[PW] Como se llaman las llamas?

[John P. Dyson]

Quoting Douglas Anderson <doug.anderson at cacl.info>:

> This is for me, so there is no rush.
>
> In English, for many species, there are particular terms for the male,
> female, and offspring -- such as "billy", "nanny", and "kid" for
> goats, or "buck," "doe", and "bunny" for rabbits, etc.  There are also
> specialized terms for groups of animals that vary by the type of
> animal, such as "school", "pack", "pod", and the like.
>
> My question is this:  Are there equivalent terms in Spanish for
> llamas?  Our Spanish-language encyclopedia (Hispánica) only uses the
> terms "macho" ("male") for the male and "hembra" ("female") for the
> female, and calls a herd a "rebaño" ("flock").  I've seen sites that
> refer to the young as "crías".  But do there exist terms more specific
> to llamas than these?
>
> The English-language sources I've found refer only to "males" and
> "females", with either "babies", "young" or "crías" for the offspring,
> and "herd" for the herd.  I've not found any mention of specialized
> terms.
>
> Can anyone identify such terms for me in Spanish?  (English-language
> terms or pre-Columbian terms would also be welcome, but I'm primarily
> interested in the Spanish-language terms, if they exist.)


Doug, English is especially rich in terms for groups of animals 
(murders and coveys and gaggles, oh my!). Spanish has some of that 
terminology, but apparently not with respect to llamas and their like. 
Macho, hembra and cría not only follow standard Spanish designations 
for male, female and young, but match up with the native Quechua terms 
for those animals as well.

By the way, rebaño is normally translated as herd rather than flock, so 
those who watch over sheep are called shepherds and not sheep flockers. 
At least not within ear-shot.

John Dyson