Contribution of the popular theatre and the 19th-century satirical press to the history of the Catalan lexicon

Abstract

In spite of the considerable volume and vast range of works and authors in Valencian theatrical production and satirical press in the 19th century, with just a handful of exceptions like Bernat i Baldoví and Eduard Escalante these works were paid very little attention by philologists, both historians of language and of literature. Therefore, in this article we wanted to discuss Rafael Maria Liern, one of the most prominent writers of the generation of theatrical authors who continued the work of Bernat i Baldoví, and who, like Bernat as well, participated in journalistic direction. In this work, we fundamentally examine the lexicon of Liern’s theatrical and journalistic oeuvre, especially new contributions with regard to historical and etymological dictionaries. Through lexicon, we show the interest that the popular literature of the 19th century holds for historical lexicography. We also demonstrate the interest that 19thcentury popular theater holds for the study of linguistic usages and the symbolic value of language in a process of linguistic replacement and diglossia.

Key words: linguistic history, history of the lexicon, 19th century, theater, press