Aymara belongs to the Jaqi family of languages
whose other extant members are Jaqaru and Kawki, spoken
in the department of Lima, Peru. The relationship of
Aymara to Quechua, the other major Andean language, is
undetermined. Dialects of Aymara have not hitherto
been systematically studied, although dialectal variation
has been known to exist since colonial times. The present
study was conceived to begin the task of determining the
extent and character of dialectal variation in Aymara.

Based cn research in ten Aymara communities and
incorporating data from a survey of the literature from
colonial times to the present, this study examines
regional variation in phonology, morphophonemics, mor-
phology, syntax and morphosyntax, and semantics, and
three translation dialects not specific to any one region:
Missionary, Patr6n, and Radio Aymara. The appendices
include the elicitation list used in fieldwork, a list
of onomatopoeic particles, regional versions of greetings,
a brief dialogue, a saying, and a riddle, and an index
of suffixes.

The study confirms that all dialects share the
basic structures attributed to two La Paz dialects in
earlier studies by M. J. Hardman and associates at the
University of Florida. Aymara is a polysynthetic language

in which suffixes play not only morphological but also

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