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Jennifer Song
Honors 212D
May 1st, 2019
Katarzyna Dziwirek

Country Report – Spain

In a world driven by globalization and technological advancements, many countries, Spain

included, are struggling to maintain regional minority languages. Majority languages such as
English and Castilian Spanish are seen to be more resourceful in promoting economic growth
and are seen as a competitive asset. According to the CIA, 74% of Spain’s population speaks
Castilian Spanish, which is the official language nationwide. Castilian Spanish is actually a
dialect of Spanish which is a member of the Indo-European language family (The World
Factbook, 2018). It is difficult to distinguish between a dialect and a language, but the most
likely differentiation could be that “languages are written and standardized and have a literature,
while dialects are oral, without codified rules, and have no literature” (McWhorter, 2016).
Castilian Spanish came to be when Arabic and “forms of a related dialect called Mozarabic”
were integrated into Vulgar Latin (History of Spanish, 2019). Castilian Spanish became
popularized around the 13th century during the reign of King Alfonso X who “declared Castilian
as the official language for government documents and decrees” and continued to grow as
“Catholic kingdoms took over most regions of Spain” (History of Spanish, 2019). Currently,
Castilian Spanish is the main language used by the central government of Spain and if Castilian
Spanish isn’t an individual’s first language, she or he will eventually learn it as the second
language. Nevertheless, many “native speakers of Spain’s regional languages will only switch to
Castilian Spanish when needed” (Miller-Broomfield, 2015).

Figure 1: Minority Languages of Spain (Hochberg, 2013)

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Minority Languages

The second most spoken language in Spain is Catalan, the official language in Catalonia,
the Balearic Islands and the Valencian community, where it is known as Valencian (The World
Factbook, 2018). Although it is the second most spoken language in Spain, only 17% of the
population speak Catalan, making it a minority language compared to Castilian Spanish. It is
primarily spoken in Barcelona and the province of Catalonia Miller-Broomfield, 2015). While it
is deemed an official language in Valencia and the Balearic Islands, Catalan isn’t frequently used
there (Miller-Broomfield, 2015). Interestingly, Catalonia is amidst a political crisis in trying to
gain independence from the central Spanish government. According to a poll conducted in
November 2014, “81% of [Catalonians] had a strong desire for autonomy” (Miller-Broomfield,
2015). In fact, international media outlets often see Catalonian’s support for sovereignty as a
result of Catalan’s “distinct language and culture” (Woolard, 2018). After gaining political
autonomy in 1979, Catalonia has strived for social inclusivity, starting with revising linguistic
policies. The revised Catalonia linguistic policy for education makes it easier for “people of
immigrant descent to feel [like] they can take [Catalan] up” (Woolard, 2018). Most importantly,
the “authentic Catalan identity is conceived now not as given by birth or mother tongue, but as a
D.I.Y project, what one chooses to become, including language choice” (Woolard, 2018). In
speaking with several Catalonian young adults, Woolard discovered that “coming to speak
Catalan was a sign of their own personal growth, and they were proud [of that]” (Woolard,
2018). Instead of resisting the urge to speak in their mother tongues (Catalan) and growing up as
“Castilian Spanish monolinguals” these young adults were able to accept their bicultural
identities as they transitioned throughout their teenage years.
A less common regional language is Galician. It is the official language in Galicia with 7%
of Spain’s population speaking it -- about 3 million Galicians (Miller-Broomfield, 2015). Similar
to Catalonians, Galicians are struggling to maintain independence, specifically language
independence. Many people think that “Galician is a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese”
(Huxham, 2019) because it sounds very similar to Portuguese. Additionally, many believe
Galician is a dialect of Portuguese, when in fact, it is neither a dialect of Portuguese nor Castilian
Spanish (Huxham, 2019). It’s frustrating to Galicians because they are very “proud of their
heritage and culture” and thus don’t particularly enjoy their unique language to be intermixed
with Portuguese, which has a very different culture of its own (Huxham, 2019).
Another minority language is Basque, the official language in the Basque Country and in
the Basque-speaking area of Navarre, but not the official language in the Basque Country of
France (Pereltsvaig, 2011). In fact, while most of Europe speaks Indo-European languages, the
Basque language is known as a “language isolate” because it stands apart from other languages
(Pereltsvaig, 2011). The reason why Basque is a language isolate has been heavily studied. In a
recent study done on the genomes of ancient skeletons, scientists found that “today’s Basques
turned out to be more closely related to the El Portalón farmers than to any other group,
including early hunter-gatherer genomes” (Balter, 2017). This conclusion suggests that the
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Basques represent “a relic population of hunter-gatherers that had somehow remained isolated in
Europe for thousands of years” (Balter, 2017). Based on the new findings, linguists suggest that
the Basque language could have descended from a language spoken by early farmers before
Indo-European languages came to dominate. Due to their distinctive language, Basque speakers
take great pride in their language and many of the 700,000 speakers are urging for independence
from Spain and France (Balter, 2017).
Last, but not least, with only 5,000 speakers, Aranese is the co-official language in the
northwest corner of Catalonia, specifically Val d’Aran (Miller-Broomfield, 2015). It is taught in
Catalonia schools, displayed on town signs and is a “requirement for employment in any official
government position” (Keith, 2014). In actuality, Aranese is a variation of Gascon which is a
dialect of Occitan, a regional language spoken in northern France. Yet, the locals in Val d’Aran
take great pride in their Aranese language and credit it for making them “so unique” instead of
the 3,000 meter peaks that attract tourists to Val d’Aran annually. (Keith, 2014).

Linguistic Conflicts and Bilingual Education

After the end of Spain’s civil war in 1939, Francisco Franco repressed speakers of Basque,
Catalan and Galician languages (Keeley, 2008). However, after his death in 1975, “a process of
linguistic normalization took place in autonomous regions that had their own languages”
(Keeley, 2008) in order to promote Spaniards to speak those repressed languages more often.
However, currently, some Spanish speakers are complaining that “[Castilian Spanish] is being
marginalized by regional nationalists in revenge for the way their own languages were
suppressed in the Franco years” (Keeley, 2008). They are using Spain’s constitution as support
for the right to speak Castilian Spanish, along with the other co-official languages in each region.
According to Article 3 of Spain’s Constitution:

1. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. All Spaniards have the duty to know it
and the right to use it.
2. The other Spanish languages shall also be official in the respective self-governing Regions in
accordance with their Statutes.
3. The wealth of the different linguistic modalities of Spain is a cultural heritage which shall be
specially respected and protected.

This conflict seems to be most apparent in the school setting where “Spanish-speaking
parents in the regions are worried that their children will be unable to read or write Castilian
Spanish, since they are only taught in Catalan, Basque or Galician” (Keeley, 2008). The Basque
government justifies the reduction in Castilian Spanish teaching due to the lack of demand by
parents who wanted their children to be taught in Castilian Spanish-only; only 5% of parents
choose that path instead of choosing for their children to be taught in Basque or have a bilingual
education (Keeley, 2008). On the other hand, Susana Marqués, of the Platform for the Freedom
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of Linguistic Choice, “claims that schools teaching Castilian Spanish have become ghettoes
hampered by lack of funding because the authorities are keen to promote Basque at all cost”
(Keeley, 2008). In other words, the Basque government is only funding schools that teach
Basque-only. As a result of this policy, children will not receive bilingual education, which isn’t
beneficial anyways since “70% of companies in Spain doesn’t use Basque” (Keeley, 2008).
Similarly, in Catalonia, Catalan is the language taught in all state schools, with Castilian Spanish
only being taught for up to 3 hours a week. However, “50% of the population of Catalonia are
from Castilian Spanish-speaking origins, but it is impossible to study in Castilian Spanish in
private schools or in state schools” (Keeley, 2008). In Galicia, at least half of educational
teaching must be in the regional tongue. In fact, children ask to be taught in Castilian Spanish,
but teachers can’t attest to that because it is against the law (Keeley, 2008). The counterargument
from Marisol López, Galician head of linguistic policies, is that “if we don’t discriminate
positively in favor of Galician, Castilian Spanish will dominate” (Keeley, 2008).
All that said, bilingual education is still appreciated in Spain as the Constitution values
regional languages and respects regional cultures. Each province has their own statue of
“language normalization” that interprets the national Constitution differently. For example, in
Catalonia’s statute (Article 2.2a), Catalan is deemed the “normal linguistic vehicle of instruction
and learning and in internal and external activities of the education community: oral and written
student and faculty activities, lectures, textbooks and other teaching materials, learning and
evaluation materials, and communications with families” (Hochberg, 2013). On the other hand,
Galicia’s statue states that “children have the right to receive their primary education in Galician
but cannot be separated [at] school because of their mother tongue” (Hochberg, 2013). Likewise,
the Basque statute states that “all students have the right to be taught as much in Basque as in
Castilian,” placing the decision on the parents to choose which language their child(ren) is
educated in (Hochberg, 2013). While bilingual education is highly praised, in order to
accommodate both languages, the time required for math or reading instruction in these regions
decrease by 10% compared to the rest of Spain (Hochberg, 2013).

Linguistic Boundaries

While I have been mostly taking about specific languages contained within regional
communities, “linguistic boundaries [in Spain] don’t always correspond to community
boundaries” (Pereltsvaig, 2011). Spain is divided into 17 autonomous communities: Galicia,
Asturias, Cantabria, Basque Country, La Rioja, Navarre, Castille and Leon, Aragon, Catalonia,
Valencia, Madrid, Murcia, Castile-La Mancha, Extremadura, Andalusia, Balearic Islands, and
Canary Islands, as shown in Figure 2.
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Figure 2: Language Map of Spain (Pereltsvaig, 2011)

As indicated in figure 2, several autonomous communities are monolingual, speaking Castilian

Spanish only with a few bilingual and/or trilingual communities as well. Particularly, I found
Asturias interesting where Galician is spoken in the west and Asturian is spoken in the east.

Figure 3: Languages and Dialects of Asturias (Pereltsvaig, 2011)

Some other interesting insights that Figure 2 presents include: Valencia is a bilingual community
where Catalan and Castilian Spanish are spoken, Aragon is mostly a Castilian Spanish-speaking
community, but the northern part of the community speaks Aragonese whereas Catalan is spoken
along the border of Catalonia. Castile and Leon are trilingual communities with Galician and
Asturian spoken mostly in the northwest and Castilian Spanish elsewhere (Pereltsvaig, 2011).
Overall, Spain is diverse in languages and dialects across the various communities.
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Current Status

Figure 4: Profile of Language Status for Spain (Ethnologue, 2019)

Despite the diversity of languages and dialects present in Spain, there are several
languages that are in endangered. The Ethnologue provides a very comprehensive graph of the
status on all the languages in Spain with different colors to represent the development or
endangerment of a language. Specifically, purple represents institutional language development
meaning that the language is well developed to the point that it is used frequently in institutions
beyond the home and the community. On the other end of the spectrum, red means the language
is on the verge of extinction. That is to say, all the fluent speakers, if there are still any, are
beyond the child-bearing age where it is too “late to restore natural intergenerational
transmission through the home; a mechanism outside the home would need to be developed”
(Ethnologue, 2019). Languages under purple include Castilian Spanish (1), Basque (2), Catalan
(2), Galician (2) and Aranese (2). Interestingly, while Basque, Catalan, Galician and Aranese are
all see as minority languages compared to Castilian Spanish, they are still categorized under
institutional language development compared to Erromintxela which is quickly dying with only
500 speakers as of 2009 (Ethnologue, 2019).
In conclusion, Spain’s linguistic situation is constantly evolving and extremely diverse
with many minority communities striving for independence due to their distinctive languages.
Surprisingly, some minority communities can even be seen as minority-majority communities
when compared to even smaller communities with endangered languages. Also, despite the
central government’s unwillingness to grant those autonomous communities independence,
bilingual education is highly valued and respected according to the national constitution. From
the minority communities’ perspective, it is still important to learn and communicate in Castilian
Spanish as it helps with employment. Regardless of the language status, the common theme
among all the minority communities is that their language is what defines their identity and
makes them unique from the rest of the country.
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Bibliography

Balter, Michael. “Unusual 'Relic Language' Comes from Small Group of Farmers Isolated for
Thousands of Years.” Science, 9 Dec. 2017, www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/09/unusual-
relic-language-comes-small-group-farmers-isolated-thousands-years.

Ethnologue. “Profile of Language Status for Spain.” Ethnologue,

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www.trustedtranslations.com/spanish-language/history-of-spanish/in-spain.asp.

Hochberg, Judy. “Language Education Policy in Spain.” Spanish Linguist, 3 June 2013,
spanishlinguist.us/2013/05/language-education-policy-in-spain/.

Huxham, Trevor. “22 Fun Facts About the Galician Language.” 22 Fun Facts About the Galician
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Keeley, Graham. “Spanish Speakers Fight to Save Their Language as Regions Have Their Say.”
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Keith. “The Aranese Language of the Val D'Aran.” Pyrenees Experience, 5 May 2014,
www.pyreneesexperience.com/aranese-language/.

McWhorter, John. “There's No Such Thing as a 'Language'.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media
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Miller-Broomfield, Clara. “Exploring Linguistic Diversity in Spain.” Unravel, 17 Nov. 2015,

unravellingmag.com/dialogue/exploring-linguistic-diversity-spain/.

Pereltsvaig, Asya. “Language and Ethnicity: Spain.” Languages Of The World, 19 Dec. 2011,
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Spain Constitution (1978)

“The World Factbook: Spain.” Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1 Feb.
2018, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sp.html.

Woolard, Kathryn. “Catalan Language, Identity, and Independence.” OUPblog, 22 Jan. 2018,
blog.oup.com/2018/01/catalan-language-identity-independence/.
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