The Canarian Academy of Language (ACL) is a public foundation established December 21st 1999 and supported by the Canarian Autonomous Government and the Canarian Parliament. It promotes the scientific study of Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands and has at present 31 full members: writers, philologists and scientist, in addition to several collaborating members.
www.academiacanarialengual.org
My contributions to the ACL relate basically to lexicography (see right column), but initially I also assisted in organising the institution, clarifying roles, helping to define sectoral policies, etc. It seems that as a “born organiser”, I cannot resist…
With the help of Marcial Morera, I also organised a set of meetings with Canarian botanists and zoologists to discuss and fix some “common names” or standard Spanish names for the most conspicuous species of the Canarian flora and fauna. The final result was formally published by the ACL and is today a reference book.
My present activity is keeping a database of vernacular names of insects, assisting the ACL with zoonyms in the different dictionaries produced, and helping to answer related questions posed by the public.
Members of the ACL with Nobel Price writer José Saramago (†) in Arrecife, Lanzarote (4 July 2003)
Juan José Bacallado Aránega, Gonzalo Ortega Ojeda, Ramón Trujillo Carreño (ACL President), Carmen Díaz Alayón, José de Sousa Saramago (Honoray Member), Eligio Hernández Gutiérrez, José A. Alemán Hernández; Antonio Lorenzo Ramos, Antonio González Viéitez, Marcial Morera Pérez y Antonio Machado Carrillo.