Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua

The Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua (Spanish; English: "Highest Academy of the Quechua Language", Quechua: "Qheswa simi hamut'ana kuraq suntur") AMLQ in Cusco is a private institution, founded in 1990, concerned with the 'purity' of the Quechua language.

The AMLQ takes the point of view that there is only one single Quechua language and that the present Quechua of the city of Cusco (no intermediate form like Southern Quechua) with all its regional peculiarities should be the official standard for all Quechua. It uses the term "Inca Quechua" ("Quechua Inka" or "Inka Qheswa") meaning present Cusco Quechua. The AMLQ vehemently promotes the old Quechua alphabet established by the Peruvian government in 1975, which corresponds mostly to the present alphabet fixed in 1985, but by contrast contains the five vowels a, e, i, o, u.

The AMLQ refers to a law (No 25260) passed by the Peruvian congress on June 6, 1990, establishing a Quechua language academy in the city of Cusco. On the other hand, it gets almost no money at all from the State, and because its opinions on orthography are counter to those of the Peruvian Education Ministry and almost all linguists and professionals working in Quechua education, the Academy has had little real involvement in this.

For a number of reasons, the AMLQ has generally hostile and very poor relationships with most linguists working on Quechua, who have often heavily criticised its approach.

External links

* [http://hablaquechua.blogspot.com/ Noemí Vizcardo Rozas: hablaquechua] (member of AMLQ)
* [http://usuarios.arnet.com.ar/yanasu/tmarr.htm A critical analysis by a sociolinguist] of the motivation behind the AMLQ's positions, and whether they are helpful to Quechua, or counterproductive.
* [http://www.quechua.org.uk/Eng/Main/i_LEARN.HTM#Academy Another linguist's experiences] , both positive and negative, of working with the AMLQ.