ALEMANY Y BOLUFER, José. Cullera near Valencia 1.7.1866 — Madrid 26.10.1934. Spanish Linguist, translator of Sanskrit Texts. Born in a humble family he could only after many hardships begin his education in Valencia, and had again to interrupt it and work in his native village. He went on studying during the nights and proceeded slowly. Matriculated in 1886 and joined the army. After military service he studied at Barcelona and concentrated on Greek and Sanskrit (under P. Roca López) in spite of hard financial difficulties. In 1889 Dr. en filosofía y letras (diss. on Xenophon), and in 1891 Professor (catedrático) de lengua griega at University of Granada, later had the same chair at Universidad Central in Madrid. In 1896 he applied for the Sanskrit chair at Madrid, but lost it to Daza de Campos. Married 1890 Dolores Selfa Adam, fourteen children.
Alimony was too many-sided to be a good scholar, being interested in Indian, Greek, IE, Arabic and Spanish philology, in Spanish history, etc. Starting from the Old Testament he developed a theory of the monogenesis of languages. He seems to have been influenced by the theories of B. G. Tilak.
Publications: Transl. El Hitopadeza o provechosa enseñanza. Granada 1895; El Bhagavad Gita o poema sagrado. 32+186 p. Madrid 1896; “Ritusamhara o ciclo de las estaciones, del poeta Kalidasa”, Revista Contemporánea 104, Madrid 1896; “Vizvamitra del Ramayana”, El Popular Granada 1897; El Panchatantra ò cincho series de cuentos. 16+146 p. Madrid 1908; El Manava-Dharma-Sastra o libro de las leyes de Manú. 16+444 p. Madrid 1912; Calila y Dimna, antigua versión castellana cotejada con el original árabe de la misma. Madrid 1915.
– Translated: La siete tragedias de Sófocles. 330 p. Madrid 1921.
– Estudio elemental de Gramática histórica de la lengua castellana. Md. 1902, 6th ed. 381 p. Md. 1928; and more on Spanish (i.a. several dictionaries).
– La geografía de la peninsula Ibérica en los textos de los escritores griegos y latinos. 219 p. Md. 1912; La geografía de la peninsula Ibérica en los textos de los escritores árabes. Granada 1921; La geografía de la peninsula Ibérica en los textos de los escritores cristianos. 119 p. Granada 1923.
– Del orden de las palobras en la lengua indoeuropea. 72 p. Madrid 1909; La lengua aria, sus dialectos y países enque se habla. El Polo Norte, patria del pueblo ario y del género humano. 80 p. Md. 1925.
Sources: Enc. Univ. Ilustr. t. 4; App. 1, 1930 & Suppl. Vol. 1934, with small photo; Alvarez 63–66; works also in the N.U.C.; Spanish Wikipedia.
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