This volume presents the most comprehensive overview in English of the languages of the Central Andes, spoken primarily in Peru and Bolivia. Efforts to describe and document Central Andean languages, as well as philological research into colonial documentation and texts, have blossomed in recent decades; here, the major protagonists and drivers of these exciting developments are given the opportunity to showcase their research achievements in one volume.

Following an introductory part providing background information on the region and its cultural and linguistic diversity, chapters in Part II provide extensive descriptions of individual languages that not only reflect current knowledge, but also add to our understanding of their phonological and grammatical structures. The third part offers substantial typological comparative analyses that reflect the pivotal role Central Andean languages have played in investigations into topics of current theoretical interest, such as the notions of linguistic complexity and evidentiality. Part IV explores topics relating to the history of the language from early prehistory to the colonial period, while chapters in the final part shed light on the cultural, geographic, and sociolinguistic settings in which Central Andean languages are spoken, and discuss language contact situations and language ideologies. The Oxford Guide to the Languages of the Central Andes will be of interest not only to students and researchers specializing in Andean languages, but also to typologists, comparative linguists, and linguistic anthropologists.

Matthias Urban, Researcher, CNRS laboratory 'Dynamique du langage'

Matthias Urban is Researcher at the CNRS laboratory "Dynamique du language", where he directs an ERC project on historical dynamics in language geography. He has held prior appointments at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the universities of Leiden, Marburg, and Tübingen, where he was principal investigator of the Junior Research Group "The Language Dynamics of the Ancient Central Andes," hosted by the University of Tübingen and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)'s Emmy Noether Programme. His research interests include historical linguistics, in particular of the Andes, language contact, and linguistic typology.

Part I. Background and context1. Introduction: Central Andean linguistic diversity and the diversity of Central Andean linguistics, Matthias Urban2. Physical geography and cultural trajectory of the Central Andes, Peter Kaulicke3. Historical linguistics, philology, and the development of Andean linguistics, Rodolfo Cerrón-PalominoPart II. Language profiles4. Huaylas (Ancash) Quechua, Carlos Molina-Vital5. Southern Yauyos Quechua, Aviva Shimelman6. Chachapoyas Quechua, Aviva Shimelman and Jairo Valqui7. Cuzco Quechua, Raúl Bendezú Araujo and Jorge Acurio-Palma8. Aymara, Matt Coler9. Jaqaru, Matt Coler10. Uru and Chipaya, Katja Hannß11. Mochica, Matthias Urban12. Puquina, Nicholas Q. Emlen, Willem F. H. Adelaar, Simon van de Kerke, and Arjan Mossel13. Hibito and Cholón, Astrid Alexander-Bakkerus14. Small and extinct languages of Northern Peru, Matthias Urban15. Kallawaya, Pieter Muysken16. The Andean Spanish of Southern Peru and Bolivia, Luis Andrade CiudadPart III. Comparative studies17. Central Andean segmental phonologies in continental perspective, Lev Michael and Allegra Robertson18. The morphology of the nominal domain in the languages of the Central Andes, Olga Krasnoukhova19. The grammar of the verb in the languages of the Central Andes, Matthias Pache20. Syntactic structures in the languages of the Central Andes, Rik van Gijn21. Discourse, information structure, and evidentiality in the Central Andes, Karolina Grzech22. Linguistic complexity in the Central Andes, Johanna NicholsPart IV. Language history23. Expansions and language shift in prehistory, Paul Heggarty24. Language ecologies and dynamics in the ancient Central Andes, Matthias Urban25. Language diffusion and state agency: Quechuan in Inca and colonial times, César ItierPart V. Language contact, sociolinguistics, and linguistic anthropology26. The Quechuan-Aymaran relationship, Nicholas Q. Emlen27. Contact between indigenous languages of the Central Andes and Spanish: Linguistic outcomes as cases of contra-hierarchical diffusion, Anna María Escobar28. Language ideologies and the Quechuan family, Rosaleen Howard29. The Andean-Amazonian interface: Sociolinguistic relations and areal-typological patterns, Nicholas Q. Emlen, Rik van Gijn, and Sietze Norder30. Language and the Andean environment, Joshua Shapero