https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Aymara_language
Aymara (Aymar aru) is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes. It is one of only a handful of Native American languages with over three and a half million speakers.[3][4] Aymara, along with Quechua and Spanish, is an official language of Bolivia.
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http://aymara.org/biblio/html/igr/igrpreface.html
Is there something special about this language that sets it apart from the many languages spoken in the Americas? The answer is yes. The first person to realize this was the Roman Jesuit Ludovico Bertonio who published a grammar and a vocabulary of the Aymara language in the early 17th century. He found that this language is remarkably fertile and articulate; that its pronunciation is unusually regular, and that it is better able than Spanish or Latin to handle abstract concepts. The learned linguist was so surprised by all this that he concluded Aymara could not be a natural language, but have been created artificially. In the early 19th century similar views were raised even more strongly by a Bolivian scientist, Emeterio Villamil de Rada, in his book, "The Language of Adam". Unfortunately, the rest of his research manuscripts could not be found after his death.
....
http://aymara.org/biblio/html/igr/igr1.html
The revival of an awarness of a Qoya nation, in which those elements of identity deeply rooted in the cultural ancestry of the Aymara people are stressed, has been accompanied by noticeable progress in scientific studies of the Aymara language and logic. The Aymara people, both in Bolivia and Peru, are awakening from a humiliating nightmare which has lasted for centuries. In those countries, record stories are now filled with Indian music, and in the not too distant future, the bookstores will be filled with books printed in Aymara. When this happens, the Roman Jesuit Ludovico Bertonio (1555-1628) will be hailed as one of the distinguished figures in Aymara history. Every student of the Aymara language agrees on the greatness of this scholar, whose scientific work as a linguist has not yet been fully appeciated. His "Grammar", published in 1603, and his "vocabulary", published in 1610, have been the most important sources used in the research on the Aymara system of logic conducted by this author (LB0, LB1, LB2).
Bertonio's work was the first complete analysis of the agglutintive structure of Aymara. His most important contribution is his description of the key role played by certain syllables in this langage. He called these syllables "particles", and showe how they are used, not only to form new words, but also to determine the syntactical structure of sentences.
Bertonio was so fascinated by these particles, that he believed Aymara to be an artificial language. For instance, in his Grammar it is atated that:
(LB0-261): "One of the things shows the artifice of this language and the diligence of its inventors, is the utilization of many particles, which by themselves are meaningless, but, when added to nouns ans verbs, expand their meaning or add new ones".
(LB0-312): "After studying simple particles, it would only be normal to analyze compound ones, because the meaning they have in isolation differs from the meaning they have when added to the same verb; however, this would be such an arduous task that it would require many reams of paper. Such a complex machinery of particles and different combinations might discourage the potential student of this language. So, I will leave this to usage, the master of all things. Here I will deal only with some compound particles which, in my view, and more necessary than others". Bertonio wrote this after having devoted a whole chapter to a very through study of 54 simple particles (infixes and verbal suffixes). Unforunately, he was unable, because of failing health, to procees with the same througness in his chapter on compound particles.
Bertonio was fully aware of the importance of the position ans order of particles, which is now referred to as the non-commutativity of particles, especially those playing the role of logical operators. This can be seen in the following paragraph:
(LB0-316) "The relative positions of particles when added to a verb, is as important as knowing which particles can be combined with which, because if some symbol particles are not arranged in their correct order, the verb's meaning is as confusing as if the wrong particles were used. Anyone who wants to learn the language well, and know in which order the particles must be attached to the verb should be guided by usage and common sense".
Among other things, those who say that Aymara has no future argue that this language cannot convey abstract concepts. Ludovico Bertonio held just the opposite view. After scussing some rules for forming so-called abstract nouns he asserts overwhelmingly: "...and, thus, it is easier to find abstract nouns in this language, and there are more of them than in Latin or Spanish (LB0-259).
------------------------------
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/01/world/old-andes-language-finds-niche-in-computer-age.html
OLD ANDES LANGUAGE FINDS NICHE IN COMPUTER AGE
By MARLISE SIMONS
Published: December 1, 1984
LA PAZ, Bolivia— As a boy, Ivan Guzman de Rojas would roam among the alpaca herds and mud huts of the high Andes with his father, at the time Bolivia's best-known painter of the Indians known as the Aymaras.
''My father would tell me, this is a rich culture,'' Mr. Guzman recalled of the Aymaras. ''Don't be fooled just because its appearance is poor.''
Now, 40 years later, Mr. Guzman says he has made discoveries that support his father's claim, although in an entirely unexpected way. He has concluded that the ancient Aymara language is an ideal tool for the computer.
Mr. Guzman, a German-educated mathematician, says that because of the unusual structure of the Aymara language, he has been able to convert it into an algebraic code. By using this code as an interface, or bridge, in the computer, he claims to have developed the beginnings of a multilanguage translation system. Several experts who have seen Mr. Guzman's work say he may be on the verge of a breakthrough in computer linguistics.
The Problem of Idioms
Computer translation, a field of research in which manufacturers have already invested millions of dollars, has always been hampered by the nature of human language, which is too whimsical and filled with ambiguities and hard-to-translate idioms to be handled easily by a machine.
But Mr. Guzman's formula, some experts say, deals with language in a mathematical way.
''Basically, I found a way to teach the computer any grammar by using the Aymara syntax,'' Mr. Guzman said.
In his home, along one of the capital's steep streets, the soft-spoken, 50- year-old scientist quickly turned passionate when referring to his research into Aymara, which he calls a ''hobby that now dominates my life.''
''The language is beautiful,'' Mr. Guzman said, holding the first known dictionary of Aymara, which was compiled by a Jesuit in the 16th century. ''It is a very fine piece of logic, so compact and orderly, so well-conceived, you might think it was designed.''
Aymara is related to Quechua - a language more widely spoken by Indians in South America - and is believed to be between three and five millennia old. Mr. Guzman said Aymara uses no irregular verbs or gender but builds ideas and sentences by adding strings of suffixes to root words. Language of 2.5 Million Indians
Mr. Guzman said he began his work with Aymara largely in an effort to generate respect for the neglected culture and dying language of 2.5 million mostly illiterate Indians in the highlands of Bolivia and Peru.
Anthropologists and computer experts, he said, at first laughed at his claim that an ancient language was a fine mathematical tool. But as he developed his translation system and outsiders began to show interest, this has taken over most of his spare time.
He works on borrowed computers, usually on weekends or late at night. Although he founded and headed the Institute for Science Research at the University of La Paz, political in-fighting forced him to resign. Since then he has supported his five children by working as a consultant in accounting systems.
Several organizations in the United States, including Wang Computers of Lowell, Mass., have invited Mr. Guzman to the United States for demonstrations.
''Guzman's approach is extremely original,'' said Miguel Brazao, head of one of Wang's research and development divisions. ''It is the only program that uses mathematics to go from one language to another. It is based on the algorithmic structure of Aymara. It is small and exceptionally fast and goes much further than the translation systems I'm familiar with.''
...
Aymara (Aymar aru) is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes. It is one of only a handful of Native American languages with over three and a half million speakers.[3][4] Aymara, along with Quechua and Spanish, is an official language of Bolivia.
-------------------------------------
http://aymara.org/biblio/html/igr/igrpreface.html
Is there something special about this language that sets it apart from the many languages spoken in the Americas? The answer is yes. The first person to realize this was the Roman Jesuit Ludovico Bertonio who published a grammar and a vocabulary of the Aymara language in the early 17th century. He found that this language is remarkably fertile and articulate; that its pronunciation is unusually regular, and that it is better able than Spanish or Latin to handle abstract concepts. The learned linguist was so surprised by all this that he concluded Aymara could not be a natural language, but have been created artificially. In the early 19th century similar views were raised even more strongly by a Bolivian scientist, Emeterio Villamil de Rada, in his book, "The Language of Adam". Unfortunately, the rest of his research manuscripts could not be found after his death.
....
http://aymara.org/biblio/html/igr/igr1.html
The revival of an awarness of a Qoya nation, in which those elements of identity deeply rooted in the cultural ancestry of the Aymara people are stressed, has been accompanied by noticeable progress in scientific studies of the Aymara language and logic. The Aymara people, both in Bolivia and Peru, are awakening from a humiliating nightmare which has lasted for centuries. In those countries, record stories are now filled with Indian music, and in the not too distant future, the bookstores will be filled with books printed in Aymara. When this happens, the Roman Jesuit Ludovico Bertonio (1555-1628) will be hailed as one of the distinguished figures in Aymara history. Every student of the Aymara language agrees on the greatness of this scholar, whose scientific work as a linguist has not yet been fully appeciated. His "Grammar", published in 1603, and his "vocabulary", published in 1610, have been the most important sources used in the research on the Aymara system of logic conducted by this author (LB0, LB1, LB2).
Bertonio's work was the first complete analysis of the agglutintive structure of Aymara. His most important contribution is his description of the key role played by certain syllables in this langage. He called these syllables "particles", and showe how they are used, not only to form new words, but also to determine the syntactical structure of sentences.
Bertonio was so fascinated by these particles, that he believed Aymara to be an artificial language. For instance, in his Grammar it is atated that:
(LB0-261): "One of the things shows the artifice of this language and the diligence of its inventors, is the utilization of many particles, which by themselves are meaningless, but, when added to nouns ans verbs, expand their meaning or add new ones".
(LB0-312): "After studying simple particles, it would only be normal to analyze compound ones, because the meaning they have in isolation differs from the meaning they have when added to the same verb; however, this would be such an arduous task that it would require many reams of paper. Such a complex machinery of particles and different combinations might discourage the potential student of this language. So, I will leave this to usage, the master of all things. Here I will deal only with some compound particles which, in my view, and more necessary than others". Bertonio wrote this after having devoted a whole chapter to a very through study of 54 simple particles (infixes and verbal suffixes). Unforunately, he was unable, because of failing health, to procees with the same througness in his chapter on compound particles.
Bertonio was fully aware of the importance of the position ans order of particles, which is now referred to as the non-commutativity of particles, especially those playing the role of logical operators. This can be seen in the following paragraph:
(LB0-316) "The relative positions of particles when added to a verb, is as important as knowing which particles can be combined with which, because if some symbol particles are not arranged in their correct order, the verb's meaning is as confusing as if the wrong particles were used. Anyone who wants to learn the language well, and know in which order the particles must be attached to the verb should be guided by usage and common sense".
Among other things, those who say that Aymara has no future argue that this language cannot convey abstract concepts. Ludovico Bertonio held just the opposite view. After scussing some rules for forming so-called abstract nouns he asserts overwhelmingly: "...and, thus, it is easier to find abstract nouns in this language, and there are more of them than in Latin or Spanish (LB0-259).
------------------------------
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/01/world/old-andes-language-finds-niche-in-computer-age.html
OLD ANDES LANGUAGE FINDS NICHE IN COMPUTER AGE
By MARLISE SIMONS
Published: December 1, 1984
LA PAZ, Bolivia— As a boy, Ivan Guzman de Rojas would roam among the alpaca herds and mud huts of the high Andes with his father, at the time Bolivia's best-known painter of the Indians known as the Aymaras.
''My father would tell me, this is a rich culture,'' Mr. Guzman recalled of the Aymaras. ''Don't be fooled just because its appearance is poor.''
Now, 40 years later, Mr. Guzman says he has made discoveries that support his father's claim, although in an entirely unexpected way. He has concluded that the ancient Aymara language is an ideal tool for the computer.
Mr. Guzman, a German-educated mathematician, says that because of the unusual structure of the Aymara language, he has been able to convert it into an algebraic code. By using this code as an interface, or bridge, in the computer, he claims to have developed the beginnings of a multilanguage translation system. Several experts who have seen Mr. Guzman's work say he may be on the verge of a breakthrough in computer linguistics.
The Problem of Idioms
Computer translation, a field of research in which manufacturers have already invested millions of dollars, has always been hampered by the nature of human language, which is too whimsical and filled with ambiguities and hard-to-translate idioms to be handled easily by a machine.
But Mr. Guzman's formula, some experts say, deals with language in a mathematical way.
''Basically, I found a way to teach the computer any grammar by using the Aymara syntax,'' Mr. Guzman said.
In his home, along one of the capital's steep streets, the soft-spoken, 50- year-old scientist quickly turned passionate when referring to his research into Aymara, which he calls a ''hobby that now dominates my life.''
''The language is beautiful,'' Mr. Guzman said, holding the first known dictionary of Aymara, which was compiled by a Jesuit in the 16th century. ''It is a very fine piece of logic, so compact and orderly, so well-conceived, you might think it was designed.''
Aymara is related to Quechua - a language more widely spoken by Indians in South America - and is believed to be between three and five millennia old. Mr. Guzman said Aymara uses no irregular verbs or gender but builds ideas and sentences by adding strings of suffixes to root words. Language of 2.5 Million Indians
Mr. Guzman said he began his work with Aymara largely in an effort to generate respect for the neglected culture and dying language of 2.5 million mostly illiterate Indians in the highlands of Bolivia and Peru.
Anthropologists and computer experts, he said, at first laughed at his claim that an ancient language was a fine mathematical tool. But as he developed his translation system and outsiders began to show interest, this has taken over most of his spare time.
He works on borrowed computers, usually on weekends or late at night. Although he founded and headed the Institute for Science Research at the University of La Paz, political in-fighting forced him to resign. Since then he has supported his five children by working as a consultant in accounting systems.
Several organizations in the United States, including Wang Computers of Lowell, Mass., have invited Mr. Guzman to the United States for demonstrations.
''Guzman's approach is extremely original,'' said Miguel Brazao, head of one of Wang's research and development divisions. ''It is the only program that uses mathematics to go from one language to another. It is based on the algorithmic structure of Aymara. It is small and exceptionally fast and goes much further than the translation systems I'm familiar with.''
...
