The Sounds of the Andean Languages – Pronunciation and Spelling

3: How Can You Learn Official Spelling?

Before this section we recommend that you first read the earlier sections, starting from: 1. Sounds and Spelling.

Contents

Isn’t It Strange to Write with Only Three Vowels?

Tip 1: How to Start Reading Texts in the Official Alphabet

But What About Spellings Like <irqi> or <Qusqu>?

Where Did the Quechua Spelling Rules Come From?

Tip 2: How to Get Used to Quechua Spelling Rules

Tip 3: How to Get Used to Spelling with Only Three Vowels

Back to Contents – Skip to Next: Tip 1: How to Start Reading Texts in the Official Alphabet

Isn’t It Strange to Write with Only Three Vowels?

As we’ve seen in earlier sections, it’s actually quite normal for many languages in the world to spell with only three vowels. Now of course it may still seem strange to you to do this, but really that is probably only because you’re used to only ever writing and reading in Spanish, English, or other European languages.

What this means is that you can be sure of one thing if you try out the official three-vowel alphabet for Quechua. The more you use it and get used to it, the more you will realise just what your Quechua language is really like, when you look at it in its own, independent terms, not always through the distorting mirror of the Spanish spelling that you’re used to. Everyone who changes to use the three-vowel alphabet fairly soon starts realising that it is this one that represents the real nature of Quechua. Eventually you will realise how well it works for Quechua. And in the end you will realise that you yourself only ever wanted to write Quechua with five vowels in the first place purely because of the influence of your Spanish.

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Tip 1: How to Start Reading Texts in the Official Alphabet

But how to start using the official three-vowel alphabet? Well, just give it a try. To start off with, just try reading some texts written in just three vowels. Just try to recognise each of the words, and then once you’ve recognised which word it is, just pronounce each word just as you always did, even if the spelling looks a bit odd at first.

If you speak Southern Quechua, here are a few words to try. Here to help you we’ve put little dots under the letters that you might pronounce more like [e], and under the letters that you may pronounce as [o]: <pịrqa>, <wasịqa>, <michịq>, <ụnqụy>, <qụri>. Remember, once you’ve recognised these words, just pronounce them as you always do.

You’ll soon get completely used to this reflex: the letters <qu> are pronounced [qo], and <qi> is pronounced [qe]. That’s it. We’ll explain another easy way to practice below.

You will soon pick this up as an automatic reading reflex, just like the rules you learnt for reading Spanish at school. And eventually you will see how easy and right it feels to write Quechua this way, and not with the five vowels of Spanish. Give it a try and you won’t regret it!

You will soon see how spellings like <pirqa>, <michiq> and <quri> can actually look absolutely normal, and indeed the only correct way to spell these word in true Quechua. It does not take long, and you soon see how much more practical this system is, much more true to Quechua, and much more free from confusing Spanish interference.

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But What About Spellings Like <irqi> or <Qusqu>?

Now of course at first the strangest thing is to see a word that you know is pronounced [erqe] spelt like <irqi>. Similarly, think of the name of the famous city which in Spanish is spelt Cusco or Cuzco. In Quechua this is pronounced [qosqo], as everyone who lives there knows. But since [qo] is actually spelt <qu> in Quechua, it does work fine even to spell this word <Qusqu>. After all, nobody’s going to pronounce it any other way than [qosqo]. If it helps you get used to it, think of it for now with our dots, as <Qụsqụ>, and the same for <ịrqị>.

Indeed, let’s get one thing straight once and for all: nobody, especially nobody who uses spelling with three vowels, is proposing that anyone should pronounce this city’s name with [u] sounds. Nobody is suggesting changing anyone’s pronunciation, it’s only about spelling! Always pronounce words like you always did.

Yes, when you first look at it, spelling <irqi> or <Qusqu> can look weird. But the only reason is because you’re trying to read it as if it were Spanish, with your Spanish reading rules. The official three-vowel Quechua alphabet always works with a reading rule, that <qu> is automatically sounds like [qo] in Quechua. Yes, in every word, including <Qusqu>, read as [qosqo].

Back to Contents – Skip to Next: Tip 2: How to Get Used to Quechua Spelling Rules

Where Did the Quechua Spelling Rules Come From?

But where did this spelling rule come from? Isn’t is a weird rule that some ‘scientist linguist’ invented?

No! In fact, no person ‘invented’ it at all. Quechua did. It is just a natural sound rule of Quechua itself. Don’t believe us? Well just try saying all of the sounds below naturally, and you will see how in the last one you automatically must change the vowel to [o] if you want to pronounce it in natural Quechua.

Now try the same with this sequence:

Again, notice how automatically, because of the <q>, you have to change the pronunciation of the vowel in the last one. It is a sound law of Quechua that [qu] or [qi] is impossible in Quechua, it’s automatically [qo] and [qe].

This was not invented by anyone, it’s just natural for easier pronunciation. The same occurs with certain sounds and letters in English, and in Spanish. Take the pronunciation of the word dedo (finger). Most native Spanish-speakers ‘naturally’ find it easier to say the second <d> in dedo not with the same [d] sound as you hear a través the start of this word, but with a more relaxed ‘d’. No linguist ‘invented’ this pronunciation and reading rule for the letter <d> . It is simply a natural sound rule of Spanish, to make pronunciation easier every time that a <d> occurs between two vowels, like the second <d> in the word dedo.

In very precise linguistic studies, this more relaxed sound is represented by the phonetic symbol [δ]; so to be very exact we have not [dedo] but [deδo]. As we saw earlier though, for daily use in a practical spelling system it is simply not worth always trying to write with different letters a difference in sound that is so automatic and unimportant in the language. It turns out to be much simpler for Spanish-speakers just to write <d> in both cases, even if the two do sound a bit different from each other. So too for Quechua: it is not worth actually writing the difference between the sounds [i] and [e], which is not a very important one in Quechua; rather, it’s simply automatic and serves only to make pronunciation easier. In spelling, it turns out to be much simpler always to write in both cases.

Now Spanish doesn’t have the Quechua sound rule about [q], because of course it doesn’t have the sound [q] at all, only [k]. It’s true that Spanish uses the letter <q>, but only in some complicated spellings where you use <que> and <qui> but <ca>, <co> and <cu>, though whatever the spelling, the sound is always the same [k] in every case.

To read Quechua you need to ignore your Spanish reading rules and reflexes about <q>, which simply do not work for Quechua. Instead all you have to do is get used to Quechua’s single most important automatic reading and pronunciation rule:

• The spelling <qu> sounds like [qo]. Often, <uq> sounds like [oq] too.

• The spelling <qi> sounds like [qe]. Often, <iq> sounds like [eq] too.

(This Quechua reading rule, by the way, works for almost all regions, though Ecuador is an exception, because the letter <q> is not normally used there at all. People from Ecuador can ignore all of this, everything is much simpler for you and your Quechua!)

Back to Contents – Skip to Next: Tip 3: How to Get Used to Spelling with Only Three Vowels

Tip 2: How to Get Used to Quechua Spelling Rules

So for Quechua, when you see <qu>, you ‘hear’ or ‘read’ [qo]. We know that this is a bit strange at first, because even people who use three vowels had to get used to this at first too, but they soon realise how much better it is for Quechua. This is why, to help you learn the rule, we recommend below a way to get used to spellings like this. For your first practice in Quechua spelling rules, just focus your eyes on the letters <qu> here, and while you stare at <qu>, say out loud to yourself a hundred times [qo]. Then stare at <qi> while you say [qe].

You’ll soon learn the rule. After all, it is no harder than rules in Spanish: you see <ca> and hear [ka], but you see <ce> and hear [se] (or [θe] if you’re from Spain).

You can use the same trick to practise any spelling and reading rule that might seem strange at first because it’s not like Spanish. If anything ever seems strange, just stop for a while and focus on the word that seems spelt strangely. Stare at it, and while looking at it just pronounce it to yourself lots of times, until it is a reflex in your mind to see the spelling and hear your own normal pronunciation. Here are some more examples:

• People in southern Peru and Bolivia should look at <puriq>, even while they pronounce it [pureχ] with an [e] and then a rough sound at the end, not a ‘proper’ [q] as in Original Quechua.

• People in Ayacucho should look at a word like <qara> as they pronounce it, even if to them it sounds more like [χara], with a rough sound at the start.

Why should you have to bother with this? Well, because this is the only spelling system that really works well and consistently, and for the sake of the unity of Quechua (see more on this below!). As you can see in the two examples above, some regions have to learn some rules, other regions have to learn others. Nobody is specially favoured, and nobody is forcing anyone to use another region’s Quechua. You always pronounce as in your home region.

If you find it a bit of an effort, do remember that at school when you were a child it was only by lots of practice that you managed to learn Spanish reading reflexes, such as when you see <cocer> you should not ‘hear’ [koker] or [soser]. You just apply the normal reading rules, and pronounce it [koser]. What’s more, the Quechua rules are actually much easier and quicker to learn than the complicated Spanish ones!

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Tip 3: How to Get Used to Spelling with Only Three Vowels

So much for reading with three vowels, how about writing with only three?

Now of course in principle in any case, it has to be much simpler to spell with only three vowels rather than five. Still, in practice it is understandable that some people can have a bit of difficulty getting used to spelling Quechua and Aymara with only three vowels – though the first important step is to realise that this difficulty is really only because you are used to writing and reading only Spanish.

Again though, to help get used to the three-vowel system, here we’d like to recommend one way that might help you make this transition from writing Spanish, with its five vowels, to writing Quechua with just three. It’s like this…

When you’re writing Quechua, if you really feel you want to write an <e>, well please don’t write that, but as a compromise you can if you want write also with a little dot underneath it, so <ị>. This dot is not important or compulsory, but it may help you get used to seeing that this <ị> letter in Quechua can sometimes sound a bit different from just a normal , and a bit more like what in Spanish you spell <e>.

So while you’re learning to write with three vowels, you can – if you want – write <wasi>, but <wasịqa> with a dot; or <michini>, but <michịq> with a dot. This way you can get used to the spelling rule of Quechua that the letter sounds a bit like [e] when it is near the letter <q>.

Now of course you don’t have to use these dots, they are not necessary at all and they are not part of the official alphabet. We suggest you use them only as a temporary ‘trick’, to help you pick up the alphabet at the start. The more you get used to using the letter, the more you can stop bothering with the little dots, and eventually you’ll see that you won’t need them at all.

Exactly the same goes for the letter . If you’re tempted to write <o>, please do resist the temptation and still write . But if it makes you feel more comfortable with the alphabet, you can if you want put a little dot under the , so you can write <musụq> or even <mụsụq> if you want. And you can write <Qụsqụ> , knowing that for you the letter <ụ> with a dot is read and pronounced as [o]. And as ever, just keep reading and pronouncing all words just in the same way you always did in your own region. It’s only the writing, the spelling, that needs a bit of care at the start.

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We recommend that you now click to go on to section 4, on: Unified Spelling and Regional Variation.