In the most independentist of the four provinces of Catalonia, that of Girona, several municipalities have launched an initiative to ensure that people who speak Catalan in official and public places do so everywhere.
Strongly promoted for decades by nationalist regional authorities, Catalan occupies a central place in Catalonia. But not enough, according to the separatists in regional power. And this, while the language shares with Castilian an official status in the administrations, at school and in the public media, so many places where in practice, as a vehicular language, it dominates. But how can Catalan be preponderant everywhere? In the streets, stairwells, playgrounds, university halls, corporate offices, or even where it is in retreat? Since the 1980s, the Department of Language Policy, dependent on the regional government, has been scratching its head. The authority spends millions of euros, in particular by offering free language courses for non-Catalan speakers, by forcing traders to label their products in the local language, or even by financing promotional campaigns, even if it means take on the Spanish, qualified “of hegemony”.
A new and unprecedented initiative has recently been launched: several municipalities in the province of Girona are promoting “Catalan in 21 days”. They belong to the Consortium for linguistic normalization, the CPNL, largely financed by the Generalitat, the regional executive dominated by the separatists. Their credo: “If we conceal Catalan, it becomes superfluous.” Concretely, the campaign invites all Catalan speakers to speak their language from the outset to any stranger, even if this person speaks to it in Castilian or if this person does not have an “autochthonous” aspect.
“Don’t change my language”
The operation, which was born in the fall in Sant Coloma de Farnes (about 13,000 inhabitants), now extends to Salt, Breda, Llagostera, Figueras, and is called “No me canviïs la llengua”, literally “Don’t change my language”. The idea is to practice strict unilingualism, whatever the profile of the interlocutor, for twenty-one days in a row, a period sufficient according to experts to change a habit. To quote the CNL, “It’s a small gesture repeated, necessary, for three weeks so that the brain adopts it and makes it its own in complete normality”. According to him, eight out of ten Catalan speakers abandon their language when someone speaks to them in Castilian. “This behavior is lethal for the survival of Catalan, because it causes it to disappear from all spaces and complicates the task of those who, not speaking it, can learn it.”
According to official statistics, of the 7.6 million Catalans, 36.3% use Catalan as their priority and usual language, 50.7% Castilian, while 6.8% use both languages indefinitely. The Spanish ultra-right reacted fiercely to the campaign. Sergi Fabri, one of the three elected members of the Vox party in Salt, specified that “this is further proof of the totalitarian and discriminatory attitude” separatists. For digital freedom, a very right-wing online newspaper, “the campaign is about kicking a bad habit, like smoking or biting your nails. How can we put on the same level the fact of expressing ourselves in Spanish?
Immersive school policy
In Spain, the status of Catalan is conflicting. Like other languages (Galician, Basque, Valencian…), it is co-official in the region where it is spoken. But the separatists in power in Barcelona dream of establishing its hegemony to the detriment of Castilian, even though its use has been in decline since 2003, when 46% of the inhabitants spoke Catalan the majority of the time. This opposition is belligerent and creates continual clashes. The latest being the obligation to teach 25% of classes in Castilian in Catalan schools, recently confirmed by the Constitutional Court, but to which the regional executive refuses to submit.
The campaign “No me canviïïs la llengua” intends to refuse the inevitability of a decline due, in large part, to immigration. Between 1950 and 1975, 1.5 million people from all over Spain were able to integrate into Catalan thanks to an immersive school policy. For two decades, immigration from Europe or Africa has complicated things. “If you arrive in a territory where Catalan speakers are no longer the majority, it is difficult for you to consider the language as a way of integrating, and this takes away your motivation to learn and practice it”, emphasizes the sociolinguist Maite Puigdevall. The classic right of the People’s Party has still not spoken on the issue. And for good reason: in Galicia, the region it governs, 12 public colleges have launched a similar initiative with the regional language, which is also in decline.
