Beyond distinctive function: Palatality conveying expressiveness in Quechua

Abstract

The phonological inventory of Quechua dialects contains at least three palatal
consonants: /č, ɲ, λ/ (orthographically represented by <ch>, <ñ> and <ll>, respectively), to which it should be added one more, /š/ (spelled as <sh>), among the Northern-Central varieties of the languages only. These segments, aside from their occurrence restriction within the syllabic structure of the language, play a highly productive distinctive role. However, beyond this basic property, they also play an expressive function no less important, that of conveying littleness, thinness, delicacy, and what is more general semantically speaking, affectivity. In the present paper, attention will be paid to this important phenomenon highly used among Quechua dialects, not only at the lexical-semantic and grammatical level, and in the formation of nicknames, but also in other registers such as child speech and as stylistic resource in the traditional oral literature.