Contents 1. Linguistic identity
2. Domestic language
3.
"Non-domestic" uses
3.
1. Use in a range of situations
3. 2.
The language of the last non-domestic conversation
3. 3.
Survey language
4. Conclusions
1. Linguistic Identity
The numerous
investigations performed over the last fifteen years have asked a series of questions with
a varying degree of relevance to this area. The formulations used include: language of
origin (Line Staff 1992); main language (metropolitan survey 1986 and CIS 1993); do you
consider yourself more Spanish-speaking or more Catalan-speaking? (CIS 1998); habitual
language (DYM 1997 and 1999); mother tongue (CIS 2001) and, which do you consider to be
your language? (metropolitan survey, 1990, 1995 and 2000). The formulation that we believe
to be most appropriate for finding out the linguistic identity of the population is this
latter, used in the last three editions of the metropolitan survey. The results are shown
in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. Which do you consider
to be your language? 2000. Percentages
Here, we can see two main groups: Catalan-speakers and Spanish-speakers. A
bilingual group also appears to be emerging which, despite its modest dimensions, is still
significant. Finally, we can see an "other" group, containing a wide range of
linguistic identities. However, we are unable to analyse the latter further because of its
scarce representation and the size of the sample.
The bilingual
group had already appeared in the various editions of the metropolitan survey of the
years 1990 and 1995, as the 1986 survey used a different formulation: "What is your
main language?".
A significant
change took place between the 1986 and 1990 surveys: this new group emerged, apparently
causing a drop in the group of individuals who considered that their language was Spanish
alone.
This has led
certain analysts to conclude that this change reflected a real tendency, although they
still maintained that the change in the formulation of the question could also be an
important factor. As far as we are concerned, this change in formulation was the main
factor causing the contrast in the data.
However, it is
quite possible that, objectively-speaking, a sociolinguistic phenomenon of this nature has
indeed occurred over the last twenty-five years: a drop in the population who saw
themselves as solely Spanish-speaking and, in contrast, the emergence of a small bilingual
sector, whilst the percentage of Catalan-speakers has remained the same. This merits some
discussion.
The question on
domestic language asked in 1975 by a team led by Modest Reixach, albeit only within the
province of Barcelona, could provide us with a clue as regards this last aspect
(maintenance of the proportion of Catalan-speakers), given the sociolinguistic situation
at the end of the Franco era.
Miquel
Strubells extrapolation of these data for Catalonia as a whole placed the number of
citizens of Catalonia who considered Catalan to be their domestic language at 47.87%. (2) This figure is very similar to the
52% of the population who today state their language to be Catalan. (3) |