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Reviewed by:
  • The languages of the Andes
  • Paul Proulx
Willem F.H. Adelaar, with the collaboration of Pieter Muysken. The languages of the Andes. In the series Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2004. Pp. xxv + 718. US$150.00 (hardcover).

This book is a small encyclopedia in one volume. It provides a detailed introduction to the languages spoken or formerly spoken along the western edge of South America, including the coast, the highlands, and the adjacent jungle area. It is securely bound and measures 15 × 23 × 4 cm. The print is small but legible. It has a large author index (pp. 681–689), language index (pp. 690–702), and subject index (pp. 703–718). The references alone run 55 pages (pp. 625–680), the introduction 45 pages (pp. 1–45). The appendix provides an inventory of languages (pp. 610–624), giving information on genetic affiliation, geographic location, and number of speakers.

The main body of the work divides the region covered into five sub-regions, which it calls spheres: (1) Chibcha (pp. 46–164), (2) Inca (pp. 165–410), (3) eastern slopes (pp. 411–501), (4) Araucanian (pp. 502–549), and (5) Tierra del Fuego (pp. 550–584). It concludes with a chapter on the Spanish spoken in the region, and its interaction with the native languages (pp. 585–609).

Adelaar approaches his topic in the broadest possible way. He talks about the geography of the region, about its original prehistoric occupation by Amerindian hunters and gatherers (c. 7000 BC), and their early transition to agriculture. He situates the languages with respect to one another, and discusses the degree of their interaction. He describes the impact upon the native languages of the Spanish conquest, the colonial period, and of the policies of the republics that followed. For each sub-region or major language family, he gives an overview of the typical phonology, grammar, and lexicon, and he presents sample texts.

The remainder of my review will focus mainly on the Quechua language family, the one I know best. Adelaar discusses the linguistic descriptions of it, both old and new, including its dialectology and the proposals for its genetic classification. There is a detailed discussion of the criteria for distinguishing Quechua I vs. II, where evidently several dialects show some elements of both. That is, membership in the two main groups is evidently a matter of degree.

The proposals for genetic classification of Quechua are many, but only one has been taken seriously by most scholars. This is a supposed relationship of Quechua with the [End Page 81] Aymara family of languages, widely accepted by linguists not personally familiar with either language. However, Adelaar instead discusses the long historical relationship between these two adjacent language families, and correctly explains the many supposed cognate sets as the obvious loans they are. In this, he is in accord with nearly all Quechua specialists (for example, see Cerrón-Palomino 1982, Proulx 1987, Torero 1998).

Adelaar describes the native Quechua literature, and analyzes text fragments from three dialects: Pacaraos (Peru, based upon his own fieldwork; see Adelaar 1987), Cuzco (Peru), and Salasaca (Ecuador). The Cuzco dialect exemplifies a IIc dialect, Salasaca a IIb one. Pacaraos is somewhat intermediate between the two major dialect groups of Quechua (I vs. II). Its system of demonstrative pronouns is much larger than in any other variety of Quechua, raising intriguing psycho-linguistic questions (Denny 1978, 1982, 1988). He also gives brief grammatical sketches of Salasaca and Pacaraos Quechua. He describes both the written Quechua language literature, and the aural compositions of its speakers.

Finally, he points out that Quechua is the most widely spoken language of native America, with about 4 million speakers, and discusses the chances of its survival. The trend, he says, has been for Spanish to replace it in an ever-growing portion to the population.

The present volume is an unusually useful one, written in a language readily readable even by undergraduates having taken only an introductory linguistic course. Adelaar succeeds amazingly well in covering the main points of linguistic interest of the various Quechua varieties, their histories and relationships. The book is an ideal starting point for anyone undertaking the study...

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