Spanish was imposed on the Inca Empire following Francisco Pizarro's conquest beginning in 1532, overlaying the vast Quechua-speaking administrative network of Tawantinsuyu — the most extensive pre-Columbian empire in the Americas. Quechua, which the Inca had themselves spread as a lingua franca across the Andes, was used strategically by Spanish missionaries and colonial administrators before being suppressed during the nineteenth century; it nonetheless contributed globally recognized words such as 'condor,' 'llama,' 'coca,' 'puma,' and 'quinoa' to world languages via Spanish. Andean Spanish — spoken in the highland regions of Peru — retains distinct phonological features shaped by Quechua influence, including the merger of /e/ and /i/ vowels, and a more syllable-timed rhythm compared to coastal Peruvian Spanish. Peru is constitutionally bilingual: Quechua and Aymara hold co-official status in the regions where they are predominant, and Quechua is the most widely spoken indigenous language in the Americas with roughly eight million speakers across several countries. Lima Spanish, spoken on the coast, is often regarded as a prestige variety and has been shaped by twentieth-century internal migration from the highlands.
