The “Catalogue of Canarian Gentilics” by Gonzalo Ortega Ojeda, published in 2008 by the Academia Canaria de la Lengua, stands out for its detailed structure and rigorous methodology in the study of gentilics in the Canary Islands[1]. According to the author, the work is divided into three main sections: an extensive introduction, a section that relates gentilics to localities (semasiological), and another that starts from the locality to reach the gentilic (onomasiological)[1].
The introduction explains the behavior of both regular and mock (burlesque) gentilics in Canarian Spanish and analyzes how the academic dictionary of the time treated the few Canarian gentilics it included[1]. Ortega Ojeda states that the catalogue aims to collect almost the entirety of the Canarian gentilic corpus and to precisely define their designative value, combining bibliographic research with dialectological fieldwork[1].
The section “From the Gentilic to the Locality” forms the core of the work, listing alphabetically most current Canarian gentilics, including regular, mock, historical, and some relating to the Spanish mainland[1]. Each entry follows a dictionary format: it begins with the headword and gender variation, grammatical category, possible usage marks (such as “despective” or “rarely used”), and the definition. For adjectives, two meanings are given: “Native of…” and “Belonging or related to…”; for nouns, the formula “The native of…” is used[1].
Ortega Ojeda illustrates the definitions with usage examples, mainly taken from the Internet, highlighting the gentilic in bold within the example[1]. Many entries also include sections on motivation, explaining the historical, social, or linguistic origins of certain gentilics, especially mock ones. Additional observations may cover the official status of the gentilic, set phrases, formal or etymological peculiarities, and other derived meanings[1].
In the “From the Locality to the Gentilic” section, information is organized by island, listing the gentilics corresponding to each locality or region, making the catalogue accessible to both specialists and the general public[1]. The work concludes with an extensive bibliography of the sources used, especially for the introduction.
The methodology adopted by Ortega Ojeda is characterized by its thoroughness and attention to usage nuances, dialectal variation, and the sociocultural motivation behind the gentilics[1]. The author notes the difficulty in determining whether a gentilic that was originally pejorative has lost that connotation entirely, so he opts to indicate its despective or mock status when appropriate[1].
Ultimately, the “Catalogue of Canarian Gentilics” is, according to its author, the first work of its kind for Canarian Spanish and represents a significant contribution to the lexicography and linguistic sociology of the archipelago[1].