DEVOTO, Giacomo. Genoa 19.7.1897 — Florence 25.12.1974. Italian Linguist (Italic and IE). Professor in Padua and Florence. Son of Luigi D., a physician. Educated in Milano, from 1915 studies at Pavia. In 1916 to army, returned to the university in 1919. 1920 Ph.D. Then further studies at Berlin 1920-21 (under Schulze, Lüders and Pokorny), Basel 1923 (Wackernagel) and Paris 1923-24 (Meillet). From 1924 taught IE linguistics at Florence. From 1927 eo. Professor of comparative grammar of classical and Romance languages at Cagliari, from 1928 at Florence. From 1930 ord. Professor of comparative history of classical languages at Padua, from 1939 ord. Professor of general linguistics at Florence. In 1967 Rector of the University and emeritus. Dr.h.c. Basel, Strasbourg, Cracow, and Lima. In his studies he mainly concentrated on ancient Italic languages, especially Osco-Umbrian, also on Latin, Italian, IE and Etruscan. After the war he was also engaged in communal politics and was in 1945-50 President of the Florence Chamber of Commerce.
Publications: Gli antichi Italici. 385 p. Florence 1931; Tabulae Iguvinae. 36 p. Rome 1937; Storia della lingua di Roma. 5+429 p. Bologna 1939, German tr. 1968; I fondamenti della storia linguistica. 94 p. Florence 1950; Profilo di storia linguistica italiana. 173 p. Florence 1953; Il linguaggio d’Italia. 409 p. Milano 1974; Lezioni di sintassi prestrutturale. 324 p. Florence 1974.
– Origini Indoeuropee. 12+521 p. Florence 1962.
– With G. Giacomelli: I dialetti delle regioni d’Italia. 42+219 p. Florence 1972.
– Scritti minori. 1-2. Florence 1958-67; articles.
Sources: *T. De Mauro, Lex. Gramm. 1996, 236f.; K. Hoffmann, Aufsätze zur Indoiranistik 3. Wb. 1992, 711-714; R. Pozzo, Encyclop. of Lang. and Linguistics; *P. Ramat, Historiogr. Ling. 9, 1982, 495-513; Wikipedia with photo; *A.L. Prosdocimi in www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giacomo-devoto_(Dizionario-Biografico)/; two photos in Scritti minori, both also in TITUS Galeria.
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