Afines quechua en el vocabulario mapuche de Luis de Valdivia

Abstract

This paper intends to analyse the interlinguistic and intercultural relationship implied by kindred terms listed in the Vocabulario de la Lengua de Chile written by Luis de Valdivia and published in Lima in 1606. We have identified 223 terms showing linguistic similarities with Quechua words which equals to 8.16 % of the total entries. The 'exclusion method' applied in this corpus has allowed us to list 166 possible linguistic borrowings and 53 possible cognates and expressions that contain them, plus four semantic calques. These data reveal different ages in the development of intercultural relationship among native peoples in the central and southern Andean areas. The cultural Tawantinsuyo influence in the Mapuche culture is evident in the large list of Quechua borrowings. But, in spite of this fact, this corpus includes terms which do not seem to belong to linguistic loans acquired in that period of time. This new information points out to important evidence of longer intercultural relationship back in time which has shaped what we now call Mapuche culture.