llama
llama
Quechua via Spanish
“Spanish conquistadors couldn't spell the Quechua word, so they doubled the L.”
In Quechua, the language of the Inca Empire, the animal was called simply llama (pronounced closer to 'ya-ma'). The llama had been domesticated in the Andes for at least 4,000 years, serving as pack animal, wool source, and — in extremis — food.
When Spanish conquistadors arrived in Peru, they encountered an animal unlike anything in Europe. They borrowed the Quechua name but struggled with the sound: the Quechua 'll' is a lateral fricative, nothing like the Spanish 'll.' They wrote it as 'llama' and hoped for the best.
The double-L in Spanish represents a different sound (traditionally 'ly' as in 'million'), so 'llama' in Spanish is pronounced quite differently from the Quechua original. The English pronunciation is different again. The word has been mispronounced its entire journey.
Today llamas have spread from the Andes to farms worldwide, and the internet has made them meme celebrities. But the word still carries its Quechua origin — a reminder of the empire that domesticated these animals millennia before Europeans saw them.
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Today
The llama has become an unlikely internet celebrity — appearing in memes, emoji, and countless t-shirts. The drama llama, the llama with no drama, the llama in pajamas.
But behind the memes is a word from a language that predates European contact, from an empire that built Machu Picchu, from a people who domesticated llamas thousands of years before alpacas became trendy. Every 'llama face' emoji carries Quechua history.
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