The Catalan Language In The Age Of Jackboot Politics

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

For forty years the language spoken in Catalonia has been Catalan. But now things have changed. Because the Spanish Government in Madrid angered by the democratically government of the region wanting a democratic election to result in a democratic Catalonia which they stopped in the most brutal actions of a Western European country since, well Spain under Franco now wants to control the region through a more insidious way.

Even though the Catalan people have reelected a parliament with a pro independence majority.

They intend Catalan children to be taught solely in Spanish. Why? Because they fear the power of those who speak the indigenous language as it shows independence of thought and those seeking independence for a nation. This is the same fear that permeates the resistance of the DUP to an Irish language act, or the sniping of mainstream media towards Welsh.

What the Spanish government seem to believe is that if the young Catalans can be seduced into speaking Spanish then gradually they will divorce themselves from Catalonia in other ways as well. It's this logic that people who want more of us to learn Welsh/Gaelic (Scots or Irish) have to fight against the all pervasive power of English.

What Spain wants and I've argued before that this is the tactic of those who oppose the teaching of Welsh, is that the Catalan language dies of gradual neglect.

It will I suspect fail. For their actions during the referendum have led to the anti Spanish backlash. Fear of the language by Spain will probably result in it being taught underground. And what the Catalan people will note by the actions of the Spanish government is that the greatest weapon they will have in the fight for independence is the power of the tongue.

Until the next time.