Giacomo Devoto (19 July 1897 – 25 December 1974) was an Italian historical linguist and one of the greatest exponents of the twentieth century of the discipline. He was born in Genoa and died in Florence.

Biography

He was the son of clinician and pathologist Luigi Devoto (1864–1936) and brother of industrialist Giovanni (1903–1944). In 1939 he founded with

Bruno Migliorini Bruno Migliorini (; 19 November 1896 – 18 June 1975) was an Italian linguist and philologist. He was the author of one of the first scientific histories of Italian language and was president of the Accademia della Crusca. Biography Migliori ...

the journal Lingua Nostra. In 1931 he took the oath of allegiance to fascism with quiet cynicism (the expression is Gennaro Sasso's): the oath had for him "the value of a glass of cold water.". In January 1945, immediately after the Liberation, he founded in Florence together with Piero Calamandrei, Corrado Tumiati, Enzo Enriques Agnoletti and Paride Baccarini the AFE, the Association of European Federalists, later merging into the European Federalist Movement founded by

Altiero Spinelli Altiero Spinelli (31 August 1907 – 23 May 1986) was an Italian politician, political theorist and European federalist, referred to as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. A communist and militant anti-fascist in his youth, Spi ...

, in which he played a leading role in the years 1947–1948. Assessor in the council of the City of Florence chaired by Gaetano Pieraccini. He received several honorary degrees from the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb (, ) is a public university, public research university in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the largest Croatian university and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe. The University of Zagreb and the Unive ...

and University of Lima. He was president of the

Accademia della Crusca The (; ), generally abbreviated as La Crusca, is a Florence-based society of scholars of Italian linguistics and philology. It is one of the most important research institutions of the Italian language, as well as the oldest Academy#Linguisti ...

from December 1963, academician of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, emeritus of

Historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical li ...

and

Rector (academia) A rector (Latin language, Latin for 'ruler') is a senior official in an educational institution, and can refer to an official in either a university or a secondary school. Outside the English-speaking world, the rector is often the most senior ...

of the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...

. He was also the author with Gian Carlo Oli of Vocabolario illustrato della lingua italiana and Le Monnier (publishing house) Vocabolario della lingua italiana, edited from the 2004 edition by Luca Serianni and Maurizio Trifone. Finally, he was one of the leading international experts on

Indo-European studies Indo-European studies () is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical p ...

(Indo-European Origins, 1962), Latin (History of the Language of Rome published in 1940) and Italian studies (Avviamento alla etimologia italiana of 1968, Il linguaggio d'Italia published in 1972, etc.). He died in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

on December 25, 1974, and was buried in the cemetery of Borzonasca (Genoa), his family's hometown.

Career

In 1939 he founded with Bruno Migliorini the magazine Lingua Nostra. In January 1945, after the Liberation, along with Piero Calamandrei, Corrado Tumiati, Enzo Enriques Agnoletti and Paride Baccarini, he founded, in Florence, the ''Associazione Federalisti Europei'' (AFE, its acronym – in English Association of European Federalists),''Piero Calamandrei e la Costituzione, Atti del Convegno tenuto a Salice Terme nel 1997'', Milano, M&B, 1997, pp. 59–60. (In Italian) uniting afterwards integrating into the European Federalist Movement founded by

, which between 1947 and 1948 had an important role. He received several degrees "honoris causa" from the

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

, Berlin (Humboldt), Krakow,

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

and

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

Universities. He was President of the

from December 1963, Academician of

and

, Glotología Emeritus and Rector of the Università degli Studi di Firenze. He, along with Gian Carlo Oli, was the author of the ''Vocabolario Illustrato della lingua italiana'' (Illustrated Vocabulary of the Italian language) and of the ''Vocabolario della lingua Italiana Il Devoto-Oli'' (Vocabulary of the Italian language), edited by Luca Serianni and Maurizio Trifone. He was one of the leading international experts on Indo-European languages (''Origini indoeuropee'', 1962), Latin (''Storia della lingua di Roma'' published in 1940) and Italian (''Avviamento alla etimologia italiana'' 1968, ''Il linguaggio d'Italia'' published in 1974, etc.). Among his contributions to

there is the elaboration of the concept of "Peri-Indo-European", i.e. everything that has hybrid characters between Indo-European and non-Indo-European. The term refers to both languages and territories but also peoples. The Peri-Indo-European can be seen as a rough Indo-European that was produced when traditions alien to the Indo-European were progressively altered by contact with the Indo-European. Devoto proposed and repeatedly supported the definition of the

Etruscan language Etruscan ( ) was the language of the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria, in Etruria Padana and Etruria Campana in what is now Italy. Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventually superseded by it. Around 13,000 Etruscan epigraph ...

as Peri-Indo-European.

Publications

*Antichi italici. 1931 (Ancient Italic Peoples) *Storia della lingua di Roma. Capelli Editore, 1991, I ed. 1939 (History of the language of Rome) *Studi di stilistica, 1950 (Studies in Stylistics) *I fondamenti della storia linguistica. 1951 (The foundations of linguistic history) *Profilo di storia linguistica italiana. 1953 (An Outline of Italian linguistic history) *Origini indoeuropee. Edizioni di Ar,

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * "008", a fictional 00 Agent In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and the derived films, the 00 Section of MI6 is considered the secret service's elite. A 00 (pronounced "Double O") is a field agent who ho ...

I ed.1962 (Indo-European Origins) *I dialetti delle regioni d'Italia. Sansoni, Florencia 1972, con Gabriella Giacomelli (The dialects of the Italian regions) *Le origini e la lingua dei Lettoni en "Letonia". 1939 (Res Balticae 1997) (The origins of the Latvian language) *Le letterature dei paesi baltici, Sansoni 1969 (The literatures of the Baltic countries)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devoto, Giacomo 1897 births 1974 deaths Writers from Genoa Dialectologists 20th-century Italian linguists