CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1-1 Demography

1-1.1 Number and location of speakers

Aymara is spoken on the high Andean plains of
Peru and Bolivia from the northern tip of Lake Titicaca
to the Uyuni salt flats south of Lake Poopé (see Figure
1-1). Southwest of Lake Titicaca it is spoken in the
upper reaches of some of the many river valleys that
descend to the Pacific coast, and to the east it extends
into the subtropical Yungas valleys, but its domain is
primarily the altiplano.

The majority of native speakers of Aymara today
are Bolivians and constitute approximately a third of
the Bolivian population (Hardman et al. 1975:3.2). As
the total estimated population of Bolivia in 1973 was
5.3 million (U. S. Department of State 1974:1), Bolivian
Aymara alone may account for well over a million and
a half speakers.

In Peru, according to the national census of 1961,

persons for whom Aymara was the first (maternal) language