Mulleres na Lexicografía / Women in Lexicography

María Juana Moliner Ruiz

Aragonese, Spanish

1900 (Zaragoza, Espàña) / 1981 (Madrid, España) Lexicographer and librarian

Born into a wealthy family, María Moliner had the opportunity to study Philosophy and Letters (specialization: History) at the University of Zaragoza, where she graduated in 1921 with an extraordinary degree prize. As a student she began to collaborate in the compilation of the Diccionario Aragonés (Aragonese Dictionary). The year after her graduation she passed the national exams for the body of Archivists, Librarians and Archaeologists and did her internship at the National Library of Spain. Her first assignment was the Archive of Simancas. After a professional life dedicated mainly to her work as a librarian and having been tremendously affected by the political and social context of Spain (Civil War and Franco's dictatorship), she retired in 1970 as Director of the Library of the School of Industrial Engineering in Madrid. Around 1950, María Moliner began the “Diccionario de Uso del Español”, a work that was reprinted twenty times in its first edition alone and which made her the most notable lexicographer in the Spanish lexicographical panorama. In 1981, the Nobel Literature Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez wrote in the newspaper El País that “María Moliner hizo una proeza con muy pocos precedentes: escribió sola, en su casa, con su propia mano, el diccionario más completo, más útil, más acucioso y más divertido de la lengua castellana, dos veces más largo que el de la Real Academia de la Lengua, y –a mi juicio- más de dos veces mejor” [María Moliner did a feat with very few precedents: she wrote alone, in her own home, with her own hand, the most complete, most useful, most thorough and most entertaining dictionary of the Spanish language, twice as long as that of the Real Academia de la Lengua, and -in my opinion- more than twice as good as it.] The main novelties of the dictionary lie in its aim to serve as an instrument of guidance in the use of Spanish for both native speakers and learners of the language. Moreover, in the prologue to the first edition of the dictionary, the author herself indicates a central feature: the use of a “sistema de sinónimos, palabras afines y referencias que constituye una clave superpuesta al diccionario de definiciones para conducir al lector desde la palabra que conoce al modo de decir que desconoce" [system of synonyms, related words and references that constitutes a key superimposed on the dictionary of definitions to lead the reader from the word he knows to the way of saying that he does not know].

- MOLINER, M. (1967). Diccionario de uso del español, (1a. ed.). Madrid: Gredos.

MOLINER, M. (1967). Diccionario de uso del español, (1a. ed.). Madrid: Gredos. https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/mmoliner/diccionario_caracteristicas.htm

María Moliner's presence in the media through documents and the written press is very broad and diverse. • “MARÍA MOLINER, la innovadora BIBLIOTECARIA oculta tras el diccionario” I RTVE Noticias: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TK0JyYq-Jc • “María Moliner y el diccionario más divertido del español”, Borja Odriozola: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojfw9iRK0n4 • “María Moliner: mujer, bibliotecaria y lexicógrafa”, Documental, cedido pola Dirección General de Cultura del Gobierno de Aragón y que se publica ligado á Exposición na Escuela Industriales UPM: 'María Moliner: mujer, bibliotecaria y lexicógrafa' organizada pola Biblioteca da ETSII e pola Biblioteca Tomás Navarro Tomás: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxaxAPrKOCc • Acto conmemorativo do 50º aniversario da primeira publicación do Diccionario de uso del Español, organizado pola Biblioteca Nacional de España e a Editorial Gredos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8G8lPBFbTU • “Imprescindibles - Tendiendo Palabras sobre María Moliner”, Radio Televisión Española, 21/11/2018 [trailer]: https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/programa/imprescindibles-trailer-tendiendo-palabras-sobre-maria-moliner/4850839/ Along with the publication of numerous journalistic works, María Moliner has a biography “El exilio interior. La vida de María Moliner” (Inmaculada de la Fuente, 2011, Turner Noema) and a biography aimed at children: "La ciudad de palabras, vida de María Moliner" (Alejandro Pedregosa, 2023).

María Moliner was a very politically and culturally committed person; a convinced activist. During the Second Republic she collaborated as a teacher of Literature and Grammar at the Escuela Cossío, which followed the precepts of the “Escuela Libre de Enseñanza”. She was also involved in the Pedagogical Missions of the Republic, taking charge of the organisation of rural libraries. Her commitment to the defence of culture and libraries as its treasurers led her to become Librarian of the University of Valencia, a post she had to abandon in 1937 due to the Civil War. At the end of the war, she was sanctioned and was demoted 18 places in the ranks of the Corps of Archivists and Librarians, a status she would not regain until 1958. She was also a pointer for being the first woman to teach at the University of Murcia in the mid-1920s. She was proposed to be the first woman to become a member of the Real Academia de la Lengua Española. The successful candidate, however, was Emilio Alarcos Llorach. In 1972 Moliner stated the following in an interview with El Heraldo de Aragón: “Sí, mi biografía es muy escueta en cuanto a que mi único mérito es mi diccionario. Es decir, yo no tengo ninguna obra que se pueda añadir a esa para hacer una larga lista que contribuya a acreditar mi entrada en la Academia [...] Mi obra es limpiamente el diccionario.” Más adelante agrega: “Desde luego es una cosa indicada que un filósofo -por Emilio Alarcos- entre en la Academia y yo ya me echo fuera, pero si ese diccionario lo hubiera escrito un hombre, diría: «¡Pero y ese hombre, cómo no está en la Academia!”. [“Yes, my biography is very brief in that my only merit is my dictionary. That is to say, I don't have any work that can be added to that to make a long list that would contribute to accrediting my entry into the Academy [...] My work is clearly the dictionary". Later she adds: "Of course it is a fitting thing for a philosopher - referring to Emilio Alarcos - to enter the Academy and I am already out, but if that dictionary had been written by a man, I would say: "But that man, why isn't he in the Academy!””] After her retirement, the Minister of Education agreed to her admission to the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise. There are many examples of the lexicographer's mark on society. Thus, for example, the opera María Moliner was released (https://bit.ly/3XWOcRC), the theatre play Diccionario by the playwright Manuel Calzada Pérez and there is even a cartoon chapter about her: Lunnis de Leyenda - María Moliner (Clan TVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLJK2ins_yU). As a curiosity, the 2019-2021 class of the Erasmus Mundus Master in Lexicography is named after her.

1. Photos: El Español: [Portrait of the lexicographer] https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-38071911 Instituto Cervantes: [Dictionary cover] https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/mmoliner/diccionario_caracteristicas.htm 2. Bibliography: ● Website of the Instituto Cervantes: https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/mmoliner/biografia02.htm ● Website of the Real Academia de la Historia: https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/12970/maria-juana-moliner-ruiz ● Martín Zorraquino, M. A. (2010). María Moliner y su contribución a la lectura pública en España. Cien años de Filología en Aragón. VI Curso sobre Lengua y Literatura en Aragón. José-Carlos Mainer y José Mª Enguita (eds.), Zaragoza, 223-240. https://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/25/60/_ebook.pdf ● Martín Zorraquino, M. A. (2006). María Moliner filóloga por vocación y por su obra. Participación Educativa, 1, 127-142. https: https://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/34/07/12mariamoliner.pdf ● López, N. 2020. María Moliner. http://portlex.usc.gal/emlex2020/maria-moliner/ ● Porto Dapena, J. Á. (2003). El Dicionario de María Moliner, en Martín Zorraquino, M. A. e Aliaga Jiménez, J. L., La lexicografía hispánica en el siglo XXI. Balance y perspectivas: actas del Encuentro de Lexicógrafos celebrado en Zaragoza, en el marco del centenario de María Moliner. IFC-Deartamento de Educación, Cultura y Deporte del Gobierno de Aragón, Zaragoza, 167-192. ● 2023. “María Moliner, la aragonesa vetada por la RAE que publicó un diccionario y se convirtió en referente de la lengua española”. Hoy Aragón: https://hoyaragon.es/cultura-aragon/maria-moliner-la-aragonesa-vetada-por-la-rae-que-publico-un-diccionario-y-se-convirtio-en-referente-de-la-lengua-espanola/ ● 2017. “María Moliner, la mujer que escribió sola y a lápiz un diccionario dos veces más largo que el DRAE”. Vozpópuli: https://www.vozpopuli.com/altavoz/cultura/maria-moliner-escribio-diccionario-drae_0_1002500789.html

María José Domínguez Vázquez / Lola Mosquera Sánchez

María José Domínguez Vázquez / Lola Mosquera Sánchez