This dissertation presents a description and analysis of local variation of Quechua in the Huaylas Valley from speakers’ and linguistic perspectives. This research focuses on the comparative study of Quechua spoken in the Huaylas Valley, located in the north-central Peruvian Andes, which exhibits interesting variation in the phonological, morphological and lexical levels. For the analysis I have used methodologies of descriptive, comparative and historical linguistics, and methods of sociolinguistics. Thus, the study of Quechua language variation in this region in relation to pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary is contrasted and complemented with speakers’ perception about their variety and other variants. Quechua-speaking areas are surveyed by grouping provinces, and are delineated on maps according to distribution of phonological and morphological isoglosses, and vocabulary as well as Quechua speakers’ perception. The two main dialectal areas are: (1) South Huaylas or Hallqa spoken in the provinces of Huaraz, Recuay, and south of Carhuaz, which is characterized, basically, by the retention of the phoneme /h/ at the word initial position. (2) North Huaylas or Quechua spoken in the provinces of Huaylas, Yungay, and north-central part of Carhuaz, which is characterized by the deletion of *h > ø at the word initial position. The division line is located around the Marcara river by the White Mountain side, and Huasca Uran ravine by the Black Mountain side, in the Marcara district, Carhuaz. Within each major variety there are other minor varieties, which are distinguished on the basis of morphophonemic variation of suffixes: ablative, first person inclusive, and the conjectural enclitic. / text