Linguistic purity in the Spanish press during the 19th century: About the figure of A. de Capmany

Abstract

After consulting 19th Century sources in the Digital Newspaper Archive of the National Library of Spain, we have found relevant information about two issues: the ideas about linguistic purity inserted in the reviews of several publications of the era –e.g. regarding The Principles of the French Language for Spanish Speakers (Valencia, 1815) by Luis Monfort– and opinion articles published ad hoc on this topic –e.g. the «preliminary reflections» about Diario de Madrid (no. 32 from the 7th February 1812) where it indicates that «our language has not risen its head yet […] several terms and idioms from the French language have been introduced, flooding our language as a torrent»–. Both issues have as a meeting point the documented information from the 19th Century press about the figure of Antonio de Capmany (Barcelona, 1742–Cadiz, 1813), who presents his views on the interesting evolution of linguistic purity.

Keywords

• linguistic purity
• spanish press
• 19th century
• gallicisms
• antonio de capmany