Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2006. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, page: 2509.

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It is the purpose of this thesis to examine the reasons why Cuzco Quechua, an Amerindian language of Latin America, uses allomorphs, or multiple forms, to represent the minimal semantic units of the language (or morphemes). Starting from the Initial hypothesis that the relatively minor role of allomorphy in contemporary Cuzco Quechua indicates the earlier absence of that allomorphy, the motivation for the introduction and retention of allomorphy is examined, as this relates to a number of characteristic types; Vowel Deletion, affecting final suffixes, Consonant Cluster Simplification and Vowel Dissimilation, affecting suffixes of the verb stem, and the potential allomorphy of the suffixes of Person, pronominal and verbal. Such allomorphy proves to be the result of attempts to contain new morphological developments within existing structural preferences of syllable configuration, and to limit the potential for semantic ambiguity, arising out of identity of form, or homonymy. The unanticipated result of such a study is the implication in all cases considered of an earlier process of affixation, leading to the formation of untypical morph-forms, Allomorphy is seen to be the by-product of compensatory change, introduced to modify the results of previous developments, In particular, the role of the 'empty morph', ni, of nominal Person is found to be implicated in the derivational history of all Quechua suffixes of Person, and its origin imputed to an early role of the verb ni-, 'to say', used with auxiliary function. Based on the evidence of allomorphy, the conclusion is drawn that many of the suffixes of Cuzco Quechua owe their origin to syntactic forms of expression, indicating that the role of the syntactic construction in this typically agglutinative language was formerly more significant than is now recognised.

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Establece el vínculo lingüístico e histórico entre el dialecto quechua de Puerto Arturo, comunidad indígena de la provincia de Tambopata en el departamento de Madre de Dios, y el dialecto quechua del Napo peruano en Loreto, y así determinar el origen geográfico del dialecto puertoarturense. / Tesis

While the present work is far from being a definitive one, it does aim at providing a fairly complete phonology of San Martin Quechua. The author has tried to give a satisfactory account of the descriptive problems and their possible solutions for the dialect. The theoretical principles used to solve the problems are explained, the notions of the theory are defined, and their application to the data is outlined in every case, and explained in some detail in many cases as well. This work is unusual among works on Quechua as regards the space it devotes to explaining and solving problems in the description. Existing descriptions of Quechua may be characterised as supposedly problem-less descriptions. The present work treats Phonology, not as a subsidiary to grammar but as a universe in its own right, with its own problems and solutions. The European background of the work, and the 'axiomatic' approach of Mulder, have undoubtedly contributed in, great measure to the nature of this description, and to what some might call its 'preoccupation' with problems. Without wishing to tag derogatory labels on Bloomfieldian linguistics (enough writers have done so already). I have written the present work as a possible answer to what I believe to be an inadmissable ‘gap’ in Quechua linguistic description as it stands the lack of a rigorous autonomous phonology, which attempts to recognise, state and solve descriptive problems. It is to be hoped that the present work provides a beginning for a fully-fledged discipline of Quechua phonology. [Taken from the forward not from the abstract].

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