Normalizing bilingualism:The effects of the Catalonian linguistic normalization policy one generation after¹

Abstract

This study examines the evolution of language attitudes of linguistically diverse adolescents in urban Catalonia a generation after the instauration of Linguistic Normalization, official language policies favoring Catalan. Woolard (1984, 1989) and Woolard and Gahng's (1990) classic Catalan/Spanish matched guise studies are used as a baseline. Current data come from a modified and expanded replication of those original studies. Findings show: (1) differences in attitudes between youths of Spanish and Catalan background have softened; (2) disparities in Status and Solidarity have evened out; (3) language choice can be highly gendered; and (4) bilingual proficiency is now valued by and for both communities. The support for bilingualism and the easing of divisions are understood as signs of increased 'linguistic cosmopolitanism,' a stance that looks beyond parochial own-group communities and favors bridging linguistic boundaries. The significance is that minority languages can be valued when they take on such symbolic roles.

Children of immigrants and social mobility in officially bilingual societies

“…Matched-guise tests have been used in Catalonia over the last three decades to describe language attitudes with a special focus on solidarity and social status (Woolard 1984(Woolard , 1989Woolard and Gahng 1990;Newman, Trenchs-Parera and Ng 2008). The assumption is that individuals will show greater solidarity to members of their own group while recognizing the prestige of privileged groups and their native language (native Catalan speakers of Catalan).…”

“…The term "Barriada" used by Newman et al (2008) refers to the working class neighbourhoods in the outskirts of Barcelona. These neighbourhoods were created in the 196O's to house the arriving cohorts of internal migrants from other parts of Spain.…”

Language Policies, Ideologies and Attitudes in Catalonia. Part 1: Reversing Language Shift in the Twentieth Century

“…We also note cases of outright rejection of the “other” language (Trenchs and Newman , Newman ) by adolescents highly invested in one of the opposing national identities. A far more frequent response, however, is support for teaching in Catalan and bilingualism without adopting Catalan as an essential part of their identity (Newman, Trenchs‐Parera, and Ng , Trenchs‐Parera and Newman ). Also, even the most absolute ethnolinguistic identities appear on further investigation to be tangled up in complex intersectionalities involving class and gender, and/or individual ideological stances.…”

The story of the tallat

“…The policies, and their contradictions (between Catalan as a preferred/defining language and as co-official with Castilian in Catalonia), are not only played out in the halls of power of Catalonia's government, the Generalität; they are also enacted in the every day social and linguistic encounters of the people of Catalonia, mediated by many contextual factors, including the way that people look and sound, where they are, the languages that they choose to use, or can use, and with whom they use them (Marshall, 2006;. With such large numbers of Latin American Spanish speakers coming to live and work in Catalonia, there have been consequences for the use of Catalan in social and work spaces, with authors such as Newman, Trenchs-Parera & Ng (2008) suggesting that such demolinguistic changes constitute a challenge for language revitalization.…”