Spain has always been a multilingual country, and have always been very proud of their languages, right from its true unification in 1492 after the invasion of the Moors. In the present day, Spanish (Castellano) is the official language of Spain, but there are four other languages which are co-official in their respective regions: Basque (Vasco), Galician (Gallego), Catalan (Catalán) and Aranese (Araneses). Although the number of people who speak these co-official languages has dropped over the years, there is still a solid base of people who speak them as their first or second language. There are around 800,000 native speakers of Basque, 2 million of Galician and roughly 4 million of Catalan . According to a linguistic census by the Aranese government, 65% of the inhabitants of Val d’Aran can speak Aranese. These four languages have all caused, or contributed to, some form of division between the regions in which they are spoken, and the rest of Spain. Having languages unique to such small areas should maybe be expected to create a strong sense of pride and individuality among the speakers of the languages and the inhabitants of the regions, and it is this pride that has so often caused and is still causing division between some regions of Spain and Spain as a whole. These divisions most commonly take the form of independence movements. The Oxford dictionary definition of language is “A system of communication used by a particular country or community” . The use of the word community in this definition serves the purpose of a reminder that language is often the basis of the coming together of a group of people, and in Spain this has been seen to have adverse effects due to the many different conflicts between ‘communities’ that have been formed from the base of different languages.
In this essay, I will set out to examine these conflicts/divisions and how far language was the cause of them or was an important driving force behind them. Although there aren’t many cases where language was the direct cause of unrest, it has often been the case that regional identity was, and regional language forms a large part of identity for many people in Spain. I chose the year 1936 as my starting point as it was the year that the Spanish civil war broke out, and at the end of this war in 1939 Franco took power and the dictatorship began. The civil war and the dictatorship signified the first time in many years that variety of language was repressed, and this time of repression caused division for many years after it ended.
First, a deeper introduction to the official languages of Spain. To understand how these languages can cause division among people, it helps to first know their beginnings. All of the official languages in Spain are unique, although their origins are somewhat similar, with most coming from Vulgar Latin. All are romance languages with the exception of Basque. Many are a mixture of other dialects spoken by the many different occupiers of the areas they are now spoken; for example, the modern Spanish we know today comes from a mix of the Pre-Roman languages such as Celtic, Latin from the Roman invasion, and then Arabic from the conquest of the Moors (there are around 4000 Arabic words in modern day Spanish) . This is a perfect explanation as to how you can end up with 4 very different languages, all spoken in the same country. Catalan, like Spanish, is derived from Vulgar Latin. It originates from areas in and around the Pyrenees, and the first traces of the Catalan we know today were found in literature from the 12th century. Galician, a third language with roots from Vulgar Latin, has been connected to and has similarities with the Portuguese language, and also has words of Germanic and Celtic origin. Aranese is a dialect of the Occitan language and is spoken in the Val d’Aran, and like the other official languages in Spain has Germanic, Celtic and Latin roots. Finally, Basque. Basque is the odd one out of the four languages, being what is called a language isolate. This means that the Basque language is almost completely unrelated to any other known language that is used today, so does not seem to descend from any other language, which makes it totally unique . Many linguists have tried to make connections to other languages, but all of these have been controversial and are widely discredited. The fact that Basque is such a unique language is perhaps the reason why one of the biggest divisions between an autonomous region and the rest of Spain occurred, which I will look at in greater detail later in the essay.
Out of the four languages and their regions I have examined, Catalan and its region of Catalonia are the perfect example of how a language can cause division among people. Catalan has been very dividing since 1936, something which we have clearly seen in the news in recent months. Catalan has the second largest base of speakers out of the official languages in Spain, behind only Spanish itself. The division caused partly by the Catalan language is presented in the form of the Catalan independence movement, which was started well before 1936 but came into the spotlight towards the end of the Civil war and during the dictatorship of Franco. The aim of the movement was historically more tilted towards autonomy than independence to begin with. Before the civil war, in 1932, Catalonia was granted a Statute of Autonomy, but the victory of the nationalists in 1939 meant that it was taken away . When Franco took a repressive stance towards Catalan nationalism, the nationalistic sentiments did not disappear, because they had come so close to having what they had wanted for so long and having it taken away just like that did not leave them happy at all. One of the main things that fuelled these nationalistic sentiments was the fact that Franco didn’t allow any language except Spanish to be spoken throughout Spain, therefore meaning that Catalan was banned. As I have mentioned, something which all of the regions in Spain with their own languages have is a great pride in that language, so this was not taken well. The repression of the Catalan language during this time did not help Franco’s attempts at putting out the nationalistic fires that were raging in Catalonia at the beginning of his regime. However, despite the strong feelings of many Catalonians, there was no room for movement in Franco’s regime, and these feelings died down somewhat until after his death, when autonomy really became an option again. After Franco’s regime, Catalonians felt a new born pride in their region and especially in their language, because now they were allowed to express themselves freely. The Catalan language sprung back to life in full force. In 1979, while democracy was being reinstalled in Spain, Catalonia was granted a Statute of Autonomy.
One incidence where language was an obvious cause of division and unrest in Catalonia, was during a case which lasted 4 years, where the Partido Popular opposed a draft of a second Statute of Autonomy, drawn up by the newly elected government. During this case, an article concerning the Catalan language was deemed unconstitutional by the court. After this judgment was passed, there was a large protest on the 10th July 2010 which was attended by over a million people and led by Jose Montilla, leader of the left-wing coalition. This is the first clear example of an incident where pride in their language has led Catalonians to actively go out and protest for it. During the 4 years of the case there were also numerous independence referendums in towns across Catalonia (552 in total) . Between 2009 and 2012, the general feeling in Catalonia was that there was a push towards independence, and self-determination was a phrase that was banded around a lot. There were many protests and demonstrations to try and influence the politics of the matter; a very important demonstration was that of September 11th 2012 which directly called on the Catalan government to begin the process of independence from the rest of Spain. All of this was kick-started by the simple withdrawal of an article on language from the Statute of Autonomy.
If we look at more recent events, things escalated fairly quickly. When the Catalonian government declared there would be an independence referendum held on the 1 October 2017, the Spanish government categorically said that it could not happen because it was illegal. It went ahead, but the worlds eyes were turned towards the region when the Spanish military intervened to try to stop voting and there was widespread violence throughout Catalonia, most notably in Barcelona. However, from the voting that did manage to take place, organisers say 90% of voters backed independence . Soon after this, on the 27th October 2017, the Catalan government took the plunge and declared independence. Due to this bold move, the Spanish government quickly jumped into action, dissolving the Catalan parliament and calling a snap election. So, Catalonia are now left in the very difficult position of forming a coalition government of separatist parties. This has been made more difficult by the fact that many of the leaders and high up people in these parties have been arrested or are in exile . This situation that Catalonia now finds itself in could definitely be said to have been caused by, among many other important factors, the fierce pride that its people have for the things which make it different, one if which is, of course, its language. It has been said, and there have been many scientific studies that look into the theory that the language we speak determines the way in which we think, and there is a high possibility that this could be contributing to the problems in Catalonia. With many of the inhabitants of the region speaking a different language to the rest of their country, there could perhaps be some subconscious feeling they have that people of a different language should stick together and have the right to have control of themselves. Throughout our history, it has been that different language create different cultures and there is every possibility that this notion is still ingrained in our subconscious minds.