Zur Geschichte der katalanischen Orthographie

Abstract

The complexity of an (ortho-)graphic system results from internal factors (structural linguistics) and external factors (sociolinguistics). While inside the system there are tendencies towards constant graphic morphemes, on the outside the spelling can express linguistic autonomy or proximity or distance from other languages ​​and represent linguistic uniformity or dialectal multiplicity. Medieval Catalan had an extensive system of correspondences between phonemes and graphemes that, despite its breadth, reflected the unity of the literary language. During the period of decline this graphic tradition was undone: The visual distance from Spanish or French was lost, and dialectal particularities were highlighted. Pompeu Fabra's orthographic reform, which put an end to the graphic chaos, aims to represent the different dialects of Catalan and to express not only distance from the dominant languages ​​but also belonging to the languages ​​of culture within the Romance family. This has been achieved by resorting to medieval etymology and traditions – which often means having to give up constant graphic morphemes.