Salasaca Quichua (ISO 639-3=qxl) is a Quechuan language, specifically of the branch referred to as Quechua A (Parker Reference Parker1963), as Quechua IIB (Torero Reference Torero1974), or the northern group (Landerman Reference Landerman1991); but see Landerman (Reference Landerman1991) and Adelaar (Reference Adelaar and Muysken2004) regarding doubts with respect to the classification of the different varieties. The variety described in this paper is spoken by approximately 12,000 people in Ecuador. The Salasaca ‘parroquia’ (Spanish usage in Ecuador of this word is for a non-religious administrative district), in Pelileo canton, in Tungurahua province, is divided into eighteen communities and Quichua is spoken in all of them. This variety is similar to that of others of the region and is included in the Stark & Muysken (Reference Stark and Muysken1977) dictionary. Varieties of Quechua in this area do not have the more open allophones attested farther south (such as in Peru), and for that reason the Ecuadorian varieties are traditionally called ‘Quichua’ rather than ‘Quechua’.
This description of the phonology of Salasaca Quichua is based on the speech of the primary author who was born in the area in 1973; she is a resident of Salasaca, and Quichua is her mother tongue and principal language. She made the recordings that accompany this publication, and also translated and recorded the North Wind text. The analysis presented here differs little from that of Waskosky (Reference Waskosky1992) and the data agree in great measure with those published in Stark & Muysken (Reference Stark and Muysken1977). See Adelaar (Reference Adelaar and Muysken2004) for information as to how the sounds presented and discussed in this illustration relate to the Quechuan family in general.
Consonants
The consonants are presented in various positions when possible, primarily using native words. (The roots /dali/ ‘spank’ and /paɾli/ ‘speak'are two notable exceptions.) The consonants are given first in the syllable onset: (a) at the beginning of a word, (b) between vowels, (c) after a tap or lateral approximant, (d) after a central approximant, (e) after a nasal, and (f) after an obstruent; and then they are given in the coda: (g) of the stressed syllable, and (h) in word-final position.
The voiced obstruents /b d ɡ/ are presented as stop phonemes here although actually they are more commonly fricatives in most contexts (see below). Voicing of obstruents in Salasaca Quichua is contrastive. It is not surprising, therefore, that these consonants were written with their own letters in the Stark & Muysken (Reference Stark and Muysken1977) dictionary. The voicing of stops has been an important step in the evolution of the language (Adelaar Reference Adelaar and Muysken2004: 242). The distribution is interesting, and obviously there are irregularities due to their evolution, because Proto-Quechua did not have voiced stops (see Adelaar Reference Adelaar and Muysken2004 and many works cited therein). Following non-nasal sonorants, voiceless stops are common and voiced stops less common: /ˈʧilka/ ‘green’, /ˈmilɡa/ ‘much’. After nasals, voiced stops are common and the voiceless ones much less common: /ˈtanda/ ‘bread’, /ˈjanta/ ‘firewood’. Voiced stops are not common in other syllable onsets in native vocabulary, but some of those in which they occur have high frequency of usage: /ˈɡan/ ‘is’ and /ˈubji/ ‘drink!’, for example. In contrast, voiced stops predominate at the beginning of suffixes, where they contrast with one voiceless example: /kʰaˈta-da/ ‘blanket (Accusative)’, /kʰaˈta-ɡa/ ‘blanket (Topic)’, /kʰata-ˈɡuna/ ‘blankets’, /kʰaˈta-bi/ ‘in the blanket’, /kʰaˈta-buk/ ‘from the blanket’, and /kʰaˈta-pa/ ‘blanket (Derogatory)’. These suffixes do not have allomorphs. In summary, the evidence based on the distribution (which is obviously quite interesting) and the reaction of native speakers (which is important if the notion of the phoneme is of any significance, as we believe) indicate clearly, in our view, that the phonemic inventory in this variety must include the voiced stops.
No contrast is found between the non-strident obstruents in the coda of the syllable: a syllable-final non-strident obstruent must be a velar (transcribed here as either /k/ or /ɡ/ depending on the context). Neither is there contrast between the nasals in the coda, with two exceptions, as explained below.
Aspirated stops occur in relatively few words, and the aspiration is not very strong. They are found only in word-initial position in our data and in Stark & Muysken (Reference Stark and Muysken1977), unlike in other varieties of Quechua (see Parker & Weber Reference Parker and Weber1996). The aspirated affricate occurs in only one word in this particular variety; Stark & Muysken (Reference Stark and Muysken1977) include two additional words with this phoneme, attested in other nearby dialects.
Vowels
Three vowels occur in native words: /i a u/. The vowels /e o/ appear in loanwords from Spanish which may in fact have been incorporated into the language generations ago.
Stress
With few exceptions, such as the onomatopoeic noun /ɡuˈlun/ ‘thunder’, the penultimate syllable of the word receives the primary stress. The exceptions include words with the comitative/instrumental suffix /-n/ in which the stress always falls on the last syllable: /ˈindi/ ‘sun’, /inˈdin/ ‘with the sun’, /ˈʧaki/ ‘foot’, /ʧaˈkin/ ‘with the foot’. This suffix is presumably a reduction of the suffix /-wan/ which continues to be used in more formal speech styles. It also has a suppletive allomorph, /-jun/, that is used with a pronoun like /kan/ ‘you’: /ˈkan-jun/ ‘with you’.
Conventions
An aspirated bilabial stop freely varies to fricative in the speech of some speakers: /pʰiɲa/ ‘angry’ [ˈpʰiɲa] ~ [ˈɸiɲa].
A non-strident obstruent in the syllable coda has predictable or variable characteristics (Waskosky Reference Waskosky1992). Such an obstruent is always velar, and varies easily between stop and fricative pronunciation and between voiceless and voiced, generally in agreement with the following consonant. Therefore a word like /ˈukʃa/ ‘straw’ may be heard as [ˈukʃa] or [ˈuxʃa]. In absolute final position, it tends to vary to fricative: /ˈpusuk/ [ˈpusuk] or [ˈpusux] ‘eight’. Therefore the analysis of such a consonant in the coda is always indeterminate between /k/, /x/, and /ɡ/. They are transcribed phonemically here as stops in all cases.
The phonemes /b d ɡ/ are most commonly fricatives. Nevertheless, they are stops following a nasal: /ˈtanda/ [ˈtanda] ‘bread’, /ˈpuŋɡu/ [ˈpuŋɡu] ‘door’. /b/ is sometimes a stop in initial position: /ˈbunɡa/ [ˈbuŋɡa] ‘bee’. /d/ does not occur in word-initial position in native vocabulary; it varies between fricative and stop in the words in which it does occur (which are loanwords from Spanish), such as /ˈdali/ [ˈdali] ‘spank!’ and /daliˈʃami/ [ðaliˈʃami] ‘I will spank you’. The phoneme /ɡ/, also not common in word-initial position, tends to be lenis there, nearly fricative, in many cases: /ˈɡan/ [ˈɣan] ‘is’, /ɡuˈlun/ [ɣuˈlun] ‘thunder’, /ˈɡuʃtu/ [ˈɣuʃtu] ‘slow’. (The origin of the last word may be Spanish, but the meaning suggests that it is not a recent loan; at any rate, what interests us here is the phonetic realization.)
An alveolar nasal assimilates to the place of articulation of an immediately following obstruent: /ˈpunɡu/ [ˈpuŋɡu] ‘door’. When /n/ appears in the coda and cannot assimilate to an obstruent, it velarizes: /ˈkanjun/ [ˈkaŋjuŋ] ‘with you’ (a variant), /aʃˈtanmi/ [aʃˈtaŋmi] ‘even more’. The word /ˈtamja/ ‘rain’ is one example of /m/ in a coda that is not due to the presence of a following bilabial obstruent. In the word /ˈzimɾan/ ‘trembles’ an intrusive consonant appears between the nasal and the tap: [ˈzimbɾaŋ]. In the same way, a voiced fricative is heard as an affricate following a nasal: /ˈkanʒa/ [ˈkandʒa] ‘outside’.
The tap tends to become a trill and slightly assibilated at the beginning of a word: /ˈɾinɾin/ [ˈriŋriŋ] ‘ear’. It also becomes such at the beginning of the second syllable of the preceding example.
The close vowels tend to have slightly more open allophones when in closed syllables. They do not display open allophones in final position, unlike in other Quechuan languages.
Syllable structure
The maximal syllable template is CGVC (Consonant, Glide, Vowel, Consonant) in native words, although the examples with CG are quite uncommon. Some examples of these are: /ˈkwika/ ‘earthworm’, /ˈkwinka/ ‘intestinal worm’, /ˈkwiʧi/ ‘rainbow’, /ˈkʰwiʒa/ ‘beautiful’, /ˈkʰwiti/ ~ /ˈkʰwidi/ ‘delicious’, /ˈtʰjuka/ ‘saliva’, /ˈubji/ ‘drink!’ and /uˈbjani/ ‘I drink’. The onset is obligatory (except at the beginning of a word, as in most other languages) and there is no extrametricality.
Transcription of the recorded passage
ˈxawa laduˈmunda wajˈɾami | majˈxinʃi ˈjaʒi xuɾˈsada ⩷aɾinˈ⩷iʃi ˈni(a inˈdiwan ɾimanukuɡaˈɡuna ‖ ˈʃina ɾimanukuɡuˈʃami ʃuk ˈkʰaɾi ˈpun⩷u ⩷uˈɾaʃka ɾiˈbusu piʒuˈɾiʃka | ⩷i kuˈ⩷uda pasaˈɡukta ɾikuɡaˈɡuna ‖ ˈ⩷ida ɾikuˈʃaɡa ‖ ˈmajxin ‖ ⩷i ˈkʰaɾi ⩷uɾaˈɾiʃka punˈ⩷uda ɾibuˈsudaʃ ʒukʃiˈ⩷iɡmi ˈjaʒi xuɾˈsada ˈ⩷aɾik ˈɡanɡa ninuˈkuʃa sakiɾiɡaˈɡuna ‖ ⩷iˈmunda xawaˈmunda wajˈɾaɡa man⩷aˈnajdi ˈtuki ˈxuɾsan pʰuˈkunɡu kaʒaˈɾiɡa ‖ ˈʃina ˈmixuɾ pʰukuˈɡukiʃ | ⩷i kʰaˈɾiɡa aʃˈtanmi piʒuˈɾiɡa ‖ ʃiˈnuʃa xawaˈmunda wajˈɾaɡa | iˈmadaʃ na ˈɾuɾi puˈdiʃa sakiɡaˈʒami ‖ ⩷i ˈkʰipa inˈdiɡa mixuɾˈʒadi pʰalaˈniʃa man⩷aˈnajdi ˈɾupi ʃiˈtuɡa ‖ ʃiˈnuʃa ⩷i kʰaˈɾiɡa man⩷aˈnajdi ɾupaˈɾiʃa | ⩷i ˈɾatu paj ⩷uɾaˈɾiʃka punˈ⩷uda | ɾibuˈsudaʃ ʒukʃiˈ⩷iɡa ‖ ʃiˈnami ˈxawa laduˈmunda wajˈɾaɡa ˈindi ˈjaʒi juɾˈzajuk ɡaʃˈkada ja⩷ik⩷aˈjuʃa sakiˈɾiɡa ‖
Acknowledgments
This paper was written as part of the Curso Superior en Lingüística Aplicada para Comunidades Indígenas offered at the Universidad Ricardo Palma (Lima, Peru) and sponsored by SIL International. It is translated and adapted slightly from a version published in Spanish (Chango Masaquiza with Marlett Reference Chango Masaquiza, Marlett and Marlett2006). We thank Shedd Waskosky, Peter Landerman, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.
