706

As indicated in 8-2.22, the noun awki has acquired
association with dogs in such expressions as Awki.ma.sti
‘And (how is) your father?' To Vasquez, when the plural
suffix -naka is added to awki (or even to the noun tata
‘father') the insult is compounded, as in the following
(Wexler 1967:21):

*awki.naka.ni.:.ta.ti?

2>3

S
This is intended to translate the Spanish inquiry to a
child, ‘Do you have parents?', i.e., ‘Are your parents
living?' According to Vasquez such a question is culturally
incorrect, as it is not something one would usually ask a
person, even a child,directly. Secondly, awki ‘father' is
here misused to translate Spanish padre in the sense of
‘parent’. Finally, adding -naka to awki gives the meaning
"Do you have fathers?" which is like saying 'Does your

mother know who your father is?'
9-6.2 Other semantic peculiarities

There are other semantic peculiarities in Missionary
and Patrén Aymara that may not be attributable to failure
to recognize linguistic postulates but are nevertheless
offensive to speakers of other dialects. An example is
use of the noun yugalla, which has derogatory connotations

in most dialects unless it occurs followed by wawa ‘child'