5 priorities to stop the decline of Catalan: what to do?

Barcelona"These are worrying figures because Catalan continues to become a minority language," says sociolinguist Avel lí Flors-Mas. "We must be aware of our demographic framework," says sociolinguist and UOC professor Maite Puigdevall. "Catalan is holding up," says Albert Branchadell, a UAB professor. Language experts have analysed with the ARA the 2023 Survey of Language Uses that was made public on Wednesday and which places the number of habitual Catalan speakers at 32.6%. These are the 5 keys to understanding the survey and 5 priorities to save Catalan.

5 keys to understanding the survey

1. Catalan speakers do not desert

"The Catalan-speaking community is showing considerable resistance, taking into account the context of very low birth rates," says Avel·lí Flors-Mas. Professor Albert Branchadell agrees. There are nearly 3 million regular Catalan speakers, of whom 1.2 million speak it more than 80% of the time. In a very adverse context, this community is "well-established, has resistance and will," says Flors-Mas. And the data that proves this is that intergenerational linguistic transmission is not broken: there are more people who adopt it and pass it on to their children. This shows that "the language is not in danger, we are not touching any bone" and that Catalan "maintains its prestige and is a language of the future," says Maite Puigdevall. "If we compare the situation of Catalan with other similar languages, from Breton to Occitan, Alsatian, Galician or Basque, Catalan is the clear leader with a privileged position," says Branchadell.

2. Catalan attracts speakers, but not enough

Catalan has gained 267,600 new speakers (over 15 years old), but the population has grown by almost 400,000 people in five years; therefore, the increase in population has not been compensated. Avel·lí Flors-Mas points out that there is a "loss of attractiveness towards Catalan": historically, the population that identified with and spoke Catalan was greater than those that had it as their first language and now that gap is narrowing; on the other hand, identification with Catalan and Castilian has doubled (14%). "Little by little we are entering into very low usage of Catalan," warns the sociolinguist from the URV, Miquel Àngel Pradilla.

3. Monolithic Catalan loses weight, 100% Catalan

The high volume of migration and the mobility of new arrivals means that there is a large pool of non-Catalan speakers, sporadic speakers and "Catalan speakers under construction". For the first time, the survey makes visible the 1.6 million people who never speak Catalan and the 2.2 million people who speak it sporadically. "We must change the collective imagination of the typical Catalan speaker, who is no longer always white and does not always speak Catalan. Multilingualism is a growing trend," says sociolinguist Maite Puigdevall. "The number of habitual Catalan speakers is decreasing, there is less density of this group wherever you go and, therefore, Catalan is less present." This, in turn, complicates the integration of new arrivals into Catalan and acts as a driving force towards Spanish.

4. Bilingualisation, an intermediate or final stage?

For Branchadell, the survey invites us to "accept a trend: to give up the idea of the monolingual Catalan speaker, which is an idea from the 20th or 19th century." "There is a cliché that bilingualism is a transitional stage between Catalan or Castilian monolingualism and perhaps it is a final stage," he says. "What we want are people who have Catalan in their repertoire and who are Catalan users to some degree. This is more realistic than returning to a scenario in which Catalan is the majority language of the population," he says. For Puigdevall, we cannot give up on Catalan being the hegemonic habitual language in the public sphere: "We also aspire, not to maintain ourselves. The figures should not paralyze us," he says.

5. The decline among young people, a sign

The Language Use Survey is a self-assessment and multi-channel survey (conducted mainly by internet and telephone to 8,700 people) that only takes into account those over 15 years of age, so it does not reflect the school stage. But the age group that loses the most habitual speakers is precisely the following one, young people from 15 to 29 years old: it falls from 35% to 29%. "This is outrageous and it means that things are happening in the educational model: what should happen in school is not happening, which is that it should be the vehicular language and the one spoken by all students in a non-ritual and non-Latinized way," says the teacher and union member Gerard Furest, who also recognizes the impact of the "systemic problem" of the contingency. The identification as bilingual is also increasing in this young age group of 16.2% of the population.

5 strategies to improve the health of Catalan

1. Prioritize the use of Catalan

"A monolingual Spanish speaker must find Catalan speakers who act as monolinguals," says Avel·lí Flors-Mas. In other words, "the Catalan-speaking mass must always prioritise the use of Catalan to correct the significant imbalance that exists." In order for Catalan to be able to incorporate speakers, the language must be present in everyday life, "we need to recover space and intensive uses," he says. As society has large pockets of non-Catalan speakers, they must find more Catalan everywhere. And even more so taking into account that "to become a Catalan speaker you need 10 years," Puigdevall points out. "We must change many habits over a long period of time," he adds, and especially "linguistic convergence towards Spanish," criticises Pradilla. For Furest, "we have not assumed the mentality of conflict" in the last 30 years and "linguistic discourse has not been generated," he laments. He puts the role of politicians and citizens on the same level: "The more self-esteem there is among citizens, the more obligations there are among politicians; and the more leadership there is among politicians, the more support there is among citizens."

2. Intervene in the "hole" of reception

"We have a gap in the reception because it is mostly done in Spanish," criticises Puigdevall, who points out that the State has the powers over immigration, but also points to social services as being responsible. If only 4.4% of immigrants are incorporated into Catalan, it is a very small percentage compared to the foreigners who live here. That is why Puigdevall stresses that we must open the door to them and invite them into the community: "We have no alternative but to incorporate them as new speakers, for their justice and ours. The human bond is crucial because you only enter a space if they want you," says Puigdevall to cut off the xenophobic and segregating discourse.

3. Force compliance with current legislation

"Only by complying with the current legislation - that is, the rules of coexistence validated by the Constitutional Court - in a systematic way - that is, with inspections - would Catalan advance," says Furest, giving the Government some homework. He says this in reference to the educational world, but also to the working world, which neither welcomes workers in Catalan, nor offers them the possibility of training, nor requires Catalan as a requirement. Experts point to this environment as a major problem. "We must force linguistic availability in the private socio-economic world, it is necessary to spread the idea that we have the right to use Catalan in all areas," says Flors-Mas. Furest points out that the Intersindical is already demanding Catalan classes during working hours. "We have to break the glass ceiling of Catalan: we have to strain a legality that is not yet favourable to us, and that is what politics must do," warns Pradilla.

4. Universal access to learning

There are 1.1 million people born outside Catalonia who say they want to improve their Catalan, but there are not enough courses on offer, nor are they sufficiently adapted to the needs of workers, especially the most precarious. The day after the survey, the Government announced an investment of 8.8 million euros to increase resources for teaching the language and promoting its use, especially among newcomers, teachers, health and commerce. But Pradilla is "obsessed" with early education: "We will not get ahead if we are not able to rethink the educational linguistic model," he says forcefully. "We must self-centre the model on the Catalan language in an effective, clear and unreserved manner. We must accept that we need to revitalise a language."

5. Create opportunities to use Catalan

For the Catalan language chain to work, it is not enough to have competence, but there are also opportunities to use it and the will to use it. "If there is knowledge and opportunity, the will to use it will come," says Branchadell. The possibility of using the language comes from leisure, social networks, video games, culture, new technologies, etc. Obviously, this also applies to speaking Catalan in the street. For Flors-Mas, informal spaces for learning and using Catalan are vital. "Associative entities must have a more important and conscious role," says the sociolinguist. "A pact between institutions, government, social agents and citizens is necessary," says Branchadell.