Identifying Family with Possessive Kinship Terms

Allin p'unchaw! Welcome back.

Introduction

In our previous lessons for this module, you've built a strong foundation. You've learned to express ownership with possessive suffixes (like -y for "my" and -yki for "your"), construct possessive phrases with the genitive -pa (like Pedrop wasin), make nouns plural with -kuna, and count from 1 to 20.

Today, we will complete this module by learning how to talk about family. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to identify immediate family members using kinship terms (e.g., tayta, mama, wawqi, pana) combined with the possessive suffixes you already know. This will allow you to introduce and describe your own family, or ayllu in Quechua.

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1. Core Family Vocabulary: Parents and Children

Let's start with the most fundamental family terms. Many of these are straightforward.

• ayllu: family, community
• mama: mother
• tayta: father
• wawa: child (used for both son and daughter)

You may also encounter the more specific terms churi (son) and ususi (daughter), but wawa is a very common and versatile word.

Just as we did with objects, we can combine these nouns with the possessive suffixes you've mastered.

• mamay - my mother
• taytayki - your father
• wawan - his/her child
• mamanchik - our mother (inclusive)
• taytayku - our father (exclusive)

A useful term for "parents" is tayta-mama or simply the plural of father, taytakuna.

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2. A Key Concept: Gender-Specific Sibling Terms

This is one of the most interesting aspects of Quechua kinship. The word you use for "brother" or "sister" depends on your own gender. English uses "brother" and "sister" universally, but Quechua is more specific.

Here is the system:

If you are a man, you say:	If you are a woman, you say:
wawqi for your brother	ñaña for your sister
pana for your sister	turi for your brother

Let's break this down:

• A man calls his brother wawqi.
• A man calls his sister pana.
• A woman calls her sister ñaña.
• A woman calls her brother turi.

This means that two brothers refer to each other as wawqi, but a brother and sister use pana and turi to refer to each other.

The following resource explains this concept clearly. Please focus only on the Quechua terms provided.

Now, let's apply possessive suffixes to these terms.

If you are a man:

• wawqiy - my brother
• panay - my sister
• wawqiykuna - my brothers

If you are a woman:

• turay - my brother
• ñañay - my sister
• ñañaykuna - my sisters

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3. Other Immediate Family Members

Let's round out our immediate family vocabulary.

• qusa: husband
• warmi: wife (this word also means "woman")
• hatun mama: grandmother (literally "great mother")
• hatun tayta: grandfather (literally "great father")

The following resource provides a list of family members. Please note that it is from a slightly different dialect of Quechua (Kichwa, from Ecuador), so you will see some variations. For example, it uses -pak for the genitive case where we use -pa, and pani instead of pana. It's good to be aware of these small differences.

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4. Putting It All Together: Describing Family Relationships

Now we can combine our new vocabulary with the grammar you've already learned.

Using the Genitive -pa

To say "Maria's brother," you combine the name, the -pa suffix, the kinship term, and the third-person possessive -n.

• Mariap turan - Maria's brother (since Maria is a woman)
• Pedrop panan - Pedro's sister (since Pedro is a man)
• Qusqinchikpa maman - Our (inclusive) grandmother's mother

Using Plurals and Numbers

You can also quantify family members using numbers and the plural suffix -kuna.

• Kimsan ñañaykuna kanku. - They are my three sisters. (spoken by a woman)
• Payqa iskay wawan-yuq. - He/She has two children.
• Taytaypa iskay wawqinkuna. - My father's two brothers.

Example Sentences:

• Ñañaypa sutinmi Elena. - My sister's name is Elena. (spoken by a woman)
• Kaymi panay. - This is my sister. (spoken by a man)
• Taytaykiqa, ¿hatun taytaypa wawan-chu? - Is your father my grandfather's son?

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5. Self-Assessment

Time to check your understanding. Answer the following questions.

1. You are a man. How do you say "my sister"?
2. You are a woman. How do you say "my brother"?
3. Translate into Quechua: "his mother".
4. Translate into Quechua: "Ana's sister". (Ana is a woman).
5. Fill in the blank with the correct kinship term: Juanpa ______-nqa abogadom. (Juan's brother is a lawyer).

Answers

1. panay
2. turay
3. maman
4. Anap ñañan
5. wawqinqa

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Conclusion

¡Sumaq! (Excellent!) You have now completed the final lesson of this module.

Key Takeaways:

• You learned the core vocabulary for family: ayllu, mama, tayta, wawa, qusa, warmi, hatun mama, hatun tayta.
• You mastered the crucial concept of gender-specific sibling terms: a man uses wawqi (brother) and pana (sister), while a woman uses turi (brother) and ñaña (sister).
• You practiced combining these new terms with possessive suffixes (-y, -n, etc.), the genitive -pa, and numbers to describe family relationships.

Preview of the Next Lesson:
With this module complete, we will move on to Module 4: "Location, Origin, and Existence." In our next lesson, we will begin by learning to use the verb kay (to be) in the present tense. This will allow us to form complete sentences to state who people are and what their essential characteristics are, building directly on the vocabulary you've learned so far.

Tupananchiskama! (Until we meet again!)