Jaqaru
M. J. Hardman
University of Florida
Jaqaru, a member of the Jaqi family of languages (Jaqaru, Kawki, Aymara), is spoken in the Andes Mountains of Perú by a few thousand people resident both in Tupe and nearby villages and as migrants in cities. Children today are all bilingual in Jaqaru and Spanish. Access to Tupe is by a foot and pack animal road.
The phonemic system distinguishes 36 consonants but only 3 vowels. Vowel dropping is significant, complex and pervasive, marking case and phrase structure as well as style.
The language makes extensive use of morphology, with all verbs carrying several suffixes. Syntax is morphologically marked; verbal person suffixes mark simultaneously object/subject; data source is marked at all levels of grammar. Within the nominal system inclusive/exclusive and humanness are marked.
MJ Hardman is Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Florida. She began study of Jaqaru in the fifties and has since been continually involved with one or another of the Jaqi languages for which she has written grammars, teaching materials and cultural studies. She founded INEL (Instituto Nacional de Estudios Lingüísticos) in Bolivia and the Aymara Language Materials Program at the University of Florida. Her current research also involves language and gender and the patterning of worldview in language.
ISBN 9783895862434. Languages of the World/Materials 183. 160pp. 2000.
