16 October 2026 · Sara Marugan
The «Gramàtica del català antic» is out: the first complete description of medieval Catalan
This article was machine-translated from Sara's Catalan original. The writing is hers; the translation has not been reviewed by a person. Read the Catalan original →
The newsletter of the Department of Catalan Philology at the UAB brings news worth sharing: the «Gramàtica del català antic» (GCA, Grammar of Old Catalan) has been published, the first comprehensive description of medieval Catalan.
What is it?
- Five volumes, 57 chapters and nearly 5,000 pages.
- It was directed by Manuel Pérez Saldanya (Universitat de València), Josep Martines and Jordi M. Antolí (University of Alicante) and Gemma Rigau (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), and more than sixty specialists wrote it.
- It is published by Publicacions de la Universitat de València together with nine other university presses (Alicante, Jaume I, Balearic Islands, Rovira i Virgili, Lleida, Barcelona, Autònoma de Barcelona, Pompeu Fabra and Girona), IVITRA and the Institut d'Estudis Catalans. It is number 38 in the «Biblioteca Lingüística Catalana» series.
- It covers phonetics, morphology and vocabulary, but above all syntax, the least studied part of medieval Catalan. And all of it with examples from texts of the period.
Where can you find it?
It is sold at the Universitat de València bookshop and on the Publicacions de la Universitat de València website. Later on it will reach libraries across the Catalan-speaking territories and universities around the world with Romance philology studies.
Why does it matter to me?
Ramon Llull chose to write in Catalan when all serious thought was written in Latin. This grammar explains exactly what that language was like, the language of our first classics. For those of us who read and teach them, it is a reference tool.
If you want to know more, here is the news from the UAB Department of Catalan Philology: [filcat.uab.cat/publicada-la-gramatica-del-catala-antic-gca](filcat.uab.cat/publicada-la-gramatica-del-catala-antic-gca/)
Image: the five volumes of the «Gramàtica del català antic». Photo by Publicacions de la Universitat de València, via the UAB Department of Catalan Philology.
