Abstract

This article proposes a critical dialogue between New Cultural History and the Glottopolitical perspective to examine the orthographic reforms of Sebastian Diaz (1741-1813), conceiving them as normative interventions. Through a language ideologies approach to the prologue of Diaz's encyclopedia, the analysis reveals that his ortho- graphic reforms, which agree and conflict with the academic discourse of its time, are prescriptive practices that aimed to control the production and reception of conversa-tion. This etiquette practice was an effect of encyclopedic instruction in early childhood, facilitated by a simplified orthography. We conclude that studying the encyclopedia was not just a means of Catholic and rational, but also linguistic disciplining.