The campesino name for Quechua, the language of the direct descendents of the Inca in Andean countries (Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia). In Ecuador, the language is called Runashimi. Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia have the highest amount of diversion in the dialects of Quechua. The name "runasimi" comes from "runa"=people and "simi"=language (or tongue), literally "language of the people". Runasimi is an agglutinative language, functioning somewhat like Turkic languages, and is a very beautiful, melodious language, well suited to music and poetry.
by pentozali October 15, 2007