Isaac Alonso Estraviz, Lexicographer from Vilaseca (Trasmiras)

Isaac Alonso Estraviz was born in Vilaseca, in the municipality of Trasmiras, on 26 January 1935. He is a lexicographer, teacher and one of the names of Galician linguistic reintegrationism ^[1].

Education and teaching

In 1947 he entered the monastery of Oseira as an oblate; he lived in France, Germany and Navarre, where he translated the Psalms into Galician, and in Albacete he translated the encyclicals and the missal. He studied Philosophy at Comillas and graduated in Romance Philology in 1977; in 1999 he took a doctorate in Galician Philology at the USC with the thesis O falar dos concelhos de Trasmiras e Qualedro. He taught at the Ateneo de Madrid (1975-1977), at the Irmandade Galega de Madrid and in secondary schools in several cities, and from 1987 at the IES Otero Pedrayo in Ourense; he was also a lecturer in language teaching methods at the University of Vigo from 1992 ^[1].

Work

He is the author of the Dicionário da língua galega (Alhena, 1986; abridged edition by Sotelo Blanco, 1995), now consultable online, and of the Dicionário galego ilustrado «Nós» (1983). He wrote Estudos filológicos galego-portugueses (1987), Os falares de Trasmiras e Qualedro (2013) and the short-story collection Contos con reviravolta (1973, reissued in 2025). He was a member of the AGAL Linguistic Commission and is vice-president of the Academia Galega da Língua Portuguesa ^[1].

Gold Medal of the Province

In October 2019 the Museo da Limia supported the Ourense Provincial Council’s award to him of the Gold Medal of the province. The text describes a lexicographer of undimmed curiosity, author of «the most important dictionary of the Galician-Portuguese language», with more than 137,000 entries, who also wrote the Prontuário ortográfico galego, translated Pacem in Terris and Risco’s O problema político de Galiza, and kept up a wide correspondence with Carvalho Calero, Díaz Pardo and Celso Emilio Ferreiro; part of his work ended up in the library of the Museum’s Board ^[2].

His library in Trasmiras

On 9 December 2020, at the meeting with the president of the Ourense Provincial Council, Manuel Baltar, the lexicographer, then proposed for the province’s Gold Medal, expressed his wish that his entire library, of more than 6,000 volumes, be made available to the local people. The Provincial Council and Trasmiras council agreed to renovate and adapt the assembly hall of the Culture House in Trasmiras to house it ^[3].

Frequently asked questions

What is his best-known work? The Dicionário da língua galega ^[1].

What did he study about his home municipality? The speech of the municipalities of Trasmiras and Qualedro, in his 1999 thesis ^[1].

Links

• Parish: Vilaseca
• People of A Limia
• Famous people and sportspeople of A Limia
• Authors and artists of A Limia
• Trasmiras

Sources

1. «Isaac Alonso Estraviz», Galipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Alonso_Estraviz
2. «O Museo da Limia apoia a concesión a Isaac Alonso Estraviz da Medalla de Ouro da provincia», Museo da Limia, 17-10-2019. https://museodalimia.com/o-museo-da-limia-apoia-a-concesion-a-isaac-alonso-estraviz-da-medalla-de-ouro-da-provincia/
3. Deputación de Ourense, «Trasmiras acollerá a biblioteca completa do lexicógrafo Isaac Alonso Estraviz» (9-12-2020). https://www.depourense.gal/index.php/actualidade/5422-trasmiras-acollera-a-biblioteca-completa-do-lexicografo-isaac-alonso-estraviz