Aymara

Aymara (also spelled Aimara)[3] is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes. It is one of only a handful of Native American languages with over three million speakers. Aymara, along with Quechua and Spanish, is an official language of Bolivia and Peru. It is also spoken, to a much lesser extent, by some communities in northern Chile and Argentina. Some linguists have claimed that Aymara is related to its more widely spoken neighbor, Quechua. However, this claim is disputed and the evidence is not conclusive. Aymara is an agglutinating and, to a certain extent, a polysynthetic language. It has a subject–object–verb word order. It is notable for its use of ejectives and for its use of a series of abessive suffixes, which are not found in any other Native American language. The Aymara language has been in decline since the 18th century due to the Spanish government's policies of forced assimilation and suppression of indigenous languages and cultures. However, in recent years there has been a resurgence in Aymara language and culture. This has been partly due to the work of Aymara linguists and educators, as well as the increased use of Aymara in the media and in the government.