"A propósito de las observaciones de Filippo Salvatore Gilij acerca de la lengua general de los incas"

Filippo Salvatore Gilij (1721–1789) was an Italian Jesuit missionary who once ordained a priest (1749) arrived in La Encaramada (Venezuela), where he was entrusted with the task of evangelization for more than eighteen years. In linguistic circles, Gilij was known as the discoverer of several Amerindian language families. In his Saggio di storia americana, ossia Storia naturale, civile e sacra de regni e delle provincie spagnuole di Terra-ferma nell’America meridionale (1780-1784), the Italian Abate observed several linguistic phenomena from contact between Amerindian languages. In order to analysis the Spanish translation on his essay, this article explores Gilij’s observations about the distinctive features of American languages, mainly about the general language of the Incas.
KEYWORDS: Filippo Salvatore Gilij, Saggio di Storia Americana, Ameridian languages, translation, Quechua-Spanish