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FINALLY, I have had some time to catch up on my blog writing and update this for you all. So much has happened since my last update in the beginning of October—so sorry for the extended absence! We spent the majority of October wandering around the country, wandering south to Puno and Lake Titicaca and finally ending up in Lima for over a week before returning to Cusco. Due to the fact that we probably weren't going to have reliable electricity for the majority of our travels, and to save space and weight, I left my laptop in Cusco with my homestay family. And, of course, my writing slowed down to just about nil without it…
In the week before our travels, which would eventually include a rural homestay with a Quechua-speaking family, we continued our Quechua classes and the overall seminars. Quechua is the most ridiculously weird language I've ever attempted to learn anything in. It is nothing like anything I've heard before. The biggest problems I've had with learning Quechua are pronunciation, the permanent mix of Spanish and Quechua, and how much the language varies depending on the area in which it's spoken.
Pronunciation really isn't much different from Spanish except for the sounds made by Q, LL or the changes in speech caused by an apostrophe. The Q makes a very strange throaty sound which makes me feel a little like I'm choking. The LL is a strange mix between a normal L sound and the Spanish LL or Y sound. Finally, that sneaky little apostrophe makes my life so difficult. When you see this in writing its like making a sort of click and pause before continuing the word. This is all very tough to describe in writing, but I can demonstrate when I get home if you like.
Quechua speakers seem to be constantly in a state of half-Spanish half-Quechua, which I like to call Spachua, with a little English thrown in for good measure. Basically a lot of words for items introduced to the native population by the Europeans have been kept in Spanish instead of creating a Quechua equivalent. This is just very difficult to keep up with—it's like speaking Spanglish permanently. My brain can't keep up with the constant language switching. Also, they throw in English just to keep you on your toes; the best example of which is internet.
Finally, as with any language, there are dialects distinct to different parts of the country. This is all fine and dandy if you're even remotely familiar with a language, but I don't believe that a week and a half of Quechua classes is anywhere near enough to make me familiar with the language. I would find this out all too well after learning Quechua of Cusco and being thrown into a family speaking Quechua of Colca, but that is a later story...
There will be more updates and very soon! Hopefully I can upload several tomorrow, but for now I need to find some lunch and do some research for my independent study project. Hope all is well! Paqarinkama (until tomorrow)!
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