Horacio Carochi (1586–1666) was a

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priest and grammarian who was born in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

and died in

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 A ...

. He is known for his grammar 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 ...

language.

Life

Carochi was born in Florence. He went to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

where he entered the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

. From Rome he went to 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. ...

, arriving in

(now

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

). There he dedicated himself to the study of the indigenous languages and became proficient in Otomi and then in

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have small ...

. He was a friend of the Bishop and later

Viceroy of New Spain The following is a list of Viceroys of New Spain. In addition to viceroys, the following lists the highest Spanish governors of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, before the appointment of the first viceroy or when the office of viceroy was vacant. ...

Juan de Palafox y Mendoza Juan de Palafox y Mendoza (26 June 1600 – 1 October 1659) was a Spanish politician, administrator, and Catholic clergyman in 17th century Spain and a viceroy of Mexico. Palafox was the Bishop of Puebla (1640−1655), and the interim Archbis ...

, as is documented by surviving letters written by Carochi to the bishop.

Importance

Carochi had an acute understanding of the Nahuatl language and was the first grammarian to understand and propose a consistent transcription of two difficult phenomena in Nahuatl

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

, namely vowel length and the saltillo. His ''Arte'' or grammar was seen as important soon after its publication, and as early as 1759 a version edited by Ignacio Paredes was issued. This version, however, lacks most of the virtues of the original work. His original '' Arte de la lengua Mexicana'' is considered by linguists today to be the finest and most useful of the extant early grammars of Nahuatl. He also wrote a grammar of Otomi, which is now lost.

Works

Of the works of Carochi, only the ''Arte de la lengua Mexicana'' has been printed; the others exist only in manuscript form. *''Arte de la Lengua mexicana con la declaración de todos sus adverbios'', printed in Mexico in 1645 *''Vocabulario copioso de la Lengua mexicana'' *''Gramática de la Lengua Otomí'' *''Vocabulario Otomí'' *''Sermones en Lengua mexicana''

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carochi, Horacio 1586 births 1666 deaths 17th-century linguists Clergy from Florence Italian expatriates in the Spanish Empire Italian Roman Catholic missionaries Linguists from Italy 17th-century Italian Jesuits Nahuatl-language writers Translators from Nahuatl Linguists of Mesoamerican languages Italian Mesoamericanists 17th-century Mesoamericanists Jesuit missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in New Spain Missionary linguists Linguists of Uto-Aztecan languages Classical Nahuatl 17th-century Italian translators