Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

Disciplines

Latin American Languages and Societies

Abstract

Despite the linguistic policies that have attempted to displace Quechua with Spanish and western culture, the use of Quechua in Ecuador has not been extinguished –especially among indigenous communities. Moreover, Quechua today is recognized as one of the languages of a multicultural society and the Spanish that is spoken in this country contains substrates that attest the deep-seatedness of Quechua. This paper consequently explores the presence of Quechua words in phraseological units in Ecuadorean Spanish as evidence of the indigenous substrate. Although Ecuadorean Quechua does no enjoy the same prestige that Spanish relishes, the influence of the Quechua substrate serves as evidence of the importance of indigenous cultures and the reach that these have in Ecuadorean lexicon. This study also analyses the racial implications of some of these expressions.

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