Jorge Suárez y el estudio de las lenguas fuegopatagónicas desde la academia argentina

Abstract

Jorge Suárez (1927-1985) was an Argentine linguist who devoted himself mainly to the study of indigenous American languages. After the first stage of his career in his country of origin, he settled in Mexico City in 1969, where he continued his academic career. From the perspective of linguistic historiography, this article aims to examine the first stage of his prosopography and his main contributions to the languages of Argentinean Patagonia (Mapuzungun, Aoneko 'a'ien and Selk'nam), which included field surveys of lexical lists and texts, as well as analyses of genetic linguistics. We consider his role in the dissemination of North American structuralism in Argentina, his insertion in different national universities, his subsequent integration into CONICET and his links in the American and Latin American spheres.