Rufino José Cuervo Urisarri (

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

), was a Colombian writer, linguist, and philologist. He studied Latin and Greek, but the main part of his work was dedicated to the study of the dialectal variations of Spanish spoken in Colombia. About this topic, he wrote his book ''Apuntaciones críticas sobre lenguaje bogotano'' (''Critical Notes About Bogotan Language'', 1867), which is still an important reference in the study of the American Spanish language. His most important work was '' Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana'' (''Dictionary of Castilian language construction and rection''). This work is updated on a regular basis by the

Caro y Cuervo Institute The Caro and Cuervo Institute (Spanish: ''Instituto Caro y Cuervo'') is an educative centre specialising in Spanish literature, philology and linguistics, with a focus on research and promotion of reading in Colombia. The institute produces editio ...

. Cuervo also revised and republished the Spanish American grammar of Andrés Bello, ''

Castilian Grammar for Americans Castilian or Castillian may refer to: * Castile, a historic region of Spain ** Castilian people, an ethnic group from Castile ** Castilian languages, a branch of the West Iberian languages consisting of all linguistic varieties descended from ...

''. Cuervo was one of the first linguists who promoted the union of the Spanish language in its different variants. He was worried about the segregationist trend in spoken Spanish and thought that this phenomenon was similar to the events following the fall of the Roman Empire, after which Latin gradually began splitting into several independent Romance languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. In 1878 he was admitted as the Colombian representative to the

Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy ( es, Real Academia Española, generally abbreviated as RAE) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with ...

. In 1882 he moved to Paris, where he lived until his death in 1911.

References

* http://www.universia.net.co/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=5752
Rufino José Cuervo – MSN Encarta

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuervo, Rufino Jose Colombian male writers Linguists from Colombia Philologists Members of the Mexican Academy of Language Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 1844 births 1911 deaths