Filippo Salvatore Gilii
Encyclopedia
Filippo Salvatore Gilii (1721–1789) was an Italian Jesuit priest who lived in Nueva Granada
(in present day central Venezuela
) on the Orinoco
river. Gilii is a celebrated figure in early South American linguistics
due to his advanced insights into the nature of languages.
Gilii was born in Legogne, Italy
(Umbria
region).
Most of what is known about the ethnology
of the Tamanaco
Indians was recorded by Gilii.
' third discourse suggesting genealogical relationships between languages. Unlike Jones, Gilii presented evidence in support of his hypothesis. He also discussed areal features between unrelated languages, loanword
s (among American languages and from American languages into European languages), word order
, language death
, language origins, and nursery forms of child language (i.e. Lallwörter) discussed by Roman Jakobson
.
This classification is one of the earliest proposals of South American language families.
Viceroyalty of New Granada
The Viceroyalty of New Granada was the name given on 27 May 1717, to a Spanish colonial jurisdiction in northern South America, corresponding mainly to modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. The territory corresponding to Panama was incorporated later in 1739...
(in present day central Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
) on the Orinoco
Orinoco
The Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3% of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia...
river. Gilii is a celebrated figure in early South American linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
due to his advanced insights into the nature of languages.
Gilii was born in Legogne, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
(Umbria
Umbria
Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...
region).
Most of what is known about the ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
of the Tamanaco
Tamanaco
Tamanaco was a native Venezuelan chief, who as leader of the Mariches and Quiriquires tribes led during part of the 16th century the resistance against the Spanish conquest of Venezuelan territory in the central region of the country, specially in the Caracas valley...
Indians was recorded by Gilii.
Linguistic insights
Gilii recognized sound correspondences (e.g. between /s/ : /tʃ/ : /ʃ/ in the Cariban family) and predated William JonesWilliam Jones (philologist)
Sir William Jones was an English philologist and scholar of ancient India, particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among Indo-European languages...
' third discourse suggesting genealogical relationships between languages. Unlike Jones, Gilii presented evidence in support of his hypothesis. He also discussed areal features between unrelated languages, loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s (among American languages and from American languages into European languages), word order
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
, language death
Language death
In linguistics, language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence that speakers possess of a given language variety is decreased, eventually resulting in no native and/or fluent speakers of the variety...
, language origins, and nursery forms of child language (i.e. Lallwörter) discussed by Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson
Roman Osipovich Jakobson was a Russian linguist and literary theorist.As a pioneer of the structural analysis of language, which became the dominant trend of twentieth-century linguistics, Jakobson was among the most influential linguists of the century...
.
Gilii's nine lenguas matrices
Gilii found that the languages spoken in the Orinoco area belonged to nine "mother languages" (lenguas matrices), i.e. language families:- Caribe (Cariban)
- Sáliva (Salivan)
- Maipure (MaipureanMaipureanArawakan , also known as Maipurean , is a language family that spans from the Caribbean and Central America to every country in South America except Ecuador, Uruguay and Chile...
) - Otomaca & Taparíta (Otomacoan)
- Guama & Quaquáro (GuamoGuamoGuamo is a town and municipality in the Tolima department of Colombia. The population of the municipality was 32,416 as of the 1993 census....
) - Guahiba (Guajiboan)
- YaruroYaruroThe Yaruro are Native Americans who live primarily in Venezuela near the Orinoco River and its tributaries. Current population estimates are generally between 3,000 and 4,000. They live by hunting, fishing, agriculture, paid labor of various types, and the selling of handicrafts...
- Guaraúno (Waroa)
- Aruáco (Arhuacan)
This classification is one of the earliest proposals of South American language families.