Philip D. Rasico

Professor of Spanish and Catalan Language and Linguistics

Professor Rasico is a linguist whose research and teaching interests focus upon the languages and dialects of the Iberian Peninsula together with their transoceanic projections. His publications include studies on the phonological development of the Catalan language during its earliest period; the edition and linguistic analysis of non-literary medieval documents written fully or partially in Catalan; linguistic variation and dialectal development in Catalan; the history, linguistic legacy and cultural heritage of the Minorcan islanders who settled in British East Florida (New Smyrna and St. Augustine) in the latter half of the 18th century; and the etymological origin and development of Catalan toponyms. In the 1990s Rasico collaborated with the distinguished linguist Joan Coromines in the preparation and writing of the eight-volume Onomasticon Cataloniae, an etymological dictionary of place names from the entire Catalan linguistic territory.

To date Rasico has published eight single-authored books and four co-authored or co-edited volumes in addition to over 250 articles that have appeared in professional journals and volumes. Among other areas his current research involves the edition and linguistic analysis of Joan Coromines' unpublished field notes for his Diccionari Etimològic i Complementari de la Llengua Catalana, 10 vols. (1980-2001) and Onomasticon Cataloniae: Els Noms de Lloc i Noms de Persona de Totes les Terres de Llengua Catalana, 8 vols. (1989-1997), with a special focus upon the linguistic surveys conducted in 1959-1960 in the northern Catalan region of Roussillon (Rosselló) which comprises the greater part of the modern French Département des Pyrénées Orientales.

Rasico is a corresponding member of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (link to http://www.iec.cat/), the official academy of the Catalan language, as well as a corresponding member of the Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona (link to http://www.boneslletres.cat/), the Institut Menorquí d'Estudis (link to http://www.ime.cat/), the Societat Histórico-Arqueológica Martí i Bella, Ciutadella de Menorca (link to http://shamartibella.es/), and of the Junta de Estudios Históricos de Mendoza (Argentina). He was a founding member of the North American Catalan Society (1978) as well as its past president (2001-2003); and since 1979 he has been a member and vice-president (2006-2009) of the Associació Internacional de Llengua i Literatura Catalanes (link to http://www.iecat.net/aillc/). Rasico also has served on the Board of Directors of Sister Cities of Nashville(link to http://scnashville.org), a volunteer civic organization representing Metro Nashville’s Mayor's Office in the area of international contacts. Rasico led a successful effort to establish an official relationship between Nashville and Mendoza, Argentina, which resulted in the latter becoming Nashville's sixth official sister city in March, 2009. In 2015 Rasico was awarded the 25th International Ramon Llull Prize (XXVè Premi Internacional Ramon Llull) by the Fundació Ramon Llull and the Fundació Congrés de Cultura Catalana, in recognition of his research, teaching and promotion of the Catalan language. And in 2024 he received the prestigous 35th Josep Maria Batista i Roca-Memorial Enric Garriga Trullols Award (XXXVè Premi Josep Maria Batista i Roca-Memorial Enric Garriga Trullols) for his work in promoting Catalan culture and the Catalan-speaking lands.

At Vanderbilt University Rasico teaches classes in Spanish linguistics as well as in Catalan language and culture.