Alan Yates (Northampton, United Kingdom, 1944) is an English linguist, Hispanist and a leading authority on Catalan language and culture.

With a degree in Modern Languages from Cambridge University, he soon entered the field of Catalan Studies, writing a doctoral thesis on the Catalan novel from 1900 to 1925, on which he subsequently based his book Una generació sense novel·la? (Generation without a Novel? – 1975), a particularly relevant study since it is one that should be situated within the project of reinterpreting the cultural significance of Modernism and the opposing movement Noucentisme.

He began teaching at the University of Sheffield in 1968 and, since 1990, he has occupied the Chair of Catalan Philology at the Balearic Islands University, where he was named Professor Emeritus in 2000. He has been secretary (1971 – 1980) and president (1987 – 1990) of the Anglo-Catalan Society and, from 1980 to 2000, he was Editor of the "Occasional Publications" series. As a linguist and literary scholar, Alan Yates has made a major contribution in making the Catalan language accessible to English speakers with works such as Teach Yourself Catalan (1975), Catalan: a Comprehensive Grammar (1999), which was co-authored with Max Wheeler i Nicolau, and the Catalan course for foreigners A Catalan Handbook (1993), which was co-authored with Toni Ibarz. His book Narcís Oller. Tradició i talent individual (Narcís Oller: Tradition and Individual Talent, 1998), is a major landmark in the study of Narcís Oller's literary career.

In 1990, he was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi (St George Cross) by the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia and the Spanish award of the Cruz de Caballero de la Orden del Mérito Civil. In 2003, he received the Catalonia International Prize from the Institute of Catalan Studies, while in 2007 he was awarded the Ramon Llull International Prize.


Web page: Toni Terrades Oliver for AELC.
Documentation: Alan Yates and Toni Terrades.
Photographs: Author's personal files.