Guillermo Abadía Morales

Who was Guillermo Abadía Morales?

Guillermo Abadía Morales was a Colombian linguist, academic, anthropologist, folklore researcher and indigenous language expert. Morales was one of he first to champion the study of indigenous languages in Colombia.

In 1934, Adabia 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. Adabia 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 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.