José Manuel Blecua, director of the Real Academia Española between 2011 and 2014, died on Friday in Madrid at the age of 86.
The RAE reported the death of the academic, who was born in Zaragoza on 21 June 1939. He held the seat with the letter h since taking possession in June 2006.
Blecua was elected full academician in 2003 and served as secretary of the institution between 2007 and 2009. As director, he led the corporation for three years after his election in December 2010.
A doctor in Romance Philology, he was responsible for the volume Fonética y fonología of the Nueva gramática de la lengua española in its 2011 and 2025 editions. He pursued his teaching career at universities in Barcelona, Zaragoza and abroad, including Ohio State University.
