Phonology of San Martin Quechua
Abstract
While the present work is far from being a definitive one,
it does aim at providing a fairly complete phonology of San
Martin Quechua. The author has tried to give a satisfactory account
of the descriptive problems and their possible solutions for the
dialect. The theoretical principles used to solve the problems
are explained, the notions of the theory are defined, and their
application to the data is outlined in every case, and explained
in some detail in many cases as well.
This work is unusual among works on Quechua as regards the
space it devotes to explaining and solving problems in the description.
Existing descriptions of Quechua may be characterised as
supposedly problem-less descriptions. The present work treats
Phonology, not as a subsidiary to grammar but as a universe in
its own right, with its own problems and solutions. The European
background of the work, and the 'axiomatic' approach of Mulder,
have undoubtedly contributed in, great measure to the nature of this
description, and to what some might call its 'preoccupation' with
problems. Without wishing to tag derogatory labels on Bloomfieldian
linguistics (enough writers have done so already). I have written
the present work as a possible answer to what I believe to be an
inadmissable ‘gap’ in Quechua linguistic description as it stands
the lack of a rigorous autonomous phonology, which attempts to
recognise, state and solve descriptive problems. It is to be hoped
that the present work provides a beginning for a fully-fledged
discipline of Quechua phonology. [Taken from the forward not from the abstract].
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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