Joan Coromines
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Joan Coromines i Vigneaux (Barcelona, 1905 - Pineda de Mar, Catalonia, 1997), was a linguist who made important contributions to the study of catalan and other romance languages. His main works are Diccionari etimoḷgic i complementari de la llengua catalana, which investigates the origin of most words in the catalan language, and Onomasticon Cataloniae, documenting place names in all the catalan speaking territories.
Coromines studied at the University of Barcelona, and started working on linguistics from an early age. At the same time, he held strongly catalanist convictions all his life. He had to exile after the Spanish Civil War, eventually holding a professorship at the University of Chicago, in 1948. He returned to Catalonia later, and spent his last years working on his main works, the Dictionary and the Onomasticon.
He refused several prizes from the Spanish government, in protest to the treatment of the catalan language and culture in Spain.ca:Joan Coromines i Vigneaux es:Joan Coromines i Vigneaux