Una aproximación a la ideología lingüística de Antoni M. Alcover

Abstract

Antoni M. Alcover (Manacor, 1862 - Palma, 1932) promoted and led the Diccionari català-valencià-balear, a work that was a milestone for Catalan lexicography since its content is based on four pillars: the ancient language, the modern language, the dialectal language and the literary language. This work, finished by his disciple Francesc de B. Moll (Ciutadella, 1903 - Palma, 1991), is still highly topical and deserves all the respect from Romance scholars.

Despite the value of his work, due to certain disagreements with members of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, and with Pompeu Fabra in particular, and due to the break with the politicians of the Lliga Regionalista, which until then had supported Alcover, since 1917 a legend was forged around his figure, which increased throughout the century, and which still persists in some intellectual forums.

Moving away from clichés and unsubstantiated criticism, the purpose of this paper is to define Alcover’s linguistic ideology not only in relation with the Catalan language and its unity, but also with respect to the role of dialects in the configuration of the standard language.