Quechua, Ayacucho

In December of 1998, Andrés Chirinos published his article Las lenguas indígenas peruanas más allá del 2000 in Revista Andina, Año 16, No. 2, pp. 453-479, where he gives his count of mother-tongue speakers of Ayacucho Quechua, or Quechua Chanca based on the 1993 census at 1,010,650 speakers.

Now, his count of the mother-tongue speakers of all the Southern varieties of Quechua in Peru for that year totals 2,390,750.

In October of 2019, César Itier of France in his book Runasimita Yachasun: Método de quechua (variedad ayacuchana), written together with Zenobio Ortiz Cárdenas of Andahuaylas, Peru, estimated the total of all Southern Quechua speakers in Peru at approximately 3 million.

Proportionately recounted, the number of Ayacucho Quechua speakers will stand at 1,268,200.