Philological Section
The IEC's Philological Section was founded in 1911. Antoni Maria Alcover served as its first president. Along with Pompeu Fabra, the Philological Section worked to establish a series of spelling norms that were approved by members in 1913. These became the foundation of modern written Catalan which are still in use today. Similarly, in 1917, the Diccionari Ortogràfic de l'Institut was published; it soon became a dictionary of spelling norms irredeemably tied to the reputation of former Institute Director Pompeu Fabra. The dictionary went through several editions, with the last released in 1937. This work and others were the basis of Fabra's Dictionari General de la Llengua Catalana published in 1932, a general-purpose dictionary that became a standard reference work throughout the various Catalan-speaking territories.
Officially the IEC provides standards for the language as a whole: the Philological Section has members from Catalonia proper, Northern Catalonia (located in France), the Balearic Islands, Valencia, Alghero in Sardinia and the Principality of Andorra (the only country where Catalan is the sole official language). However, the Valencian Region south of Catalonia has its own language academy, the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, which nevertheless formally acknowledges that theirs is one variant of the common language. In an area known as the Franja de Ponent, the eastern edge of Aragon adjacent to Catalonia where Catalan is spoken by about 44,000 inhabitants, the rules are followed de facto although Catalan is not an official language in that region.
Other IEC works of note include the Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana published in 1995, and the regionally sensitive Diccionari Català-Valencià-Balear (Catalan-Valencian-Balearic Dictionary). Notable members of the Philological Section include Josep Carner, Àngel Guimerà and Joan Maragall.
Read more about this topic: Institut D'Estudis Catalans
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