Tomás Navarro Tomás facts for kids

Tomás Navarro Tomás (born April 12, 1884 – died September 16, 1979) was a Spanish expert in language, a librarian, and a writer. He was known for his important work in studying the Spanish language.

His studies helped modernize Spanish science in the 1900s. This work happened at the Center of Historical Studies (Centro de Estudios Históricos). He was a favorite student of Professor Ramón Menéndez Pidal, another famous language expert.

Tomás Navarro Tomás was also a member of the Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española). This is a very important group for the Spanish language. He was also the Director of the National Library in Spain. Later, he moved to the United States in 1939. There, he helped start the North American Academy of the Spanish Language (Academia Norte Americana de la Lengua Espanola).

Life and Education

Tomás Navarro Tomás earned his advanced degree in Madrid in 1908. He learned from famous teachers like Ramón Menéndez Pidal and Miguel Asín Palacios. After his studies, he joined a group of librarians and curators. This is where he started his research into language.

He worked on editing old Spanish writings. These included Las Moradas by Teresa de Jesus and poems by Garcilaso de la Vega. These works were first printed in special collections of classic Spanish texts.

Studying Phonetics

Between 1912 and 1913, he received a special scholarship. This allowed him to study phonetics (the study of speech sounds) and dialectology (the study of different language versions). He studied at universities in France, Germany, and Switzerland.

When he returned to Spain, he joined the Revista de Filología Española, a Spanish language magazine. He also became the head of the phonetics lab at the Center of Historical Studies. He is famous for bringing new ways of doing research to language studies in Spain. He used the scientific method to teach Spanish. His book, "Manual de Pronunciacion Espanola" (Spanish pronunciation manual), published in 1918, shows this clearly.

Mentoring Students and Research

As the director of the phonetics lab, he taught many students. Two of his students, Maria Josefa Canellada and Alonso Zamora Vicente, later became well-known language experts. They even got married!

He also supported a big research project. This project created the Linguistic Atlas of the Iberian Peninsula. This atlas is like a map that shows how language changes across different areas. Many researchers worked on this project. They included Aurelio Espinosa (son), Lorenzo Rodriguez-Castellano, Manuel Sanchis Guarner, Francesc de Borja Mo, and Anibal Otero. Portuguese experts like Rodrigo de Sá Nogueira, Armando Nobre de Gusmão, and Luís Lindley Cintra also helped.

Important Works

Tomás Navarro Tomás wrote many important books about the Spanish language. Here are some of his most famous works:

• Manual de Pronunciacion Espanola (Spanish Pronunciation Manual), 1918
• Estudios de Fonologia Espanola (Studies of Spanish Phonology), 1946
• Manual de Entonacion Espanola (Spanish Intonation Manual), 1948
• El Espanol de Puerto Rico (The Spanish of Puerto Rico), 1948
• Metrica Espanola (Spanish Metrics), 1956
• Documentos Linguisticos del Alto Aragon (Linguistic Documents of Upper Aragon), 1957
• Arte del Verso (Art of Verse), 1959
• Atlas Linguistico de la Peninsula Iberica (Linguistic Atlas of the Iberian Peninsula), 1962
• La voz y la entonacion de los personajes literarios (The Voice and Intonation of Literary Characters), 1976

See also

In Spanish: Tomás Navarro Tomás para niños