Oral use of Catalan: at the decisive crossroads

(crossing roads, or turning point, our translation possibilities, to your liking)

1. Catalan, 21st century Welsh?

Similarities between the two languages (and the Basque language): they are minority languages. They have lived and have political mastery and bullying. Both have produced an industrial revolution.

• These are external migrations that reinforced the minority language. The disappearance of monolinguals.
• Turn native speakers into a minority.
• Reduction in the number of regular users of the local language

2nd How many speak Catalan?

Population of the Catalan countries: About 14 million people and 10 of whom can speak (71%). Real speakers (regular users, mainly Catalan or Catalan and others): Around 6 million (43%).

For the first time in history, the usual users of Catalan are a minority.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. A territory full of holes

The use of Catalan is a minority in the most populated areas. Less than 30% of the population in the 3 historic capitals: Barcelona, Valencia and Palma de Mallorca (as in EH).

Half of Catalans live in environments where language is a minority. In the villages where Catalan predominates, we can also find neighborhoods where Spanish is the predominant one. In the Catalan countries there are no more than 50,000 inhabitants in which the percentage of the Catalan population is greater than 60%.

4. Loss of territory

Within 30 years, Catalan may disappear or be totally marginal in: Northern Catalonia, L'Alguer, Ribagorza, Ibiza, Formentera and the following districts: Alicante, Baix Vinalopó and Vinalopó Mitjà.

5. Setback in use

The percentage decrease of Catalan speakers is explained by the aging of the vasco-speaking population (low birth rate), the increase in the immigrant population and the young population that is assuming a Castilian speaking behavior.

In Barcelona, 52% of those over 65 declare themselves Catalan, but only 28% of those between 15 and 34 years old.

6. Language switched off

For the last 30 years, Catalan has not been the most widely used language in the Catalan countries. Secular linguistic oppression has made the speakers internalize that to avoid problems it is better not to use them in certain places or with certain people. For this reason, listening to Catalan on the street or in public places is more difficult than ever. If everyone you know used it without complexes, you'd hear more. It is the feeling that this situation generates among speakers of other languages that Catalan is becoming less and less and that it is not worth learning (To Euskaldunes all this becomes known, right? ).

7. Family transmission of the language

It is strong in most of the Catalan lands.

It is weakening in the List of Aragon and in the following cities: Castellón, Valencia, Elche and Alicante. It is completely disrupted in Northern Catalonia and L'Alguer.

8. Other aspects of transmission

In mixed families, the transmission of Catalan varies greatly depending on the place. A new and worrying phenomenon: young people who receive Catalan from their parents, but do so in Spanish to their parents, brothers or colleagues.

• Good data. In the Balearic Islands, 60% of mixed families transmit Catalan to their children.
• Bad data (2020). Knowledge of the language of young people in Barcelona. You know this well. Spanish (92%), English (58%), Catalan (53%).

9. Will immigration increase the number of Catalan speakers?

Immigrants are more than a third of the Catalan countries. Although the number of speakers from other languages who understand or know how to speak in Catalan has increased greatly, the number of Catalan speakers has increased little, and on the contrary, that of those who speak in Spanish yes.

Only 1.9% of the 4th grade students who have Spanish as their first Catalan language.

Among those with another language, this percentage rises to 8.4%.

10. Independence does not solve all the problems

Peoples of Europe who have experienced similar situations achieved independence in the twentieth century and helped them overcome these problems. The Irish case, however, shows that it is not enough: an appropriate language policy and a committed country are needed. Of the 16 underlying languages of 100,000 European speakers, 14 may disappear in this century. Of the other 22 to the million, 2 are in serious danger, and in another 12 transmission is weak and can be replaced by state languages. Of those 38 languages, only 3 are official (Maltese, Icelandic and Irish) because they are independent States.

11. Future scenarios for the 21st century

Within 50 years speaking Catalans can reach 20-25% if current trends are not disrupted. How many will the Catalan speakers be in 2075? 3 hypothesis:

• High: 40-45% (7-7.5 million);
• Median: 20-25% (4.5 million);
• Low: 10-15% (2.5-3 million).

We do not know what the future will look like, but what we have to avoid is that Catalan is exclusionary and not necessary in the Catalan countries.

The extension of use should come, above all, from the need and cultural and social connotation of the language. Basic aspects to promote the oral use of Catalan: permanent and local use, jobs related to the public, model of teaching immersion, social and audiovisual networks and compliance with linguistic regulations.

It is time to address the issue seriously, as the current substitution processes are very rapid. In the remaining two generations by 2080, our language can be represented.