I was watching a Nova special the other night…
So when the Spanish explorer Pizzaro arrived I believe he was the first Spaniard to meet with the Incas. If he was, how did he communicate with them? If he wasn’t, someone had to be. Since the Incas didn’t speak Spanish, and the Spanish wouldn’t know Incan, I can’t see how they could have communicated at all, other than with simple hand jesters. So how did that work exactly? Was there possibly a third language that they both might happen to know?
This is the same problem faced by Cortez and the Incas, or any other new conqueror.
I don’t know about Pizarro, but I believe Bernal Diaz says that Cortez used translators from tribes along the coast who knew Aztec. How were they able to talk to THEM? I suspect that there were sufficient semi-bi-lingual natives by then (this was circa 20 years after Columbus) , due to Spanish exploring, landing, trading, etc. Probably they 'leapgfrogged" native languages from one place to another, getting those familiar with two dialects to act as secondary interpreters and the like.
Sounds like an inexact science at best… I’m amazed that it worked as well as it must have!
Pizarro had captured some Incas prior to the invasion, and taught them Spanish.
Bernal Diaz’s A True History of the Conquest of New Spain is a facinating read if you are into this kind of thing. He was a common soldier under Cortez and was present for almost the entire campaign. A great book and you should be able to get a used copy on Amazon for just a few dollars… but I digress
In Cortez’s case when he came ashore in Mexico he began searching for translators. He found several Spanish sailors that had been shipwrecked years ago and taken in by various tribes. Most were happy to help him, but one told Cortez that he was an Indian war chief now and Cortez should go buzz off. I think Cortez had him executed, but don’t remember for sure.
“Hand jesters”? You mean like finger puppets? How would that have helped?
… :smack: Oh, you mean hand gestures.
Shame really, the mental picture of Spanish conquistadors and Incan royalty waving little finger puppets at one another in an attempt to communicate was rather a charming one. 
Wouldn’t Pizarro have had a Native guide, who could speak some form of trade tongue, if not the Incan language?
The universal language of sock puppets crosses all cultural barriors.
The Conquest of Peru in 1532 wasn’t Pizarro’s first foray down the coast, but rather his third, the first being in 1524. On the second, in 1526-1528, he captured Felipillo, who became his most important interpreter (though often not a reliable one). Felipillo knew several native languages, and had had plenty of time to learn some Spanish before Pizarro’s final expedition.
See also: Francisco Pizarro - Wikipedia
For the record, a quick bit of vocabulary: “Inca” literally references the chief honcho of the pre-Pizarro Andean empire, secondarily the noble class to which he and his henchdudes belonged, and only by extension the whole empire, its language, etc.
As far as language goes, there’s a close parallel to “Mandarin,” which is both the English usage for Guoyu, the principal Han language of northern China, and the term for the ruling class in their pre-WWI empire. Likewise, “Inca” is both colloquially used for Quechua, the principal indigenous language of Andean Peru and Ecuador, and the proper name for both Manco Capac, Atahualpa, and their predecessors and successors, and the elite class to which they belonged and who aided in governing their empire.
But technically what Pizarro needed his stuff translated into was Quechua (Ketch-Wa, more or less rhyming with Chris Benoit), not “Inca” except as the most colloquial of usages. (Farther south and inland, Quechua gives way to the closely related Aymara language, also something of a lingua franca for the Inca Empire.)
Cortez found Gerónimo de Aguilar, but there was the snag that, while he had learnt Mayan during his time shipwrecked in the Yucatan, he couldn’t speak Nahuatl. The expedition therefore became dependent on La Malinche. She initially didn’t know Spanish, but could translate Nahuatl to Aguilar, who could then translate it to Cortez. In time she picked up Spanish, simplifying the chain.
This sort of improvised arrangement was pretty typical. Related versions of the question have been regularly asked before - an earlier, more general thread on the subject of explorers and translation.
Actually, the person I met who is from Ecuador told me his first language was Kichwa, then Spanish, and finally English. (kee-chwa, rhymes with see.) He works for Kawsay, an orginization working for the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Didn’t they have a thing called "hand jiving " during the rock and roll years ,if they were sitting in a diner and couldn’t physically dance to a record they danced with their hands .
Maybe when the finger puppets had finished with diplomatic negotiation they hand jived to be sociable and who knows maybe even had sex ?
Or would that count as masturbation?