The philologist Dolores Corbella, first Canarian elected academic of the RAE

The philologist Dolores Corbella.ALBERTO MAHTANI

As they would say in her Canarian land, Dolores Corbella Díaz is already “a mainstay” of the Spanish language.

She is a professor of Romance Philology at the University of La Laguna (Tenerife), a position she achieved at the age of 37, she has been elected a member of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in the plenary session held this afternoon by the institution in Madrid.

“It was in the first vote”, in which two thirds of the votes are required, Corbella reported in a telephone conversation with EL PAÍS.

Born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 62 years old, she is "the first Canarian to enter as a full academician in the RAE", as she herself has underlined.

Corbella will sit in chair d, vacant due to the death of the Hellenist Francisco Rodríguez Adrados on July 24, 2020. “It is a great responsibility and a commitment because more than 85 years ago a Canary Islander did not enter the RAE.

The last one was the physicist Blas Cabrera Felipe, who read his speech [in January 1936] and then went into exile.

So far there have only been four”, he added.

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The philologist Dolores Corbella, candidate for the third time to a chair of the RAE

A great expert in the study of the Canarian dialect lexicon, Corbella directs the Department of French and Romance Philology at the University of La Laguna.

She was director of the Institute of Canarian Studies and a member of the advisory council for Science, Technology and Innovation of the Government of the Canary Islands, reports the RAE.

She also co-founded the research institute Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CEMyR).

The one chosen today was already a corresponding academic of the RAE in the Canary Islands since 2015 (as a correspondent) and opted for the third time to enter the institution.

On the previous two occasions, she was defeated in the votes by the playwright Juan Mayorga, in 2019, and the philologist and novelist Paloma Díaz-Mas, in 2021. Today she was the only candidate.

Corbella has confessed that she was not very clear about trying again.

“Those who have introduced me insisted that I was important because of my knowledge as a lexicographer, because of the technique of making dictionaries.

Nothing is achieved without effort”.

Corbella's candidacy had been endorsed, as established by the RAE statutes, by three academics: Emilio Lledó, José Antonio Pascual and Carme Riera.

Regarding the use of language, he considers: “We should be concerned about the actual use and taking it to dictionaries.

Language is the most democratic thing there is and we should not impose it, but be close to it, to that reality”.

In addition to her status as a lexicographer, she wants to contribute her study "for years of the Canarian lexicon, which is a compendium of the Andalusian and a bridge with the American".

In this sense, she has also given her opinion on inclusive language: "What is needed are female references, I am a lexicographer, a word that the

only picked up from 1984".

sugar lexicon

The chosen one now has a period of two years to read her entrance speech.

Corbella declares that it will deal with "the archeology of words, analyzing where they come from, when they are documented", focused on the Canarian lexicon, "which is a variety that is recognized and well studied today, but I have to focus, I am still active, with my classes,” he added.

Corbella belongs to the editorial or scientific council of several publishers and magazines in his specialty, although circumscribing his merits to the study of the Canarian language would be an alilaya (a frivolity), as his countrymen would express.

She is the author of more than one hundred and thirty articles and some thirty scientific monographs.

The first important publication of her line of research was

(1992; 1996).

"It marked a milestone because other similar works were made from that model in other areas," she pointed out.

Since then, she has co-authored publications such as

, from 1996;

(2009),

(2010),

2001; 2013) or a work by whose name you already want to consult:

(2014), in which he demonstrated that Many terms in this field that were believed to be American were previously used in the Canary Islands.

Always a defender of the voices of her land and their use, not only of the most popular, such as bus for bus, but also of archaisms, such as drawer for drawer, she is also the author of the

(2014),

dedicated to the figure of the enlightened Canarian José de Viera y Clavijo, biologist and historian.

His research has also been directed to other lands for his knowledge of American Spanish and Portuguese, as highlighted in the monograph

(2017), and the book

.

Corbella has also edited collective works, such as

(1996),

(2004),

(2007),

(2009) o

(2012).

Among his awards, the Philological Research Prize stands out, which was awarded in 2011 by the RAE jointly with Cristóbal Corrales —whom he considers his “master”—, for the work

.

Both philologists have formed the so-called La Laguna school of lexicography.

Precisely with Corrales, he published his latest title,

(2020), in the year of the centenary of the novelist's death.

The RAE has 46 academic chairs and after Corbella's election the letters A, q and X are vacant. Currently there are 40 full academics, seven of them women, waiting for their entrance speeches to be read by Paloma Díaz-Mas , José María Bermúdez de Castro and now Dolores Corbella.

The places are for life and as a curiosity there are eight letters of the alphabet that do not have a chair: v, w, x, y, z, Ñ, W, Y.