Ecuadorian Highland Quichua and the Lost Languages of the Northern Andes

In the early Spanish colonial period, the territory of Quito underwent a large-scale shift from multiple pre-Incan languages to a Quechuan language first introduced by the Incas and then adopted by the Spanish as the general language of colonial society. This article considers the evidence that these languages left linguistic effects that can still be detected in modern Ecuadorian Highland Quichua, contributing a large lexicon of non-Quechuan toponyms and influencing the development of unique morphosyntactic and phonological features that contrast with Peruvian Quechuan languages. It is concluded that there is considerable evidence that the toponymic lexicon of Quichua includes large numbers of cognate forms with modern Barbacoan languages and that many of the unique linguistic features of Ecuadorian Highland Quichua are similar to features of the Barbacoan languages, suggesting historical Barbacoan influence.