Guillermo Abadía Morales

Guillermo Abadía Morales (8 May 1912 – 21 January 2010) was a Colombian linguist, academic, anthropologist, folklore researcher and indigenous language expert. Abadía Morales was one of the first to champion the study of indigenous languages in Colombia.

In 1934, Abadía Morales began living with seventeen separate indigenous Colombian tribes for ten years. Each of the tribes he observed represented a different language family within the country. Abadía Morales was able to classify the languages of 105 indigenous peoples into nine language families. He developed the "Abadia Classification" system to group the families by geographic distribution within Colombia.

Abadía Morales was the author of over twenty-five books on linguistics, folklore, and identity. His best known work, ''Compendio General de Folclor'' (''General Folklore Compendium'') has sold more than 40,000 copies since it was first published in 1970. ''Compendio'' is now widely used as a social science textbook in Colombia. He also created a series of educational broadcast focusing on folklore, which have been broadcast on Radiodifusora Nacional de Colombia.

Abadía Morales served as the folklore coordinator for the Musical Documentation Center at the Colombian Culture Institute, secretary of the National Folklore Board, and professor and head of the Center for Folklore Studies at the National University of Colombia.

Guillermo Abadía Morales died of natural causes on 21 January 2010 at the age of 97. Provided by Wikipedia