absTracT: The present work describes tense in Andean languages by taking three features into consideration: type of tense system, marking class and distance coding. Following Torero (2002), the sampled languages are: Mochica, Puquina, Cholón, Aymara, Ayacucho Quechua, Uchumataqu, Chipaya, Millcayac, Allentiac, Kunza and Mapundugun. It is proposed that suffixed tense marking and absence of distance coding are features that unify the area, with the exception of Mochica. It is also suggested that, aside from Puquina, center and north-center Andean languages — Mochica, Cholón, Aymara, Quechua, Uchumataqu and Chipaya— possess tripartite
systems, while the languages from the south of the area –Mapudungún, Allentiac and Millcayac— possess binary systems. Languages with tripartite systems mark past and future leaving the present unmarked, with the exception of Kunza. They are also differentiated by the categories they fuse tense with: a) in Ayacucho Quechua and Aymara it is fused with evidentiality in the past and person in the future, b) in Uru-chipaya languages with aspectual notions in the past and c) in the remaining languages tense does not exhibit fusion. Finally, languages with binary systems in the Andean south have marked future and unmarked non-future, and do not fuse tense with other grammatical categories.
Keywords:
tipología, tipología areal, lenguas andinas, tiempo
Hasler, F., Aristegui, D., Sandoval, C., & Poblete, M. (2019). Tense marking in andean languages. Lenguas Modernas, (52), pp. 135–161. Retrieved from https://revistateoria.uchile.cl/index.php/LM/article/view/52849
