Quechua Bibliography

Coronel-Molina, Serafin (2002) Quechua Phrasebook (2nd edition)
Lonely Planet Publications: Hawthorn, Australia
ISBN: 1864503815 Nr of Pages: 224 Prices (2002): US$7.99 GB£4.5
In: English Available from: Web
Click here for Amazon’s catalogue details on this book

Warning: the book above is excellent and highly recommended, but the book below – the first edition – is very poor! See my review below. I’d have to advise you not to buy it!

Wright, Ronald (1990) Quechua Phrasebook (1st edition)
Lonely Planet Publications: Hawthorn, Australia
ISBN: 0864420390 Nr of Pages: 96 Prices (2002): US$3.95 GB£2.5
In: English 5-Vowel Cuzco Quechua Available from: Web

The second edition by Serafín Coronel-Molina is a quantum leap, a vast improvement on the first edition by Ronald Wright. It should not really be considered a ‘second edition’ at all: the original one was rightly completely discarded and the whole book has been written anew. I cannot urge you more strongly to make sure you get the professional, serious, fully re-written and much more comprehensive second edition, not the rather amateurish first edition!

Serafín Coronel-Molina’s version can be recommended as a reliable, valuable and accurate book in the first place on the strength of its author alone. He is a respected, professional and dedicated native-speaker of Quechua, and above all a career linguist specialising in the language, well known through his own valuable Quechua website. So if buying this book, make sure you get the second edition by searching by the ISBN 1864503815, or by the author name Serafín Coronel-Molina (only beware, Amazon.com for one have got his name wrong twice, and call him Serafin Coronal-Molin, poor chap!).

A full review of Serafín Coronel-Molina’s edition will follow shortly.

What follows here, then, is our review of the first edition, so the criticisms below have nothing to do with Serafín Coronel-Molina’s edition, and relate only to the first one, by Ronald Wright (ISBN 0864420390). As for that one though … oh dear. I’m not one to criticise other people’s work out of malice, but this book and the attitude that it betrays deserve on the part of the author and publisher little other than criticism. It is almost scandalous that it got published at all. I have to wonder at how the author dared consider himself competent; and Lonely Planet clearly did not do their homework in ensuring they found a suitable author.

OK, so Ronald Wright’s book is only meant to be a phrasebook anyway. To that extent, it does have its uses, yes, and it’s very portable and cheap. But ‘only meant to be a phrasebook’ is no excuse for it being downright wrong and, perhaps even worse in a phrasebook, completely misleading to the newcomer.

The book starts with a section on pronunciation which, if you have a grounding in basic phonetics, is only really worth looking at for entertainment value. Now of course there are some phonetic details that wouldn’t matter so much to the general ‘layman’ reader, but the point is that this book is particularly bad for beginners too, precisely because the author is hopelessly confused about the Quechua spelling and pronunciation system, and passes that confusion on to the unsuspecting newcomer to the language. The system is actually very straightforward and logical, and should not cause much difficulty, but this author manages to make it sound complex and unstructured. Not surprisingly, the spelling throughout the book is inconsistent too, sometimes on the same word, presumably because the author hasn’t even noticed that there are various different alphabets used for Quechua (and big arguments about them).

The grammar section is equally revealing of an author who is out of his depth to the point of not really know what he’s talking about. Take page 20, where it is written: “-qa which also indicates uncertainty, is important because it is often used for ‘if’”. This is plain wrong and is completely misleading. You will never get across the meaning if just by using ‑qa, which generally has a completely different function in Quechua (to do mostly with the grammatical concept of ‘topic’, which the author seems to have no clue about, and which is anyway rather beyond the scope of a phrasebook). If the author had cared to look twice at the two examples he himself gives, he would have found that both include, before the ‑qa, the different suffix ‑qti‑: it’s this one that primarily carries the meaning if. It’s only ever when ‑qa occurs alongside this ‑qti‑ that the two combined can have the meaning if, as opposed to when ‑pti‑ occurs alone, in which case it tends to be equivalent to English when. This distinction, indeed, is pretty useful for basic communication, yet the author fails to explain it at all. (For a few details on this suffix, see Cerrón‑Palomino (1995: 175‑176), who unlike Wright uses the official spelling ‑pti‑). Wright also completely passes over the fact that ‑qa is used with great frequency in Quechua, probably in at least one sentence in two, without indicating ‘uncertainty’ or if whatsoever, but various completely different things.

For a few more examples, the health section contains model sentences which are simply grammatically wrong in Quechua, where the author has got the subject and object mixed up, presumably because he has not realised that the Quechua construction is different to the English one. Even the map on the back of the book purporting to show where Quechua is spoken is inexcusable broad-brush guesswork. The location of Quechua speakers in Bolivia is crazy, while the shading over most of northern Peru covers vast areas where Quechua is almost, or completely, extinct – and even where it isn’t, the form of Quechua spoken there is so different as to be effectively a completely different language from the one described in the book, which would therefore be of little use there.

The introduction likewise contains numerous statements which are at best questionable, at worse nonsense, such as that Quechua “survives precariously in Ecuador”. Despite the worrying long-term outlook for all varieties of Quechua, it still has well over a million (perhaps up to two million) speakers in Ecuador, and its position there can hardly be described as much more precarious than anywhere else. In fact, if you had to bet money on it, on current trends you would expect Quechua to die out in the Cuzco region before it dies out in Ecuador.

All of this information – on the status and distribution of the language, its phonetics, grammar, and so on – was perfectly well available well before the publication of this first edition, so there is simply no excuse. It is depressing how some authors feel so overconfident as to publish on a subject without even knowing enough to realise how little they actually know about it, and how their mistakes and ignorance will mislead others who read their work. The author has since made quite a career out of other popular history books, on the Maya of Central America, for example; one has to hope that those at least are informed by real expert knowledge, and that he has not continued with the same cavalier attitude he took to publishing on Quechua.

Ronald Wright’s Quechua Phrasebook does not deserve your money – get the second edition instead, which certainly does. For thankfully, Lonely Planet seem to have wised up to their author’s failings, and (apparently in the middle of production) dropped him for a new, professional author, this time a native Quechua-speaking linguist. Phew!

[As a little aside, all of this makes for a big dent in the reputation of Lonely Planet that they got it so wrong the first time. Sadly, this is not altogether surprising, since their series more generally takes a ‘populist’ approach which means that plenty of their guidebooks too seem to be written by self‑assured authors whose in-depth knowledge of the country they are writing about similarly leaves a good deal to be desired. Try Rough Guides or, even better for Latin America, Footprint Handbooks, whose in‑depth knowledge of the countries concerned is, in my wide travel experience, much more professional and reliable.]

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Coursebooks and ‘Teach Yourself’ Books

I understand that there will be a pretty serious coursebook in English coming out eventually (2008), but for now there’s still really not very much out there that’s much good. What follows is roughly in order of best first for the courses in English and Spanish, then there are a few courses in German and French.

For other possible coursebooks in English, you might also want to try to contact universities in the USA which teach Quechua.

In Cuzco, available in local bookshops, you can find plenty of locally-produced small-scale books in Spanish, but most of them are unfortunately pretty amateurish and not much good at all – any of those listed below are considerably better.

Morató Peña, Luís & Luís Morató Lara (2000) Quechua Boliviano Trilingüe – Curso Avanzado
Editorial Los Amigos del Libro: La Paz, Bolivia
ISBN: 8483702703 Nr of Pages: 224 Prices (2002): US$16
In: English & Spanish 5-Vowel Bolivian Quechua (Cochabamba) Available from: Los Amigos del Libro

Probably the best in English so far, reasonable explanations and course structure. This advanced level one has some nice (rare!) Quechua texts to practice on. Apparently used as a coursebook in some American universities, so may be available there too. (I haven’t found it on internet bookshops yet).

Morató Peña, Luís (1993) Quechua Boliviano Trilingüe – Curso Elemental (2nd edition)
Editorial Los Amigos del Libro: La Paz, Bolivia
In: English & Spanish 5-Vowel Bolivian Quechua (Cochabamba) Available from: Los Amigos del Libro

The companion Introductory Level volume to the above, should also be pretty good, and like it apparently used as a coursebook in some American universities. Availability as for the advanced level one.

Soto Ruiz, Clodoaldo (1993) Quechua – Manual de Enseñanza (2nd edition)
Instituto de Estudios Peruanos: Lima, Peru
ISBN: 848930324X Nr of Pages: 442 Prices (2002): US$11 S/.40
In: Spanish 3-Vowel Ayacucho Quechua Available from: CBC IEP

Pretty good, well-structured course and very long, so lots of practice.

Coronel-Molina, Serafin (2002) Quechua Phrasebook (2nd edition)
Lonely Planet Publications: Hawthorn, Australia
ISBN: 1864503815 Nr of Pages: 224 Prices (2002): US$7.99 GB£4.5
In: English Available from: Web
Click here for Amazon’s catalogue details on this book

Not a coursebook, but a phrasebook, but failing a decent coursebook you might want to give this a look too, as it will be much bigger and better than its predecessor. This is the new much expanded second edition of the Lonely Planet Quechua Phrasebook, and should be easily available everywhere once it’s published, some time around August 2002. But don’t confuse this with the amateurish first edition by a different author - click here for my review.

Grondin, Marcelo (1980) Metodo de Quechua – Runa Simi (2nd edition)
Los Amigos del Libro: La Paz, Bolivia
In: Spanish Bolivian Quechua Available from: Los Amigos del Libro

While nothing particularly special, this is a pretty reasonable book to start with, lots of exercises and drills. Note there is also a companion Método de Aymara volume by the same author and publisher..

Bills, Garland (196?) Introduction to Spoken Bolivian Quechua
University of Texas Press:
ISBN: 0292700199 Nr of Pages: 449
In: English Bolivian Quechua Available from: Out of Print
Click here for Amazon’s catalogue details on this book

A very old and venerable production, typewritten, but not bad, with cassettes I think

Noble, Judith & Jaime Lacasa (1999) Introduction to Quechua ((+ cassette))
McGraw Hill:
ISBN: 084427206X Nr of Pages: 256
In: English 5-Vowel Bolivian Quechua Available from: Out of Print
Click here for Amazon’s catalogue details on this book

You’ll probably be well disappointed! Very oddly structured, not really a course, just dull, tiresome and not very useful long, long lists of ‘model sentences’, repeated on the cassette. Little grammatical explanation, and what there is not great: sometimes unhelpful terminology, and gives up entirely on explaining certain things (e.g. focus and topic suffixes), just saying they are for ‘euphony’ – not really true, and no help to the learner at all. Is available from some internet bookshops, though often with a long wait (up to 8 weeks, if it ever comes).

Salas Cruz, Américo & Edith F. Zevallos Apaza (1998?) Runasimi Qusqu Qullaw – Texto de Enseñanza
Instituto de Pastoral Andina: Cuzco, Peru
ISBN: ??? Nr of Pages: 250 Prices (2002): US$14.5 S/.50
In: Spanish 3-Vowel Cuzco-Collao Quechua Available from: CBC

Fairly OK and useful for practice, though useless on alphabet and pronunciation. Not written by a professional though – the ‘phonetics table’ is no help and actually wrong in places. Given the publisher, intended presumably for priests and nuns working with Quechua-speakers in Southern Peru.

There are also basic coursebooks in other European languages:

Hartmann, Roswith (1987) ‘Rimaykullayki’ – Unterrichtsmaterialien zum Quechua Ayacuchano
Reimer: Berlin
ISBN: 3496025204 Prices (2002): €17.9
In: German Ayacucho Quechua Available from: Web
Click here for Amazon’s catalogue details on this book

Dunkel, Winfried (1995) Kauderwelsch, Quechua für Peru-Reisende (Audio Cassette)
Reise Know-How Verlag: Bielefeld, Germany
ISBN: 3894160780 Nr of Pages: 160 Prices (2002): €7.9
In: German Available from: Web
Click here for Amazon’s catalogue details on this book

Dunkel, Winfried (1997) Kauderwelsch, Quechua für Peru-Reisende (3rd Edition)
Reise Know-How Verlag: Bielefeld, Germany
ISBN: 3894161108 Nr of Pages: 160 Prices (2002): €7.9
In: German Available from: Web
Click here for Amazon’s catalogue details on this book

Itier, César (1997) Parlons Quechua (Cassette Also Available)
L’Harmattan: Paris?
ISBN: 2738456022 Nr of Pages: 208 Prices (2002): €18.29
In: French Cuzco Quechua Available from: FNAC Paris
Click here for Amazon’s catalogue details on this book

With cassettes but a pretty basic book which won’t take you very far. Available from FNAC in Paris at least if you look hard! Cuzco Quechua I think.

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Linguistic Reference Grammars

Grammars in Spanish

The Six Main Peruvian Dialects: the IEP Grammars

In 1976 the Peruvian Instituto de Estudios Peruanos and Ministerio de Educación published a series of six reference grammars (and a companion series of six dictionaries, see below), one for each of the main regional dialects in Peru.

The grammar for the Cuzco-Collao dialect, by Antonio Cusihuamán, has recently been re-edited by the CBC (as has the accompanying dictionary), with some very useful additions, such as a proper reference index of all suffixes, and a section on spelling and pronunciation ‘problems’. Also, it’s in a handier more compact format, and doesn’t fall to bits like the old editions do! It sticks with the old 5-vowel alphabet though (and, inevitably therefore, there are a few inconsistencies).

Here’s the full list of the books then:

Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo (1976a) Gramática Quechua: Junín-Huanca
Instituto de Estudios Peruanos: Lima, Peru
Prices (2002): US$3 S/.10
In: Spanish 3-Vowel Available from: IEP

Coombs, David & Heidi Carlson & Robert Weber (1976a) Gramática Quechua: San Martín
Instituto de Estudios Peruanos: Lima, Peru
Prices (2002): US$3 S/.10
In: Spanish Available from: IEP

Cusihuamán, Antonio (1976a) Gramática Quechua: Cuzco-Collao (1st Edition)
Instituto de Estudios Peruanos: Lima, Peru
Prices (2002): US$3 S/.10
In: Spanish 5-Vowel Available from: CBC IEP

Cusihuamán, Antonio (2001a) Gramática Quechua: Cuzco-Collao (2nd Edition - with Index!)
Centro Bartolomé de las Casas: Lima, Peru
Prices (2002): US$10 S/.35
In: Spanish 5-Vowel Cuzco Quechua Available from: CBC IEP

Parker, Gary (1976a) Gramática Quechua: Ancash-Huailas
Instituto de Estudios Peruanos: Lima, Peru
Prices (2002): US$3 S/.10
In: Spanish Available from: