11. Cross-linguistic influence of the Cuzco Quechua epistemic system on Andean Spanish

Speakers of Quechua, the native language spoken today in South America by an estimated over 10 million descendants of the Incan Empire, convey their attitudes toward the knowledge they pass on through the use of five epistemic markers. In Cuzco Quechua, these include three epistemic suffixes,-mi/-n,-si/-s, and-chá (-miand -siare placed after consonants and -n and -s follow vowels), and two past tense verb forms,-rqa- and-sqa-. There has been much debate and inconsistency in the literature concerning the semantics and pragmatics of these epistemic markers as well as the ways in which these markers exert cross-linguistic influence on Andean Spanish. This work attempts to clarify and inform these current debates. Evidence will be provided that has been obtained through fieldwork carried out in Cuzco, Peru among seventy members of two non-profit governmental agencies, theAsociación Civil ‘Gregorio Condori Mamani’ Proyecto Casa del Cargador andEl Centro de Apoyo Integral a la Trabajadora del Hogar. Specifically, this evidence (1) supports meanings and uses for the Cuzco Quechua epistemic system beyond the distinction of firsthand vs. secondhand information source, (2) addresses the claim that the Andean Spanish present perfect and past perfect verb tenses serve to communicate the epistemic meanings conveyed in Quechua through use of the Quechua epistemic system, and (3) presents ways in which speakers exhibit cross-linguistic influence of the Cuzco Quechua epistemic markers on Andean Spanish, such as through the use ofdice to calque the Quechua-si/-sepistemic marker and seven strategies, some of which have not been documented previously, for calquing the Quechua-mi/-nepistemic marker: (1)pues, (2)así, (3)sí, (4) elongated [s], (5) nonstandard pluralization, (6)siempre, and (7) word-final voiceless fricative [r].