The The concept of syllable in the grammars of Nebrija (1492) and Anchieta (1595)

Abstract

The concept of the syllable has been present in Western metalanguage since the first vernacular grammars of the Renaissance context. Thus, the historiographical value of this metaterm in the process of Western grammaticization is evident, given that the "extended Latin grammars," according to Auroux's (1992) theory, adopted a metalanguage standard very similar to that derived from Latin grammar, and the "syllaba" (syllable) was one of the units of this grammar, always linked to the descriptive field of prosody, the sounds of the language system in Latin, whose graphemes were adapted to describe the sounds of various vernacular languages. The metaterm "syllable" was used in almost the entire corpus of grammars from this period, and in this study, we analyze this linguistic fact in two grammatical works: Gramática castellana (1492) by Antonio de Nebrija (1444-1522) and Arte de gramática da língua mais usada na costa do Brasil (1595) by José de Anchieta (1534-1597).