The most important treasure of Catalan words are, without a doubt, the nine volumes and the appendix of the Etymological and Complementary Dictionary of the Catalan Language, published between 1980 and 1991. Its author is Joan Coromines, and that is why this dictionary it is known as “the Coromines”.
Today, as a result of the signature between the Institut d’Estudis Catalans and the Pere Coromines Foundation, this magnum opus has been digitized, so that its pages can be consulted online from any electronic device and for free at the address DeCat.iec.cat.
The presentation to the public of this new digital tool was a major celebration of the word, which was attended by Teresa Cabré, president of the IEC, and Carles Duarte, president of the Pere Coromines Foundation, who were accompanied by the members of the Philological Section Mila Segarra and Enric Ribes. For more relevance, the event was held in the Pere i Joan Coromines room of the IEC, where the Philology Section usually meets.
Joan Coromines i Vigneaux (Barcelona, ??1905 – Pineda de Mar, 1997) is considered the most important novelist of the 20th century around the world. His etymological research task is crowned with the Etymological and Complementary Dictionary of the Catalan language which supposes the scientific fixation of the origins of a good group of words in the Catalan language.
The president of the IEC believes that “with the three dictionaries, the Diccionari general de la lengua Catalana (DIEC), the one of Coromines and the Catalan-Valencian-Balearic of Alcover-Moll, the Catalan language is not only a language of culture , but of advanced culture, a task that culminates in the digitization of all three”.
At the same time, Coromines published the Onomasticon cataloniae, which contains the etymological information of the toponyms of the Catalan-speaking lands, and had already published the Diccionario crÃtico etimológico de la lengua castellana, with the help of José Antonio Pascual, as well as numerous works on Occitan. Today, the etymology of the Romance languages, not only Catalan, Spanish and Occitan, is based on the foundations that Coromines established in his works.
Mila Segarra, vice-president of the Philological Section of the IEC, recalled the difficulties that Coromines had to be able to do this work, “because I won’t say it, but he had a character and that made him have enemies; but who doesn’t have a character?”, he asked, before affirming that the digitization of Coromines’ work is also “an act of re-escalation”.
Enric Ribes, director of the Onomastic Office of the Philological Section, explained that, once all the infrastructure had been established to digitize the Onomasticon cataloniae, it seemed to them that it could be used to digitize the Coromines as well, and so it was do. “In addition, in each search the other dictionaries have been linked, so that the same word can be consulted immediately in the other vocabularies”.
Carles Duarte recalled the history and vicissitudes of the Pere Coromines Foundation building in Sant Pol de Mar, which had been a family residence and which the linguist wanted to be the headquarters of the foundation named after his father, which he admired a lot. The mayoress of the town of Maresme also attended the digitization presentation event.
“Coromines was a brave person, who took personal risks to defend the country”, explains Duarte.
“Our task is very important because it is not only academic, but is linked to the construction of a country”, concluded Teresa Cabré.
