Filippo Salvatore Gilii

Filippo Salvatore Gilii Spanish Felipe Salvator Gilij (* 1721 in Norcia , † 1789 in Rome ) was an Italian Jesuit who worked in the viceroyalty of New Granada on the Orinoco in what is now Venezuela . Gilii was a recognized figure in linguistics in South America for his studies of the nature of languages .

Life

Gilii was born in Norcia , Umbria . At the age of twenty he entered the Jesuit order and was sent to South America after completing his studies. He worked in the Amazon region and undertook linguistic and ethnic studies of various Indian tribes on the Orinokoufer. He later went to Bogotá , where he lived for eight years. In 1767 he had to return to Italy because the Spanish government had ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits from America.

Gilii died in Rome in 1789.

plant

Most of our information about the Tamanaks comes from Gilii's records . He recognized the equivalence of sounds, e.g. B. between s: t͡ʃ: ʃ , in the Carib languages . According to his findings, the languages ​​in the Orinoco region included nine "root languages " or language families . He proposed one of the first classifications of South American language families.

1. Carib
2. Saliva
3. Maipure
4. Otomaca & Taparita (Otomaco)
5. Guama & Quaquáro (Guamo)
6. Guahibo
7. Yaruro
8. Guaraúno (Warao)
9. Aruáco

literature

• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America . New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1 .
• Del Rey Fajardo, José. (1971). Aportes jesuíticos a la filología colonial venezolana (Vols. 1-2). Caracas: Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Seminario de Lenguas Indígenas.
• Denevan, William M. (1968). Review of Ensayo de historia americana by Felipe Salvador Gilij & El Orinoco ilustrado y defendido by P. Jose Gumilla. The Hispanic American Historical Review , 48 (2), 288-290.
• Durbin, Marshall. (1977). A survey of the Carib language family. In EB Basso (Ed.), Carib-speaking Indians: Culture, society and language (pp. 23-38). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
• Gilij, Filippo S. (1780-1784). Sagio di storia americana; o sia, storia naturale, civile e sacra de regni, e delle provincie spagnuole di Terra-Ferma nell 'America Meridionale descritto dall' abate FS Gilij (Vols. 1–4). Rome: Perigio. (Republished as Gilij 1965).
• Gilij, Filippo S. (1965). Ensayo de historia americana . Tovar, Antonio (Trans.). Fuentes para la historia colonial de Venezuela (Vols. 71-73). Caracas: Biblioteca de la Academia Nacional de la Historia.
• Gray, E .; & Fiering, N. (Eds.). (2000). The language encounter in the Americas, 1492-1800: A collection of essays . New York: Berghahn Books.
• Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages . Los Angeles: Latin American Studies Center, University of California.

Web links

• Indigenous language literature