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Areas Social action Patrimoni Before regional governments and parliaments in Catalunya, València, Murcia and Aragon and central government, Consell recognises Catalan as one language

Before regional governments and parliaments in Catalunya, València, Murcia and Aragon and central government, Consell recognises Catalan as one language

The Formentera Department of Language Policy (FDLP) reports that the governments and parliaments of Catalunya, València, Murcia and Aragon, as well as the central government in Madrid and the upper and lower houses of Spanish parliament, have been sent an accord adopted by the Consell de Formentera 25 November 2020 in plenary assembly and recognising Catalan as a single language.

With the world set to celebrate International Mother Language Day tomorrow, 21 February, FDLP chair Raquel Guasch cast the initiative “part of the crucial task of safeguarding the present and future of our language”. The island’s plenary body asserted certain expressions were unique to the brand of Catalan spoken on Formentera, and decried actions in legislative, government, practical and social strata to undermine people’s right to use Catalan in places where it is co-official.

Recipients include Murcia and Aragon governments
Councillor Guasch pointed out the Consell had also sent the declaration to the regions of Murcia and Aragon: “The former doesn’t recognise Catalan speakers in Carxe, and the latter recognises Catalan as a local language but has fallen short of granting it ‘official’ status”.

Formentera’s municipal leaders pressed the central government to “heed linguistic studies recognising the plain-to-see unitarity of the Catalan language” and to set right “those agencies and offices which cast doubt on this fact and encourage splintering of the language”.

As for the Catalan language’s years-long process of ‘normalisation’, Councillor Guasch described it as an “aspirational process” — working toward a situation where Spain’s various languages can be used with absolute normalcy in regions where they are officially recognised. Catalan isn’t there yet, Guasch insisted, and there are obstacles along the way: the councillor remarked that even today “people are forced to remind official institutions of the language they speak, where their language is spoken and that they have a right to speak it.” She added, “It’s past time Spain changed its approach to ‘multilingualism’ and truly recognised linguistic diversity”.

20 February 2021
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

Xarxa de Biblioteques

Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics

Enciclopèdia d'Eivissa i Formentera