Catalan resists but loses 280,000 habitual speakers in 15 years

The Catalan language “is not in danger of imminent extinction” but it does present “worrying trends & rdquor;. This is what emerges from an academic report presented this Tuesday at the first meeting of the National Pact for the Languagea meeting chaired by Pere Aragones with representatives of the Government, parties (ERC, JxCat, CUP, PSC and ‘comuns’) and entities that marks the beginning of a journey that will culminate in December with the signing of a document that will be the basis for the language policies of the future in Catalonia. Within this framework, Aragonès has called strengthen consensusexpand them and create new agreements so that Catalan has the maximum possible social use.

The study that, as a result of a Parliament resolution in September 2021, seven experts were commissioned to have a Diagnosis on the situation of the Catalan language in various fields such as education, university, judicial or commercial, has been prepared by Isidor Marí and Miquel Àngel Pradilla, from the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Avel·lí Flors-Mas and Eva Pons from the University of Barcelona, ​​Maria Corominas from the UAB, Natxo Sorolla from the URV, and Maite Melero from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the UPF

According to this study, Catalan lost 280,000 regular speakers between 2003 and 2018. In this 15-year interval, there was also a general decline in the use of Catalan: the average use fell by 7.4 percentage points, from 48.5% to 41.1%.

global factors

The report points out that the current situation of Catalan is not only a product of internal dynamics, but that in “large part & rdquor; it is due to more global factors, such as the expansion of the world market, the great intercontinental migratory flows, the appearance of a global cyberspace or the irruption of information technologies. And this evolution is part of a global crisis of linguistic and cultural diversity.

In any case, it is found that Catalan “is not today a language threatened with imminent extinction, its social uses are solid, but it does show worrying trends and this means that measures must be taken”, in the words of the Secretary of Language Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila. He has warned that the current circumstances do not favor his learning.

On the positive side, the Catalan expands its use in the family environmentwhich means that “it cannot be considered a threatened language or one in the substitution phase because these situations occur when the speakers stop transmitting it to their children”.

Immigration “exceptional”

However, the report points out that “advances in intergenerational linguistic transmission and in school learning have not been able to compensate for the effects of the incorporation of the new immigration non-Catalan speaker & rdquor ;. This “exceptional” phenomenon & rdquor; due to the magnitude (1.5 million citizens), due to the speed (in 20 years) and due to the heterogeneity of the newcomers “it explains the percentage decline in the knowledge and use of Catalan”.

Break “vicious circles”

Given this diagnosis, the report urges to strengthen the official nature of Catalan in areas such as the legislative, health, in shops and schools to break with “vicious circles & rdquor; and regressive dynamics.

From the legal perspective, the document confirms that the current status of Catalan “is far from the objectives of guaranteeing the normal use of the language in all areas established by Catalan legislation”. And he points out that the Spanish State tends to protect the almost exclusive presence of Castilian in the state, European and international space.

At cultural field, the study sees very evident differences. While in sectors like the theater supply and consumption in Catalan are the majority, in the book and the music Catalan shows “great room for improvement”. And in the world of cinema and video gametheir presence is “highly deficient”.

As for the educational field, the report differentiates three sectors. In the non-university educationthe report launches a message alluding to the ruling of the TSJC on 25% of Castilian in the classrooms: “The proportionality in the vehicular use of languages ​​must be assessed according to the achievement of language training objectives, and not by the theoretical hours of teaching in each language”. At university environmentthe report urges “shielding certain functional niches such as spaces of predominant use of Catalan and ensuring language training in line with the goal of multilingual and intercultural competence. In the field of teaching Catalan, Catalan for adults it is detected that the action of the Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística is “isolated” from the rest of reception and integration policies and therefore proposes “to promote the learning of Catalan in work spaces and hours, appealing to the corporate social responsibility of companies” .

Involvement of companies

In the field of consumption and work, the study supports the usefulness of Catalan as an element of inclusion and social advancement. It underlines that more than 70% of consumers would like brands to use Catalan more in social networks, advertising, telephone service. Instead, the actual use of Catalan in the market is “well below this expectation.” The authors of the report propose as necessary, “beyond legal measures”, “a commitment to large socioeconomic agents to extend the use of Catalan as an inherent part of the quality of the product or service”. And it calls for Catalan to be present in all professional and occupational training processes.

Along the same lines, the study highlights that in the field of geriatric care it is “even more essential” that the personnel training and selection processes ensure the competence of the personnel in the official languages, not only for a principle of equality and quality of service, but as “an inseparable part of professional competence”.

The report points to territorial fragmentation as one of the “great drawbacks” for the recovery of the functions of the Catalan language. “The ability to promote the language largely depends on the establishment of a joint and permanent institution of cooperation between all the Catalan-speaking territories at an academic, cultural, executive and parliamentary level.”

More visibility on networks and videos

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Finally, in the digital realm, it is pointed out that Catalan has a “high” relative presence on the Internet and “good dynamism” in content creation. But it calls for favoring the positioning, visibility and generation of social networks of content in Catalan that are attractive to young people. It calls for “reversing the marginal presence of Catalan in the video on demand offer” and giving the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation “the capacity to attract audiences, including children and young people, in the most appropriate formats and channels” to compensate for the fact that the big technology companies tend to consider the Spanish state as a single language market.

Once this report has been presented, the second part of the Pacte per la Llengua will be opened; a participatory process, open to citizens through the website pacteperlallengua.gencat.cat. This process will culminate in December with the signing of the pact, which will be the basis for a future multi-year language policy plan.