DR. BADIA I MARGARIT
1920-2014
"He committed to Catalonia at the hardest of times, dignifying his country through his tireless work, his excellent research and teaching"
Artur Mas
129th President of Catalonia
“He let us understand that Catalan was a language which is as strong and powerful as any other Latin language, and we owe him a lot of the certainty we have over the future of the Catalan language.”
Ferran Mascarell
Catalan Minister of Culture
As he said “If one day Catalan becomes extinct, it will not be because Catalan has been imposed on Spanish speakers, but because Catalan speakers will stop speaking their own language. Therefore, every Catalan has the responsibility and obligation to preserve our their language. We already know that we cannot ask that everybody be a hero—but perhaps we can ask that they be a little bit more heroic.”
Montserrat Tura
Doctor, Minister of Justice of Catalonia (2006-2010), Minister of Home Affairs of Catalonia (2003-2006), Mayoress of Mollet del Vallès (1997-2003)
"I met him in 1986 at the 2nd Catalan Language Congress. Already back then he was one of the greatest ambassadors and defenders of Catalan during Franco's dictatorship. I always admired his scientific rigor and his non-partisanship—he always thought about the common good."
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Ramon Tremosa
Member European Parliament
"One of the great figures of the Catalan language, and by extension, of philology worldwide. He governed the University of Barcelona during the (Spanish) transition (from dictatorship to democracy), carrying out a task almost of re-foundation."
"I was expelled from the Spanish Parliament for speaking Catalan"
Alfred Bosch
Member Spanish Congress
"Now that everyone is talking about structures of state (for Catalonia), I'd like to say that Professor Badia i Margarit was one. He leaves us with a completed language, with contributions that make it possible for Catalan to be a dynamic, modern means of communication. Badia i Margarit was a scientist who also wanted to be a man of state and make a contribution allowing us to be where we are now."
Salvador Cot
Journalist and editor of the news digital NacioDigital @NacioDigital
Fifty years ago I was a teenager who did not know who Antoni Maria Badia i Margarit was. I was beginning to discover my life—and my country’s life. I was also beginning to appreciate my language and my culture, which had survived in a mysterious way, because nobody taught them at school. One day, a sudden burst of conscience and intuition told me that my country was a surrendered and occupied one. Read more..
Llibert Ferri
Journalist
"A Catalan committed to the Catalan language and his country to the point of merging with them. Badia I Margarit’s life was a life-long battle so that Catalonia and Catalan acquired the dignity they deserve"
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- Letter to a "Now is the Time" volunteer, just before you start dialling
Quim Torra
Lawyer and editor
"We need our own independent country also to give proper, official recognition to professor A. M. Badia. Sadly, most Catalans will not be able to know what a great person he was—a true christian, scientist, and a patriot."
Salvador Cardús
Sociologist, journalist, writer, and PhD in Economics
"Dr. Badia i Margarit, the sage of the Catalan language, was the foundation of Catalan linguistics during the 2nd half of the 20th century.
Despite the darkness of Francoism, and because of his wide relationships with several European universities, he was able to update and internationalise the Catalan language.
Albert Royo
Secretary General Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia
"We will remember him often and faithfully accompanied at many academic events by his wife Maria Cardús i Almeda, until she died in 2007. Beyond the many examples of his erudition and leadership, professor Badia i Margarit will remembered -and missed- as an elegant, affable, warm and respectful person, always extremely courteous."
Miquel Strubell
Promoter of the Catalan national assembly
"The fighting, optimistic Dr. Antoni Maria Badia was able to lay out an extraordinary geography of Catalan linguistics. He also left us poignant, fitting phrases such as "Our language will not disappear because those who do not speak it do not learn it, but those who do speak it give it up."
Dr. Antoni-Maria Badia has left us, and our language already misses him!"
Dr. Antoni-Maria Badia has left us, and our language already misses him!"
Salmaldon
Exhibition of contemporary art
"Dr. Badia i Margarit was generosity and willingness to serve the country.He also transformed the university to serve the country.
Accentuating his civic dimension, if I had to highlight his scientific work he continued the work of Pompeu Fabra and link it with the currents of contemporary linguistics and philology. While Spanish language studies were closed in autarky, he opened the University of Barcelona in the current modern language studies."
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Joan Badia Pujol
Deputy Director of Permanent Education and Pedagogical Resources in the Catalan Government (2004-2006), Director of Innovation in the Catalan Government (2006-2009), Deputy Director of Academic University Planning in the Catalan Government (2009-2010), Deputy Director of European Higher Education (2009-2010).
"The thing that impressed me the most about professor Badia was his deep appreciation for our language. This influenced me so much that, ever since I met him, I became a firm believer in not just speaking our own language, but in speaking it well. He used to say—and I agree with him completely—that, when it comes to language matters, half-hearted positions are never good. We either do it well, or we do it badly. In the end, his appreciation for our language was a surrogate for his love of our country. Professor Badia gave an international projection to both our country and our language—but he never forgot our deep roots.”
Josep Puigbó
Journalist
“I was lucky enough to meet him after he was granted the Honor Award of Catalan Literature in 2003. I was particularly struck by the humbleness that that endearing, polite elderly man exuded. His dedication to the Catalan language was wholly altruistic, and he even felt virtually embarrassed to have his publicly recognised by that award. His contribution was purely and simply out of personal conviction. A great lesson and example to all:fewer egos,more commitment. Thank you wherever you are."
Miquel Martin Gamisans
Communications consultant
"I met Dr. Badia when I was 20—a long time ago. I was surprised by his simplicity, humility, and enthusiasm to learn from everyone. During the years of our relationship, he and his wife sponsored me to become a member of AILLC (Catalan Language and Literature International Association). Thanks to this, I had the chance of developing an early concept of what many years later and in very different circumstances and with very different resources would become a new project—Help Catalonia.”
Anna Aroca
Teacher, Communicator and HC member
Badia i Margarit: "The future of Catalan Language depends on Catalans"
Antoni Maria Badia i Margarit was instrumental in reintroducing linguistics studies in Catalonia’s universities after the 1936-1939 war. The Catalan language had been banned and Catalan speakers persecuted during the two military dictatorships in the 20th century. He used to say that back in his elementary school days he would hide his notebooks written in Catalan inside bathroom cabinets.
He was hired as a university professor to teach Spanish grammar and historical linguistics, fully aware that Catalan was being persecuted, censored, frowned upon. He was one of the key promoters of Catalan inside and outside the university, and helped organize intellectuals that would care for it, write in it, ...read more...
Badia i Margarit: My teacher
Fifty years ago I was a teenager who did not know who Antoni Maria Badia i Margarit was. I was beginning to discover my life—and my country’s life. I was also beginning to appreciate my language and my culture, which had survived in a mysterious way, because nobody taught them at school.
One day, a sudden burst of conscience and intuition told me that my country was a surrendered and occupied one. After school, I used to love going to bookstores and I would space out in front of bookshelves full of books written in Catalan. I discovered Llibreria Ona in Gran Via, and a book which I devoured, “Dues llengues, dues funcions?” (“Two Languages, Two Functions”) by Francesc Vallverdú, who passed away Read more....
IEC: Antoni Maria Badia i Margarit, some of his work
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Antoni Maria Badia i Margarit completed his studies at the Estudis Universitaris Catalans and the University of Barcelona, where he graduated in Romance Philology in 1943. His doctoral thesis was based on a study of historical morphology (1947), which was led by Dámaso Alonso.
By 1948, he was already senior lecturer in historical grammar of the Spanish language at the University of Barcelona, and in 1977, for the historical grammar of the Catalan language too. ...Read more...
Antoni Maria Badia i Margarit
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| Doctor Badia i Margarit |
Antoni Maria Badia i Margarit (Barcelona, 1920-2014) was a linguist.
In 1943 he graduated in Romance Philology at the University of Barcelona and, in 1945, he obtained a PhD from the Arts Faculty at the Ciudad Universitaria (University City) of Madrid, after which he was appointed Professor of Spanish Historical Grammar at the University of Barcelona in 1948. This Chair came under the auspices of the Chair of Catalan Historical Grammar in 1977. In 1951 he published Gramática histórica catalana(Catalan Historical Grammar), which eventually appeared in Catalan in 1981. He was a visiting scholar at the universities of Munich (1959-1960), Georgetown (1961-1962) and Wisconsin (1967-1968) ...read more...
Joan Veny, professor emeritus of Catalan: “It is necessary to highlight the historical dimension; present is normally explained by means of the past”
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| Joan Veny 08/01/2013 |
Joan Veny (Campos, Mallorca, 1032) holds a PhD in Philosophy and Letters from the UB (1956) and he is professor emeritus of Catalan at the University (2002). He has been member of the Philological Section of the Institute for Catalan Studies since 1978, and from 1994 to 2000 he was the president of the International Association of Catalan Language and Literature. The Cross of St George was conferred on him by the Government of Catalonia (1997), he was the president of the Atles Linguistique Roman (1999), ...read more...
Antoni Maria Badia i Margarit, my first grammarian
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catalan Grammar by Antoni Maria Badia i Margarit. Next year, it will be twenty years since I bought my own copy—the one in the picture. In 2005, I was about to obtain my Catalan language certificate, and I enrolled in the Rosa Sensat school to prepare for placement test K. On the first day of school, our teacher, Carmen Font, gave us a long list of books to be used in the course.
That long tirade of titles would go on for an hour and a half. Out of all those dictionaries, grammars, and manuals, I was familiar only with DIEC (Dictionary of the Institute for Catalan Studies,) and the famous ...Read more.....
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