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We are forming a project to put software and everything related to the use of computers in Quechua (Runasimi). We would like to invite all who have interest in this great challenge to participate in our project. Our dream is that any Andean child who goes to a cyber-cafe in the future will have the option to see everything in his native language.

Now-a-days many think that Rumasimi is only the tongue of the grandparents and can only be used with things of the past. Many children in the cities are ashamed to speak Quechua with their friends. They say that Quechua does work with "cool" things, especially the things of modernity and technology. However, we declare that Runasimi is a rich language that can be utilized in all contexts, including in technology. Runasimi represents not only a tremendous cultural and linguistic reserve, but is also a living language necessary for the Andean future. We want everyone to value Runasimi not only as the language “of the Inkas”, but also as the language of today which is very adaptable with rich expression.

For this reason we are seeking volunteers who would like to help us create software in Quechua. A small group in the Universidad Nacional de Micaela Bastidas de Apurimac (UNAMBA) is already discussing how we can achieve the goal of creating software in Runasimi. Among others, Daniel Yucra Sotomayor (somoslibres.org), Manuel Ibarra, and Hugo Calderon, professors of computer science, Apolinario Saldivar Bolivar, professor of linguistics, and Amos Batto of Ciber-runa, we are creating plans in order to advance this project, but we want the full participation of the entire community of Quechua-speakers. We are asking for the collaboration of everyone who have the desire to promote Runasimi as a modern and multi-functional language.

Right now we have 3 short-term plans:

1. Translate AbiWord, a word processor, into the Runasimi of Apurimac (Apurimaq).

More than 2 years ago, AbiWord was translated into the runasimi of Sucre, Bolivia. Looking to that translation as model of what is possible, we would like to create a version of AbiWord which will be useful for Quechua speakers of Apurimac. AbiWord has 1541 phrases to translate the interface, but in order to translate many of these phrases, we need to achieve our second goal.

2. Create a Quechua dictionary of computer terminology.

Right now no one is sure how to translate words of the computer like "monitor" and "file". We are working to create a web site where we will be able discuss how to translate computer words. We would like to offer the community the opportunity to add its opinions and suggestions in order to reach a consensus in the translation. Or at the very least, we would like to create a space where Quechua-speakers can register words more appropriate for their different linguistic regions and variations of Runasimi.

3. Create a Hunspell spell-checking dictionary for Quechua.

Because the majority of Quechua speakers are only trained to read and write in Spanish, it is important that they have the tools to help them write in the Quechua alphabet. We are going to start copying the words found in the Diccionario Quechua-Español, Qheswa-Español Simi Taqe of the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua published by the Municipality of Cusco in 1995. After adding our changes, we are going to create a Quechua affix file and put it Hunspell format which is used by OpenOffice, Mozilla, and AbiWord.

We hope that these three goals will plant the seeds to launch many other initiatives with other software and in other regions. We are discussing how to create many regional version of Quechua software and how we can start translating larger programs like OpenOffice and GNOME. In order to achieve these larger objectives, the collaboration of everyone is necessary to share the work load. A program like OpenOffice contains 22,000 phrases to translate and GNOME is even larger.

Just as important as these technical tasks is the work of supporting the promotion and publicity for Quechua software. We are discussing how to transmit the fruit of our labor to the schools and cyber-cafes and how to raise awareness among people about using Quechua in the context of computers.

Because we are trying to not only spread the software tools, but also enable the people to be co-creators, we thing that is important that everything be done in free software (open source software) in a collaborative and community mode. Contrary to the translation of Microsoft Office being promoted by the Peruvian state, we don't want to create any type of unequal relation with the exterior, nor any type of intellectual property to marginalize and control Quechua speakers. Runasimi is part of all of us! It is not property to commercialize transnational products and tie us to neoliberal markets.

We invite your participation. Go to http://mail.somoslibres.org/mailman/listinfo/quechua_somoslibres.org to subscribe to the discussion list at quechua AT somoslibres.org

Last Updated: Fri, 17 Oct 2008