Quechua in Boston — SPOILERS

At the Boston University show we took a glance into the most widely spoken indigenous language family in the Americas. We like to think of this round as a foray into pig Latin, or perhaps guinea-pig Latin. To help the listeners at home, Barry suggested we post the spellings and pronunciations.

If you haven’t listened to the show yet, you might not want to read these yet! You can find a station to listen to or check us out on iTunes.

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Quechua  KAY-chwa

 

Carolyn’s question:

achhiy  AH-ch’-hee

 

Tony’s question:

awsay  OW-sigh

pinal  PEE-nahl

klub  kloob

 

Arnie’s question:

Atahualpa  aht-a-WALL-pa

Inti!  EEN-tee

 

Lenore’s question:

-paq  pakh  =  for; for the benefit of

wawapaq talku  wa-WA-pakh TALL-koo
Paula’s question:

runa  ROO-na  =  person

simi  SEE-mee  =  tongue

runasimi  roo-na-SEE-mee

 

Tom’s question:

-kuna  KOO-na  =  [indicates plural]

-pis  piece  =  [indicates an item in a list]

awiyunkunapis = ah-wee-yoon-koo-NA-piece

trinkunapis = treen-koo-NA-piece

karrukunapis = karr-rroo-koo-NA-piece