Domingo de Santo Tomás

Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás, O.P. (1499 – December 1570) was a Spanish Dominican missionary, bishop, and grammarian in the Viceroyalty of Peru. He compiled the first Quechua language grammar and dictionary, both published in 1560.

Most Reverend

Domingo de Santo Tomás
Bishop of La Plata o Charcas
Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás (''Museo de Arte de San Marcos collection)
ChurchCatholic Church
DioceseDiocese of La Plata o Charcas
In office1562–1570
PredecessorFernando González de la Cuesta
SuccessorFernando Santillana Figueroa
Orders
Consecration26 Dec 1562
by Jerónimo de Loaysa
Personal details
Born1499
DiedDecember 1570 (age 71)
La Plata (Sucre)

His grammar contained also the earliest known Quechua written text, as a catechetic appendix, and the first known linguistic description of clusivity.[1]

Early life

edit

Santo Tomás was born in Seville, Spain in 1499.[2] He was educated in local church schools and entered the Dominican Order as a youth. After he was ordained as a priest and had served in Spain for years, he was assigned as a missionary to the Spanish colonial Viceroyalty of Peru in 1540, soon after the initial conquest of 1533. He founded the convent (monastery) and city of Yungay on 4 August 1540 to evangelize to the Inca.

Missionary work

edit

For the purpose of Indian Reductions, by which the Spanish brought natives together around missions for teaching and work, Domingo learned the Quechua dialect that was spoken along the Peruvian coast near Lima. The coastal dialect of Quechua was significantly different from the one in Cuzco, as was detailed by Diego González Holguín in the early 17th century. In 1545, Domingo was elected prior of the Convento del Santísimo Rosario in Lima. In 1549, he created the "Tasa" of Lima, with Fray Jeronimo de Loayza and Fray Tomás de San Martín. In 1560 he published his Grammatica o arte de la lengua general de los Indios de los Reynos del Peru (a Quechua grammar) in Valladolid, Spain. In the same year, he published his Lexicon, o Vocabulario de la lengua general del Peru.

On 6 July 1562, he was appointed by Pope Pius IV as Bishop of La Plata o Charcas.[2] On 26 December 1562, he was consecrated bishop by Jerónimo de Loaysa, Archbishop of Lima.[2] He served as Bishop of La Plata o Charcas until his death in December 1570[2] in La Plata (Sucre), the Bolivia region of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

Works

edit
 
Chapter one of Grammatica, o Arte de la lengua general de los Indios de los reynos del Peru (Valladolid, 1560)
 
Vocabulary list from Lexicon, o Vocabulario de la lengua general del Peru (Valladolid, 1560)
  • Grammatica o arte de la lengua general de los Indios de los Reynos del Peru (Valladolid, 1560).[3]
  • Lexicon, o Vocabulario de la lengua general del Peru (Valladolid, 1560).[4]
  • Plática para todos los Indios (1560).

References

edit
  1. ^ Cysow, Michael (2009). The Paradigmatic Structure of Person Marking. Oxford University Press. p. 1-2. ISBN 9780199254125.
  2. ^ a b c d "Bishop Domingo de Santo Tomás, O.P." Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved September 5, 2016
  3. ^ Grammatica o Arte de la lengua general de los Indios de los Reynos del Peru (1560) digital facsimile at the John Carter Brown Library
  4. ^ Lexicon o Vocabulario de la lengua general del Peru (1560) digital facsimile at the John Carter Brown Library
edit
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Bishop of La Plata o Charcas
1562–1570
Succeeded by