Pompeu Fabra

Who was Pompeu Fabra?

Pompeu Fabra i Poch was a Spanish grammarian, the main author of the normative reform of contemporary Catalan language.

Trained as a chemical engineer, from a quite young age he dedicated himself to the study of the Catalan language. Through a group called L'Avenç, he promoted a campaign to reform Catalan orthography, publishing in with Jaume Massó i Torrents and Joaquim Casas i Carbó a Tractat d'ortografia catalana. He participated actively in the First International Congress of the Catalan language. In 1912 he published his Gramática de la lengua catalana.

Fabra moved from Bilbao to Barcelona in 1911, to become a professor of Catalan — a position created by the diputació of Barcelona — and a member of the department of philology at the newly created Institut d'Estudis Catalans, of which he later became president.

The Institute published the Normes ortogràfiques in 1913, the Diccionari ortogràfic in 1917, and its official Gramàtica catalana in 1918.

In 1918, Fabra edited the textbook Curs mitjà de gramàtica catalana, published by l'Associació Protectora de l'Ensenyança Catalana.