Agustín Quintana (c. 1660 – 1734) was a missionary and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

indigenous languages An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by its indigenous peoples. Indigenous languages are not necessarily national languages but they can be; for example, Aymara is both an indigeno ...

Biography

Born in

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, he entered the

Order of Preachers The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilian priest named Dominic de Guzmán. It was approved by Pope Honorius ...

in 1688 and was soon sent as a missionary priest to the Mixe Indians of southern Oaxaca. He lived and worked among them for twenty-eight years, mastering their language to a degree never before attained by anyone of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an descent. He was later appointed superior of the convent of Zacavila, but soon retired to the main convent in

Antequera Antequera () is a city and municipality in the Comarca de Antequera, province of Málaga, part of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is known as "the heart of Andalusia" (''el corazón de An ...

due to poor health. He devoted the rest of his life to writing in the

Mixe language The Mixe languages are languages of the Mixean branch of the Mixe–Zoquean language family indigenous to southern Mexico. According to a 1995 classification, there are seven of them (including one that is extinct). The four that are spoken in ...

which are the earliest publications in that language. In spite of age and infirmity, he made several journeys to

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

to supervise publishing of his writing. His most noted works were a grammar and a series of essays on the principal articles of the Christian faith, under the title "Institución cristiana, que contiene el Arte de la Lengua Mije etc." (Puebla, 1729).

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quintana, Agustin 1734 deaths Mexican Dominicans Linguists from Mexico Mexican Roman Catholic missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in New Spain Year of birth uncertain People from Oaxaca Missionary linguists 1660s births