Quechua/Pronunciation

This Module is part of the Quechua wikibook

Because Quechua was only recently transcribed into a Latin alphabet, it does not suffer from non-phonetic spellings like English; instead, what you see is what you say. In this course we will use the Quechua writing system as approved by the Peruvian government in 1985.

Vowels

There are only three vowel phonemes in Quechua: /i/ (front close unrounded), /a/ (central open unrounded), /u/ (back close rounded), forming a triangular system with two degrees of openness (open and close). In contrast, Spanish has a 5-vowel triangular system (i, e, a, o, u), with three degrees of openness (open, mid and close).

Note this means that e and o are phonemic in Spanish but not in Quechua where they are merely allophonic variants of /i/ and /u/; this is because those vowels contrast and distinguish words in Spanish, so in Spanish it makes sense to spell them differently, but this is not true for Quechua, where the choice of [i]/[e] and of [u]/[o] is determined purely by the phonetic environment in which the phonemes /i/ and /u/ appear and not by meaning.

Strange as it may seem to Westerners to have so few vowels and to not distinguish e and o as independent vowels, Quechua vowel system is far from rare or unique, as several other languages from different parts of the world, such as Classical Arabic and Inuktitut, feature analogous 3-vowel systems.

Phoneme	Spelling	Sound			Example	Audio
		IPA	X-SAMPA	Similar to English
/a/	a	[a] [ɑ] (*)	[a] [A] (*)	ah; a as in father o as in (American) hot	akupana (sunset) qatiq (descendant)	listen
/i/	i	[i] [e] (*)	[i] [e] (*)	ee, as in bee e as in met	isanka (basket) qatiq (descendant)
/u/	u	[u] [o] (*)	[u] [o] (*)	oo as in boot aw as in saw	trawu (alcohol) waylluq (lover)
(*) When in the vicinity of uvular consonants (q, q', qh)

Consonants

Most Quechuan consonants are similar to their English counterparts, however some people may have trouble with glottal stops.

IPA	X-SAMPA	Sound	English	Quechua	Example	Translation
p	p	p	p, as in pot	p	Puka	Red
t	t	t	t, as in stamp	t	Taki	Song
tʃ	tS	ch	ch, as in chat	ch	Machu	Old
k	k	k	k, as in king	k	Mallki Mallki	Forest
s	s	s	s, as in sit	s	Sunqu	Heart
q	q	similar to a k but further down the throat	(no English equivalent)	q	Qillqay	To write
h	h	h	h, as in hug	h	Harawi	Poem
m	m	m	m, as in mate	m	K'allma	Branch
n	n	n	n, as in band	n	Manka	Pot
ɲ	J	similar to ny	ny, as in canyon	ñ	Ñaqch'a	Comb
l	l	l	l, as in live	l	Lawa	Soup
ʎ	L	similar to ly	lli, as in million	ll	Llank'a	Job
r	r	r		r	Rap'a	Page
w	w	w	w, as in wing	w	Wanp'u	Boat
j	j	y	y, as in yes	y	Yaykuy	To get up

For loanwords, Quechua can use b,c (as in jam), d, f, g, x (as in khan) and z (as in throw).