Joventut (1900-1906) and language rules

Abstract

This study assesses the opinions and controversies recorded in the pages of Joventut over the need to modernise the Catalan language by establishing common rules and promoting the creation of an academy, which would guarantee its suitability and preservation, as happened in the majority of developed European countries. According to the opinions of the editors of the bibliographic review section from 1901 and texts from the ‘Noves’ section between 1903 and 1906, along with the controversies between Anton Busquets i Punset, Oriol Martí i Ramon Miquel i Planas and the weekly magazine collaborators Josep Poal i Jofresa, Claudi Mas i Jornet i Josep Aladern, respectively, in the years 1901, 1903 and 1906, this article reports on the modernists of Joventut’s sensibility regarding the issue of language rules and their support of bourgeois society’s involvement in undertaking the necessary organisation of the language, which places the group linguistically within the orbit of Pompeu Fabra and the emerging Noucentisme.