Aruskipasipxañanakasakipunirakispawa

This Aymara word can be roughly glossed as follows:
"It is my personal knowledge that it is necessary for all of us, including you, to make the effort to communicate."

Welcome to my web site.

Dr. M.J. Hardman
Jaqaru Kawki

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Current Courses

Course Summaries

Sounds of Human Language

The Jaqi Languages

Jaqaru is spoken by a few thousand people in and around Tupe, Yauyos, Lima, Peru and by large numbers in the cities of Lima, Huancayo, Chincha, and Ca&#241ete.

Kawki is spoken only by a very few people in and around Cachuy, Yauyos, Lima, Peru and is clearly a dying language.

Aymara is the first language of one third of the population of Bolivia and is the major native language in Southern Per and Northern Chile. Altogether it is estimated that there are around three and a half million speakers of this language. At least two newspapers are published sporadically in Aymara, there are today a number of other publications that carry Aymara poetry as well as other literary writings, as well as history, politics, opinions, and useful informative material. A number of Aymara teachers also write texts for bilingual education and for literacy in Aymara. Most of these are published by the Aymara people themselves. Although it might be that proportionally to the population of the countries involved, the percentage of the population speaking Aymara could be less than in earlier years, the absolute number of speakers appears to be increasing.

The Jaqi people are primarily farmers, weavers, musicians, dancers, herders. The Jaqi women are also marketers. The Jaqi civilization (400 - 1000 C.E.) established both a complex system of irrigation by canals and a complex system of mercantile exchange, involving the construction of an extensive road system and market circuit travels. Some of the market relationships still function today; the road system is clearly visible in ruins where it has not been built over by modern roads.

One cultural invention was the archipelago land holding system where an individual would attempt to hold a plot of land, however small, at as many different ecological niches as possible. The land is steep so that very different crops can be cultivated not far apart by going up or down the mountain. This allows people to have diversity in what they produce and also provides insurance against weather and pests. A serious point of tension today is that the European viewpoint wants people to have one and only one farm plot, that is, all the land one owns together, but Andean people see this as dangerous. The archipelago system is still the active desired system of land holding.

School has always been attractive to Jaqi people and there are today many professionals, teachers, doctors, veterinarians, engineers. The city has become one more ecological niche within the archipelago land holding system of the Jaqi.

The languages are fascinating and provide many contrastive examples to the structure of Indo-European languages. For this reason learning about these languages is instructive even in introductory courses.

For a Sane Solution On the Current Disaster 22 September 2001