Language attitudes, linguistic authority and independence in 21st century Catalonia

peer-reviewedIn a context of increasing linguistic and cultural diversity and political uncertainty in Catalonia, this article reports on a research project which set out to explore the attitudes of members of independence organisations operating in the city of Girona toward the Catalan and Spanish languages. This study approaches language attitudes through the theoretical lens of linguistic authority, in particular, the concepts of anonymity and authenticity. The data, gathered from six focus groups, provide an insight on the nature of linguistic authority in contemporary Catalonia. Two themes emerge in the informants’ discussion of Catalan and Spanish: ‘twenty-first Century Catalanisme’ and ‘Embracing Linguistic Diversity’. The comments of the respondents indicate that, against the backdrop of the independence process in the region, bilingualism and multilingualism have become highly valued in the territory. In addition, this study suggests that a fuller understanding of the situation in Catalonia may be facilitated by qualitative approaches, which explore attitudes in-depth

Diversity of language ideologies in Spanish-speaking youth of different origins in Catalonia

To explore language attitudes and ideologies in urban Catalonia, focus group structured interviews were conducted with two groups of adolescents of Spanish-speaking origins: the Autochthonous group, descendents of mid-late twentieth century immigrants from other parts of Spain, and the Immigrant group, who came from Latin America. The Autochthonous group displayed a clear spectrum of six sets of language ideologies. At one extreme was ‘linguistic parochialism’ in support for Catalan entailing rejection of compromise with Spanish or the Spanish state. At the other was linguistic parochialism favouring Spanish, which was dismissive of Catalan linguistic and national aspirations. In the middle were ‘linguistic cosmopolitan’ attitudes favouring accommodation, bilingualism and diversity. This spectrum was coherent and ordered in that it consisted of different responses to political and socioeconomic facts in Catalonia. By contrast, the Immigrant group, though equally ideologically diverse, was inconsistent and betrayed little engagement with local political or socioeconomic realities. Instead, immigrants seemed more interested in maintaining their linguistic identity by avoiding dialectal influence from Peninsular Spanish. The findings contribute to our understanding of the development of language ideologies and attitudes in bilingual contexts and in particular the impact of immigration on bilingual societies