Andean Aymara

Greetings from Moquegua. Arrived here yesterday from Ichuña where I am working on the comparative phonology for this project. Although Ichuña is inhabited mainly by Quechua speakers, I have a handful of Aymara-speaking friends there who are interested in participating in this aspect of the research. In Moquegua for a brief one-night stay before returning the 9 hours or so over the altiplano (reaching over 4000m!), came not so much for the festivities here but for the electricty and Internet (both lacking in stormy Ichuña these past couple days) — also came to do an interview in Ilo, about 1.5 hours away, on Radio AltaMar and on a talk-show called “Entre Parentésis” on TV Ilo, both of which were focused on the process of fieldwork and the importance of language preservation — a theme identical to the talk last week in at the Alianza in Ichuña.

As for now, looking at some of the more unusual conditional-constructions in this language.