The Vice President of the Consell de Mallorca, Antònia Roca, visited the Francesc de Borja Moll Institution to review the digitalization and transcription work of the Diccionari català-valencià-balear. This year marks the centenary of the first volume's publication in 1926.
The digitalization project aims to preserve and facilitate access to one of the most significant documentary collections for the study of the Catalan language. As of 2026, the project has successfully digitalized 25,500 entries. The Consell de Mallorca has supported this initiative over the past two years, contributing €30,000 this year to fund the digitalization and transcription of 10,000 entries, which will be incorporated into a database.
Roca's visit coincided with two notable anniversaries: the centenary of the first volume of the Diccionari català-valencià-balear and the 125th anniversary of the Lletra de convit (1901), a call by Antoni M. Alcover for the Catalan linguistic community to participate in the creation of a comprehensive dictionary of the Catalan language.
The Diccionari català-valencià-balear contains 150,963 entries, compiled from over three million original documents contributed by approximately 3,000 individuals. This extensive linguistic research project was led by two prominent figures in Catalan culture: Antoni M. Alcover, an esteemed figure in Mallorca, and Francesc de Borja Moll, who was named an honorary son of Mallorca in 2003, coinciding with the centenary of his birth.
Moll, who moved to Mallorca from Ciutadella at a young age, played a crucial role in the project initiated by Alcover, ultimately taking on the task of writing the dictionary entries, which serve as a reference for understanding the Catalan language and its dialectal diversity.
The original documents, known as the cedulario, contain the notes that documented the collection of words, expressions, proverbs, and linguistic usages that formed the basis for the dictionary. The digitalization of these documents not only preserves a digital copy but also enhances research possibilities regarding linguistic heritage. Each digitalized entry includes an image of the original document and is cataloged using the same criteria and descriptive fields employed in the Diccionari català-valencià-balear.
This methodology allows for cross-referencing information between the two databases, providing new search capabilities. For instance, a search for the toponym Mallorca in the 'Proverb' field will display both the proverbs collected in the dictionary and the original entries referencing them.
Access to the digitalized cedulario will be available through www.dcvb.cat, the portal of the Francesc de Borja Moll Institution, which offers the Diccionari català-valencià-balear and various resources related to the linguistic and cultural legacy of Alcover and Moll.
