If we compare the situation with Zurich, Brussels and Montreal for 1992, the treatment of plurilingualism in Barcelona had a vastly different tendency than in the other cases (Graph 2). In the first three cities plurilingualism on the labels justly reflected the recognised plurilingualism in the official languages. Obviously in Barcelona the officially recognised plurilingualism was not reflected on the labels.

Graph 2. Space occupied by each language in the labelling of large consumption products in different cities. 1992 (Tudela, J.)

In a similar way, and with more recent data, we have more examples of this behaviour in the particular plurilingualism of Spain. In the exhibition of labels collected by the Platform for Language (2004) (23) showed widely known, large consumption products from multinational companies that operate in many countries. The selected products were Coca-cola, Heineken Beer, Nestlé Chocolate, Danone Yoghurt, Lays potato crisps, Kellogg’s cereals, Schweppes soft drinks, Durex condoms, Bayer Aspirin, Maggi Mashed Potato and Lu biscuits. In all the cases they respected the official languages and those comparable with Catalan in the respective countries, except on the case of products found in Catalonia. These were the only exceptions. It was also patent that in some cases the use of many languages (often due to the linguistic policy that they maintain everywhere except in Spain) was more extensive in these other countries than, in general, in the case of Catalonia or Spain. Table 1 shows a comparison with some specific examples.

Table 1. Comparison of labelling with some specific examples, 2004
(Platform for Language)

It is important to stress that the number of Catalan speakers in Spain is far higher than the number of Serbo-Croatian speakers in Croatia, Dutch, French and German speakers in Belgium, Finnish and Swedish in Finland, French, German and Italian in Switzerland, Estonian in Estonia, French in Quebec (Canada), or Danish in Denmark

After the study of 1992 we have no reference of any later study analysing labelling in general in Catalonia. There have been sectorial studies, especially in the labelling of wines and cavas, and of the labelling of private brand products of distribution companies as a part of wider studies on the use of Catalan in supermarkets and hypermarkets. (24) Many of these studies were conducted by the Secretariat General of Linguistic Policy of the Generalitat of Catalonia. Wishing however to exemplify the use of plurilingualism on labels, we have considered the study conducted in 2004 by the Platform for Language on the languages on the labels of private-label products in Catalonia: Les llengües d’ús en l’etiquetatge dels productes de marca blanca de supermercats i hipermercats a Catalunya. Autumn 2004. Graph 3 shows the data according to presence (not percentage occupation of the label like in the 1992 study by Tudela) on 624 private-label products selected according to 30 typical large consumption products.

This study made it evident that the use of plurilingualism was completely different depending on the private-label. Only some Catalan companies used Catalan; Bon Preu for example used it exclusively. Sorlidiscau use Catalan on practically all products, and it was also used widely by Condis and Caprabo. Eroski mainly labelled in four languages including Catalan. The others only labelled in Spanish (Mercadona or Supersol). Curiously, Portuguese, English and Greek were also used quite often. The plurilingualism of DIA consisted mainly of products labelled in Spanish, Portuguese and Greek at the same time. El Corte Inglés, which for the time being is only present in Spain and Portugal, mainly labelled in Spanish, Portuguese and English, even though after the study they began to label in Catalan the few products covered by current legislation.

Obviously there were cases of the use of many languages on the same label, but they did not include the official local language of the place of sale (Catalan), but languages that did not even have half the number of speakers in the place of origin, or even where there was a far greater lack of knowledge among the population of the territories where they were official (as is the case of Latvian). Some products in Lidl could be labelled in 20 different languages (Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, German, Greek, Dutch, Italian, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Rumanian, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Latvian) but not in Catalan. Carrefour also had products labelled in many languages but not in Catalan; for example in Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, German, Greek, Dutch, Italian, Czech, Polish, Slovak and Turkish. Caprabo, labelled only in Catalan in Catalonia, or only in Spanish, or sometimes in both languages. But Catalan never appeared in supermarkets outside the Catalan linguistic area; everything was exclusively labelled in Spanish. In general the first language used in Catalonia for labelling private-label products was Spanish and in second place Portuguese.

The second step was to analyse the reasons for this anomaly in the particular use of plurilingualism in labelling in Catalonia. Probably this point is a mixture of many aspects, both historical and social. In all the cases there is a confluence of two characteristic traits of Spain that do not occur at the same time in other comparable states in the European Union or similar countries. On the one hand there is a large number of speakers from different linguistic communities who use their language with full vitality and have a vast knowledge of the written language. And on the other there is no modern recognition in accordance with the principles of respect for this diversity; even though, on the other hand, the diversity is partially recognised in the Spanish Constitution (Article 3). Although this deficit may very occasionally be found in some other countries, as is the case of France (reflected in Article 2 of the Constitution which only recognises one official language for the whole republic), it does not occur in conjunction with the first condition. Therefore the Spanish case is completely atypical in the European context and probably among democratic and economically developed countries.

In Catalonia, Spanish, apart from Catalan products with Denomination of Origin (article 34.2 of Law 1/1998 for linguistic policy), is the only mandatory language on labels (Article 18 of Royal Decree 1334/1999), even though it is not the only official language, and not the local language. This unheard-of situation is accompanied by another condition: the obligation and presence of other languages seems to be exclusively dependent on Autonomous Governments where there are other official languages (Sentence 147/1996 of September 19, recognised that the autonomous communities with their own language had the faculty to legislate the obligatory condition). The Government of Spain only favours part of the citizens (Spanish speakers). It favours Spanish monolingualism at a level of the whole state, while it permits plurilingualism according to the decision of the corresponding Autonomous Governments, while ensuring nevertheless the presence of Spanish in these territories.

The responsibility in labelling and in safeguarding this right of the citizens of the Catalan linguistic community, falls therefore solely and exclusively on employers. This circumstance is completely atypical in the context of western and central Europe.