestral sociocultural entities which became invisible, sometimes even in the historical records. Hybrid place names are proof that communities of surviving languages and extinct languages once shared the same space and influenced each other at a given point of time
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