Tribute to Pompeu Fabra, the driving force behind the normative reform of the contemporary Catalan language in Prada, Northern (French) Catalonia

The Catalan village under French administration, Prada de Conflent, hosted dozens of people in a tribute to Fabra. This year is the 150th anniversary of Pompeu Fabra's birth and the centenary of his 'Catalan Grammar'. Fabra, as thousands of Catalonians, died in exile as Franco defeated democratic forces in Spain and prosecuted Catalan culture. A Franco Minister founded the PP, nowadays ruling in Spain and prosecuting the Catalan democratic president, Carles Puigdemont. This year has been the 49th edition of the Tribute to Fabra which began in 1969.

Pompeu Fabra i Poch was born in Barcelona in 1868 and died in Prada, in French Catalonia, in 1948, while still in exile. He was a qualified industrial engineer and held the chemistry professorship at the Engineering School in Bilbao where he lived for ten years (1902-1911). When still quite a young man, the decision to devote himself to studying Catalan and disseminating the correct form of the language became firmly entrenched. He was a member of the L'Avenç group, through which he promoted (1890-91) a memorable campaign to reform Catalan orthography, with Jaume Massó i Torrents and Joaquim Casas i Carbó. He was a founder member of the Philology Department of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Institute of Catalan Studies) and head of the Department (1917-1948). He was also chairman of the IEC (1921-1935, at intervals). He is considered to be the driving force behind the normative reform of the contemporary Catalan language. He took part in the First International Congress of the Catalan Language (1906).

Author of Gramàtica de la llengua catalana [Grammar of the Catalan Language] (1912), he was responsible for the publication of Normes ortogràfiques [Orthographic Norms] (1913). Commissioned by the IEC, which later took it as its official guide, he published Gramàtica catalana [Catalan Grammar] (1918). He was the author of Converses filològiques [Philological Conversations] and Diccionari general de la llengua catalana [General Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (1932), conceived as a basis for the Institute's future dictionary.

In 1939 he went into exile and his new Gramàtica catalana [Catalan Grammar] was published posthumously (1956). He was a professor at the University of Barcelona and, when the university became autonomous, he was appointed chairman of the university board (1933), being imprisoned as a result of his post (1934). He became very popular in Catalonia and between 1931 and 1936 was highly acclaimed. The University of Toulouse appointed him doctor honoris causa, and the Societat Catalana d'Estudis Històrics [Catalan Society of Historical Studies], honorary chairman.