Are Cuzco-Quechua Vowels Problematic? A Preliminary Account
Carlos Molina-Vital
Rice University
There is basic agreement on the set of vowels present in Proto-Quechua, /i, a, u/, and on
the fact that it is the dominant pattern for all Quechua varieties, while the presence of [e,
o] is merely an allophonic phenomenon in the context of the uvular stop /q/. However,
some voices have claimed that Cuzco-Quechua (CQ) has developed phonemic /e, o/. The
main argument in favor of the existence of only three phonemic vowels is based on
classic Structuralist distributional analysis of vowels, and, when examined under those
assumptions, the arguments advanced in favor of the phonemic status of /e, o/ are very
weak or dubious. Consequently, the "three vowels" position dismisses (sometimes with
good reasons) the "five vowels" position as "non-scientific", and considers that, without
taking into consideration the influence of Spanish, the Quechua system is already fixed.
In this presentation, I want to discuss the possibility of reconsidering the nature of the
mid vowels /e, o/. My suggestion is that CQ has developed a different status for the mid
vowels [e] and [o]: they are not just coarticulatory derived from the presence of a uvular
stop, but they might be important perceptual cues in the recognition of /q/, in contrast
with the velar stop. The main reason to believe this is the existence of regressive vowel
harmony, triggered by the presence of uvular vowels. This is seen in words such as
/us'quʎu/ ("bob cat"), pronounced [os'qoʎo], which suggests more than just a
coarticulatory vowel lowering. This perspective, in which the allophones [e] and [o] are
closer to distinctive elements in the CQ phonological system, needs to be taken into
account when dealing with the extended contact situation between CQ and Spanish. In
this preliminary analysis, I will provide acoustic data from five speakers, ranging from
near-monolingual CQ, CQ-Spanish, and Spanish-CQ bilinguals in order to compare the
production of mid vowels. By way of conclusion, I will advance the idea that CQ has mid
vowels as "marginal phonemes" or, perhaps "quasi-phonemic" units, whose use has been
reinforced due to the contact situation between that language and Spanish.