Aymara (Aymar Uta)

Introduction

Cactus

Titicaca

Aymara is an Aymaran language spoken by the indigenous Aymara people of the Andes in South America. About 2.3 million live in Bolivia, Peru, Northern Chile, and Argentina. It is estimated that Aymara is spoken by 1.2 million speakers in Bolivia, 300,000 in Peru, 50,000 in Chile, and 10,000 in Argentina.

Some scholars have grouped Aymara together with Quechua as part of a larger Quechumaran linguistic stock because the two languages share about 30% of their vocabulary. However, this classification is a matter of dispute because the similarities in vocabulary may be due to borrowing rather than to a common origin.

Aymara Central with 1,785,000 speakers is the official language of Bolivia where efforts are made to promote native literacy (Ethnologue).

At least two newspapers are irregularly published in Aymara. There are also a number of publications that carry Aymara literary writings, history, politics, and useful informative materials. There are also some Aymara-Spanish texts used in bilingual education and literacy programs. By some estimates, the number of Aymara-speaking people appears to be on the increase.

Bulls

canoe

Structure

Sound System

Children

Woman

Old Woman

Mountain view

Child

Aymara has a relatively simple sound system that is essentially similar to that of Quechua.

Vowels
Aymara has three vowels /i/, /a/, /u/ which may be long or short. Vowel length makes a difference in word meaning.

Consonants
Aymara has 26 consonant phonemes. Fifteen of the consonants are voiceless stops which occur in five contrasting positions of articulation and in three manners of articulation. The table below shows the

Manner of articulation	Position of articulation
Manner of articulation	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Stops (plain)	p	t	ch	k	q
Stops (aspirated)	p"	t"	ch"	k"	q"
Stops (glottalized)	p'	t'	ch'	k'	q'
Fricatives	.	s	.	j	x
Trill	.	r	.	.	.
Nasals	m	n	ñ	.	.
Laterals	.	l	ll	.	.
Semivowels	w	.	y	.	.

None of the stops or fricatives have voiced counterparts, e.g., there is /p/ but no /b/, etc. In fact, there are no voiced-voiceless oppositions in native Aymara words.

Glottalized consonants are pronounced with a complete closure of the glottis; another way to describe this phenomenon is to say that a glottal stop is made simultaneously with another consonant. In writing, these sounds are represented by an apostrophe.
Aspirated consonants are pronounced with a strong burst of air that accompanies their release. instance, the stop /p/ in the English word pot is aspirated. The degree of aspiration can vary from language to language.

Aymara also has a trilled /r/ (as in the Spanish word perro "dog"), and an alveolar/palatal contrast for nasals (/n/ vs /ñ/) and laterals (/l/ vs /ll/)as well as two semivowels (/w/ and /y/).

Stress
Stress usually falls on the penultimate (next-to-last) syllable.

Click here to listen to the sounds of Aymara.

Grammar

Aymara Rug

Pottery

Sculpture

Aymara is an agglutinative language that adds suffixes to roots to build words and express grammatical relations.

Nouns
Aymara nouns are marked for humanness.

Pronouns
Like Quechua, Aymara makes a distinction between inclusive and exclusive "we" as shown in the table below.

Singular		Plural
*naya*	I	*nayanaka*	we
*juma*	you	*jumanaka*	you (all)
*jupa*	he/she	*jupanaka*	they
*jiwasa*	you and I	*jiwasanaka*	you (all) and I

Verbs
Aymara verbs are marked for tense, mood, subject, and object. The tense and mood systems are fairly complex.

Tenses	Moods
Present	Declarative
Recent past	Imperative
Remote past	Interactive
Futuref	Inferential past
.	Inferential future

Click here to see the complete conjugation of the Aymara verb chura- “give.”

Syntax
The Aymara sentences use suffixes that indicate sentence types.

Vocabulary

Family

Aymara has a substantial number of borrowings from Spanish, e.g., lapisawa “pencil” from Spanish lapiz.

Click here to see a basic dialog in Aymara. Look for borrowings from Spanish.

Writing

Aymara is written with a Spanish version of the Roman alphabet. Many different spelling systems have been used over the years. In 1985, the Peruvian goverment introduced a new spelling system known as the Aymara Official Alphabet or Unified Alphabet.

Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Aymara.

What does the length of most words tell you about Aymara?
Notice the absence of borrowings from Spanish.

Aymara
Taqpach jaqejh khuskat uñjatatäpjhewa munañapansa, lurañapansa, amuyasiñapansa, ukatwa jilani sullkanípjhaspas ukham uñjasipjhanapawa.

English translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

alpaca

Aymara words in English
Did you know that the word "alpaca" came from Aymara allpaca, the name of the animal?

Andean music
Much of Andean music which is gaining popularity in the U.S. is sung in Aymara.

Click here to listen to and watch an Aymara music and dance performance.
Click here to listen to and watch more Aymara music and dance performance.

Resources

Click here to find out where Aymara is taught in the United States.
Click here to find materials for studying Aymara.

Online Resources for the study of Aymara language and culture
Aymara links (in Spanish)
Spanish-Aymara/Aymara-Spanish dictionary
Aymara-English Dictionary
Aymara Language Materials Program
Introduccion al Lenguaje, Historia, Cultura y Religion del Pueblo Aymara
Wikipedia article on Aymara
Ethnologue report on Aymara