The languages of a hypothetical Catalan state

For Francesc Vallverdú, in memoriam

3 min

The preliminary findings of the 2013 Survey of Language Use were made public last June. The Survey is a massive statistical project that aims to paint an accurate picture of the linguistic reality of Catalonia by interviewing 7,500 people. Truth be told, the news went fairly unnoticed. After the expected coverage following the press conference by the Catalan Minister of Culture and the General Director of Language Policy, the story quickly faded away and it's not been discussed since. Today perhaps we could go over the main findings of the Survey and reflect on the positive side of this relative silence.

The 2013 Survey merely confirms what we have known for ten years, when the main sociolinguistic Catalan surveys began to include questions about mother tongue, language of identification and preference, following in on the footsteps of Spain's Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas and the metropolitan surveys. The 2013 Survey confirms that Spanish is still Catalonia's majority language, both in terms of mother tongue --or initial language-- (55 per cent), the language that more people identify with (48 per cent) and the language that most people usually use (51 per cent). Secondly, the survey confirms the capacity of the Catalan language to attract new speakers, unlike other regional or minority languages in Europe. As was pointed out in the press conference, 600,000 people who identify with Catalan (together with Spanish or not) and usually use it never actually spoke it at home as a child. This is in stark contrast with the situation in the Catalan-speaking areas of France (in the southeastern Départment des Pyrénées-Orientales) and many spots in Valencia, where the exact opposite is the norm. Finally, it is evident that Catalonia is essentially a bilingual country, in that at least 90 per cent of the language spectrum is occupied by only two languages. Lately there has been a lot of propaganda about how Catalonia is a country where 300 languages are spoken, but the Survey stubbornly shows that, besides Catalan and Spanish, there are barely ten other languages with any significant social presence (25,000 speakers or more), with Arabic at the top of the list as Catalonia's undisputed third language. At any rate, Catalonia is not exceptional: can you name a European country with a large immigrant population where "300 languages" aren't spoken?

The relative silence surrounding the 2013 Survey findings can be interpreted as a sign of maturity. The Catalan society is beginning to come to terms with its true nature (as opposed to what it might have been, had its history been different) and no longer goes into shock when faced with figures that show the definitive consolidation of Spanish. The unquestionable capacity of the Catalan language to appeal to new speakers isn't enough to cause Spanish to disappear in the short or long term in Catalonia. In the perspective of the independence process, this calm is a blessing. Perhaps there's the odd freak who still dreams of an independent Catalonia as the nation-state of true Catalans (the Catalan-speaking ones). But, fortunately, the bulk of the pro-independence movement has understood that if Catalonia becomes independent, the new state will belong to all Catalans, regardless of their language. In this possible scenario and with half the population speaking Spanish as their main language, nothing would make more sense than to keep Spanish as an official language. So far, all the surveys published show that Spanish-speaking Catalans are keen to maintain the official status of their language; it's a pity the CEO (1), ever so eager to keep tabs on the Catalan process, won't ask any questions on this matter.

In a bold article, political scientist Jaume López argued that the Catalan State (if there's ever one) must be the state of the Catalan "demos" (the people, the political community) and not the state of the "nation". If we put aside all the difficulties surrounding the process (the lack of international allies; the firm opposition of the Spanish government and the EU; the old internal divisions; the squabbling of the political parties, who can't even have a united stance on a matter as "easy" as the election of Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the Commission), this is possibly the biggest challenge facing the independence process today: to avoid the vulgarity of giving birth to yet another nation-state in Europe.

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(1) N.T. The Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió (CEO) is a public institution that reports to the Catalan government and regularly conducts polls and surveys on social and political issues.

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