Giacomo Devoto (19 July 1897 – 25 December 1974) was an Italian historical linguist and one of the greatest exponents of the twentieth century of the discipline. He was born in Genoa and died in Florence.

Career

In 1939 he founded with Bruno Migliorini the magazine Lingua Nostra. In January 1945, after the Liberation, along with

Piero Calamandrei Piero Calamandrei (21 April 1889 – 27 September 1956) was an Italian author, jurist, soldier, university professor, and politician. Born in Florence, he was one of Italy's leading authorities on the law of civil procedure. After studies in Pis ...

, Corrado Tumiati, Enzo Enriques Agnoletti and Paride Baccarini, he founded, in Florence, the ''Associazione Federalisti Europei'' (AFE, its acronym – in English Association of European Federalists),''Piero Calamandrei e la Costituzione, Atti del Convegno tenuto a Salice Terme nel 1997'', Milano, M&B, 1997, pp. 59–60. (In Italian) uniting afterwards integrating into the European Federalist Movement founded by

Altiero Spinelli Altiero Spinelli (31 August 1907 – 23 May 1986) was an Italian politician, political theorist and European federalist, referred to as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. A communist and militant anti-fascist in his youth, he spe ...

, which between 1947–1948 had an important role. He received several degrees "honoris causa" from the

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, Berlin (Humboldt), Krakow,

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

and

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

Universities. He was President of the

Accademia della Crusca The Accademia della Crusca (; "Academy of the Bran"), generally abbreviated as La Crusca, is a Florence-based society of scholars of Italian linguistics and philology. It is one of the most important research institutions of the Italian language ...

from December 1963, Academician of

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, Glotología Emeritus and Rector of the

Università degli Studi di Firenze The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first univers ...

. He, along with Gian Carlo Oli, was the author of the ''Vocabolario Illustrato della lingua italiana'' (Illustrated Vocabulary of the Italian language) and of the ''Vocabolario della lingua Italiana Il Devoto-Oli'' (Vocabulary of the Italian language), edited by Luca Serianni and Maurizio Trifone. He was one of the leading international experts on Indo-European languages (''Origini indoeuropee'', 1962), Latin (''Storia della lingua di Roma'' published in 1940) and Italian (''Avviamento alla etimologia italiana'' 1968, ''Il linguaggio d'Italia'' published in 1974, etc.). Among his contributions on

Indo-European studies Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical pro ...

there is the elaboration of the concept of "Peri-Indo-European", i.e. everything that has hybrid characters between Indo-European and non-Indo-European. The term refers to both languages and territories but also peoples. The Peri-Indo-European can be seen as a rough Indo-European that was produced when traditions alien to the Indo-European were progressively altered by contact with the Indo-European. Devoto proposed and repeatedly supported the definition of the

Etruscan language Etruscan () was the language of the Etruscan civilization, in Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria (modern Tuscany, western Umbria, northern Latium, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Lombardy and Campania). Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventually co ...

as Peri-Indo-European.

Publications

*Antichi italici. 1931 (Ancient Italic Peoples) *Storia della lingua di Roma. Capelli Editore, 1991, I ed. 1939 (History of the language of Rome) *Studi di stilistica, 1950 (Studies in Stylistics) *I fondamenti della storia linguistica. 1951 (The foundations of linguistic history) *Profilo di storia linguistica italiana. 1953 (An Outline of Italian linguistic history) *Origini indoeuropee. Edizioni di Ar,

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * The Streetwear Brand @008us , inspired by Ian Fleming & Virgil Abloh *"030", the fictional 030 Agent of MI6 * '' 038: Operation Exterminate'', a 1965 Italian action film * '' Explosivo 030'' a 1940 Argentine c ...

I ed.1962 (Indo-European Origins) *I dialetti delle regioni d'Italia. Sansoni, Florencia 1972, con Gabriella Giacomelli (The dialects of the Italian regions) *Le origini e la lingua dei Lettoni en "Letonia". 1939 (Res Balticae 1997) (The origins of the Latvian language) *Le letterature dei paesi baltici, Sansoni 1969 (The literatures of the Baltic countries)

References

1897 births 1974 deaths Writers from Genoa Linguists from Italy Dialectologists 20th-century linguists {{Italy-linguist-stub