Joan Coromines

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Joan Coromines (1980).

Joan Coromines i Vigneaux (born March 21, 1905 in Barcelona , † January 2, 1997 in Pineda de Mar , Maresme , Catalonia ) was a linguist for Romance languages (Catalan, Spanish, Occitan). He is the author of important linguistic works such as the Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana , such as the Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico , the Onomasticon Cataloniae and the first comprehensive grammatical and lexical study of the Aranese language ( El parlar de la Vall d'Aran ) .

biography

Joan Coromines was born in 1905 in Barcelona as the son of the Catalan writer, politician and economist Pere Coromines (1870–1939) and the educator Célestine Vigneaux. His brother was the mathematician Ernest Coromines (1913-1992).

Coromines has been interested in linguistic issues from an early age. He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities at the University of Barcelona. He completed his studies in various European cities, including Montpellier (1927 with Maurice Grammont and Georges Millardet ), Madrid (1928 with Ramón Menéndez Pidal and Américo Castro ), in Zurich (1929 with Louis Gauchat , Arnald Steiger and Jakob Jud ) and in Paris (1930 with Oscar Bloch , Mario Roques and Antoine Meillet ). He wrote his doctoral thesis in Madrid in 1931 on the " Aranese vocabulary" ( Vocabulario aranés ). In the same year he also began the preparations for one of his two life works, the Onomasticon Cataloniae . The linguist Pompeu Fabra brought him in 1930 to the "Lexicographical Institute" of the University of Barcelona . Coromines was a lecturer in Romance philology here until he had to go into exile in Argentina via Paris in 1939 as a result of the Spanish civil war . Until 1948 he was a lecturer at the University of Mendoza . Then he was appointed to the University of Chicago , where he stayed until his retirement. From 1952 he made regular research trips to Catalonia in addition to teaching . Since 1950 Coromines was a member of the " Institut d'Estudis Catalans " (Scientific Society for the Promotion of Catalan Culture). Coromines worked linguistically and scientifically well into old age. In 1997 he died at his retirement home Pineda de Mar .

To the scientific work

Coromines had an extremely profound knowledge of the Catalan , Spanish and Occitan languages, both historically, literarily and dialectically. He was an excellent expert on Romance and Indo-European linguistic (Celtic, Latin and Germanic) and Arabic linguistic literature. His scientific work can be seen in two fundamental forms.

On the one hand, he worked lexicographically and etymologically. The Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana belongs to this category , already in its first edition six voluminous volumes that were published from 1980 to 1986. The work has a strong linguistic-historical, critical-comparative character. From 1954 to 1957 Coromines had published the Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana . In this work he very consciously contrasted the word articles on the Spanish language with aspects of the Catalan language.

The other pillar of his scientific work was name research ( toponyms and anthroponyms ). In the Estudis de toponímia catalana (1965–1970) he made remarkable contributions to the pre-Romanesque toponomy, especially of the Pyrenees. Since 1933 he has worked on the naming of Catalan communities together with the Catalan government. His work in name research culminated in the publication of the etymologically and linguistically oriented Onomasticon Cataloniae , whose data collection he had already started in 1931. In this work he has processed more than 400,000 toponyms from the Catalan-speaking areas.

Coromines was a staunch advocate of Catalan culture throughout his life. He categorically turned down awards from the Spanish government as well as the offer of a professorship in Madrid due to the restrictive language and cultural policy of the Spanish government towards the Catalans. He was also - as reported - ready to go into exile for his beliefs. But this in no way prevented him from writing an etymological lexicon of the Spanish language. In April 2006, in honor of Joan Coromines, the University of Chicago established the “Càtedra Joan Coromines d'Estudis Catalans” chair for visiting lecturers in the Catalan language and culture.

Basic works by Joan Coromines

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Pere Coromines i Montanya (* 1870 in Barcelona ; † 1939 in Buenos Aires )
  2. ↑ Pompeu Fabra i Poch (* 1868 in Gràcia, today Barcelona ; † 1948 Prades )
  3. ↑ The current editions are listed under the heading “Basic Works”.
personal data
SURNAME Coromines, Joan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Corominas, Joan; Corominas, Juan; Coromines i Vigneaux, Joan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catalan linguist
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 1997
Place of death Pineda de Mar