Hotel AYRE
Caspe, Casp 103
9.45
Presentation by Miquel Strubell, sociolinguist
http://estudiscatalans.blogspot.com/2017/04/midas-general-assembly-meeting-english.html
Catalan version: http://estudiscatalans.blogspot.com/2017/04/midas.html
Catalan version: http://estudiscatalans.blogspot.com/2017/04/midas.html
Ladies and gentleman,
First of all, thanks to the organizers to make
it possible for you to hear, those of you that want to, interventions made in
the language that for a thousand years has characterized the Catalan people. It
is a practical gesture of recognition of the value you associate to linguistic
diversity and its conservation. As those of you that know me know, English is
my mother tongue (I should say, “father tongue!") and it would not have
been a problem for me to give this address in English. On behalf of the many
people that defend these values, thanks again!
**** CLICK ON "Més informació" BELOW TO READ THE REST OF THE PAPER ****
For me it is a great honour to talk to you,
that have come from many countries and, more importantly, from many different
cultures. In most if not all cases, yours are languages and cultures that are
forgotten or marginalised, or outside the "mainstream" of the societies
where you live and – almost always – you have lived since before the
establishment of the current borders between European states.
For me it is also a great honour because after
the more formal speeches, I am the first of only four Catalans who will give
presentations on different aspects of the reality of the country that today
welcomes you with the warmth of the fire of the dragon that made Saint George
famous, whose day - Sunday, April 23 – we celebrate on the street with books
and roses.
Between the four of us we'll try to
contextualize the current reality of Catalonia, from different points of view. And
between the four of us, I hope you will be able to understand much better what
is going on here and how it can affect the future, among others, of your
association members who live and work in Catalonia.
I have been given an specific assignment, to
give you a "description of the linguistic reality of the country (for
obvious reasons a subject that interests them a lot)". Naturally, this has
genuine linguistic aspects that interest philologists and that have to do with
grammar, syntax, spelling... But I think what you really want is to hear about
the presence of the language in Catalan society (or in all the territories
where it is spoken) and a rough idea of its recent development.
The most synthetic summary in this regard in
Catalonia, referring to the year 2013, is as follows: "94·3% of the
population of Catalonia understand Catalan, 80·4% can speak it, 82·4% read it
and 60·4% can write it”.
There is a version of this survey in English.[1]
The 9th Report on the Catalan Language[2], published last year by CRUSCAT (Universitat de Barcelona) has a section on "strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities for the Catalan language" in each of its territories.
Among the "negative structural factors" (or threats) the
report underlines the socioeconomic context of the early 2000s that "drew
a picture with a very important arrival of non Catalan-speaking population": one million net growth of foreign inhabitants in just ten years! [3]
The "positive structural factors" (or opportunities) are in fact the consequences of the crisis (which in other respects have been dramatic: in 2013, a quarter of the population of Catalonia was searching for a job): demographic flows made record population be reached in 2012, since which there has been a slight reduction of registered foreigners.
As for the "internal negative
factors" (or weaknesses), in each area there are still pockets of people
who cannot speak Catalan. In Northern Catalonia in France the last native
speakers of Catalan are dying out. Even in Catalonia the use of Spanish is
spreading in social segments where Catalan had always predominated. What is
more, in Catalonia and for the first time, the absolute number of native Catalan-speakers
has declined in recent years. Furthermore there is an outflow of large numbers
of Catalans to other countries, in search of jobs, as a result of the crisis;
and the forming of families, later and smaller, job uncertainty and the chronic
- and for me suicide – lack of public incentives to have children, which has
destroyed the old shape of the “age pyramid”. Here are data for 2013, which shows
in different colours those born in Catalonia, those born in the rest of Spain,
and those born in the world, for each age group.
Linguistic availability has also weakened in
customer service in local shops, in medical services, banks and shopping
centres.
Finally, there are "positive internal
factors" (or strengths) in the report, such as the increase of proficiency
in Catalan among young people, while in Valencia, the Balearic Islands and
Aragon, the Popular Party has been sent to the opposition in their regional
parliaments. This party has stood out as highly belligerent against the Catalan
language, to the point of denying its unity, and a willingness to impose, or
maintain a privileged official position for, the Spanish language. The report
notes that in Valencia, "the potential of the Catalan language lies in the
middle class, and knowledge of the language is associated with social
promotion": two important factors for the future.
When the official use of the language, there is
a clear differentiation with Andorra raking at the top, of course (given that
Catalan is the only official language there), followed by Catalonia
(Generalitat and local authorities), the Balearic Islands and Valencia. Its
presence is minimal in eastern Aragon, Northern Catalonia and in Alghero
(Sardinia).
For me the demographic issue is key when
looking at the future of the language. Another source[4] says that in Catalonia
"Every
year, an average of 85,000 international immigrants arrive...; Catalonia loses
150,000 people a year who go to live in Spain or elsewhere. In addition, each
year, 50,000 come from Spain to live in Catalonia. "
A process of ethnolinguistic shift is still
underway. Without the recruitment of new speakers, the future is uncertain.
Throughout the 20th century, the number of people born in Catalonia (though
necessarily the ratio) has increased, but within this group the proportion of
the descendants of Spanish migration (mainly between 1950 and 1975) has risen:
Font: Josep Dencàs: https://www.racocatala.cat/forums/fil/199452/evolucio-poblacio-catalunya-independencia?pag=1
What is the scale of this recruitment, if it is taking place? The survey on language use, which is held every five years, indicated in 2013 that in the adult population, for every 65·7 people who had not had Catalan as their first language (or one of their first languages), 9·7 had incorporated it as their usual language (or one of their usual languages): one in seven. This figure is much higher in Andorra, but it is much better in Catalonia than in other Catalan-speaking regions.
In the rest of my contribution (and I hope there will be time afterwards
for a brief exchange of opinions), I want to concentrate on the issue of
recruitment. What factors can stimulate it? What can curb or prevent it?
a. The usefulness and the
need to know the language; and the usefulness and necessity of using the
language.
In the current state of affairs (and in the current States, I shall just
talk about Spain) the usefulness of Catalan in the Constitutional Court and the
Supreme Court is zero: its use is simply not allowed.
The usefulness of Catalan in the Spanish Parliament is zero. Its use is
not allowed in the Congress or in the Senate (except for one almost anecdotal
occasion).
The usefulness of Catalan before the Spanish police is highly doubtful,
to judge by a recent case: you can get fined €600 by saying "Good
morning" in Catalan to the passport control officer and by standing firm
in the exercise of your constitutional right to choose the official language
you want. The organization Plataforma per la Llengua[5]
(Platform for the Language) has dozens of well documented cases of blatant
discrimination of language; sometimes, paradoxically, the person that gets
punished is the Catalan-speaker.
The usefulness - in this case, the need - to know Catalan is clearly
evidence if you want to become official (civil service exams) at both the local
and the Government level. However, it is not required to assign a judge to a
court.
The usefulness of knowing Catalan is evident if
you want to watch the news broadcasts on Catalan public television, but it is
not for you prefer the news of Televisión Española, Antena Tres, Telecinco,
La Sexta, La Cuatro, and the other monolingual channels. It is not useful
to go to the movies, where almost all the films are dubbed in Spanish only.
b. The
social prestige of the language and of the speaker.
They are separate issues. Kathryn Woolard, in
her excellent field research in the last quarter of the last century, found
that her sample of young people in Catalonia rated more highly a person when he
or she spoke in Catalan than in Spanish. And that a person perceived as being a
Catalan speaker was rated higher than others, whatever language they spoke in.
c. In
the last analysis, it is power that it affects people’s behaviour, preferences,
opportunities, linguistic choices and many other aspects.
Catalans are well aware that the fate of our
language, culture and identity are closely linked with power. When power
attacks them, we have suffered. When we have had a certain level of power, our
language, culture and identity have been consolidated.
That is one of the many reasons why a large
part of the population of Catalonia, starting from non-partisan civil society
and therefore in a "bottom-up" way, wants independence for Catalonia.
In many ways we are a curious miracle. No other Europe people as large as we
are has resisted, without losing its identity, such uniformising, assimilating pressure
for more than three centuries. Or to put it another way, all the other peoples
have won their sovereignty. But I leave this more political field for my
colleagues, and especially Liz, to explain in more detail.
d. Let
me, however, comment on the great relationship between the origin of the
population of Catalonia (which has such an impact on their knowledge and
language use) and their political preferences.
This graph shows the percentage of votes cast
in favour of Catalan independence in the last elections (2015). Although
foreigners could not vote, only where there are large concentrations of
families of non-Catalan origin (Barcelona, Tarragona, Alt Camp, Barcelona,
Vallès Occidental, Garraf, Vallès Oriental and Baix Camp) and the Aran Valley
for partly different reasons, did the vote for independence not reach 50%.
However, as a result of the same migration movements into these regions, more
than 65% of the population of Catalonia live there!
e. Language habits.
One of the critical points that can favour the
recruitment of new speakers is related to Catalan-speakers’ language habits.
There is an almost automatic tendency to switch language in front of a stranger
or someone you may or may not understand Catalan. I would easily say this is
the result of political repression in the past: General Primo de Rivera,
General Franco... but without such experience of harsh repression, this
phenomenon probably occurs in many of your communities: it is likely to be a
characteristic of all minority communities in the world.
Changing this habit, overcoming it, is much
easier to attempt when the interlocutor, in all likelihood, speaks a language
close to ours and can more or less understand it. In our case, until twenty
years ago, almost all residents in Catalonia of non-Catalan origin spoke
another Romance language: Spanish U(or Galician). The reality is much more
complex today, but it is also the case, unfortunately, that the vast majority
of newcomers from other countries first learn Spanish... and almost all Catalan-speakers
take this for granted, whenever we approach them.
However, in the case of Basque, Welsh or Irish
the distance is much greater.
But it is also likely that the same linguistic
proximity between Catalan and Spanish makes it more difficult for the bilingual
people to be aware of their choices. I fear that many people that in surveys on
language use more Spanish than they say (and that they sincerely believe).
f.
Political and popular will
What has distinguished Catalonia (and Andorra)
from the other territories has been a much more generalised desire for our
language (and culture) to be protected and promoted. In other areas the
political parties have not adopted their language policy in such a clear and
agreed manner: instead it has been a battleground for dispute. Looking on one
occasion at the electoral manifestos on the language policy of each option in
Catalonia, I found it quite hard to tell one party from another. The promotion
of Catalan has been an aim largely shared by all parties (I say
"largely": there are nuances in education policy, in penalties for
non-compliance of the law, or requiring language proficiency competition for
civil servants), and it has been easier to legitimize the language policy as a
democratic and transversal, to the extent that it broke with one or more of the
routines imposed by the dictatorships.
Finally, it is common practice to criticize the
parties for their language policies, but the parties are accountable to the
electorate. So it is crucial that they perceive that the protection and
promotion of Catalan is a claim that goes beyond party politics. The civil
society organizations that promote language play an essential role here. Once the
process towards independence is completed – I hope successfully, and soon - it is
to be expected that policies to ensure the future health of our language will be
reactivated in Catalonia with renewed energy. Above all, we hope to be able to remove
the limitations placed by the Spanish government in sectoral policies affecting
language, such as the disputes before the courts of our laws of education,
reception of migrants, and consumers’ rights.
But you must always remember, as I said before,
there are many factors outside the language, of an economic, social,
demographic, etc. nature, that can have a greater impact than a specific
language policy.
Thank you.
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