A Quick Quichua Lesson

The indigenous presence in Quito is a strong one. Throughout Ecuador, indigenous groups are some of the best organized in all of South America. I’ve heard tell that they’ve served as models for other indigenous groups in other Latin American countries as those groups struggle to negotiate with their provincial and national governments for better representation and equal access to resources.

Given that the indigenous influence is so strong in this region (the sierra that is), it comes as no surprise that Quichua words have been absorbed into the local language in Quito. So, here’s a quick review of some Quichua words that are used on a regular basis no matter whether one is indigenous or not:

Ñaña, Ñaño – sister, brother

Guagua – refers to a child (male or female). Often used to say that someone is really young or
seems really young. Ex: “Oh, that club...it’s full of guaguas” = only young kids go there, that is 16-20 yr olds.

Chuchaki - hangover

Joo-chas – not really sure how this one is spelled, so I present my phonetic interpretation of the word. Means “naked.” Don’t ask me where I picked this one up, I don’t exactly
remember.

Shusho, Shusha - dummy

And some slang or alternative Spanish words that are thrown around a lot here and you won’t necessarily find in the dictionary.

Chevere – “cool!”

Bacán – “cool!”

Chompa - jacket

Saco – sweater or light jacket

Buenázo, Tenázo, Anything-ázo - "really great," "really harsh/hard," the -ázo adds on an extra umph to whatever word you prefer.

Man - the english word exactly. It's been incorporated into everyday speech and is used to refer to "that guy/girl." As in "ese man/esa man."

Chuta and Pucha – both mean “shoot!” or “damn!” in an exclamatory sense. Though, be very
careful here. These two words come from mixing and matching syllables of two original words– that is, take the first syllable from each word and place it with the second syllable of the other and you get some very bad words that I wouldn’t recommend saying in public.

Be sure to check back on this entry every once and a while. I hope to update it with more jargon.

(p.s. – Cuando fuimos al Mercado de Otavalo, un gran porcentaje de los vendedores son mujeres indígenas quienes, antes de decir un precio a un comprador, se hablen en quichua para arreglar un precio fijo para todas. Es una manera de defenderse, para que todas ofrezcan el mismo precio.)