Quechua

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a family of closely related Indigenous languages spoken across the Andes, especially in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile

   The community radio station broadcasts daily news in Quechua.

2. 2
   noun

   a member of one of the Indigenous Andean peoples whose ancestral language is Quechua

   The Quechua described farming practices adapted to high-altitude valleys.

3. 3
   adj

   relating to Quechua languages, peoples, or cultures

   The archive preserves Quechua songs recorded in several regions of Peru.

Borrowed through Spanish quechua from Quechua qhichwa, traditionally glossed as "temperate valley" and then applied to its inhabitants and speech. Many speakers call the language Runasimi, literally "people's language."

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