Happy Mikael Agricola's Day!

[Eduardo Ribeiro]

Hi, Dave,

Padre José de Anchieta, who wrote the first grammar of a Brazilian language
(his 'Arte' of Tupinambá or Old Tupí, published in 1595), received similar
homages on both sides of the Atlantic.  Coins in his homage were coined
both in Portugal and Brazil (http://www.etnolinguistica.org/anchieta); June
9th, the day of his death, is commemorated as "Anchieta Day" in Brazil
(neither an official or widely popular holiday, though).

I wouldn't be surprised if similar homages have been paid to other colonial
missionary linguists (mostly Jesuits, as Anchieta) in countries such as
Paraguay, Mexico, Peru, etc.

Unlike Agricola's work, Anchieta's didn't result in widespread literacy
among the native speakers.  The language, which played an important role in
the initial colonization of Brazil, would gradually die out (although one
of its descendents, Nheengatú, survives to this day:
http://www.etnolinguistica.org/lingua:nheengatu).

Tudo de bom,

Eduardo


On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 11:41 AM, Dave Sayers <D.Sayers at swansea.ac.uk> wrote:

> Gazing out of my window at Turku Cathedral has taken on a new meaning. I
> just learnt that today
> Finland commemorates the founder of the written Finnish language (and
> Bishop of Turku), Mikael Agricola.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikael_Agricola
> http://www.finnguide.fi/calendar/calendarevents.asp?month=4&p=25
>
> He also has his own commemorative €10 coin! http://goo.gl/3owiL
>
> I'm only in Finland for a year, so I often feel like a bit of a tourist
> stumbling over this sort of
> information. Do any other linguistic scholars around the world have their
> own day and/or coin??
>
> Dave
>
> --
> Dr. Dave Sayers
> Honorary Research Fellow, Arts & Humanities, Swansea University
> Visiting Lecturer (2012-2013), Dept English, Åbo Akademi University
> MA Dissertation Advisor, Laureate Online Education & University of
> Liverpool
> dave.sayers at cantab.net
> http://swansea.academia.edu/DaveSayers
>



-- 
Eduardo Rivail Ribeiro, lingüista
http://etnolinguistica.org/perfil:9
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