Last Updated: 2019-06-20
Background
Language Family: Quechuan / Quechua II / C
Phonology
Consonants
- The voiced stops /b d ɡ/ appear, but only in Spanish loanwords (Parker, Steve and Weber, David 1996, 71).
- [ŋ] is traditionally held to be an allophone of /n/, but Ebina (2011) argues for it being a distinct phoneme (p. 4). I have opted not to include it.
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Alveolar
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Postalveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Uvular
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Glottal
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Stops (pulmonic)
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p pʰ
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t tʰ
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k kʰ
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q qʰ
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Stops (ejective)
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pʼ
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tʼ
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kʼ
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qʼ
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Affricates (pulmonic)
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tʃ tʃʰ
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Affricates (ejective)
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tʃʼ
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Fricatives
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s
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ʃ
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h
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Nasals
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m
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n
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ɲ
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Flaps
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ɾ
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Approximants
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w
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l
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j ʎ
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Note: In the stop and affricate rows, phonemes to the left of the cell are plain and phonemes to the right are aspirated. In the approximant row, phonemes to the left of the cell are plain and phonemes to the right are lateral.
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Vowels
- The status of /e/ and /o/ is controversial. The sounds first entered the language after contact with Spanish, but Parker, Steve and Weber, David (1996) argue that they have become contrastive since then (p. 71); conversely, Ebina (2011) argues that [e] and [o] are only produced as allophones of /i/ and /u/ near uvular consonants (p. 5). I have opted to prefer the three-vowel analysis in my ruleset. I transcribe ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩ to /i/ and /u/, respectively, in the rules.
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i
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u
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Low
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a
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Alphabet
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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a
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/a/
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h
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/h/
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i
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/i/
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k
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/k/
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k’
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/kʼ/
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l
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/l/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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ñ
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/ɲ/
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p
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/p/
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p’
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/pʼ/
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q
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/q/
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q’
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/qʼ/
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r
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/ɾ/
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s
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/s/
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t
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/t/
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t’
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/tʼ/
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u
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/u/
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w
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/w/
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y
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/j/
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Multigraph
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ch
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/tʃ/
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chh
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/tʃʰ/
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ch’
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/tʃʼ/
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kh
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/kʰ/
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ll
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/ʎ/
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ph
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/pʰ/
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qh
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/qʰ/
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sh
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/ʃ/
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th
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/tʰ/
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Syllable Structure
- Cusco Quechua has a (C)V(C) structure in word-initial syllables, and a CV(C) structure in word-medial syllables (Parker, Steve and Weber, David 1996, 71; Ebina 2011, 5).
Lenition Rules
- Syllable-final /k/ and /q/ tend to spirantize to [x] and [χ] respectively; intervocalic /qʰ/ also spirantizes to [χ] (Ebina 2011, 4).
- /pʰ/ spirantizes to [ɸ] in some contexts (Ebina 2011, 4; Mannheim, Bruce and Newfield, Madeleine 1982, 214).
Misc. Rules
- Aspirated and ejective stops occur only in syllable onsets, always as the first syllable-initial stop in the root, and only in consonant-initial words (Parker, Steve and Weber, David 1996, 72).
References
Ebina, Daisuke. 2011. “Cusco Quechua.” In Grammatical Sketches from the Field, edited by Yasuhiro Yamakoshi, 1–40. Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Mannheim, Bruce, and Newfield, Madeleine. 1982. “Iconicity in Phonological Change.” In Papers from the 5th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, edited by Anders Ahlqvist, 211–22. John Benjamins B.V.
Parker, Steve, and Weber, David. 1996. “Glottalized and Aspirated Stops in Cuzco Quechua.” International Journal of American Linguistics, 70–85.