Catalan Language: Status, Conflicts and Normalization in Catalonia

Catalan and Other Languages in Catalonia

- Language Background: Aranese originated and is still spoken in its territory. Catalan, Aranese (one of the principal languages of the Aran Valley, along with Catalan and Spanish, but in some areas it is not the majority language), and signs of Catalan sign language (the principal language of the deaf community of Catalonia).

Languages Spoken:

Catalan has a first-place presence in Catalan society, alongside Spanish. Other languages include: Tamasheq (Maghreb), Arabic, languages of Africa, Asia or the Americas; Romani (the Gypsy language).

Sociolinguistics:

Sociolinguistics is the discipline that studies language in relation to society. It examines the variation of a language based on the speakers, their social class, and the different uses of language in society.

Linguistic Conflict:

A linguistic conflict is a situation in which two languages compete for the same social spaces in society.

Bilingualism:

Bilingualism is the alternating use of two languages:

• Individual bilingualism: a speaker who knows two languages.
• Territorial bilingualism: when a territory has two languages in use, with clearly differentiated areas.
• Social bilingualism: when two languages currently coexist in a society, where one is the dominant language of the territory and the other is a minority language.

Diglossia:

Diglossia is the situation in which two languages are used by speakers in different contexts, where one is used for formal situations and the other for informal ones.

Minorization:

Minorization is the process of reducing the use of a language in its own territory, which could eventually lead to its replacement by another language. A minority language is discriminated against in its own territory, and the pressure of the dominant language can cause a minority language to lose speakers.

Normalization:

Normalization is the process of social reorganization whose objective is to establish knowledge, uses and attitudes favorable to a minority language, in order to avoid its linguistic replacement. It includes:

• Linguistic regulation: the establishment and dissemination of official regulations for the language.
• Normalization of community awareness and changing the linguistic attitudes that favor replacement.
• Language planning: organized action in favor of the normalization of the language by public administration.

Knowledge, Uses and the Current Situation of Catalan

The current situation of Catalan depends on various factors: its official status, its extension, the knowledge of speakers, and political difficulties.

Private Sector:

Almost all Catalan speakers transmit the language to their children. In mixed families, Catalan is transmitted to some of the children, and the population of Spanish speakers increasingly learns Catalan. Some people maintain the attitude of using Spanish regardless of their knowledge of Catalan. For part of the population from Spanish-speaking families, knowledge of the language of their own country is a personal option of linguistic identity.

Official Public Sphere:

State institutions do not use Catalan. The Generalitat of Catalonia, the government, the parliament and local administration use Catalan almost exclusively.

Education system: students receive their education in Catalan in an independent country where the Catalan language is the dominant language (linguistic immersion).

Unofficial Public Sector:

Public media: TV3, Catalan public television, has incorporated technological innovations. Private media today include: El Periódico, Segre, El Temps (magazine), Catalan radio, RAC1, Ràdio Ràpida, Onda Cero (state) City TV and Flash TV.

Cultural Offer and Identity:

Editorial production in Catalan has not stopped growing for the past thirty years. There has been great development in Catalan theater, with authors of theater emerging in Catalan. Music (songwriters and rock groups) stands out in Catalan. Popular and traditional culture, sport, and youth culture also reflect the evolution of Catalan and its unequal presence in the state.