Contributions to Cuban lexicography in the 19th century (Esteban Pichardo)

This article analyzes, in its main part, the lexicographical work of Esteba n Pichardo (1799-1879) who published four editions (1836, 1849, 1862, and 1 875) of a dictionary of Cuban vocabulary. The first two editions were title d Diccionario provincial de vozes cubanas, the last two had the expression 'casi-razonado' inserted on the title page. Each new edition included a lar ger number of lexical entries, corrections and revisions, and other minor c hanges especially in the 'Prologues'. Pichardo's dictionary is the first le xicographic work of dialects of Spanish, and even today it is considered th e best book available on the vocabulary of a Spanish American country. The article also studies the relationship between Pichardo's work to the period immediately preceeding it, the 'Age of Enlightenment', as well as with two other minor contemporary works (vocabulary lists rather than dictionaries) that also deal with Cuban Spanish vocabulary. These latter works are Jose Garcia de Arboleya's (d.1876) Manual de la Isla de Cuba: Compendio de su hi storia, geografia estadistica y administracion of 1859, and Antonio Lopez M atoso's (17610c.1824) Viaje de Perico Ligero al pais de los moros, which wa s completed by about 1820, but not published until 1972.