Quechua Tshirts

About Quechua 

Quechua, also known as Quichua or Kichwa, is one of the most widely spoken languages in South America, which originates from Proto-Quechua. According to contemporary linguistic research, Quechua is divided into two main linguistic branches called Central Quechua (QI) and Southern and Northern (QII), each of which consists of several dialects. Like many minority languages, Quechua exists in a multiglossic situation in which the high language is so powerful that it is essentially forcing the low language slowly into extinction. In this case, Spanish is the prestige language, while Quechua and other indigenous languages in Latin America are, generally speaking, the devalued languages. However, one significant difference that Quechua has from other endangered languages is that it currently boasts an estimated eight to twelve million speakers scattered across six South American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. However, it is considered an endangered language due to its polydialectal nature. 

Quechua is still widely spoken across a significant portion of the Andean countries and even in transnational and geopolitical contexts, despite a very long history of repression, oppression, and even outright attempts at linguicide, ethnocide, and cultural erasure. There is reason to feel optimistic that there is a future for the Quechua language, at least for the most vital Quechua varieties. However, its future is not something that can be left to chance; without deliberate intervention and planning to counteract the long history of attempts to wipe it out it could go the way of many other indigenous languages, which are still fighting for survival, but against very high odds, and many think it is already a losing battle for them.