Joan Coromines i Vigneaux (; also frequently spelled ''Joan Corominas''; Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, by Joan Corominas icand José Antonio Pascual, Editorial Gredos, 1989, Madrid, .

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...

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1905 –

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, 1997) was a linguist who made important contributions to the study of

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

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, and other

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. His main works are the '' Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana'' (1954-1957), in four volumes, first version of his etymological dictionary of Spanish (with an abridged version, ''Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana'', first published in 1961); the '' Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana'', which investigates the origin of most words in the Catalan language (9 volumes); the ''Onomasticon Cataloniae'', documenting place and person names, old and new, in all the

Catalan-speaking territories The Catalan Countries ( ca, països catalans, , ) refers to those territories where the Catalan language is spoken. They include the Spanish regions of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Valencia, and parts of Aragon (''La Franja'') and Murcia ...

(8 volumes); and, with José Antonio Pascual, the '' Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico'', the most thorough etymological dictionary of Spanish extant today. Following this research, he—along with Koldo Mitxelena—made key contributions to the study of the Basque language's geographical extent across the Pyrenees during the early Middle Ages. Coromines studied at the University of Barcelona, and started working on linguistics from an early age. At the same time, he held strongly

Catalanist Catalan nationalism is the ideology asserting that the Catalans are a distinct nation. Intellectually, modern Catalan nationalism can be said to have commenced as a political philosophy in the unsuccessful attempts to establish a federal state i ...

convictions all his life. He was forced into exile after the

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, eventually holding a professorship at the

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, in 1948. He returned to Catalonia later, and spent his last years working on his main works: the etymological dictionaries and the ''Onomasticon''. He refused several prizes from the Spanish government, in protest at the treatment of the Catalan language and culture in Spain. In honor of Coromines, in April 2006 the University of Chicago inaugurated the ''Càtedra Joan Coromines d'Estudis Catalans'', a teaching chair for visiting professors of Catalan language and literature.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Webpage devoted to Joan Coromines (lletrA (UOC), Catalan Literature (Online)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coromines, Joan 1905 births 1997 deaths People from Barcelona Linguists from Catalonia University of Barcelona alumni Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes winners Members of the Institute for Catalan Studies