Aryon Dall'Igna Rodrigues (4 July 1925, in

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in ...

– 24 April 2014, in

Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...

) was a Brazilian linguist, considered one of the most renowned researchers of the indigenous languages of Brazil.

Education and early career

In 1959, Rodrigues was the first Brazilian to obtain a PhD in linguistics at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

. Aryon Rodrigues was invited by

Darcy Ribeiro Darcy Ribeiro (October 26, 1922 – February 17, 1997) was a Brazilian anthropologist, historian, sociologist, author and politician. His ideas have influenced several scholars of Brazilian and Latin American studies. As Minister of Educat ...

to organize the first post-graduate program in Linguistics in Brazil, in the recently founded

Universidade de Brasília The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

(UnB). Aryon left UnB following the coup in 1964, in solidarity with his colleagues dismissed and persecuted by the military, moving to

UFRJ The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro or University of Brazil (UFRJ; pt, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro or ') is a public university, public research university located in the state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ...

and later to

UNICAMP The State University of Campinas ( pt, Universidade Estadual de Campinas), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Unicamp is consistently ranked among the top universities in Brazil and Latin ...

Research and publications

Throughout his career, which lasted nearly seventy years, he dedicated himself to the analysis of various languages such as Xetá and Tupinambá, of the Tupi-Guarani family, and Kipeá of the Kariri family (Macro-Jê). In addition to descriptive and theoretical works in linguistics, Rodrigues contributed to the study of historical and comparative linguistics of the indígenous languages of the continent, particularly of the Tupi family. He proposed the Je–Tupi–Carib hypothesis, which links Tupí, Macro-Jê and Karíb together as part of the same

macrofamily In historical linguistics, a macrofamily, also called a superfamily or phylum, is a proposed genetic relationship grouping together language families (also isolates) in a larger scale classification.Campbell, Lyle and Mixco, Mauricio J. (2007), '' ...

. Aryon Rodrigues published more than 150 scientific works, among them articles, book chapters and books. He created and directed the Laboratório de Línguas Indígenas (LALI) at UnB, and was one of the creators and editors of the '' Revista Brasileira de Linguística Antropológica''
RBLA
. In January 2013, he participated in the creation of the Instituto Aryon Dall'Igna Rodrigues
IADR
, which will serve as the repository of his papers. Rodrigues died on 24 April 2014.

References

1925 births 2014 deaths Linguists from Brazil Linguists of Tupian languages Linguists of indigenous languages of South America Paleolinguists University of Hamburg alumni Academic staff of the University of Brasília 20th-century linguists 21st-century linguists {{Brazil-academic-bio-stub