Editing Charango (section)

===Etymology===

[[File:Horniman_instruments_06.jpg|thumb|Charango in the Horniman museum, London, UK.]]
The origin of the term "charango" is not entirely clear.  One source suggests that the instrument took its name from its players, who were called ''charangeros'', meaning "someone of questionable character and low morals".<ref>{{cite book |last=Candaleria |first=Cordelia |title=Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture, Volume I |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |location=Westport |year=2004 |page=427}}</ref> Another traces the term to the alteration of a Spanish term, ''charanga'', which could refer to either a type of military music played on wind instruments, or an out-of-tune orchestra.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Machpherson |editor-first=A. |title=Webster's Etymological Dictionary |publisher=Ulan Press |location=Rochester |year=2012}}</ref> Charanguista Alfredo Coca, offers yet a third theory:  asserting that "charango" comes from a Spanish corruption of the Quechua word “Chajwaku”, which means joy, noisy, boisterous, referring directly to the sound of the charango.  As support for this he points to the common practice of the Conquistadors appropriating local terminology.

Charanguista [[Ernesto Cavour]] disagrees, and tends to support the second origin, maintaining that the word “charango” comes from a mispronunciation of the Spanish word “charanga”, meaning "brass band" (a reasonable corollary to 'military music played on wind instruments').<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cocha-banner.org/issues/2012/may/long/ |title=Long Live the Charango! |access-date=2016-08-15 |archive-date=2016-08-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826124102/http://www.cocha-banner.org/issues/2012/may/long/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

One of the most complete contemporary statements on the origin of the term "charango" appears in the introduction to Duran and Pedrotti's, ''Charango Method'', ostensibly the first complete, bilingual charango method to be published:

:"Charango" in an Ibero-American colonial term that refers to a series of Spanish-American cultural concepts related to "noise" and rustically constructed objects.  The term "charanga", for example, was often used to refer to a small instrumental band.  "Charanguero", meanwhile, denoted something rough or rustic.  In his book ''El charango, su vida, costumbres y desaventuras'', Ernesto Cavour has collected a large amount of information regarding the etymology of the word "charango".  As this author related:
:::"In the rural areas of Andean Bolivia, the instrument is not only known by the name "charango", but by many others as well, including:  mediana, guitarrilla, thalachi, quirqui, p'alta, khonkhota, aiquileno, guitarron, anzaldeno, etc. ..."
:An Uruguan publication from 1823 uses the term "changango" as a synonym for the Argentine "charango", and claims the same word was used during the eighteenth century to refer to old and poorly constructed guitars:
:::"...In Argentina they speak of the Charango, a guitar with five doubled strings and a body made from the shell of an Armadillo.  Nevertheless, the small Spanish-American guitar has been known by the name changango for more than one hundred years.  In a footnote to his correspondence with [[Paulino Lucero]] regarding the [[Great War]], Hilario Ascasubi explains this situation with indisputable clarity:  "Changango: an old, poorly made guitar".
:::(Excerpt from the newspaper "El Domador", Montecivideo, 19 March 1823).
:Julio Mendivil engages in a similarly detailed discussion of this issue in his article ''La construccion de la historia:  el charango en la memoria colectiva mestiza ayacuchana'', Musicology Institut/University of Colonia."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Duran |first1=Horatio |last2=Pedrotti |first2=Italo |title=Charango Method |publisher=Mel Bay Publications |location=Pacific, MO |year=2010}}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2017}}