Alfredo Trombetti (16 January 1866 in
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
– 5 July 1929 in
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
) was an Italian
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
active in the early 20th century.
Career overview
Trombetti was a professor at the
University of Bologna
The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...
. He was a member of the
Italian Academy.
He is best known as an advocate of the doctrine of
monogenesis, according to which all of the world's
language
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
s go back to a single common ancestral language. His arguments for monogenesis were first presented in his book ''L'unità d'origine del linguaggio,'' published in 1905.
This doctrine is still extremely controversial.
Proposed etymologies
A selection of Trombetti's proposed global etymologies:
[Trombetti, Alfredo. 1905. ]
L'unità d'origine del linguaggio
'' Bologna: Luigi Beltrami.
:
Selected works
* 1902-1903. "Delle relazioni delle lingue caucasiche con le lingue camitosemitiche e con altri gruppi linguistichi. Lettera al professore H. Schuchardt." In ''Giornale della Società asiatica italiana,'' T. 15, pp. 177–201 and T. 16, pp. 145–175. Florence.
* 1902. ''Nessi genealogici fra le lingue del mondo antîco,'' 4 volumes, unpublished. Recipient of the Royal Prize of the Italian Academy in 1902.
* 1905.
L'unità d'origine del linguaggio'' Bologna: Luigi Beltrami.
* 1907.
Come si fa la critica di un libro. Con nuovi contributi alla dottrina della monogenesi del linguaggio e alla glottologia generale comparata'' Bologna: Luigi Beltrami.
* 1908.
Saggi di glottologia generale comparata I. I pronomi personali''
Accademia delle scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna. Classe de scienze morali. Bologna.
* 1912. ''Manuale dell'arabo parlato a Tripoli. Grammatica, letture e vocabolario.'' Bologna: Luigi Beltrami.
* 1913.
Saggi di glottologia generale comparata II. I numerali'' Accademia delle scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna. Classe de scienze morali. Bologna.
* 1920.
Saggi di glottologia generale comparata III. Comparazioni lessicali'' Accademia delle scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna. Classe de scienze morali. Bologna.
* 1922-1923. ''Elementi di glottologia'', 2 volumes. Bologna: Zanichelli.
* 1925.
Le origini della lingua basca'' Bologna: Azzoguidi.
* 1927. "La lingua etrusca e le lingue preindoeuropee del Meditarreneo." In ''Studi etruschi,'' T. 1. Florence.
* 1928. ''La lingua etrusca.'' Florence: Rinascimento del libro.
* 1928. "Origine asiatica delle lingue e popolazioni americane." In ''Atti del 22 congresso internazionale degli americanisti, Roma, Settembre 1926,'' T. 1, pp. 169–246. Rome: Istituto Cristoforo Colombo.
* 1929. ''Il nostro dialetto bolognese.'' Bologna: Zanichelli.
See also
*
Dené–Yeniseian languages
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trombetti, Alfredo
Linguists from Italy
1866 births
1929 deaths
Members of the Royal Academy of Italy
Long-range comparative linguists
People from Bologna
Academic staff of the University of Bologna