Southern Quechua

Southern Quechua
Quechua II-C
Qhichwa
Native to	Peru, Bolivia
Region	Andes
Ethnicity	Quechua, Qulla
Native speakers	(6 million cited 1987–2002)
Language family	Quechuan Quechua II Southern Quechua
Dialects	Ayacucho Cusco Puno (Collao) North Bolivian South Bolivian     Santiagueño
Writing system	Latin script
Official status
Regulated by	none (Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: qwc – Classical Quechua quy – Ayacucho Quechua qxu – Arequipa-La Unión Quechua quz – Cusco Quechua qve – Eastern Apurímac Quechua qxp – Puno Quechua (Collao) qul – North Bolivian Quechua (Apolo) quh – South Bolivian Quechua cqu – Chilean Quechua qus – Santiagueño Quechua
Glottolog	quec1389
Distribution of Quechua sub-groups. Southern Quechua is shown in blue.

Southern Quechua (Spanish: quechua sureño), or simply Quechua, is the most widely spoken of the major regional groupings of mutually intelligible dialects within the Quechua language family, with about 6.9 million speakers. It is also the most widely spoken indigenous language in the entire New World. The term Southern Quechua refers to the Quechuan varieties spoken in regions of the Andes south of a line roughly east-west between the cities of Huancayo and Huancavelica in central Peru. It includes the Quechua varieties spoken in the regions of Ayacucho, Cusco and Puno in Peru, in much of Bolivia and parts of north-west Argentina. The most widely spoken varieties are South Bolivian, Cusco, Ayacucho, and Puno (Collao).

In the traditional classification of the Quechua language family by Alfredo Torero, Southern Quechua is equivalent to Torero's 'Quechua IIc' (or just 'QIIc'). It thus stands in contrast to its many sister varieties within the wider Quechuan family that are spoken in areas north of the Huancayo-Huancavelica line: Central Quechua (Torero's QI) spoken from Huancayo northwards to the Ancash Region; North Peruvian Quechua around Cajamarca and Incahuasi (Torero's IIa); and Kichwa (part of Torero's Quechua IIb).

Dialects are Ayacucho Quechua, Cusco Quechua, Puno Quechua (Collao Quechua), North Bolivian Quechua (Apolo Quechua), and South Bolivian Quechua. Santiagueño Quechua in Argentina is divergent, and appears to derive from a mix of dialects, including South Bolivian.