4
"Four aajor tranda
were
emphalizeds (a)
a
trend toward the ability of
~uechuas
to
apeak,
read, and wrtte soma Spaniah, with an accompanying increase
of Spaniah loan
a
in their language; (b) a trend toward
Qua
eh,. lay authorahip;
(e)
a trend toWBrd the initiation of adult vernacular literacy campaio>s:
(d)
a
trend toward linguistically consistent (i.e, phonemic) alphabets adaptad
to the nativa peychology,
.A.n
asseasment of theee trenda indicated the im–
portance of having
any
alphabet takB advantage of them to ald in ita dissamina–
tion, and to avoid any conflict with them where at all possibla.
Soma
means
by which alphabate could be confol'!lllld to the trands, however, could not be
completely reconc1led. Thua, complete conformation to the Spanish alphabet
and to a phonemlc alpbabet at the
eame
time la imposslble because there are
more sounde in Quechua than there are lettera of the Spaniah alphabet.
In
general, howaver, the daslre of the conference
wu
to reconcile theae adapt&–
ticna wherever possible. Soma of the specific desires proq>ted by this
situation are given below.
"(1)
The de aire to approximate Spanlah: The neceasity for approximsting
Spaniah
ia
found in the presant oultunol educational eituation of Ecuador,
Bolivia, and Paru.
T~re
la a atrong trend toward the reading of gpaniah by
the Indiana. Thie is atrongly
promulg~>ted
by teaching in the echoola, but use
in the courts and in the economic proceed1ngs
of
the country influences thie
aa wan.
llany of theee people have learned to read 801119 Spaniah even thougb
they do not underatand all of tha material which they are able to read. Thls
meane that for the inmediata future--before thare
1s
a etrong church establiehed
which can read
~uach1Jil
fluently--that tbere
1B
already
a
minority group for the
New Testamsnt who can read Spaniah
1f
the alphabet is suffioiently adapte¡! to
the ability of thaee Indiana to racognize Spaniah chamcters.
"(3)
The deaire for an alphabet adaptad to the reading campaigns:
There la
auch a huge proportion of illiterates arr.ong ths Quechua spaaldng IndianR t.bst
there
18
a
~st
lncanti
ve
to teach them to rasd.
It
would appear from
t hc
iq>ending
ca~signa
of Dr. Laubach that tbare will be considerable efforts to
do so.
In tbat case
1t
la desirable to bave an alpbabet that la conslstant
and aa aiq>le as possibla for primer use,
"(3)
The deaire for en alphabet adaptad to the needs of advsnced readers:
Looldng fol"'llrd to a t11119 when thera will be a large public which is wall–
veraed in reading Quechua, the conference could not afford to omit eymbols
representing sounds foreign to Spaniah
ai~ly
becauee st the moment Quechua
readers of Spanieh who were couplete beginnera migbt get little or no value
from them, Bllthar
1t
becomes necessary
to
hava an alpbabet which allows the
worda
to
refleet the atructure of the language,
so
that sdvsnced resders will
find aatiafaction and
ease
of readlng because of satisfactory corraspondence
batwean sound and aymbol.
If such
a
aaund-eymbol relatlonship is lacldng,
the reader must guess st the words from lmown context, or muet memcrize lerge
numbars of arbittery spelllngs.
11'1th a phonemic spelling, on the other hand,
ha 1a able to read the sounds diractly, without awkward guessing or laborious
msmorization. Thh
e~haeized
the necessity for eymbolizing all of ths
aound
un1
ta,
"(4)
Tha
de sira for sn alphabet esailY printable in South
Ame
rica:
Inasmu.chaa
tbere
na a
oonalderable amount of evldence tbat authors are dsveloplng in
the• countrtee who mi¡;,t produce material for looal consumption,
1t was seen
that no alphabat could suffice tbat waa too awkward in typs, lnasmu.ch as local