Language use survey

Trevor @ Thursday April 22nd 2004 16:51

While nationalist politicians continue to exaggerate hugely the number of Catalan speakers (think: lobbying, EU official languages), the new Idescat figures (Idescat is the notoriously unreliable Catalan government stats bureau) on social use suggest that the vast sums spent by the Catalan government over the past couple of decades on persuading and forcing people to hop from one Latin dialect have actually been resulting in the conversion of some 18% of native Spanish speakers into predominantly Catalan-speaking or bilingual bunnies:

language catalan spanish both other
first 2,213,100 2,929,100 152,000 177,000
“own” 2,670,100 2,424,700 283,200 93,300
habitual 2,742,600 2,410,300 255,100 62,600
habitual less first 529,500 -518,800 103,100 -114,400

I find them slightly bizarre for a couple of reasons:

  1. The numbers given were presumably extrapolated by Idescat up from the 7,267 sample. If you add up each row you’ll notice that Idescat is positing a different total population for the region on each occasion.
  2. For me the salient statistic is that the various measures taken seem to have been successful in destroying the allegiance of almost half the speakers from small language communities (the other column) to their mother tongue (177,000 => 93,300). I’m curious how that fits in with the theme of Forum 2004 (Barcelona, capital of cultural diversity). This is what language activists would (correctly) call cultural genocide were it to be happening to Catalan. Or is social engineering like imperialism: it’s only bad when the Americans do it?


Categories: Languages, Splog

« · »

RSS: post comments, blog comments, blog posts

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  1. J
    April 22nd 2004 19:23

    Don’t be rediculous. With the due respect, it is not posible to teach someone in the Berber language because there are no books and it is not a usefull language to know in Europe

  2. Geoff
    April 23rd 2004 12:21

    That’s exactly the same attitude Franco’s people had to Catalan.

Share this post
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Meneame
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
See also
    • This feature doesn't work without post tags, and there don't seem to be any for this post.
    • This feature doesn't work without post tags, and there don't seem to be any for this post.
Writing and translation

Check out the services I provide over at Oreneta.com

Google Reader

I share other stuff over here.

Pordiosería

If you're feeling generous, check out my Amazon wishlists for Deutschland, France , and the UK, or use PayPal to

My 5% bookstore - new stuff



Spanish history

Modern Spanish fiction

Spanish classics

On this day

Barcelona

  • March 21 1848 

    En Barcelona como en otras partes comienza hoy la primavera, que en honor de la verdad no suele ser aqui la estacion mas hermosa del año. Cierto que ya los árboles comienzan á echar hoja, y que la linda y olorosa violeta alfombra los jardines y ribazos, y que le hacen cortejo otras flores; per...

Josep Pla, Palafrugell (1918-9)

  • 21 de març de 1918 En aquest paĂ­s tenim un costum molt curiĂłs. Quan ens trobem, al carrer, dues persones, cara a cara, no tenim, a penes, res a dir-nos. Però, una vegada acomiadats i fets set o vuit passos, se’ns ocorren tot d’una una sèrie de coses urgents a dir a la persona que hem deixat fa un moment. [...]
  • 21 de març de 1919 Inici de la primavera. Biblioteca. Tot traduint Renard penso que Ă©s mĂ©s important dominar un ofici qualsevol que posseir una curiositat dilatada, vastĂ­ssima. La curiositat es pot improvisar; un ofici, no. La curiositat Ă©s superficialment agradable, però deixa una certa buidor amarga per dintre. Un ofici Ă©s monòton i pesat, però tĂ© moments d’una voluptuositat [...]

The peepul's choice

Back to top