| Languages of Catalonia | |
|---|---|
| Official language(s) | Catalan, Spanish, Aranese |
| Vernacular(s) | Catalan, Aranese |
| Main immigrant language(s) | Latin American Spanish, Maghrebi Arabic, Romanian, British English, Urdu |
| Main foreign language(s) | English, French |
| Sign language(s) | Catalan Sign Language (official) |
| Common keyboard layout(s) |
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There are three languages with official status in Catalonia (an autonomous community of Spain):
Many other languages are spoken in Catalonia as a result of recent immigration from all over the world.
Catalan has enjoyed special status since the approval of the Statute of Autonomy of 1979 which declares it to be the language "proper to Catalonia".[1] Also with official status are Spanish and Aranese. Spanish had been the only official language for most periods between the 18th century and 1975.
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Over 55% of respondents use Spanish to address their parents (versus 36% who choose Catalan). This is attributed to extensive migration from other areas in Spain during the second half of the 20th century, as a consequence of which many Catalans have one or both parents born outside Catalonia. However, a majority (52.6%) use Catalan with their children (compared to 42.3% for Spanish). This can be attributed to some Spanish-speaking citizens shifting from their mother tongue to Catalan at home.
Outside the family, 48.6% of the population indicate that they address strangers exclusively or preferentially in Catalan, while the proportion of those who use Spanish is 41.7%, and 8.6% claim to use both equally.
According to an official 2008 poll, in everyday use, 45.9% of the population usually speaks Spanish to 35.6% who usually employs Catalan, while 12% of the population uses either language habitually.[2]
The main cause of Spanish and Catalan social bilingualism in modern Catalonia is a large scale immigration process from the rest of Spain which occurred over the 20th century, as Catalonia started a significant industrialization which demanded an increased workforce from elsewhere.[3] Spanish has historically been spoken among a minority of civil servants born in other regions in Spain and among segments of the wealthiest bourgeoisie. Spanish has also been spoken as a second language by most Catalans, as it has been the only official language over long periods since the eighteenth century.
It has been calculated that the total population of Catalonia with no migrations would have grown from 2 million people in 1900 to just 2.4 million in 1980,[4] 39% of the real population of 6.1 million for that date, which is over 7.4 million in 2009. As a consequence, there exists a somewhat different identity for those whose mother tongue is Catalan and those whose mother tongue is Spanish,[5] though it's increasingly difficult to draw clear-cut limits between both groups; furthermore, there is a small but growing number of Catalans who consider both languages mother tongues.[6] According to anthropologist Kathryn Woolard, who has studied these identities, Catalans tend to classify anyone as either castellà (that is, of Spanish mother tongue) or català (that is, of Catalan mother tongue).[7]
According to the most recent linguistic census elaborated by the Government of Catalonia corresponding to 2008, 54.99% of citizens over 15 years old declared Spanish their only native language, versus 31.64% for Catalan, with 3.84% of complete bilinguals; a larger number claims Catalan as "their own language" (46.06% Catalan compared to 55.34% Spanish, including bilinguals), while in everyday uses, people who use either exclusively Catalan (35.64%) or both languages (11.95%) slightly overnumber those that only use Spanish (45.92%).[8]
Lastly, since the Statute of Autonomy of 1979, Aranese –a Gascon Occitan dialect– has been official and subject to special protection in the Aran Valley. This small area of 7,000 inhabitants was the only place where Occitan (spoken mainly in France and some Italian valleys) received full official status. However, on 9 August 2006, when the new Statute came into force, Aranese became official throughout Catalonia.
According to official government of Catalonia, Spanish is currently the most spoken language in Catalonia and especially in the Barcelona metropolitan area, as well as mother tongue and usual tongue of many Catalan citizens. This language is widely prevalent in the press (88%), cinema (97%) and in daily life (45.9%, plus 12% bilinguals).
Spanish is the language that Catalan citizens can read and write the most, due to the fact that until the 1980s it was the only language used in school and in all official communications.
| The Spanish language in Catalonia (2009) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge | Individuals | Percentage |
| Can understand | 6,973,500 | 99% |
| Can speak | 6,793,900 | 96.4% |
| Can read | 6,440,300 | 91.4% |
| Can write | 6,258,200 | 88.8% |
| Population over 2 years old | 7,049,900 | 100% |
The Spanish language developed from Vulgar Latin in the North of the Iberian Peninsula, expanding quickly to the South. It has lexical influences from Arabic and possible substrate influences from Basque and (to a lesser extent) Celtiberian. It has been the only official language in Spain for most periods since the eighteenth century.
Catalan, a Romance language, is regarded by some Iberian linguists as belonging to the Iberian Romance[9] sub-family (which also includes Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, and Aragonese), while others (especially Occitanists) classify it within the Gallo-Romance[10] sub-family (which includes French, Occitan and Gallo-Italian) languages. It shares attributes with both linguistic groups.
According to the 2001 Linguistic Census,[11] about 5,900,000 people in Catalonia (nearly 95% of the population) understand the Catalan language. The percentage of people aged two and older who can speak, read and write Catalan is as follows:
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As a result of the ongoing linguistic policies favouring Catalan, implemented in various degrees by the autonomous government during the last 20 years, knowledge of Catalan has advanced significantly in all these areas, with the ability to write it having experienced the most pronounced increase, from 31.6% of the population in 1986 to 49.8% in 2001.
By age groups, those between 10 and 29 have the highest level of Catalan-language literacy (e.g., 98.2% aged 10–14 understand it, and 85.2% can write it); this is attributed to these individuals having received their education in Catalan.
Geographically, Catalan is understood in northwest Catalonia (High Pyrenees, Aran Valley), at 97.4%, followed by south and western Catalonia, whereas Barcelona's metropolitan area sees the lowest knowledge, at 93.8%. The situation is analogous for written-language skills, with central Catalonia scoring the highest percentages (61.4%), and Barcelona the lowest (46.4%).
Barcelona is one of the main centres of the Spanish publishing industry for both Spanish-language and Catalan-language publishing.
According to the 2001 Aranese Linguistic Census,[12] knowledge of Aranese in the Occitan-speaking territory of Aran is as follows:
| Knowledge of Aranese | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ability | Individuals | Percentage |
| Understand | 6,712 | 88.88% |
| Speak | 4,700 | 62.24% |
| Read | 4,413 | 58.44% |
| Write | 2,016 | 26.69% |
Compared to previous data from 1996, the number of those able to understand Aranese has declined slightly (90.5% in 1996), while at the same time there has been a marginal increase in the number of those able to write it (24.97% in 1996).
By age groups, the largest percentage of those with knowledge of Aranese is in the 15-19 and 65-69 groups (both above 96%), while those aged 30–34 score lowest (just over 80%). Literacy is higher in the 10-19 group with over 88% declaring themselves able to read, and 76% able to write Aranese. Those over 80 are the least literate, with only about 1.5% of them being able to write the language.
In everyday use, according to 2008 data, Spanish is the main language in the Aran valley, habitually spoken by 38% of the population, then followed by Aranese, spoken by 23.4% of the population. In Aran, Catalan is the third language, habitually spoken by 16% of the population.[2]
As a part of the intense immigration process which Spain in general and Catalonia in particular have experienced over the last decade, there is a large number of immigrant languages spoken in various cultural communities in Catalonia, of which Arabic and Urdu are the more common.[2]
From all four Provinces of Catalonia, the largest number of habitual foreign language speakers are located in Girona.[2]
Under the Franco dictatorship Catalan was, until the 1970s, excluded from the state education system and all other official and governmental use, including the prohibition of baptizing children with certain Catalan names. Rural-urban migration originating in other parts of Spain reduced the social use of the language in urban areas. Lately, a similar sociolinguistic phenomenon has occurred with foreign immigration. In an attempt to reverse this, the re-established self-government institutions of Catalonia embarked on a long term language policy to increase the use of Catalan[13] and has, since 1983, enforced laws which attempt to protect, and extend, the use of Catalan. Some groups consider these efforts a way to discourage the use of Spanish,[14][15][16][17] while some other, including the Catalan government[18] and the European Union[19] consider the policies not only respectful,[20] but also an example which "should be disseminated throughout the Union".[21]
Today, Catalan is the language of the Catalan autonomous government and the other public institutions that fall under its jurisdiction.[22] Businesses are required to display all information (e.g. menus, posters) in Catalan under penalty of legal fines; there is no obligation to display this information in either Aranese or Spanish, although there is no restriction on doing so in these or other languages. The use of fines was introduced in a 1997 linguistic law[23] that aims to increase the use of Catalan. According to the law, both Catalan and Spanish – being official languages – can be used by the citizens without prejudice in all public and private activities[24] even though the Generalitat usually uses only Catalan in its communications and notifications addressed to the general population. The citizens can also receive information from the Generalitat in Spanish if they so request.[25] The various media belonging to Catalan government public broadcasting are monolingual in Catalan.[26] However, except for a few hours in Catalan on La 2 and on some radio station, all the media belonging to the Spanish government are Spanish monolingual in Catalonia, as in the rest of Spain. The language policy favouring Catalan consistently implemented by the successive governments ruling the regional government of Catalonia since the 1980s has become increasingly contentious and controversial during the 2000s, especially in public education.
In this context, Catalan is the only language of instruction. Thus, pupils are immersed in Catalan except for two hours per week of Spanish medium instruction. The most recent Education Law tried to increase the time of instruction of Spanish language by one more hour, but was finally rejected.[27] In all, there are complaints that current policies offend the right to an education in Spanish.[28]
Some political parties and civic organizations denounce this situation in which a co-official language like Spanish is barred from public education, claiming that this is a severe breach of civic rights and against the spirit of free circulation of people within Spain. In September 2008 a demonstration was held in Barcelona to support full coexistence of both languages without linguistic discrimination of either.[29]
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