Anthropology Review Database

Cole, Peter, Gabriella Hermon, & Mario Daniel Martin (eds.)
1994 Language in the Andes. Occasional Monographs in Latin American Studies No. 4. Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware Press.

Notes: xii, 400 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm. English and Spanish. Based on papers from a conference entitled "International Conference on Language, Language Policy and Education in the Andes" held at the University of Delaware, Oct. 28-30, 1991. Includes bibliographical references.

Reviewed 24 Nov 1997 by:
Gerardo A. Lorenzino <gerardo.lorenzino@yale.edu>
Yale University, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Medium: Written Literature

Subject
Keywords: Indians of South American - Andes Region - Languages - Congresses
Aymara language - Congresses
Quechua language - Congresses

ABSTRACT:    All articles in Language in the Andes have been carefully selected for their theoretical and descriptive contribution to Andean linguistics. It is rare to find in one volume dealing with Andean languages such a variety of linguistic fields and theoretical approaches.

     Language in the Andes is the editorial outcome of the International Conference on Language, Language Policy and Education in the Andes, which took place at the University of Delaware in 1991, sponsored by its Latin American Studies Program. Its three editors (Cole, Hermon and Martin) made an effort to include all three general areas represented in the conference by including articles written in a wide range of theoretical frameworks in sociolinguistics, syntax, phonology, historical linguistics, bilingualism and psycholinguistics. Nonetheless, the balance is somewhat shifted to syntax with seven articles, which altogether cover nearly half of the book (pp. 116-330), with the remaining nine articles taken up by sociolinguistics (five articles, pp. 1-115), phonology (three articles, 301-378) and one article on learning Quechua (pp. 379-400). All articles have been carefully selected for their theoretical and descriptive contribution to Andean linguistics and are written in English except for three in Spanish. The two Andean languages to which most attention is given are Quechua and Aymara, with Wanka, Muisca and Jaqaru each receiving a full article. The book has no index.
     The book consists of three sections. After an introduction by the three editors, the first section on sociolinguistics is subdivided into language attitudes, bilingualism and bilingual education. Plaza Martinez in "Tendencias socioling'Žsticas en Bolivia" (pp. 1-26) examines the past and present of the sociolinguistic situation in Bolivia, seeing three alternatives regarding the future of bilingual education in this country: (1) increasing urbanization and modernization maintaining the linguistic status quo in which Spanish makes inroads into areas formerly dominated by Aymara and Quechua; (2) a linguistic reaction to the "castillanizaciÆn" in (1) through political self-determination of the Indian populations, a situation which he regards as very unlikely and (3) true bilingualism in the educational system in order to displace the current diglossic situation. The latter Plaza Martinez characterizes as the reconciliation of the irreconcilable (p. 24).
     Von Gleich and Wolck's "Changes in Language Use and Attitudes of Quechua-Spanish Bilinguals in Peru" (pp. 27-50) is a longitudinal study comparing changes in attitudes toward Spanish and Quechua between 1965 and 1978. Their study shows that while Spanish has made significant inroads among Quechua speakers, they still attach an emotional value to their language. This may not necessarily be the case in Ayacucho, where there has been a tendency among Quechua-Spanish bilinguals to shift to monolingualism in Spanish.
     In "Andean Spanish and Bilingual Spanish: Linguistic Characteristics," (pp. 51-73) Escobar attempts to identify eight linguistic features which distinguish Andean Spanish ("a native variety") from bilingual Spanish ("a non-native variety"). Although both varieties ultimately are the outcome of language contact, Andean Spanish has to do with contact on the social level and bilingual Spanish reflects second language acquisition on the individual level.
     In "Whither Bilingual Education in Peru? Quechua Literacy and Empowerment," (pp. 74-89), Hornberger highlights the importance of literacy in Quechua in current Peru, not just literacy in Spanish, based on a study of three bilingual adults who are literate in Quechua and Spanish. From this study she concludes: (1) more reading in Quechua will increase the demand for written material in Quechua and (2) biliteracy will foster social development in Peru.
     Weber's article "Mother-tongue Education for Speakers of Quechua," (pp. 90-115) focuses on the negative results of Quechua education in the Department of Huanuco, principally due to the negative attitude held by Quechua speakers regarding their mother tongue as a means to economic development, a domain which is assigned to Spanish. She proposes some specific suggestions in order to improve bilingual education in Peru: (1) more emphasis on the teaching of reading, (2) greater bilingualism through instruction in both Quechua and Spanish simultaneously and (3) improving Quechua-oriented means of communication such as the radio, the church and the Regional Academy of Quechua.
     The second part of the volume deals with descriptive and theoretical syntax of the Andean languages. In "A Grammatical Category for Manifestations of the Supernatural in Early Colonial Quechua" (pp. 116-125), Adelaar studies a construction in the HuarochirŽ manuscript (1608) that went unnoticed until now. In this construction a god's name occupies the subject position and a noun phrase connected to the subject remains unmarked for case, in contrast to other case marked constructions in modern Quechua. The HuarochirŽ construction is semantically interpreted as indicating the shape of a god or goddess which " manifests himself or herself before the eyes of mankind." Its absence from the modern language is thought to be the weakening of the native religion under colonial Spanish rule.
     A syntactic characterization of the complex sentences in Aymara is the topic of "Las oraciones compuestas en Aymara: Aproximaciones para su comprensiÆn y su estudio" (pp. 126-150). In this article Dedenbach-Salazar S±enz and Yapita Moya identify three types of Aymara complex sentences which use different suffixes: (1) the coordinating suffix -sa, (2) the subordinating suffixes -sina, -ipana, -uka(-)/uk"a(-) and -xa, and (3) the possessive suffix.
     In "The Wanka Reportative as a Radial Category: A Study in Prototypes" (pp. 151-189), Floyd argues that the evidential suffix -shi in Wanka can have reportative and non-reportative uses. These variations are explained as a network of meanings or radial categories centered around the suffix -shi as a prototype. A metaphorical shift from a concrete source to an abstract target provides the cognitive basis for variation in -shi.
     Muysken's "Inflection and Agreement Properties of Quantifiers in Quechua" (190-204) looks into quantification in Quechua. He recognizes three main properties of Quechua quantifiers: (1) quantifiers are inflected for person and number; (2) quantifiers can function independently and adverbially, not in prenominal position as they usually do ("quantifier floating"); and (3) quantifiers differ in the way they trigger verb agreement. Muysken argues that the semantic and syntactic properties of quantifiers are as important as their morphological ones.
     In "Syntactic Typology of Muisca: A Sketch" (pp. 205-230) Ostler outlines some syntactic features of Muisca (also known as Chibcha).
     Van de Kerke's article "Mismatches between affix order and interpretation: Quechua chi-, -mu and -pu revisited" (pp. 231-245) shows that benefactive -pu violates the Mirror Principle which states that "morphological derivations must reflect syntactic derivations and vice versa" (Baker 1985). However, his use of thematic reanalysis for -pu and -mu (a cis/translocative suffix), the latter also shown not to conform to the Mirror Principle (Muysken 1988), eliminates a considerable number of counterexamples in the data on affix order and interpretation.
     In "Binding in Quechua morphosyntax" (pp. 246-300) Weber views agreement suffixes in Huallaga Quechua as nominals under binding theory. His analysis explains several phenomena: (1) anomalies in subject marking; (2) the distribution of agentive markers and infinitives; and (3) switch reference as the result of the pronominal and anaphoric properties of suffixes.
     The third part of the volume deals with phonology. Aranovich's article "A Nonlinear Analysis of Lengthening and Hiatus in Aymara" (pp. 301-318) presents an autosegmental analysis of length in Aymara, in which a root tier is used to represent long vowels. Furthermore, his analysis helps to account for the reduction of Aymara vowels in hiatus.
     In "Vocales largas en jacaru: reconsideraciÆn" (pp. 319-331) CerrÆn-Palomino argues in favor of a distinction between long and short vowels in Jacaru, like in many other central Quechua dialects. In this respect he agrees with Hardman's early analysis (1966), but not with her later work (1983) in which she set up a phonemic contrast between short and normal vowels. In CerrÆn-Palomino's views Hardman's reanalysis is typologically unwarranted since it makes the short vowels marked, highly unusual in world languages.
     Landerman's article on glottalization and aspiration in Quechua and Aymara (pp. 332-378) questions the common belief that glottalized and aspirated stops in southern Quechua dialects originated in Aymara. The comparative method can also explain these phenomena in Proto-Quechua.
     Finally, in "Learning Quechua Language and Culture from Interactive Videodisk" (pp. 379-400) Andersen, Daza and Robison describe a course developed at UCLA based on state-of-the-art technology (videodisks, computers) to teach both Quechua language and culture in a more contextualized way.
     It is rare to find in one volume dealing with Andean languages such a variety of linguistic fields and theoretical approaches. More importantly, the book helps to rescue Andean languages from the relative indifference of their significance to linguistic theory and highlights their potential for contributing to its advancement. For that reason, this book will be useful for both the specialist in Andean linguistics and the non-specialist engaged in the development of linguistic theory.
     Bibliography
     Baker, Mark. 1985. The Mirror Principle and Morphosyntactic Explanation. Linguistic Inquiry 16:373-415.
     Everaert, Martin (ed.) 1988. Quechua: Morphology and Modularity. Dordrecht: Foris
     Hardman, Martha. 1966. Jaqaru: Outline of Phonological and Morphological Structure. The Hague: Mouton.
     ______. 1983. Jaqaru Short Vowels. International Journal of American Linguistics 49:186-195.
     Muysken, Pieter. 1988. Affix Order and Interpretation. In Everaert (1988).

To cite this review, the American Anthropological Association recommends the following style:

Lorenzino, Gerardo A.
1997 Review of Language in the Andes. Anthropology Review Database. November 24. Electronic document, http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=40, accessed February 10, 2010.

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(available online: http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/)

	Cole, Peter, Gabriella Hermon, & Mario Daniel Martin (eds.) 1994 Language in the Andes. Occasional Monographs in Latin American Studies No. 4. Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware Press. Notes: xii, 400 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm. English and Spanish. Based on papers from a conference entitled "International Conference on Language, Language Policy and Education in the Andes" held at the University of Delaware, Oct. 28-30, 1991. Includes bibliographical references.
	Reviewed 24 Nov 1997 by: Gerardo A. Lorenzino <gerardo.lorenzino@yale.edu> Yale University, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
	Medium:	*Written Literature*
	Subject Keywords:	Indians of South American - Andes Region - Languages - Congresses Aymara language - Congresses Quechua language - Congresses