Why I decided to speak Catalan to my children
The transmission of Catalan within the family remains positive and is even increasing: more people speak Catalan to their children than to their parents.
BarcelonaCatalan is the language that Catalan speakers pass on from parents to children, but it's also the language that thousands of people who had spoken another language at home, whether Spanish, Urdu, or Turkish, have spoken to their children. Only 28-30% of Catalans spoke Catalan to their grandparents and parents, while up to 45% speak Catalan to their children—that is, there's a difference of six points from mother to child, or twelve if we include bilingual speakers. This is one of the positive data points. from the latest survey of linguistic uses of the populationThis figure contrasts with what happens with Spanish within the family: 55% of citizens speak Spanish with grandparents and parents, but the percentage drops to 37% with their children—or 47% if we include mixed uses. It's worth noting that 20% of households today declare themselves multilingual, if we look at the mix of languages spoken to their children, a clearly upward trend.
Even though Catalan continues to be a minority language, losing momentum on the street, and becoming the primary language of only a third of the population, it is also a language that remains strong within the family, and that is key to its survival and expansion. Why do some families choose to speak to their children in a language that was not their native language? Can their testimony be of use to today's immigrants? Can they add Catalan to their repertoire without losing their language of origin? We spoke with multilingualism experts like Anna Solé Mena and with testimonies from people who have changed their language at home, such as the mother of screenwriter Eduard Sola and the father of the cartoonist Màriam Ben-Arab.
The importance of family
"Intergenerational linguistic transmission is a basic fact to explain why a language survives," says sociolinguist Emili Boix, one of the leading specialists in this field. If familial linguistic transmission is disrupted, a language heads toward replacement; on the other hand, recovering a language, revernacularizing it, is very difficult: "The first language is the fruit of the thousands of hours that our parents have spent preparing our dinner; therefore, it is a very slow process and one that strongly identifies a group," notes Boix.
The fact that intergenerational transmission is positive means that parents continue to see it as a language of the future, of prestige, a useful and beloved language. The figures show that "the indigenous Catalan group feels satisfied speaking the language, has confidence in the community, and has no reason to give it up," says Boix, comparing the situation with what did occur in Northern Catalonia, in the Franja (Flannel), or in some areas of the Valencian Community. The home language is also important because it impacts usage: the 2.3 million people who speak Catalan at home use it regularly throughout their lives. "The Catalan-speaking community shows significant resilience, given the context of extremely low birth rates." pointed out in the ARA the sociolinguist Avel·lí Flors-Mas.
When changing languages
The reproduction of Catalan depends not only on the transmission of Catalan by Catalan-speaking parents but also on the addition of other speakers—mixed couples, immigrants—and, ultimately, their families. How? "Most couples don't decide on the language they will speak to their children in the delivery room, not even on a specific day; it just comes about as they go along," Boix points out. click It's likely to be a moment of vital change, such as when you enter your spouse's family or when you have children. A young child is a good language teacher." Specialists have identified six moments that lead to language shift, and it's not always within the family: it can be when starting school (primary, secondary, or university), when changing jobs, or when changing jobs.
The factors that encourage new Catalan speakers to take the step are multiple. On the one hand, "the density of active Catalans you have around you" is vital, says Boix. This is a collective experience, a sense of equality, integration into Catalan identity, and also innovative education. This is a sense of community, of equality, of integration into Catalan identity, and also of ...
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What will the new immigrants talk about?
There are nearly half a million people who don't speak Catalan as their first language at home but instead have it as their habitual language. Figures show that incorporating speakers is increasingly difficult because there are fewer immersion spaces and because some of the values associated with Catalan have become fractured. If those who incorporate Catalan into their lives, within one or two generations they could also speak Catalan to their children as one of the languages in their family repertoire.
"It's natural for the first generation to arrive to pass on their language, but obviously the public, cohesive, and shared language must be the indigenous language, Catalan," says Barrieras, a professor at the UB and member of the Endangered Languages Study Group (GELA). For her, the heritage languages of immigrants and the patrimonial language "shouldn't be in contradiction" but can be compatible. "If the language you bring is respected, you'll empathize with the host language. We've seen that it creates a mirror effect," says Barrieras, thinking of languages like Amazigh or Punjabi (the case of Spanish is different because it's already official).
The study group led by Carme Junyent argues that breaking with the idea of monolingualism and even bilingualism is positive for Catalan, because multilingualism forces us, when there are many languages, to not lose your own but to establish communication strategies. And this is where public policies can intervene. Because the language spoken at home is an intimate and personal decision, but the value and rights granted to languages in public spaces is political.
