Agenda

This work offers a comprehensive organization of linguistic data from a heretofore undocumented variety of this language, Muylaq’ Aymara, demonstrating that the amount of variation within this language runs deeper than previously believed. This Aymara variant is spoken in the village of Muylaque, located on the Peruvian altiplano in the district of San Cristobal de Calacoa in Mariscal Nieto province, Moquegua. The decreasing number of speakers not only of this singular variant, but of the similar ones spoken in the nearby villages, gives the work a degree of urgency. The abrupt end to the ideal conditions which preserved the language hastens its demise.

Over a period of three years, data was gathered in the field with a Zoom H2 digital recorder. The method for accumulating the speech varied, but overall focused on recording narratives, myths, and legends. This was performed so as to maximize high-quality, natural data from the oldest speakers in the community. Recorded material was transcribed, glossed, and translated in a laborious process carried out jointly with the speakers themselves whenever possible to ensure the greatest accuracy possible. Once divided into interlinear glosses, the data was categorized by morpheme type and structure and then stored in a cross-referenced searchable database. Upon reaching an appropriate size, the linguistic data was then organized into the present description.

Although the overwhelming majority of the linguistic data was recorded in situ, overall extended periods of these recordings were unsuitable for phonetic analysis owing to the high level of background and ambient noise. In May 2010, the chief linguistic consultant was flown up from Peru to France where, together with a team of experts, recordings were made to document a variety of phonetic and phonological observations.

In providing this grammatical description it is hoped that a greater understanding of the Aymara variants will shed light on the structure of this complex language and Aymara as a whole.