Quechua Languages - Vocabulary

Vocabulary

A number of Quechua loanwords have entered English via Spanish, including ayahuasca, coca, cóndor, guano, jerky, llama, pampa, puma, quinine, quinoa, vicuña and possibly gaucho. The word lagniappe comes from the Quechuan word yapay ("to increase; to add") with the Spanish article la in front of it, la yapa or la ñapa in Spanish.

The influence on Latin American Spanish includes such borrowings as papa for "potato", chuchaqui for "hangover" in Ecuador, and diverse borrowings for "altitude sickness", in Bolivia from Quechuan suruqch'i to Bolivian sorojchi, in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru soroche.

Quechua has borrowed a large number of Spanish words, such as piru (from pero, but), bwenu (from bueno, good), and burru (from burro, donkey).

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Famous quotes containing the word vocabulary:

    One forgets words as one forgets names. One’s vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.
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    My vocabulary dwells deep in my mind and needs paper to wriggle out into the physical zone. Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle. I have rewritten—often several times—every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.
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    The vocabulary of pleasure depends on the imagery of pain.
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