Quechua people
Quechua people (ˈkɛtʃuə, ˈkɛtʃwɑː; ˈketʃwa) or Quichua people may refer to any of the indigenous peoples of South America who speak the Quechua languages, which originated among the Indigenous people of Peru. Although most Quechua speakers are native to Peru, there are some significant populations in Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina. The most common Quechua dialect is Southern Quechua. The Kichwa people of Ecuador speak the Kichwa dialect; in Colombia, the Inga people speak Inga Kichwa. The Quechua word for a Quechua speaker is runa or nuna ("person"); the plural is runakuna or nunakuna ("people"). "Quechua speakers call themselves Runa -- simply translated, 'the people.'" Some historical Quechua people are: The Chanka people, who lived in the Huancavelica, Ayacucho, and Apurímac regions of Peru. The Huanca people of the Junín Region of Peru, who spoke Quechua before the Incas did. The Inca, who established the largest empire of the pre-Columbian era. The Chincha, an extinct merchant kingdom of the Ica Region of Peru. The Qolla who inhabited the Potosí, Oruro, and La Paz departments of Bolivia. The Cañari of Ecuador, who adopted the Quechua language from the Inca. The speakers of Quechua, totaling some 5.1 million people in Peru, 1.8 million in Bolivia, 2.5 million in Ecuador (Hornberger and King, 2001), and according to Ethnologue (2006) 33,800 in Chile, 55,500 in Argentina, and a few hundred in Brazil, have an only slight sense of common identity. The various Quechua dialects are in some cases so different that no mutual understanding is possible. Quechua was not only spoken by the Incas, but also by long-term enemies of the Inca Empire, like the Huanca (Wanka is a Quechua dialect spoken today in the Huancayo area) and the Chanka (the Chanca dialect of Ayacucho) of Peru, and the Kañari (Cañari) in Ecuador. Quechua was spoken by some of these people, for example, the Wanka, before the Incas of Cusco, while other people, especially in Bolivia but also in Ecuador, adopted Quechua only in Inca times or afterward.