Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/356

316 shows the extent to which the general language had been made to prevail in Colla-suyu, or else that the language of the Collas and Lupacas was merely a dialect. My conclusion is that it was originally the distinct language of tribes living in the region which was once the centre of the great megalithic empire. It is just as the Arabs now encamp among the ruins of Babylon, and the Kurds build huts within the walls of Ecbatana. The auxiliary verb in the Colla-suyu language has the same root, can, as in the general language; but the particles forming the declinations of nouns and conjugations of verbs are different. The first person singular indicative ends in Ni in the general language, in Tha in the language of Colla-suyu. Four of the Colla numerals are borrowed from the general language, the rest, beyond six, being compound.

Three and five are missing, but we may assume that they once existed in the Colla language, for the Collas must have counted at least to five, the fingers and thumb of one hand. Three, five, and six were borrowed from the general language in Bertonio's dictionary. The Colla word for three is lost. Seven, eight, and nine are compound words, seven and eight with the word Allco. Possibly Allco was the Colla five. Then we have—

The tribes of Colla-suyu made progress in civilisation after the Inca conquest, and of course required a more complete system of numeration.

It may be assumed, judging from the dictionaries of Bertonio and Torres Rubio, that the extension of the