Elías Zerolo (1848-1900) y la labor de la Real Academia Española

Abstract

For the first time, opinions about topics related to the Spanish language made by erudite Elías Zerolo (1849-1900) are analysed in an essay. Zerolo is the author of La lengua, la Academia y los académicos, published originally in Paris, in1889. In this work Elías Zerolo speaks about the unity of the language, the importance of American and Spanish idiomatic varieties and criticizes Academia (its Dictionary and its Grammar) for not always picking up the most recent usages and meanings of late 19th century Spanish. He concludes that the academic model, though important as it is, must not be the only one and cannot be established as a general norm for the Spanish language. Furthermore, he states that Academia should bear in mind opinions and works by American writers. Regarding lexicon it is also convenient to consider other vocabularies. Thus, in the final part of his work, Elías Zerolo thinks that voices coming from the Canary Isles ought to be included in the academic Diccionario.