Southern Quechua

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Southern Quechua" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Southern Quechua
Quechua II-C
Qhichwa
Pronunciation	Quechua pronunciation: [qʰɛtʃwa]
Native to	Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina
Region	Countries of the Andean highlands of South America, minorities in neighboring countries and some parts of Asia and Europe
Ethnicity	In the Andes: Quechua · Diaguita · Qulla In Santiago: Lule · Vilela · Tonocotés · Spaniards
Native speakers	(5 million cited 1987–2014)[1]
Language family	Quechuan Quechua II Quechua IIC Southern Quechua
Early form	Classical Quechua
Dialects	Ayacucho Cusco Puno (Collao) North Bolivian South Bolivian     Santiagueño
Writing system	Latin script (Quechua alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	List of countries where Southern Quechua is an official language  Bolivia[2]  Peru List of countries where Southern Quechua is a regional language  Argentina[3] List of countries where Southern Quechua is a minority native language  Chile
Regulated by	none
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: qwc – Classical Quechua quy – Ayacucho Quechua qxu – Arequipa-La Unión Quechua quz – Cusco Quechua qve – Eastern Apurímac Quechua qxp – Puno Quechua (Collao) qul – North Bolivian Quechua (Apolo) quh – South Bolivian Quechua qus – Santiagueño Quechua
Glottolog	quec1389
ELP	Catamarca and La Rioja Quechua (extinct variety in Argentina)
Linguasphere	84-FAA-h
Majority of Southern Quechua speakers   Minority of Southern Quechua speakers

Southern Quechua (Quechua: Urin qichwa, Spanish: quechua sureño), or simply Quechua (Qichwa or Qhichwa), is the most widely spoken of the major regional groupings of mutually intelligible dialects within the Quechua language family, with about 6.9 million speakers.^{[citation needed]} Besides Guaraní it is the only indigenous language of America with more than 5 million speakers. The term Southern Quechua refers to the Quechuan varieties spoken in regions of the Andes south of a line roughly east–west between the cities of Huancayo and Huancavelica in central Peru. It includes the Quechua varieties spoken in the regions of Ayacucho, Cusco and Puno in Peru, in much of Bolivia and parts of north-west Argentina. The most widely spoken varieties are Cusco, Ayacucho, Puno (Collao), and South Bolivian.

In the traditional classification of the Quechua language family by Alfredo Torero, Southern Quechua is equivalent to Torero's 'Quechua IIc' (or just 'QIIc'). It thus stands in contrast to its many sister varieties within the wider Quechuan family that are spoken in areas north of the Huancayo–Huancavelica line: Central Quechua (Torero's QI) spoken from Huancayo northwards to the Ancash Region; North Peruvian Quechua around Cajamarca and Incahuasi (Torero's IIa); and Kichwa (part of Torero's Quechua IIb).