Sociolinguistic Investigation into the Use of Catalan in Service Stations,
by Jaume Farràs, Josep Lluís C. Bosch and Diego Torrente

Conversations between the researcher and the cashier and/or person in charge took place in Catalan in 42% of the establishments, this being initiated in Catalan by the service personnel in half of all cases. Overall, almost 37% of employees did not spontaneously address their customers in Catalan. In many self-service establishments the use of Catalan is non-existent, it being anticipated that this mode of service will increase.

Figure 2: Language use by province General overview

Source: Language in service stations in Catalonia. Sociolinguistic contribution. 2000

From a territorial perspective, the presence of Spanish more than doubles that of Catalan in the Barcelona region (44% Spanish, 21% Catalan), and shows almost the same result in the comarcas of Tarragona (35% Spanish, 19% Catalan). The predominance of Spanish lessens in the comarcas to the west of Barcelona province and tends to even out in the provinces of Girona, with percentages of around 31% for both Spanish and Catalan. Bilingualism is notable in the Lleida comarcas (18%) with slightly higher percentages than those for Tarragona, Girona and the Barcelona comarcas. Signage and messages transmitted in an ambiguous way are most common in the city and metropolitan area of Barcelona (14%). In Tarragona, on the other hand, the use of pictograms is noteworthy (16%) as compared to other provinces.

If we compare the various company brands with language uses, we see that petrol companies can be divided into three groups displaying different behavioural types. First, we have the group comprising the heirs of the old State monopoly, who use Spanish as the main language in 40% or more of their signage. In a best-case scenario, use of Catalan is reduced to around 20%. While Cepsa puts forward an image strongly in favour of bilingualism, Campsa and Petronor tend towards Spanish, and rarely resort to bilingualism. Secondly, we have the group made up of the multinational petrol companies of European and North American origin; these apply a certain de facto bilingualism and, with the exception of BP, Catalan appears in almost all cases as the predominant language of the two. Finally, Petrocat distinguishes itself from the others by its extensive use of Catalan, and thus forms a separate grouping. In the cases of Agip, Total and Shell, there are a greater number of signs, posters and warnings in Catalan than Spanish.

In order to refine the sociolinguistic analysis of the sector somewhat, the research team created three benchmark figures for the use of Catalan over the whole sector. The first refers to the extensive use of Catalan in the content of 22 signs, and shows that in one out of four service stations Catalan does not appear. The second analyses the use of Catalan in internal written paperwork between service stations and their respective petrol companies. Catalan is equally absent in this linguistic area in 74% of cases. In the third case, the verbal use of Catalan in service stations in communication between the employee and the researcher is evaluated, as we have seen. Looking at this last case, there is an evident improvement in the position held by Catalan in an area which is obviously far less formal.

In conclusion, we can state that the presence of the Catalan language in the fuel sector is still fairly precarious as far as signage, posters, notices and internal communication between employees and their supplier or owner company is concerned. We use the word "still" deliberately, it being understood that by complying with current legislation in force and implementing some of the many proposals raised by this research, it should, in the short term, be possible to influence the process of linguistic use in the whole sector, towards the Catalan language occupying a much more important – or even exclusive – place within the corporate dynamic. This is despite the apathy inherited from the whole process of privatising the sector, which continues to have a negative effect with regard to the Catalan language, especially over the whole system of signage, posters, advertising and on relationships determined by business models based on high levels of corporate organisational centralisation. In our opinion, special attention needs to be given to the excessive tendency for linguistic ambiguity, which could well reflect a process of uniformity that may be linguistic at the present time but which could easily lead to political and cultural uniformity at a later date.