On «Canigó»’s Model of Language and the Linguistic Approaches by Jacint Verdaguer

Abstract

Jacint Verdaguer devoted great efforts to his works, both from a literary and linguistic point of view. We have preserved a great number of autographs with versions in progress of his poems. He also used to correct them during the printing process. At the end of 1885 he sent press proofs of the poem Canigó to different Catalan personalities. The scholar and philologist Josep Balari i Jovany addressed to him some comments and proposals of correction related to the model of academic Catalan language Verdaguer wanted for his work, based in philologic and etymological arguments, and in the language of medieval and modern Catalan classics as well. From the analysis of these changes and amendments we can point out some conclusions about the written register used in the poem, not always coincident with the Catalan spoken by the author, and useful for establishing its critical text.