(Barcelona, 1905 - Pineda de Mar, 1997)

Joan Coromines i Vigneaux carried out his studies in the faculty of Arts in Barcelona, Estudis Universitaris Catalans and the Fundació Bernat Metge, under the guidance of masters such as Joaquim Balcells, Massó i Torrents, Nicolau d'Olwer and Carles Riba. He continued his education in Montpellier, alongside linguists Maurice Grammont (Saussure’s disciple) and George Millardet. He later moved to Madrid – where he obtained his doctorate in 1931 with his work Vocabulario aranés – under the guidance of professors Menéndez Pidal and Américo Castro. He also lived in Zurich and Paris (1930). In 1930 he began to work in the lexicographic offices of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans and also worked as a professor of Romance Philology in the University of Barcelona up the end of the civil war in 1939. The first city he became established in was Paris, and he later moved to Argentina, where he started working as a professor in the University of Cuyo (Mendoza). In 1948, he began working at the University of Chicago, where he gave classes up to his retirement.
 
Coromines was fluent in Catalan and Castilian, and had a deep knowledge of the Romance languages, Indo-European linguistics and Arabic linguistics. In 1950 he became a member of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. In 1957 he collaborated as an adviser in the continuation and finalisation of the Diccionario de construcción y régimen verbal de la lengua castellana [Dictionary of Construction and Rules of the Castilian language], by Rufino José Cuervo. Lexicography, etymology and onomastics are the three subjects to which he devoted more time and the most in-depth studies. His most outstanding lexicographic works are: Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana – a monumental work of historical, critical, comparative and, above all, etymologic nature – the Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana (in four volumes, 1954-57), and its extension Diccionario crítico etimológico e hispánico (in six volumes, 1980-91, in collaboration with José A. Pascual). Coromines also worked with Aranese vocabulary, in terms of its contribution to Catalan words of Arabic origin (1937), as well as Catalan toponyms of German origin (1944), amongst others. He published Algunes lleis fonètiques catalanes no observades fins ara (1954), El que s'ha de saber de la llengua catalana (1954), Lleures i converses d'un filòleg (1971), Topica hesperica (1972), Entre dos llenguatges (1977), El parlar de la Vall d'Aran (1991), etc.
 
With regard to onomastics, Coromines published Estudis de toponímia catalana (1965-70) and Topica hesperica (1972). However, his most important work is without doubt the Onomasticon Cataloniae, which he started in 1931. This work involved an exhaustive collection of Catalan names and toponyms throughout all Catalan-speaking territories. Out of more than 400,000 toponyms recorded, only those with the most difficult explanation - some 50,000 - were studied from an historical, linguistic and geographic point of view in the Onomasticon (8 volumes); the remaining names are kept in the archives of the Fundació Pere Coromines [Pere Coromines Foundation]. These names are explained from a linguistic, geographic and etymologic point of view. The first volume of this work was presented on the 18th of July 1989, although Coromines did not attend the event. He also worked in the field of toponymy from 1933 onwards, where he collaborated in the directory of names of Catalan municipalities which were adopted by the Governments of Catalonia and Valencia.
 
Coromines was awarded the Medalla d'Or de la Generalitat  [Gold Medal of the Government of Catalonia] (1980), the Premi d'Honor Jaume I (1981), the Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes (1984), the Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas [Spanish National Arts Prize] (1989), the Premi Sanchis Guarner (1989),   and the Premi de la Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (1996).
 

Fundació Pere Coromines
Cent anys de Coromines
Centre de Recursos Pedagògics: Coromines
Escriptors.cat: Coromines
Universitat de Chicago
Coromines i l'excursionisme
Revista d'Estudis Catalans/ Zeitschrift für Katalanistik: número 20 dedicat a Coromines
Fabra-Coromines: dos pilars de la llengua catalana. Articles del Centre de Documentació
Dialnet: J. Coromines
Biblioteca de Catalunya: J. Coromines