'Male' and 'female' in the quechua language

Authors

  • Vito Bongiorno University Gaston Berger

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54103/2282-0035/18668

Keywords:

semantics, lexicon, gender, quechua, kinship, stereotypes

Abstract

The article illustrates the main Quechua language features related to the distinction between ‘male’ and ‘female’. The first part indicates how Quechua encodes this distinction through the lexicon, focusing on kinship terms; the second part examines the nouns, adjectives and verbs indicating people, behaviours and habits considered typically feminine or masculine. Both the first part and the second are aimed at highlighting some socio-cultural factors associated with the linguistic distinction between the female and male genders.

Author Biography

Vito Bongiorno, University Gaston Berger

Vito Bongiorno, Associate professor in General Linguistics at the University Gaston Berger, Saint-Louis, Senegal. His teaching and research activity focuses on Semantics, Discourse Analysis, Latin American Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Anthropological Linguistics, History of Latin America, Quechua, Aymara. Recent scientific collaborations: edition of the section Debate: “Mission, History and the Postcolonial Museum”, review ANTHROPOS (117.2022/1).

Published

2022-09-14

Issue

Section

Saggi