Learning Valluno…or, learning the aspirated ch, k, t and glottal k/c

I’m happy to report that I now know Quechua words that have mostly lost their original meaning, and picked up a new meaning in the valles cruceños. It probably even varies from pueblo to pueblo…but here’s a sampling of some words I’ve been attempting to pronounce. I mostly love these words because many don’t have a direct equivalent in Castellano (Spanish, as the Bolivians call it, though it’s nothing like Castillian Spanish) or English.

Kjala (kj is a breathy k sound…aspirated k, kind of like kHH) – naked!

Patakjala – barefoot (pata=animal feet, but sort of also means human feet, and in this context definitely does)

Ch’uto (that’s a ch with a glottal stop…I can’t do it but I try and it makes the kids laugh, maybe so much that it hurts my feelings) – animal without a tail, or someone with their pants down!

Tjanta (aspirated t) – holey or ripped/torn/tattered; in Quechua this actually means bread

Kjaspau – burnt on the outside and still raw on the inside…you don’t want kjaspau bread

Kjarka – stuck to the pot

C’uchi (glottal stop c…watch out, sounds like a dirty word in modern American vernacular) – pig; also called cerdo, chancho and other names in Spanish and Valluno

Kjasa – missing teeth, missing a piece

Puchiu – food that has saliva on it, someone else has eaten it or something

Ch’anko – broken

Chiche – dirty (like your feet when you’re running around the garden all patakhala)

Pucha (pronounced POOOOcha) -- for a long time I thought this was a bad word, but it’s just kind of an interjection, like che and pues (that’s prounounced pueh here, thankyouverymuch). For example, your food is kjaspau, you might say PUUUUCHA CHE! Yo voy quemando mi comida pueh. Which translates to…ooooh man I’m burning my food, then. Yeah…this use of the verb “to go” plus the gerund will not get you an “A” in 7^th grade Spanish, but it helps your cultural integration.

….and MANY more words, especially for animals and bugs that I’ve never heard of or seen before (i.e. tatu = an animal with a cape that digs really fast)

As someone with great interest in linguistics, I’m having lots of fun with this. However, I mostly just like understanding when people say these words…the glottal stops and super-aspirated consonants are tough. I also have the advantage of living with kids who were born and raised for some of their lives outside of this town, so they bring new accents and have a different range of words they use. The oldest one is from way up in the Yungas mountains, and he says EVERYTHING with glottal stops and aspirations and uses a lot more valluno words than the others. I’ve started a dictionary, which is really fun for me and the kids, even though they laugh AT me a little too much sometimes. Sometimes I think they’re making stuff up or telling me bad words, just to see if I’ll say them, so I’m careful to double check with the grown-ups.