The Dictionary Man: Antoni M. Alcover

It is, I guess, the fact of being a historian by degree and of being a some time creator of street maps that the names of streets hold such an interest.

There is much to be learnt from street names. They can add considerably to your vocabulary, if you are minded to become acquainted, that is, with the Catalan for the eight winds of the Mediterranean, various flowers and all manner of birds. There is also a great deal of historical knowledge to be acquired. Street names are as good an introduction as any to the largely obscure and unknown history of Mallorca. Even those native Mallorcans who have lent their names to streets and who enjoy some fame away from the island, such as Ramon Llull, remain generally unknown to most foreigners.

It also helps to have a passing interest in anthroponymy, the science of human names. I say interest; it is more a case of a fascination as to diversity of names, be they Christian or surname, and their geographical locations and origins.

In the process of giving local names cartographical representation, the regularity with which the same names appeared drew me to conclude that there were those who had to have greater significance than others. Names with apparent obscurity such as Francesc de Borja Moll and Antoni Maria Alcover required appreciation.

Borja Moll and Alcover lie parallel to each other in Puerto Alcúdia. Neither is a remarkable street. The first has a similarly unremarkable Guardia Civil building at one entrance, the second is next to a BP garage. It would be easy, therefore, to overlook both streets and both names. Yet there was a great deal of sense in having two streets in close proximity named in such ways. Borja Moll and Alcover go together like the horse and carriage.

Alcover was a linguist, painter, journalist and all-round man of the Catalan languages and culture. Languages are appropriate. He embarked on one of the great linguistic projects, that of the dictionary of the Catalan languages (i.e. versions and dialects), a project that was completed by Borja Moll.

A native of Manacor, that 2012 is the 150th anniversary of the year of Alcover's birth holds some significance greater than simply being an anniversary; 2012 could be a defining year for Catalan in Mallorca and for another native of Manacor, Antoni Pastor, who has found himself in the position of defending the language.

It is admitted that the anniversary falls at a time when the situation regarding Catalan is both "delicate and complicated", made so by political dogma. Manacor, now the centre of so much opposition to attacks on Catalan, is celebrating the anniversary by opening a library and by staging various activities devoted to Alcover's memory and legacy.

Historical figures such as Alcover, especially if they are integral to the island's culture, have acquired a reverence that has spilled over into their having become reference points for political and cultural argument. This is no more so the case than with Ramon Llull, yet Llull, one fancies, might not have taken kindly to the way in which his name is now taken as a metaphorical flag being waved at the head of a linguistic army. Llull popularised Catalan but he was enough of a linguistic liberal to have advocated the teaching of Arabic.

Alcover has been adopted by both sides of the local Catalan argument. As a linguist chronicler of the variants of the Catalan lands, his words underpin the cultural impulse towards independence for the Catalan lands. This is one side of the argument. The other is that he was a promoter of Mallorquín, and one favoured by those opposed to any hint of independence, most obviously the Partido Popular.

The official PP line is that Mallorquín (and the dialects of the other islands) are ok, while Catalan is not. It is the acceptance of "our language" (Mallorquín) that makes the PP position so difficult to come to terms with. Alcover's dictionary demonstrated, if nothing else, that it is hard to establish an overarching definition of Catalan (Valencians, for instance, would argue their case over that of Catalonians). The PP line is far more political than linguistic; it is one that rejects the notion that Catalonia has first call on Catalan and has any right to impose its language on Mallorca.

In practice, this doesn't happen, as it is the dialect that is spoken and not Catalan in its purest sense, whatever that is. This, though, makes it just as difficult to comprehend the defence of Catalan. Which Catalan is being defended?

150 years since Alcover's birth and his name this year will come to mean more than just a street name, but his name will often be taken in vain in an argument in which both sides appear to have long ago disappeared far up their linguistic backsides.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.