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We are asking for the help of linguists in our project. The creation of a spell checker is a big linguistic challenge that requires a lot of expert knowledge which we lack. Currently, we are trying to create a list of all the combinations of infixes and suffixes in Quechua and program them in Hunspell. Because nobody has ever created a complete list of the posible morphologry in Quechua, we are asking of the help of linguists in this task.
¿Which infixes can be combined in verbs and what is the order of the infixes? Currently we have this preliminary list:
# Note: All the text which follows a "#" is a comment.
# + signifies that you are adding onto infix onto another. For example, "cha +naku" in "wasi-cha-naku-y"
# % signifies that you are replacing the original infix when adding another.
# For example, "ku %kamu" in "apa-ku-y" => "apa-ka-mu-y"
#
cha
+kuchi +kuri +kamu +kapu +kuyku
+chi +chikamu +chikapu +kurichi
+kanpu +rikapu +rikamu +naku
+ku +ri +lla +mu +pu +npu +ysi +kuysi
# What is the priority of cha?
chi
+ku +ri +lla +mu +pu +yku +ysi +na
+kamu +kapu +npu +kanpu
+kuri +kulla +kuyku +kuysi
+kanpu +rikapu +rikamu +naku
hata
ku
+lla
%kamu %kapu %kanpu
%kamulla %kapulla %kanpulla
lla
+mu +ku +chi +ri +richi +lli
lli
+chi +ku +lla +mu +pu +yku +ysi +chimu +chiku +chipu
+kamu +kapu +npu +kanpu +ykuku +kuchi
+kulla +kamu +kapu +kuyku +kuysi
+chiku +chilla +chimu +chipu +chikamu +chikapu +chikanpu
+ykuchi +ykuchiku +ysichi
# +ri +richi +naku +riku +ripu +rimu ?
# +kurichi +rikapu +rikamu?
# +naku +naya ?
mu
+lla +ysi %npu %npulla
nachi
naku
+lla %nakamu %nakapu %naykuku %nakanpu
%nakamulla %nakapulla %naykukulla %nakanpulla
# %nachiku %nachipu %nachimu ?
# +ysi +ri +richi +riku +ripu +rimu ?
naya
nayku
+chi +ku %naykakapu %naykakamu %naykakanpu
# ¿puede tener -nayku solo?
pa
paya
qa
+yku +ikacha +ysi +chi +ku +mu +pu +naya +lla
+ra +rqari +rqaya +rqo +ri +rpaya
+npu +kamu +kapu +kanpu
+ikamu +ikanpu +ikakamu +ikakapu +ikakanpu
+rqamu +rqamu +rqanpu +rqakapu +rqakamu
raku
%rachiku +ri +lla %rakamu %rakapu %rayku %raysiku
%rachikamu %rachikapu %rarichiku
%rakanpu %ranaku %rarikanpu %rarikapu %rarikamu
# rapu ?
ra
raya
# Separate infix or a combination of "ra + ya"?
ri
+chi +ku +lla +mu +pu +yku +ysi +chimu +chiku +chipu
+kamu +kapu +npu +riku +kanpu +ykuku +naku +naya
rpa
rpari
+chi +ku +lla +mu +pu +yku +ra +rayku +chimu +chiku +chipu +muyku +pa
+kamu +kapu +npu +kanpu
+ysi +ysimu +ri +richi ?
# +ykuku +naku +riku +ripu +rimu ?
rpaya
# ¿Is part of -rqo or a separate infix?
rqo
%rqaku %rqapu %rqamu %rqanpu %rqakapu %rqakamu %rqakanpu
%rqacha %rqaya
tata
ya
+chi +ku +ri +lla +mu +pu +yku
# +ysi +naku ?
+chimu +chiku +chipu +richi +chinpu
+kamu +kapu +npu +kanpu +ykuku +riku +ripu +rimu
+chiku +chiri +chilla +chimu +chipu +chiyku
# +chiysi +chinaku ?
+chikamu +chikapu +chinpu +chikanpu ykuchiku +richiku
+richipu +richimu
ycha
yku
+chi +ku +ri +lla +ysi +chiku +naku
%ykamu %ykapu %ykacha
%ykakamu %ykakapu %ykanpu %ykakanpu
# +richi +riku +ripu +rimu +rinpu +rikamu +rikapu +rikanpu ?
+chiku +chilla +chimu +chipu +ysichi +chikamu +chikapu
+chinpu +chikanpu
# +richi +richiku +richipu +richimu +richinpu chinaku ?
ysi
+ku +ri +lla +naku +chi
+chiku +chilla +chimu +chipu +ysichi +chikamu +chikapu
+chinpu +chikanpu
# +riku +ripu +rimu +rinpu +rikamu +rikapu +rikanpu ?
# +richi +richiku +richipu +richimu +richinpu +richinaku ?
As you can see, we need a lot of expert help in this task. We don't have any idea which infixes can combine with which infixes and what is the correct order of the combinations in many cases. Sometimes the order of infixes is variable. For example, -lla can appear in many positions, but with other infixes, the order is more fixed. If there is a free order, we have to program every possible combination.
After creating a complete list of verbal infixes, we have to indicate which infixes can be used with each verb. For example:
# The symbol "&" indicates an infix
añay
&ku &ycha # ¿Any more?
apay
&chi &ku &ri &lla &mu &pu &yku &ysi
arpay
&chi &ku &lla &mu &pu &ysi
If we know the correct order of the infixes, we can write a program to generate the combinations of verbal infixes. For example:
apa-chi-mu-y, apa-chi-pu-y, apa-chi-npu-y, apa-ri-ku-y, apa-ka-mu-y, ...etc.
For the list of words, we are copying the Diccionario Quechua-Español-Quechua: Qheswa-Español-Qheswa: Simi Taqe by the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua (AMLQ), published by the Municipality of Cusco in 1995 and 2005 and the Diccionario Quechua-Español, Runa Simi-Español (2003) by Abdón Yaranga Valderrama, published by la Biblioteca Nacional de Perú. We are going to create a spell-checker for Cusco-Collao and one for Ayacucho, but we would like to create spell-checkers for other dialects as well. Because our project is voluntary, it all depends on the volunteers who join our group. If you would like to see a spell-checker for your dialect, get involved and get to work on it.
Unfortunately, the community of Quechua linguists is not very united. We hope that all linguists will be able to cooperate in our project, but we can not satisfy all the demands of the linguists. We are copying dictionaries that use 5 vowels because they are the most complete dictionaries for their respective dialects. In addition, it is easy to convert the spell-checker from 5 to 3 vowels, but very dificult to convert the spell-checker from 3 to 5 vowels. In Apurimac, some linguists use aspirated and glottalized/plosive consonents, while others don't. It is easy to convert from aspirated and glottalized/plosive consonents to normal consonents, but the reverse is extremely dificult. For these technical reasons, we are going to start with 5 vowels and aspirated and glottalized/plosive consonents, because we think that we will be able to accomodate more users in that fashion. Afterwards, we can create a version in 3 vowels and a version without aspirated and glottalized/plosive consonents.
The truth is that there are good arguments on both sides of the debate over the number of vowels, and we are in no position to resolve this debate. There are other orthografic disputes, but we don't have time to create versions for every alphabet. If you want to see the spell-checker in another alphabet, feel free to modify what we have done. Everyone has the right to change what we have created because it is free software (Open Source).* In contrast, nobody as the right to change Microsoft's software in Quechua because it is proprietary software.
*We prefer to use the term "free software", because it better represents the goals and ideals of our project. The word "free" is used in the sense of "free speech", not "free beer", but for commercial reasons some disliked associating their software with the word "free". The term "Open Source" was created in 1998 by a group who wanted to woo the business community (and distance the movement from the Free Software Foundation). While there are many good business and technical reasons to use this type of software, our project is more focused on the ethnical and social implications of software, so we use the term "free software". If you want to use nuetral terminology to refer to the software, we advise using the term "FLOSS" (Free/Livre/Open Source Software).
Last Updated: Tue, 16 Aug 2011