These pages are the first steps of our more ambitious project such is an
Aymara Grammar with a high degree of completeness and connectnes. Presently,
the content of this short introduction is an eclectic result of some items
of our bibliography. Our goal, a priori, is to
show only very elementar cases because we think that the nothing is the worse.
We wont make detailed discussions on the different actions of each sufix over the roots,
only we will mention the most usuals. Also, we wont say anything about the verbal variations
in space, time, mode, etc. Thus, the present grammar must be considered as a very
superficial. However, we hope that the interested visitor of this introduction will
get a rudimentary skill on Aymara communication.
The primary characteristic of the Aymara system is its agglutinating property of
its roots and suffixes. Sometimes such aggluination can be merely a
juxtaposition of the compounds(roots, suffixes), but mostly the agglutination need to
modify the components before the final form according to rules that we will show
little by little. There are between 150 and 200 suffixes and most of them are invariants since
they were studied by Ludovico Bertonio in the XVII century. The Aymara roots are
the nouns, the verbs and the adjectives. As a first example of the agglutination (juxtaposition)
consider the noun root Achachila (=Old man) and the suffixes jama (=seem),
taki (=for), puni (=always), wa (=affirmative).
Then we obtain the word
Achachiljamatakipuniwa= It seems that, in any way, is for the Old man.
This introduction is arranged as follows:
Introduction.- The actual page, where also is presented the four person system,
which is other notorius characteristic of the Aymara language.
Aymara Alphabet.- In this page it is presented the official Aymara alphabet
called único. This is a phonemic alphabet, that is, there are a one-to-one relation
between the considered phonemes and the letters of the alphabet. Also are presented earlier
alphabets a table of equivalences.
Notable Themes.- Vocabulary with Aymara words grouped by notorious themes
like numbers and greetings.
Interactive Dictionary Lexical list with more than 800 entries which can be
consulted in an interactive way by themes, also it can be made a choice among anyone
of the following 4 directions Aymara-->English, English-->Aymara and its respective
reciprocals.
The four person system of Aymara
Singular
Naya
I
Juma
You
Jiwasa
You and I
Jupa
He/She
Plural
Nayanaka
We(interlocutor excluded)
Jumanaka
You
Jiwasanaka
We(interlocutor included)
Jupanaka
They
Examples:
Singular
Nayax awatiritwa
I am shepherd
Jumax awatiritawa
You are shepherd
Jiwasax awatiritanwa
You and I are shepherds
Jupax awatiriwa
He/She is shepherd
Plural
Nayanakax awatiripxtawa
We (excluded the interlocutor) are shepherds
Jumanakax awatiripxtawa
You are shepherds
Jiwasanakax awatiripxtanwa
We are shepherds(the interlocutor is also shepherd)