The main surviving languages of the Andean peoples are those of the Quechua and Aymara language families.

Ayahuasca ( ayawaska pronounced in the Quechua language ) is any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp.

Speakers of Quechua languages or of the Aymara language may prefer the spelling ayawaska.

Quechua was the official language, imposed on the citizens.

Quechua ( endonym: Runa Simi ) is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from a common ancestral language.

At this time, the Incas found out that the Quechua was very widespread and decided that this was a tool to achieve the unification of the Empire ; thus, the language began to spread across the Andes more enthusiastically.

After the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, Quechua continued to see considerable usage, as the " general language " and main means of communication between the Spaniards and the indigenous population, including for the Roman Catholic Church as a language of evangelisation.

The second part of the name Erythroxylum coca is derived from the name of the plant in the Quechua language.

The intent was to break down traditional community ties and force the heterogeneous population to adopt the Quechua language and culture.

The activity of chewing coca is called mambear, chacchar or acullicar, borrowed from Quechua, coquear ( northern Argentina ), or in Bolivia, picchar, derived from the Aymara language.

Its phonology is said to be based on the Quechua language.

In A New Hope, for instance, the language spoken by the character Greedo in conversation with Han Solo ( in the cantina ) is actually a simplified version of Quechua, an indigenous language of the Andean region of South America.

: Not to be confused with Quechua, South American language.

In the local Quechua language tiqsi means foundation or base, huira ( or wira ) means fat, and cocha ( or qucha ) means lake, sea, or reservoir.

Quechua was made the official language and sun worship the official religion.

The most widely spoken indigenous language is Southern Quechua, with about 6 to 7 million speakers.

The P ’ urhépecha language has more in common with Zuni in the southwest U. S. and Quechua in Peru and is unrelated to any other Mesoamerican language.

In the Far East, Africa and South America, regional languages have been or are being coercively replaced or marginalized by the language of a dominant culture — Tibetan and minority Chinese dialects by Mandarin Chinese, Ainu by Japanese, Quechua by Spanish, and so on.

Khipu ( pronounced ) is the word for " knot " in Cusco Quechua ( the native Inca language ); the kh is an aspirated k. In most Quechua varieties, the term is kipu.

Machu Picchu ( Quechua: Old Peak ; sometimes called the " Lost City of the Incas ") is a well-preserved pre-Columbian Inca ruin located on a high mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley, about 70 km ( 44 mi ) northwest of Cuzco.

In similar way, a diverse group of dialects appeared while the Inca Empire ruled and imposed Quechua.

The name was derived from the original Quechua ( Inca ) word for the cinchona tree bark, quina or quina-quina, which roughly means " bark of bark " or " holy bark ".

* Machu Picchu ( Quechua: Machu Pikchu, " Old mountain ") a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2, 400 meters ( 7, 875 ft ) above sea level believed to be under construction.

Known as Tawantin suyu, or " the land of the four regions ", in Quechua, the Inca civilization was highly distinct and developed.

Túpac Amaru or Thupa Amaro ( Quechua: Thupaq Amaru ) ( 1545 – 1572 ) was the last indigenous monarch ( Sapa Inca ) of the Inca state in Peru.

Manco Cápac ( Quechua Manqu Qhapaq " founder royal ") was the legendary first Sapa Inca of the Kingdom of Cusco and a figure of Inca mythology.

Mama Quilla ( Quechua: Mama Killa or Mama Kilya ), in Inca mythology and religion, was the third power and goddess of the moon.

In fact, the Inca nobility may themselves originally have been Aymara-speakers, who switched to Quechua only shortly before the Inca expansion.

After the capture and execution of the Inca Atahualpa at Cajamarca, Francisco Pizarro had sent Belalcázar to take possession of Guayaquil and Quito on his behalf, but Cali, being beyond the Quechua empire, was claimed by Belalcazar as his own territory.

Before the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire certain Quechua words entered the Spanish language.

Chaco derives from chacú, the Quechua word used to name a hunting territory or the hunting technique used by the people of the Inca Empire.

The name " Inca Kola " refers to the Quechua words for king and queen.

Huáscar Inca ( Quechua: Waskar Inka, of uncertain meaning, said to be related to his birthplace Huascarpata ; 1503 – 1532 ) was Sapa Inca of the Inca empire from 1527 to 1532 AD, succeeding his father Huayna Capac and brother Ninan Cuyochi, both of whom died of smallpox while campaigning near Quito.

Part of the Kamentxá territory was conquered by the Inca Huayna Cápac in 1492, who after crossing the Cofán territory, established a Quechua population on the valley of Sibundoy, that is known today as Ingas.

After conquering Ecuador, Huayna Capac imposed upon the tribes the use of the Quechua ( or Kichwa ) language, lingua franca of the Inca and still widely spoken in Ecuador.

The river basin formed by the Tambo river, probably conquest and occupied by external forces during several periods, generate a population with local and heterogeneous customs, leaving several vestiges about their civilization, suddenly attached to the remaining mixed etymology name from several languages such as Quechua, Cocachacra, Challascapi, etc.

Subsequently, the Inca Empire – administered by the Quechua civilization – conquered the land and dispersed the Churumatas and other local groups over wide territories of the Andes.

Ayahuasca is the Hispanicized spelling of a word in the Quechua languages, which are spoken in the Andean states of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia.

For example, in Thai, Hindi, and Quechua, there are minimal pairs of words for which aspiration is the only contrasting feature ( two words with different meanings that are identical except that one has an aspirated sound where the other has an unaspirated one ).

The Tahuantinsuyo — which is derived from Quechua for " The Four United Regions "— reached its greatest extension at the beginning of the 16th century.

The Spanish Royal Academy says the Spanish word is a compound of the Taino batata ( sweet potato ) and the Quechua papa ( potato ).

Chuño is a freeze-dried potato product traditionally made by Quechua and Aymara communities of Peru and Bolivia, and is known in various countries of South America, including Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile.

Quinine is an effective muscle relaxant, long used by the Quechua, who are indigenous to Peru, to halt shivering due to low temperatures.

In Peru, the Quechua name for a type of sweet potato is kumar, strikingly similar to the Polynesian name kumara and its regional Oceanic cognates (" kumala ," " umala ," " ' uala ," etc .).

Depending on the South American region, the rhea is known locally as ñandú guazu ( Guaraní, meaning big spider, most probably in relation to their habit of opening and lowering alternatively wings when they run ), ema ( Portuguese ), suri ( Quechua ), or choique ( Mapudungun ).

Further hypotheses base the origin of the term on escabeche, Spanish for pickle, or that it is simply a variation of the word siwichi, the traditional Quechua name for the dish.

In Quechua her name is sometimes written Mama Uqllu.

The name of the genus is due to Carolus " Carl " Linnaeus, who named the tree in 1742 after a Countess of Chinchón, the wife of a viceroy of Peru, who, in 1638, was introduced by native Quechua healers to the medicinal properties of cinchona bark.

Amantaní is another small island on Lake Titicaca populated by Quechua speakers.

Mate is from the Quechua mati, meaning " gourd " or the cup made from a gourd.

The word " jerky " is a corruption of the Spanish charqui which is from the Quechua word ch ' arki.