«Language Conquest»: Colonial Quechua Grammars as a Model of Cultural and Linguistic Acculturation

Abstract

The article is devoted to the role and place of Quechua in colonial Peru, which is the most widely spoken native language in both American continents. A comparative analysis of a number of grammars and dictionaries (including records) written in the 16th‑17th centuries by the representatives of the clergy has become the basic method for recent scientific investigation. Those were the representatives of the clergy who took the most active part in the process of «language conquest» which led to Quechua integration into the intellectual field of Spanish culture and then consequently into the European one. The paper also presents the analysis of the current state of the issue study, which concludes that many points of the problem have not found the proper coverage in science yet. The sources are analyzed on the following points: the attitude of the authors of grammars to the Quechua language; the main goals of writing grammars; their structure and content’s peculiarities; the main cultural and linguistic categories used to describe and analyze the Quechua language in the period under review. The analysis made it possible to come to the following conclusions. Firstly, the attitude of the clergy towards Quechua can be described as ambivalent. Secondly, the main goals of writing can be interpreted as a practical one (mastering the language in order to Christianize the Indians more effectively) and as well as an ideological one (integrating Quechua into the Christian cultural field through its study), although both of them, of course, are interrelated. Thirdly, the analysis allowed us to distinguish the following cultural and linguistic categories that were applied to Quechua: eurocentrism, theoretical and religious orientation. Finally, the main conclusion drawn from the study is that the relationship existed between Spanish and Quechua can be characterized by the term «acculturation»