Catalan Language: Standardization, History, and Literary Movements
Catalan Language Standardization
Standardization is a linguistic model that serves as a basic reference for members of a linguistic community. Dialectal differences exceeding them will arise from the need for fixation and regularity in written language.
Characteristics of Standardization
- Establishes reference points for linguistic actions.
- Ensures the continuity of a linguistic community.
- Occupies a central place within a linguistic system, valued and symbolized by its speakers and those who wish to learn it.
Loanwords
Loanwords are words used in one language that come from another, even if the borrowing language already has its own words to designate the same concept. Examples in Catalan include:
- Castilian diphthongs -ie, -ue
- Words beginning with ‘p’
- Suffixes -or, -a, -ona, -illa, -ero, -ez, -ura, -is
Àngel Guimerà
Àngel Guimerà was born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1845. He later moved to El Vendrell, where he discovered a new country and a new language, Catalan. He had great success in theater, which can be grouped into three stages:
- 1879 to 1890: Romantic theater, characterized by historical tragedies with passionate characters and plots full of obstacles.
- Consolidation as a playwright: Combines elements of Romanticism with Realism.
- From 1890 onwards: Adapts to the currents of Naturalism and Modernism.
The Process of Destandardization
In the 15th century, the Royal Chancellery created a model of written prose that avoided dialectal differences. During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries (the period known as ‘Decadence’), Catalan was used in everyday life. The Renaixença movement aimed to recover the use of the language, but it encountered a significant inconvenience: the lack of a unitary and modern linguistic model, unlike other languages like Castilian and French. This led to inconsistent writing criteria.
Pompeu Fabra systematized orthography, wrote a dictionary, unified the classical and popular models, and created a standardized language based on spoken language. He achieved this through the magazine *L’Avenç*.
Modernism
The objective of Modernism was to modernize and update Catalan culture, which had become stagnant due to the limitations of the Renaixença.
Joan Maragall
Joan Maragall was born in Barcelona in 1860 and died in 1911. He came from an industrial family and, after finishing high school, started working in his family’s office. However, he disliked it and decided to study law. In 1980, he was appointed secretary of the *Diari de Barcelona*. He eventually left this job to become a journalist, which led him to become a key figure in modernist Barcelona.
Maragall sought to modernize the traditional *Jocs Florals* of the Renaixença and Romanticism. Notable works include *Elogi de la paraula* and articles published in *Catalònia* and *L’Avenç*. He also wrote *La vaca cega*.
Monosemy, Polysemy, and Homonymy
Monosemy
Monosemy is the opposite of polysemy. It refers to a linguistic sign that has only one meaning.
Polysemy
Polysemy refers to a linguistic sign that has multiple meanings, but these meanings share common semantic features.
Homonymy
Homonymy is a coincidental similarity between two words with the same form but unrelated meanings. Two words are homonyms if they share the same form but have no semantic features in common. Homonyms can be:
- Homographs: Words that coincide in writing and pronunciation.
- Homophones: Words that sound the same but have different spellings.