Ayacucho Quechua

Ayacucho Quechua
Chanka runasimi
Native toPeru
Native speakers
(918,200 cited 2000)
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
quy  Ayacucho
qxu  Arequipa–La Unión
Glottologayac1238
ELPAyacucho Quechua

Ayacucho (also called Chanca or Chanka after the local Chanka ethnicity that dominated the area before the Inca conquest) is a variety of Southern Quechua spoken in the Ayacucho Region, Peru, as well as by immigrants from Ayacucho in Lima. With roughly a million speakers, it is the largest variety of Southern Quechua after Cusco Quechua. The literary standard of Southern Quechua is based on these two closely related Quechua varieties.