Andrés de Olmos (c.1485 – 8 October 1571) was a Spanish

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

priest and grammarian and ethno-historian of Mexico's indigenous languages and peoples. He was born in

Oña Oña is a municipality and town located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2011 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 1,219 inhabitants. Main sights * Benedictine monastery of San Salvador de Oñ ...

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of t ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and died in

Tampico Tampico is a city and port in the southeastern part of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. It is located on the north bank of the Pánuco River, about inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and directly north of the state of Veracruz. Tampico is the fifth ...

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

(modern-day

Tampico, Tamaulipas Tampico is a city and port in the southeastern part of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. It is located on the north bank of the Pánuco River, about inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and directly north of the state of Veracruz. Tampico is the fift ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

). He is best known for his grammar, the first in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

, of the

Classical Nahuatl Classical Nahuatl (also known simply as Aztec or Nahuatl) is any of the variants of Nahuatl spoken in the Valley of Mexico and central Mexico as a ''lingua franca'' at the time of the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. During the s ...

language.

Life

Andrés de Olmos in early youth went to live with a married sister in Olmos, whence his name. He entered the Franciscan convent in

Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...

and was ordained a priest. He was appointed an assistant to Fray

Juan de Zumárraga Juan de Zumárraga, OFM (1468 – June 3, 1548) was a Spanish Basque Franciscan prelate and the first Bishop of Mexico. He was also the region's first inquisitor. He wrote ''Doctrina breve'', the first book published in the Western Hemispher ...

in 1527, and accompanied Zumárraga when the latter was sent by the Emperor

Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Infan ...

in 1528 to be the first bishop of

. As early as 1533 Olmos was recognized as unusually adept in the Nahuatl language, and well-informed about the history and customs of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples. He contributed to the founding in 1536 of the

Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco The Colegio de Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, is the first and oldest European school of higher learning in the Americas and the first major school of interpreters and translators in the New World. It was established by the Franciscans ...

, the first European-based institution of higher learning in the New World. Olmos wrote a book, unfortunately lost, about the pre-Hispanic history, beliefs and religious practices of Mexico (some have suggested that this work might be the mysterious

Crónica X ''"Crónica X"'' () is the name given by Mesoamerican researchers to a postulated primary-source early 16th century historical work on the traditional history of the Aztec and other central Mexican peoples, which some researchers theorize formed t ...

). He also published a collection of ''Huehuetlahtolli'', moral instruction from Nahuatl-speaking elders to their juniors, expressed in a highly stylized and polished, high-register language. He wrote several sermons in Nahuatl which have survived. But he is best known for his '' Arte para aprender la lengua mexicana'', completed in 1547. Although it was based on his own and others' previously written notes about

Classical Nahuatl grammar The grammar of Classical Nahuatl is Agglutinative language, agglutinative, Head-marking language, head-marking, and makes extensive use of compounding, noun incorporation and derivation. That is, it can add many different Prefix (linguistics), pref ...

, this was the first relatively complete grammatical description of an indigenous language of the New World. It antedates, by three years, the first grammatical description of the French language (by Louis Maigret in 1550). Olmos also published a ''Nahuatl Vocabulary''. Much of his work on the ''Arte'' and the ''Vocabulary'' was done in Hueytlalpan, in

Totonac The Totonac are an indigenous people of Mexico who reside in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo. They are one of the possible builders of the pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and further maintained quarters in Teotihuacán (a city wh ...

country, where he settled . There Olmos learned

, and published an ''Arte'' and Vocabulary in that language: unfortunately these are lost. In 1554, he moved to the

Huasteca La Huasteca is a geographical and cultural region located partially along the Gulf of Mexico and including parts of the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro and Guanajuato. It is roughly defined as the a ...

region, where he learned the

Huastec Huastec can refer to either: *Huastec people, an indigenous group of Mexico *Huastec language (also called "Wasteko" and "Teenek"), spoken by the Huastec people * Huastec civilization The Huastec civilization (sometimes spelled Huaxtec or Wastek ...

or Teenek language, and wrote yet another ''Arte'' and Vocabulary describing it.

Significance

Nahuatl,

and

are from completely different linguistic stocks and represent three of the most important of Mexico's twenty language families. To describe the grammars, and initiate the lexical descriptions, of three such disparate languages is an extraordinary feat; very much more to be the first to do so. Olmos' work, particularly the ''Arte para aprender la lengua mexicana'', was the model for many other Artes that followed on Nahuatl and other languages of the New World.

References

* Olmos, Fray Andrés de. 1547. ''Arte de la Lengua Mexicana''. Edición, estudio introductorio, transliteración y notas de Ascensión Hernández de León-Portilla y

Miguel León-Portilla Miguel León-Portilla (22 February 1926 – 1 October 2019) was a Mexican anthropologist and historian, specializing in Aztec culture and literature of the pre-Columbian and colonial eras. Many of his works were translated to English and he was ...

. 2002. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). {{DEFAULTSORT:Olmos, Andres de 1480s births 1571 deaths Spanish Franciscans Missionary linguists Nahuatl-language writers Linguists of Mesoamerican languages Aztec scholars Novohispanic Mesoamericanists 16th-century Mesoamericanists Linguists of Uto-Aztecan languages