Quechua — or more precisely southern Quechua, the main language in the Quechua linguistic family — was one of 24 languages that Google added to its translation service in May. Collectively, they are spoken by some 300 million people.
Quechua emerged among farmers and pastoralists in the central Andes of Peru more than 1,500 years ago. By the fifth century, it had expanded into two main groups, with even more variants, and by the 15th century, the Incas adopted one of them as the lingua franca of their vast empire, stretching from Colombia to Argentina.
Caswell likened the learning process to a polyglot being locked up in a room with nothing but a stack of books in a new language; if given enough time, the polyglot could figure it out. “Google is really joining this existing ecosystem of digital efforts of making sure that the language is there,” said Mendoza-Mori, the Harvard scholar.
But she found a group of native Quechua speakers who not only liked to speak Quechua, but liked to speak it loudly, as she did. Together, they made a digital magazine in Quechua focused on cultural identity, with 11 editions so far, and now she is working on a series of TikTok videos to promote more Quechua discussion on social media.After the Spanish conquest of the Incan Empire in 1532, Quechua came to be seen as a sign of backwardness or a source of suspicion by the new ruling class.
As Quechua speakers migrated from the Andean highlands to cities — some seeking opportunity, others uprooted by conflict — the language was not passed on to new generations.90s, bloody battles between leftist insurgents and state security forces decimated Quechua-speaking villages, leaving behind so many tortured bodies and mass graves that the families of “the disappeared” are still collecting their remains today.
Even as Quechua speakers celebrated its inclusion on Google Translate, a law professor at a prominent university in Lima made headlines for asking why it was still spoken, praising French, German and Italian as languages of culture and science.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Google Quietly Introduces Powerful New Google Photos Upgrade — Rolling Out NowSome Google Photos users are seeing a new interface offering much-improved sharing capabilities
Read more »
Google and Yelp disable reviews on some crisis pregnancy center pages amid activist 'spam' campaignActivists at Gen-Z for Change noticed they could not leave reviews after launching a campaign to flood the pages of crisis pregnancy centers.
Read more »
Google Reportedly Offered to Spin Off Ad Business Into New Alphabet Segment to Ward Off LawsuitGoogle offered to split parts of its ad business into a separate company under its parent Alphabet, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Read more »
Google reportedly offers to shuffle ads business to avoid Justice Department lawsuitPotentially a large corporate shuffle
Read more »
Republicans continue to slam Google for alleged email filter bias despite claimed effort to fixAs Google takes steps is says are aimed at helping political campaigns' emails avoid spam filters, Republicans say the company is still doing so, and isn't explaining why
Read more »
BTS fans, you have to check out this Google Search Easter eggBTS and Google team up for a collaboration that includes a Google Search Easter egg in honors of the 9th anniversary of the BTS fan ARMY.
Read more »