principal language of the conquering Inca and his forebears in what became the
Inca Empire.
The birthplace of the Aymara language, as well as the way in which it spread
throughout the altiplano, remains the subject of debate. The most widely
accepted hypothesis is that it arose on the central and southern coast of Peru
(south of Lima) and expanded, in various stages, toward the southeast, arriving
first in Cuzco and later in the altiplano before the time of the Inca Empire.
Experts disagree, however, about who spread the language and over what time
frame.
Further Reading
Adelaar, Willem, and Pieter Muysken. “The Aymaran Language Family.” In The Languages of the Andes,
Willem Adelaar with Pieter Muysken, 259–319. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Briggs, Lucy. El idioma aymara: Variantes regionales y sociales. La Paz: ILCA, 1993.
Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo. Lingüística aimara. Cuzco: Bartolomé de Las Casas, 2000.
———. “Aimara.” In Voces del Ande, edited by Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino, 19–32. Lima: Fondo Editorial
de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2008.
———. Quechumara: Estructuras paralelas del quechua y del aimara. La Paz: Plural Ediciones, 2008.
Hardman, Martha, et al. Aymara: Compendio de estructura fonológica y gramatical. La Paz: Gramma
Impresión, 1988.
■RODOLFO CERRÓN-PALOMINO (TRANSLATED BY BARBARA FRASER)