Quechua

Quechua (ISO 639-3 macrolanguage code: que) is a family or continuum of related languages spoken across the Andes from southern Colombia and Ecuador through Peru and Bolivia into northern Argentina and Chile. Forms—including Ecuadorian Kichwa, central Peruvian varieties, and Southern Quechua—can differ enough to limit mutual intelligibility, so Quechua is not one uniform language and “Runa Simi” is not used everywhere. Quechuan varieties expanded before and during the Inca Empire and were later used as colonial lenguas generales, but their history is more complex than descent from a Cuzco standard. They are generally agglutinative and suffixing, favor subject–object–verb order, and often mark evidential or information-source distinctions, with details varying by branch. Latin-based orthographies and official recognition differ by country: Peru recognizes Quechua where predominant, Bolivia includes it among official Indigenous languages, and Ecuador grants Kichwa official status for intercultural relations.

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