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Kawki Tribe (Cauqui, Cachuy)

Language: Kawki is an Andean language of Peru, related to the Aymara language. Some linguists consider Kawki a dialect of Aymara or of the related language Jaqaru, while others consider it a distinct language. Since only a handful of fluent Kawki speakers remain today, it is difficult to answer this question with certainty. Kawki is an agglutinative language with SOV word order.

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Names: The name Kawki comes from an indigenous place name where the speakers of this language were concentrated. In their own language, the word kawki simply means "where," so presumably this was a Spanish shortening of an originally longer description of the area (many place names have translated meanings such as "where the river forks" or "where the cliff is.") The name is also spelled Cauqui, Cachuy, and other ways.

Kawki Language Links

Peru Linguistic Map

Tribes and Languages of Peru:
Maps showing the areas in South America where Cauqui is spoken.

Cauqui Language Tree:
Theories about Kawki language relationships compiled by Linguist List.

Dictionary of Jaqi Languages:
Online vocabulary in the Aymara, Jaqaru, and Kawki languages.

The Jaqi Collection: Aymara, Jaqaru, Kawki:
Archive of texts and files in Kawki and related languages.

Kawki Texts:
Audio files in the Kawki language.

Jaqaru and Cauqui:
Demographic information about Cauqui from the Ethnologue of Languages.

Wikipedia: Kawki:
Encyclopedia entry about the Jaqaru/Kawki language.

Links, References, and Additional Information

Lengua cauqui

Lengua Kawki

Idioma kawki:
Information about the Kawki language in Spanish.

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