Quechua loanwords in Bolivian Spanish

Erklärung

Quechua, dominant in the Cochabamba valleys and the southern highlands, saturates everyday Bolivian Spanish: wawa (baby), api (purple-corn drink), ch'uño (freeze-dried potato), opa (silly), imilla (girl), q'encha (jinxed/unlucky). Many take Spanish endings and diminutives.

Cochabamba Spanish is especially Quechua-tinged, with affectionate -itu/-ita endings and interjections like 'ari' (yes) slipping in. Recognizing a couple dozen loanwords is essential to following casual conversation in the valleys.

Quechua leaves structural traces too, not just words: the affectionate suffix -y or -itu on names, the interjections ari (yes) and ucha (oops/dismay), and the calqued double possessive su casa de mi tía ('my aunt's house'). Many of these loanwords are pan-Andean, shared with Peruvian and Ecuadorian highland Spanish.

Beispiele

Verwandte Regeln

• Aymara influence in highland Spanish
• Everyday Bolivian words: chango, yapa, jailón