Q601 Quechua: Inga Language and Culture (3 cr.) Professor Francisco Tandioy, member of the Inga indigenous community in southwestern Colombia, teaches this intermediate class, Inga Language and Culture. Inga is the northernmost dialect of the Quechua family, the language of the Inca Empire, currently spoken by more by more than 10 million people in the Andean republics of South America, an area extending from southern Colombia to northern Argentina and Chile and including Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.

Learning Inga, also known as Runa Simi (“the mouth or tongue of human beings”) o pens a gateway into the many wonders of indigenous cultures in the Andes. The object of this class is to introduce students to the language and culture of the Andes.
Students should obtain an intermediate ability to speak Quechua as well as insights into the indigenous world and Andean pattern of thought.

Students will work with the lessons in Ingapi Rimangapa Samuichi: Speaking the Quechua of Colombia, which will be available in the Resources bin at Oncourse for LTAM-Q601. Professor Tandioy will provide additional cultural resources including photographs, videos, and audio recordings. Also, students will be assigned background readings on the history and culture of Quechua-speaking Indians.