The impact of language contact on the Quechua varieties of Northern Peru

Studies of language contact in the Central Andes of Peru and Bolivia have focused strongly on the present-day contact situation between Quechua and Spanish, and the intricate and multilayered contact relationship between the Quechua and Aymara lineages. There are fewer studies of the influence of Quechua on minor non-Quechua languages of the Andes, and still fewer studies which, conversely, explore the influence of non-Quechua languages on Quechua. Focusing on the lexicon, this article explores the impact of the complex linguistic ecology of Northern Peru on the five Quechua varieties of that region—Lambayeque, Cajamarca, Chachapoyas, San Martín and Ancash Quechua. The study identifies lexical items that lack clear Quechua etymologies in the relevant varieties and carries out external comparisons of these items with the vocabulary of the non-Quechua languages of Northern Peru to identify possible sources. Results show that borrowing is mostly localized: that is, whereas influence from Amazonian lowland languages is almost exclusively found in the eastern varieties of Chachapoyas and San Martín, highland Quechua varieties have typically borrowed from neighboring highland languages.