Language/Classical-quechua/Grammar/Gramatical-generalities
Typology
Quechua belongs to the group of agglutinating languages in which a root can be followed by one or more suffixes
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Rumi | Piedra | Stone |
Rumiwan | Con la piedra | With the Stone |
Rumi-lla-wan | Sólo con la piedra | Onlv with the Stone |
Rumi-lla-wan-raq | Sólo con la piedra todavía | Only with the stone yet |
In this way a series of sentences can be formed with any root. In some cases the suffix chu indicates the interrogative form
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Takinkichu | Vas a cantar? | Will you sing? |
Riymanchu | Puedo ir? | Shall i go? |
The suffix wan equals to:
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Mamaywan | Con mi madre | With my mother |
The suffix lla equals to:
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Ñoqalla | Solamente yo | Only me |
GRAMMATIC UNITS
Morfema
It is the minimum unit of speech with its own meaning.
In Quechua there are two kinds of morphemes: free and linked.
Free are those that constitute words by themselves with a specific meaning, eg:
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Uma | Cabeza | Head |
Morpheme linked is the one that never appears only but linked to another morpheme to have meaning:
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Uma-sapa | Cabezón | Big-headed |
As you can see, the sapa particle has no meaning if it is not linked to another morpheme, which does not happen with one that can appear alone. These linked morphemes are called suffixes.
In a Quechua sentence there may be three or more suffixes linked to free morpheme ej:
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Wawa | Criatura | Babv |
Wawa-kuna-man | A las criaturas | To the babies |
Wawa-kuna-man-raq | A las criaturas, primero | To the babies first |
Root
It is called like this some morphemes that do not carry suffixes.
They are more numerous and have, in general, a greater number of phonemes, eg:
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Paya | Vieja | Old woman |
Mallki | Arbol | Tree |
Topic
It is a root stripped of inflectional suffixes or bearing derivation suffixes, as in the case of Quechua, ex:
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Mihuy | Comer | To eat |
Mihuna | Comida | Food |
Qhaway | Mirar | To look |
Qhawana | Mirador | Watch-tower |
Word
It is the morpheme that can be used independently. In Quechua it can consist of a simple root, ex:
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Karu | Lejos | Far |
Wayna | Joven | Young man |
Or also in a root with derivative and inflectional suffixes. ex:
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Karumanta hamuni | Vengo de lejos | I come from far off |
Prayer
Prayer is a syntactically independent unit.
It is simple when it has only one verb, eg: It is said that the sentence is composed when it has more than one verb, ex:
Quechua | Spanish | English |
---|---|---|
Ñañay takiyta munan | Mi hermana quiere cantar | My sister wants to sing |