The National Pact for Language cannot wait any longer

Let me start at the end, so that rhetoric does not dilute the message: we urgently need a great social pact for the revitalization of the Catalan language. The unborn National Pact for Language proposed in the previous legislature responded to an institutional call to work, hand in hand with civil society, to improve the comfort of Catalan in its historical ecosystem. The expert document – which I had the honor of coordinating with Isidor Marí – already put on the table the weaknesses of a language that has not succeeded in the difficult path to normality, but it also emphasized the strengths, a vector that we must not ignore if we want to achieve a city adhesion.

The demolinguistic analysis of the report was based on the data of the 2018 Survey of Linguistic Uses of the Population (EULP 2018). These data have just been updated with the recent publication of the first results of the EULP 2023, results that have caused a real media uproar. The polarization of the interpretation has formed two large groups, apparently antagonistic. Using Umberto Eco, we could recover theapocalypticand theintegrated. Without a doubt, a dichotomy that simplifies a reality that, in the words of Edgar Morin, places us squarely in the paradigm of complexity. Aside from the determinism of both perspectives, that is, the inevitable replacement of Catalan or its no less inevitable salvation, I have the feeling that an intermediate position has been created, which views with great concern the sociolinguistic evolution of a language that, in turn, still shows a certain strength in certain indicators.

I am of the opinion that the new data define an ambivalent situation. The decline of the indicators linked to the demolinguistic base (initial language and language of identification) and to the uses of the Catalan language (habitual language and areas of use) have raised the alarm bells in the face of a sustained downward dynamic. Some dynamics of attraction, still active in 2018 (lag between initial language and identification language), have also weakened. At the opposite pole, that of positive evaluations, the strength of intergenerational linguistic transmission, the increase in absolute numbers of language experts and the interest of newcomers in accessing the Catalan language should be highlighted. And still, pending a more in-depth evaluation, we should not lose sight of the increase in Catalan-Spanish bilingual identification (it has doubled since 2018) and the uses, also shared, of both languages.

All of this has occurred in a context of extreme multilingualism, which places the demographic factor at the centre of the diagnosis. Migrations, therefore, have become the protagonists of a causality that still requires a lot of research to rigorously evaluate its impact. In this regard, the composition of the population shows changes that tend to lead to a loss of weight of those born in Catalonia and in the rest of the State, while those born abroad are gaining presence, up to representing nearly a quarter of the residents.

Placing the Catalan language on the social agenda is key when it comes to (re)awareness among the population and the political class about the need to actively promote the process of revitalizing the language. Ultimately, it is essential to go beyond attitudes and adopt effective communicative behavior favorable to the Catalan language. From the political sphere, it is necessary to act with determination. Actions "from above", under the protection of a necessary improvement in the regulation of domestic multilingualism, must be supported by a solvent normalising project. Once the new government resulting from the last regional elections has been established, with a new Department of Linguistic Policy and with a continuing ideological proposal in sociolinguistic matters, the National Pact for Language cannot wait any longer. The pact must have as its unavoidable objective to place Catalan at the communicative centre of its reference society. In this sense, I dare to ask for generosity and broad vision from the different political actors involved. To some, those who hold power, so that the achievement of consensus does not distort a committed and forceful action programme. To the others, those who look at it from the parliamentary opposition, so that tacticism does not block a peremptory intervention.

We are facing a challenge of great magnitude for the country. And society, both indigenous and foreign, cannot remain on the sidelines. Action "from below" must also be decisive. We need, therefore, a powerful narrative and a collective agency. Surely, contradicting the late Carme Junyent, not everything depends on you, on us, but certainly, dear reader, keep in mind thatalsoIt's up to you. Come on.