| Catalan /Valenciancultural domain |
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TheCatalan language originated fromVulgar Latin in thePyrenees Mountains betweenFrance andSpain. It diverged from the otherRomance languages in the 9th century.[1] At that time, Catalan spread quickly throughout the Iberian peninsula when the Catalan counts conquered Muslim territory.[1] By the 11th century, the Catalan language was present in several feudal documents.[2] Catalan was present throughout theMediterranean by the 15th century. At that time, the city ofValencia was thriving.[1]
In 1659, theTreaty of Pyrenees was signed, beginning a suppression of the Catalan language.Louis XIV issued a decree that prohibited the use of the Catalan language inNorthern Catalonia.[3] The repression continued during theFrench Revolution when theFirst French Republic prohibited the usage of Catalan in linguistic education.[4] The repression continued until recently, when finally the government body of thePyrénées-Orientales in 2007 symbolically recognized the usage of Catalan publicly and its presence in education.[5]
In Spain, Catalan was expelled from the official sphere, until it regained official status after the establishment of theAutonomous Region of Catalonia within theSecond Spanish Republic (1931-1939). InFrancoist Spain, Catalan was prohibited in government or education, accompaigned with a harsh repression and discouragement of the public use of the language during the first years of the Dictatorship. It was initially prohibited in mass media, but then tolerated during the 1950s, including the publishing of written works in Catalan.[6] Since the death ofFranco and the subsequent adoption of the Spanishconstitutional monarchy, Catalan was restored as official language and since then has been promoted in different degrees by the autonomous governments of the Catalan-speaking areas (Catalonia, theBalearic Islands andValencia). Today, despite the efforts to re-normalize the social use of the language (particularly in Catalonia) and their relative successes of the first decades, Catalan still faces issues ofdiglossia and increasing minorization, alongside the growth of discrimination cases.[7]
By the 9th century, the Catalan language had developed fromVulgar Latin on both sides of the eastern end of thePyrenees mountains (counties ofRosselló,Empúries,Besalú,Cerdanya,Urgell,Pallars andRibagorça), as well as in the territories of the Roman province and later archdiocese ofTarraconensis to the south.[1] From the 8th century on, the Catalan counts extended their territory southwards and westwards, conquering territories then occupied by Muslims, bringing their language with them.[1]
This expansion quickened with the separation of theCounty of Barcelona from theCarolingian Empire in 988.[1] By the 9th century, the Christian rulers occupied the northern parts of present-day Catalonia, usually termed "Old Catalonia", and during the 11th and 12th centuries they expanded their domains to the region north of theEbro river, a land known as "New Catalonia".[1] During the 13th century, the Catalans expanded to theLand of Valencia and across to theBalearic Islands and Alghero in Sardinia.[1]
Hec est memoria de ipsas rancuras que abet dominus Guitardus Isarnus, senior Caputense, de rancuras filio Guillelm Arnall et que ag de suo pater, Guilelm Arnall; et non voluit facere directum in sua vita de ipso castro Caputenseche li comannà.Et si Guilelm Arnal me facia tal cosa que dreçar no·m volgués ho no poqués, ho ssi·s partia de mi, che Mir Arnall me romasés aisí com lo·m avia al dia che ad él lo commanné. Et in ipsa onora Guillelm Arnal no li doné negú domenge ni establiment de cavaler ni de pedó per gitar ni per metre quan l·i comanné Mir Arnall.
According to historianJaume Villanueva (1756–1824), the first attested Catalan sentence is thought to be found in an 8th-century manuscript fromRipoll that has since been lost. It was a whimsical note in 10th- or early 11th-century calligraphy:Magister m[eu]s no vol que em miras novel ("my master does not want you to watch me, newbie").[10]
Starting in the 9th century, several feudal documents (especially oaths and complaints) written inmacaronic Latin began to exhibit elements of Catalan, with proper names or even sentences in Romance.[2] For example, in the act of consecration of thecathedral of Urgell from 839 the toponymy exhibits clear Catalan traits, likeapocope[11] inArgilers < ARGILARĬUS,Llinars < LINĀRES,Kabrils < CAPRĪLES, and reduction of Latin clusters as inPalomera < PALUMBARĬA.[12] Another text, from the early 11th century, exhibits the names of seven fruit trees:[12]
morers III et oliver I et noguer I et pomer I et amendolers IIII et pruners et figuers...
Of special historical and linguistic importance is theMemorial of Complaints of Ponç I[13] (ca. 1050–1060), featuring whole sentences in Romance.[2] By the middle of the 11th century, documents written completely or mostly in Catalan begin to appear, like theOath of Radulf Oriol (ca. 1028–1047),[14][15]Complaints of Guitard Isarn, Lord of Caboet (ca. 1080–1095), andThe Oath of Peace and Truce of Count Pere Ramon (1098).[2] The hagiographic poem Cançó de Santa Fe from ca. 1054 is not considered one of the oldest Catalan texts because it is hard to tell if it is written in Catalan or Occitan, since its place of composition is unknown and it is difficult to assign it to one language or the other: the two languages were similar to each other at the time.[16]
Catalan shares many features withGallo-Romance languages, which are mostly located in France and Northern Italy. Old Catalan diverged fromOld Occitan between the 11th and 14th centuries,[17] although it was not until the 19th century that Catalan was formally considered a separate language by romanists,[18] when in 1863 the German philologistFriedrich Christian Diez first put Catalan on the same level as the rest of the Romance languages, though still admitting a close relationship with Occitan.[19]
Catalan enjoyed a golden age during theLate Middle Ages, reaching a peak of maturity and cultural plenitude.[1] Examples of this can be seen in the works of Majorcan polymathRamon Llull (1232–1315), the Four Great Chronicles (13th-14th centuries), and the Valencian school of poetry which culminated inAusiàs March (1397–1459).[1]
By the 15th century, the city ofValencia had become the center of social and cultural dynamism, and Catalan was present all over theMediterranean world.[1] The belief that political splendor was correlated with linguistic consolidation was voiced through the Royal Chancery, which promoted a highly standardized language.[1]
The outstanding[1] novel of chivalryTirant lo Blanc (1490), byJoanot Martorell, shows the transition from medieval to Renaissance values, something that can also be seen in the works ofBernat Metge andAndreu Febrer.[1] During this period, Catalan was what Costa Carreras terms "one of the 'great languages' of medieval Europe".[1] The flowering of the Renaissance was closely associated with the advent of theprinting press, and the first book produced with movable type in theIberian Peninsula was printed in Valencia in 1474:Trobes en llaors de la Verge maria ("Poems of praise of the Virgin Mary").[1]
After theTreaty of the Pyrenees, aroyal decree byLouis XIV of France on April 2, 1700 prohibited the use of the Catalan language in present-dayNorthern Catalonia. The decree forbade use in any official document, under the threat of being invalidated.[3]
Shortly after theFrench Revolution, theFrench First Republic prohibited official use of, and enacted discriminating policies against, the nonstandard languages of France (patois), such as Catalan, Breton, Occitan,Flemish, and Basque.
The deliberate process of eradicating non-Frenchvernaculars in modern France and dismissing them as mere local and often strictly oral dialects was formalized withAbbé Grégoire'sReport on the necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language,[4] which he presented on June 4, 1794 to theNational Convention; thereafter, all languages other than French were officially banned in the administration and schools for the sake oflinguistically uniting post-Bastille Day France.
To date, the French government continues its policy of recognizing French as the country's only official language. Nevertheless, on 10 December 2007, theGeneral Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales recognized Catalan as one of its official languages in Article 1 (a) of itsCharte en faveur du Catalan[5] and sought to promote it in public life and education.
After theNueva Planta Decrees, the use of Catalan in administration and education was banned in theKingdom of Spain.[20][21][22] The administrative use of the Catalan language was replaced with Spanish. While theoretically the replacement solely affected the Royal Audience, the king provided with secret instructions to the royal officers in Catalan territory: they "will take the utmost care to introduce the Castilian [Spanish] language, for which purpose he will give the most temperate and disguised measures so that the effect is achieved, without the care being noticed."[23]
The effects were initially limited on society, upon the official survey the Statistics Office of the French Ministry of the Interior asked theprefects, in 1807, regarding the limits of theFrench language. The survey found that inRoussillon, almost only Catalan was spoken, and since Napoleon wanted to incorporate Catalonia into France, as happened in 1812, theconsul inBarcelona was also asked. He declared that Catalan "is taught in schools, it is printed and spoken, not only among the lower class, but also among people of first quality, also in social gatherings, as in visits and congresses", indicating that it was spoken everywhere "with the exception of the royal courts". He also indicated that Catalan was spoken "in the Kingdom of Valencia, in the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Sardinia, Corsica and much of Sicily, in the Vall d'Aran and Cerdanya".[24]
During theRenaixença that use of the Catalan language also saw an increase in usage.[25] During theSecond Spanish Republic (1931-1939) Catalan became the official language of Catalonia (alongside Spanish), being used extensively by theGeneralitat, the Catalan institution of self-government.
InFrancoist Spain (1939–1975), the use of Spanish in place of Catalan was promoted, and public use of Catalan was initially repressed and discouraged by official propaganda campaigns.[26] The use of Catalan in government-run institutions and in public events was banned.[27] During later stages of Francoist Spain, certain folkloric or religious celebrations in Catalan were allowed to resume and were tolerated. Use of Catalan in themass media was initially forbidden, but beginning in the early 1950s,[6] it was permitted in the theater. Publishing in Catalan continued throughout the Spanish State.[28] There were attempts at prohibiting the use of spoken Catalan in public and in commerce,[26] and all advertising and signage had to be in Spanish, as did all written communication in business.[29]
Following the death ofFranco in 1975 and the restoration ofdemocracy under aconstitutional monarchy, the use of Catalan increased significantly because of new affirmative action and subsidy policies. The Catalan language recovered its official status and is now used in politics, education and the media, including the newspapersAvui ("Today"),El Punt ("The Point"),Ara ("Now"),La Vanguardia andEl Periódico de Catalunya (sharing content withEl Periòdic d'Andorra, printed in Andorra); and the television channels ofTelevisió de Catalunya (TVC):TV3, andCanal 33 (culture channel),Super3/3XL (cartoons channel) as well as a 24-hour news channel3/24 and the sports channelEsport 3; in ValenciaCanal Nou,24/9 andPunt 2; in the Balearic islandsIB3; in Catalonia there are also some private channels such as8TV andBarça TV.
But, despite the spread of media in Catalan, democracy consolidated an asymmetric regime ofbilingualism of sorts, wherein the Spanish government has employed a system of laws that favored Spanish over Catalan,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] which becomes the weaker of the two languages, and therefore, in the absence of other states where it is spoken, is doomed to extinction in the medium or short term. In the same vein, before 2023,[38] its use in the Spanish Congress was prevented,[39][40] and it is prevented from achieving official status in Europe, unlike less spoken languages such asGaelic.[41] In other institutional areas, such as justice,Plataforma per la Llengua has denouncedCatalanophobia. The associationSoberania i Justícia have also denounced it in an act in theEuropean Parliament. It also takes the form oflinguistic secessionism, originally advocated by the Spanish extreme right and which has finally been adopted by the Spanish government itself and state bodies.[42][43][44]
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