Armed With a Pen, and Ready to Save the IncasÂ’ Lingua Franca (fwd link)

[phil cash cash]

The New York Times

The Saturday Profile
Armed With a Pen, and Ready to Save the Incas’ Lingua Franca

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: June 7, 2008

CALLAO, Peru

“SOMEWHERE in La Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a
gentleman lived not long ago.”

Simple enough, right? But not for Demetrio Túpac Yupanqui.

Instead, he regales visitors to his home here in this gritty port city on Lima’s
edge with his Quechua version of the opening words of “Don Quixote”: “Huh k’iti,
la Mancha llahta suyupin, mana yuyarina markapin, yaqa kay watakuna kama, huh
axllasqa wiraqucha.”

Mr. Túpac Yupanqui, theologian, professor, adviser to presidents and, now, at
the sunset of his long life, a groundbreaking translator of Cervantes, greets
the perplexed reactions to these words with a wide smile.

“When people communicate in Quechua, they glow,” said Mr. Túpac Yupanqui, who at
85 still appears before his pupils each day in a tailored dark suit. “It is a
language that persists five centuries after the conquistadors arrived. We
cannot let it die.”

Access full article below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/world/americas/07tupac.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin