Abstract

DOMINGUEZ, Luisa. El problema de las lenguas “prehistóricas”. Un debate sobre el estudio de las lenguas indígenas a comienzos del siglo XX. Olivar [online]. 2019, vol.19, n.29, pp.49-49. ISSN 1852-4478.  http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24215/18524478e049.

During the first half of the 20th century in Argentina, the subject of indigenous languages was problematized and analyzed by Americanistic studies. However, on some occasions, the area of linguistics also disputed this object. This tension between disciplines is reflected in a debate that will be analyzed in this article. The discussion started in La Prensa, a very popular newspaper of those years, and continued in the cultural magazine Nosotros between 1928 and 1929. The participants in this debate were Arturo Costa Álvarez, philologist and translator; José Imbelloni, anthropologist; one of his disciples, Enrique Palavecino, and the musicologist and folklorologist Carlos Vega. The following paper aims to present the main topics of this dispute and link them with the discussions that were taking place on the value of linguistics for cultural analysis. Likewise, this paper problematizes the implications of the inscription of indigenous linguistics in the field of Americanistic studies, its relation to the development of linguistics as a science and risks the possible reasons that may explain this particular disciplinary distribution.

Keywords : Indigenous languages; Americanistic studies; History of linguistics; Press debates.

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