USAGE: Betreft: USAGE: Outstanding Features - Andean Family

>>> "Alex C." <lista2@...> 11/16 6:39  >>>
>I'm planning to begin a conlang based in languages belonging to the
>Andean family but I wonder if I'd have enough "material" to achieve an
>artistic, beatiful language myself.
>
>Could somebody tell me what are (in his/her opinion) the most
>outstanding features that make the languages in this family worthy of
>notice? General features would be the best but those ones related to
>particular languages in this family will be welcomed also. I'm mainly
>interested in highland languages, not those in the rain forests like
>Zaparo or Urarina. You can send features you find outstanding due to
>their simplicity or their complexity, their beauty, their wit, their
>rarity, their innovative solution of the problem, or whatever else you
>can imagine.
Well, IMHO the following are features that are shared by
Quechua, Aymara, Jaqe and Aru:

Use of suffixes, hardly any prefixes

Regular: the only irregular verb form I know of is Haku "Lets go"

Use of data source: the speaker must tell where he got his info from:
Quechua:
-mi  speaker is sure
-si  it is possible
-chi  it is probable

Swith referent
When different third persons are used, switch referent is used:
ripu-spa-n miku-n  when he walks, he eats (same person)
ripu-pti-n miku-n when he walks, he eats (different persons)

Both Aymara and Quechau distinguish between first person inclusive/
exclusive

Both Aymara and (Cuczo and Bolivian) Quechua use ejective stops.
Quechua has clearly borrowed it from Aymara (it is thought that the
features mentioned above are of Aymara origin too).

I hope this is something that helps you