Antonio del Rincón (1566 – March 2, 1601) was a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest and grammarian, who wrote one of the earliest grammars of the

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 Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

language (known generally as the '' Arte mexicana'',

MS. Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...

published in 1595). A native of Texcoco from the early decades of the

Viceroyalty of New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

and descendant of the ''

tlatoque ''Tlahtoāni'' ( , "ruler, sovereign"; plural ' ) is a historical title used by the dynastic rulers of (singular ''āltepētl'', often translated into English as "city-state"), autonomous political entities formed by many pre-Columbian Nahuatl- ...

'' ( ruling nobility of Texcoco), del Rincón was a native speaker of the indigenous language. Historians debate whether both his parents were indigenous Nahuas or whether he was a

mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...

of half-Nahua, half-Spanish parentage. Historian Kelly McDonough considers him one of the first Nahua intellectuals. Guzman Betancourt calls him "the first native linguist of the New World". He entered the Company of Jesus at the age of 17 and quickly became known for his good grasp of the Nahuatl language and his sound theology. His grammar ranks alongside those of

Andrés de Olmos Andrés de Olmos (c.1485 – 8 October 1571) was a Spanish Franciscan priest and grammarian and ethno-historian of Mexico's indigenous languages and peoples. He was born in Oña, Burgos, Spain and died in Tampico in New Spain (modern-day T ...

and

Alonso de Molina Alonso de Molina (1513. or 1514.. – 1579 or 1585) was a Franciscan priest and grammarian, who wrote a well-known dictionary of the Nahuatl language published in 1571 and still used by scholars working on Nahuatl texts in the tradition of th ...

as an influential primary source for the language as spoken in the post-conquest period. He was the first scholar to hear and mark the

glottal stop The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...

and vowel length distinction in nahuatl, and he was an important influence on his later Jesuit colleague

Horacio Carochi Horacio Carochi (1586–1666) was a Jesuit priest and grammarian who was born in Florence and died in New Spain. He is known for his grammar of the Classical Nahuatl language. Life Carochi was born in Florence as Horazio Carocci. He went to Ro ...

, who elaborated on Rincón's work in his own famous arte. Nahuatl grammarians have praised Rincón for being the first to analyze the Nahuatl language on its own terms, instead of building on the latinate molds of European grammars. Linguist Una Canger has written that "When Carochi praises Rincón and underlines how he teaches with "such mastery", it is because of the organization of the Arte and because Rincón analyzes the language not according to the Latin model, but on its own terms. What Carochi adopted from Rincón is exactly the organization of the Arte."''Cuando Carochi alaba a Rincón y subraya que enseña con ‘tanto magisterio’, es por la organización del Arte y también porque Rincón analiza la lengua no según el modelo latino, sino conforme a la lengua misma. Lo que ha adoptado Carochi de Rincón es precisamente la organización del Arte.''" Una Canger, “El Arte de Horacio Carochi”, in Klaus Zimmermann, editor, La descripción de las lenguas amerindias en la época colonial, Frankfurt/Madrid, Vervuert/Iberoamericana, 1997, p. 67.

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References

* * * * Novohispanic Mesoamericanists Historians of Mesoamerica Scholars of the Aztecs Mexican Jesuits Nahuatl-language writers 16th-century Mesoamericanists 16th-century Mexican historians 1566 births 1601 deaths People from Texcoco, State of Mexico Linguists from Mexico Linguists of Uto-Aztecan languages Linguists of Nahuatl {{mesoamerica-stub