Andean Aymara

Excerpts from Vocabulario en Aymara y Espan̆ol ; in fine partis I: impressa en la casa de la Compania de Jesus del pueblo de Juli que esta en la prouincia de Chucuyto en la emprenta Francisco del Canto (published in 1612; available for viewing at the Leiden University library special collections room)
Extractos de Vocabulario en [...]

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Let’s take a look at some a little play-on-words in Muylaq Aymara (though it likely exists in other variants as well). I’ll keep this as non-technical as possible. The play hinges on the two synonyms for the word ‘cat’, phisi and misi. Although the former is much more popular in everyday language in the Moqueguan [...]

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I’ve been meaning to introduce more linguistics to this blog, so let’s jump right into it. First things first though, sorry for the disorganization. I’m not going to start by analyzing morphemes, words, declarative phrases, interrogatives, etc etc… Actually, this blog will sort of dive into the topic, full speed ahead. OK, now for a [...]

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Maraptis jilatanaka, kullakanaka! Nax jichuruw markaxar avionna sarawxaxa, wali jayawa… ukat kuttanihaw - kimsaqallaqun nax Muylaqi markar sarawxaxa. Hikisinkama, yusilopay!
Hello from Tacna. Well, the three months are over. The last few weeks in Muylaque and Sijuaya went productively, I worked 10 hour days, from sun-up to well past dark, and it paid off - [...]

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¡Maraptis jilatanaka, kullakanaka! ¿Kamisaraki? Nax hichhax Moquegua markantwa. Aka jaqix wali sumaw, manq’aña sumarakiwa piru sinti lupiwa. ¡Sumarus! Arumant Muylaqi markan saranitwa pa liebrempi (aka liebrenakax Mariatakiwa). Wal kusisitwa. Hikhisinkama …

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Just for fun: Here’s a visualization of the “Enchanted Spring” story as a frequency-weighted word-cloud (though morphemes are not taken into account).

Interesting online software available for free at Wordle

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Miguel Huanca, the author of an excellent Aymara textbook Aymar arux akhamawa gives a maxim on a site called RedePapa in a brief article entitled El Espiritu Aymara. Protector de los Productos. 
Janiw jaqex qolwempex kuns kamachkaspati; kunatex qolqerox janiw yapuchapksnati, janirakiw qolqx nq’apkaraksnati, t’urkaraksnasa
He glosses this in Spanish: ‘el hombre no puede hacer nada con el dinero, porque [...]

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[[SEE COMMENTS BELOW FOR FACT CLARIFICATION RE: INTERNATIONAL LINGUISTICS OLYMPIAD VS. NORTH AMERICAN COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS OLYMPIAD]]
The sixth annual International Linguistics Olympiad was held this year in Bulgaria. After taking a look at the test, I noticed that there is question about Aymara. Interesting! Check out the relevant part of the test below. You can see [...]

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