Lonely Planet Quechua Phrasebook [Paperback]

Serafin Coronel-Molina (Author)

Book Description

Series: Phrasebook | Publication Date: October 1, 2002

Legs aching and feeling ravenous from the trek, you wonder if you'll be pitching your karpa from one more night. Suddenly the truck stops and it's clear that lawa and kuka mati are on the cards. 'Anay Tayta' you say gratefully with a full belly, and that's when your dinner host offers you a bed for the night... You realize it's true - a few Quechua words can work wonders!

In This Guide:

Your key to genuine encounters with Quechua speakers.
Cover all your travel needs in the Andes - practical and cultural.
Sections on trekking, homestays and Andean cuisine.
Detailed grammar chapter helps you harness the language.
Easy-to-use pronunciation guide throughout.

Editorial Reviews

Review

National Geographic Traveler, September 2006
'Lonely Planet Phrasebooks. Portable, pocket-size, cheap, and available for almost any country you might want to visit...'

Language Notes

Text: English --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 2 edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1864503815
• ISBN-13: 978-1864503814
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 3.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,358,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quechua Learners Advised to Start Here, February 8, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Pomona, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Quechua Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Phrasebook: India) (Paperback)

If you want to learn the language of the Incas, you won't find yourself well served by the book publishing industry. Even if you were to ask for a grammar on Quechua in one of the little bookshops in Cuzco, you'd likely receive a Quechua/Spanish pamphlet used to teach Andean children Spanish, and written by priest with grammatical terminology more appropriate to Latin.

We English speakers, however, are fortunate to have this little phrasebook. Although I would have preferred something with much greater depth, I have to admit that as an absolute beginner, I'm best off starting here. The words chosen are those of use to the tourist and trekker. It's more than a phrasebook in that it gives the reader some insight into and practice with Quechua's suffixes, which are critical for mastery of the language. My one complaint is the pronunciation guide, which describes as 'plosives' sounds which are properly called 'ejectives'. I grant you these are arcane linguistic terms, but they are meaningful to a few of us....

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to use, covers a lot of material, inexpensive, April 21, 2002

By 

lynn98109 "lynn98109" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Quechua Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Phrasebook: India) (Paperback)

This easy-to-use reference shows how the words are built, with things like verb endings, infixes, suffixes. It's small, but it has a lot of useful material; for the price it's OUTSTANDING.

The SECOND edition is completely revised, by a different author (excellent teaching credentials), vastly more material -- both more gramatical info, and a wealth of additional vocabulary, plus there is also a Quechua-English section as well as English-Quechua, making it an even more valuable reference.

Some things are perhaps because Lonely Planet has standardized them -- I doubt you'll be asking anyone for a date in Quechua -- but it's still material to practice breaking apart the pieces.

I love the illustrations!

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good short introduction to Basic Quechua for Tourists, April 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lonely Planet Quechua Phrasebook (Lonely Planet Phrasebook: India) (Paperback)

Teaches the phrases a tourist would use to travel in the Andes. You won't be able to carry on much of a conversation, But the natives will warm up to you for trying.