In researching the required character set for Quechua,
@Frode Bo Helland and I have come across a very weird ‘requirement’ on Wikipedia: the Ø is supposedly used in loan words. In this current version, the Ø/ø is written in Quechua loanwords and is pronounced ⟨d⟩
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This made no sense to me as a phonetic transcription, or even as a fluke, like a typical case of linguists having to make do. Instead, I think a young Wikipedia editor made an uninformed edit three years ago (sadly, he is long retired, so I can’t ask for motivations).
Now, this is just based on a hunch which is based on someone else’s hunch, but I don’t think Quechua uses Ø/ø, and doesn’t pronounce it ⟨d⟩. Is there anyone who can confirm or elucidate? If we find a common ground, I think we have good cause to change the Wiki entry.
Comments
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/quechua.htm
However, given that they're not already using the letter d, I really don't see why they'd want to malappropriate ø for the purpose.
So what I’m hoping is that somebody has a quality source on the loanword issue, or that a native speaker can chime in. That way we can correct a Wikipedia article that incorrectly details the language of eight million people – a good use of time, I’d say.
Many times, English Wikipedia is not the best source of information. For South- and Central-American native languages, Spanish Wikipedia articles use to be much more complete as it is the main language for the whole region. Even if one does not speak Spanish, it is usually possible to identify the alphabet (as for Quechua).
Other relevant sources: Runasimi, WALS, Etnolinguistica, Ethnologue, OLAC.