| High Academy of the Quechua Language | |
| Native Name: | Spanish; Castilian: Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua Qheswa Simi Hamut'ana Kuraq Suntur Qhichwa Simi Hamut'ana Kuraq Suntur |
| Native Name Lang: | qu |
| Abbreviation: | AMLQ |
| Location City: | Cusco |
| Formerly: | Peruvian Academy of the Quechua Language |
The High Academy of the Quechua Language (Spanish: Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua; Quechua: Qheswa Simi Hamut'ana Kuraq Suntur/Qhichwa Simi Hamut'ana Kuraq Suntur), or AMLQ, is a Peruvian organization whose purpose is stated as the teaching, promotion, and dissemination of the Quechua language.
Although the institution has subsidiary associations in different regions of Peru and in several cities around the world, it mainly operates in the department of Cuzco. Its publications and Quechua as a second language courses also specialize in the Cuzco dialect. The institution is controversial because of its particularist linguistic ideologies and its defense of a 5-vowel alphabet. There is no consensus about whether the organization is a private or a public institution.[1]
In 1954, Faustino Espinoza Navarro[es], working with other Quechua-speaking artists, founded the Academia de la Lengua Quechua (Sp: 'Academy of the Quechua Language'). The academy argued that Qhapaq Simi (Lit. 'the great language'), translated as Cusco Quechua, "Imperial Quechua," or "Inka Quechua,"[2] was the purest form of Quechua and should be taught in Quechua language schools; they rejected the Runa Simi that was spoken in everyday life. On December 10, 1958, the government of Manuel Prado Ugarteche officially recognized the organization, under the name Academia Peruana de la Lengua Quechua (Peruvian Academy of the Quechua Language).[3]
On May 27, 1975, the government of Juan Velasco Alvarado made Quechua the official language of Peru.[4] The law establishing its official status prescribed a phonological alphabet that retained Spanish five-vowel characters. In 1983, professional Quechua and Aymara experts from all over Peru decided to implement an orthography with just three vowels, under phonemic considerations: a for /a/, i for /ɪ/, and u for /ʊ/. This decision was controversial, with factions of linguists, teachers, and activists both supporting it and opposing it.[5] The academy did not approve of the shift, and continues to use the five-vowel system.[6] Because of this, it writes Qosqo and not Qusqu for "Cusco."
In 1990, Law Number 25260 established a "high" (mayor) Quechua language academy in Cusco, as opposed to many regional Quechua Academies.[7] Although the law did not mention the name "High Academy of the Quecha Language," the law marked the beginning of the AMLQ's transition to its modern form, culminating in the creation of its guiding statutes in 2009.[8] [9] The commission to establish the statutes was not created until 2009, although it had been recognized as a decentralized organization in 2007.
The mission of the institution is, in theory, to ensure the so-called 'purity' of the Quechua language and to stimulate the development of literature in this language and linguistic study. In practice, their main activity is offering Quechua as a second language and organizing cultural events about Andean culture. As such, AMLQ is one of the major cultural organizations within Cuzco city civil society. They also organize symposia called 'Quechua World Congresses' with participants coming from different departments and countries.
The Third World Congress of Quechua, Yuyayyaku Wawakuna, was held in Salta in October 2004. At the convention, decisions included tasks of the academy and its affiliates, such as putting in place the original phonetics and phonology of Quechua phytonyms, zoonyms, anthroponyms and toponyms, coordinating with political and tourist authorities; recommending that its affiliates share publications related to the language so that the institution can archive all works as part of its heritage; and recommending that the academy should have an organizational characteristic of Andean culture. The institution sought to avoid using models of foreign academies and instead wanted to create their own organizational model.[10]
In November 2020, the Fourth World Congress of Quechua, called "Pachakutip K'anchaynin" ("New times of prosperity and change are shining on us") was held in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
AMLQ has emerged as the main diffusor and enforcer of a series of linguistic ideologies and policies. Within the first group, there are several ideas about the special characteristics of Cuzco Quechua vis-à-vis other Quechua varieties as well as other languages. AMLQ members refer to the Cuzco variety by means of a series of glossonyms: Inka Rimay (Qu: 'language of the Inca'), Quechua Inka/ Runasimi Inka (Sp: 'Inca Quechua'), Quechua Imperial (Sp: 'Imperial Quechua'), Qhapaq simi (Qu: 'the great language'), Qhapaq Runasimi (Qu: 'the great Quechua'), Qosqo simi (Qu: 'language of Cuzco') or Misk’i Simi (Qu: 'the sweet language').[11]
They have reinforced old ideas about Quechua origins and expansion, now considered disproved by linguistic and historical evidence. For example, chairwoman Juana Rodríguez Torres affirms that it was the Cuzco variety that was diffused northward by the Inca Pachacutec and who was the main responsible for its diffussion within the Andean world.[12] David Samanez Florez from the AMLQ to this day tries to demonstrate the cusqueño origins of the Quechua language even though, according to investigations by Parker (1963) and Torero (1964), the Quechua languages originated in the Central Sierra of Peru.[13]
On top of that, AMLQ members often diffuse hierarchical and discriminatory judgements that consider the Cuzco Quechua as "better" or "more evolved" than other Quechuas. Such ideas have roots in Inca Garcilaso's conception of Cuzco as the imperial capital and Cuzco Quechua as courtier tongue. Researcher Serafín Coronel-Molina quotes Spanish interviews with AMLQ members in which they state Cuzco Quechua pretended superiority:
Ideas singularizing Quechua, or Cuzco Quechua, in relation to other world languages include a topic of Quechua as "sweet" and as better-suited for human reasoning (so that they call it lengua universal, Sp. 'universal language'):
Finally, the organization has remained the major opponent to the official phoneme-oriented 3-vowels alphabet, so that they use in texts and second language courses the pre-existing 5-vowel one. According to the AMLQ, Presidential Resolution No. 001 from the 12th of October in 1990 "ratifies the Basic Imperial Quechua Alphabet of 1975, composed of 31 graphemes: five vowels and 26 consonants from Qosqo Puno." Though both alphabets are pretty functional for the Cuzco variety, the debate has become ideologically tainted. AMLQ defends Cuzco Quechua is "essentially" pentavocálico (Sp: '5-voweled'). In that context, many AMLQ members and alumni have equated writing with three vowel letters as using a non-Cuzco variety of Quechua (usually labeled as "Chanka" or "ayacuchano").