Andorra set to act to promote Catalan

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Andorra set to act to promote Catalan

Brussel - Bruxelles, Friday, 21 April 2006 by Davyth Hicks

Andorra is set to act to stop the declining use of Catalan, the official
language of the Principality. This is the response by the Andorran
government following the sociolinguistic survey issued at the end of
March. It was carried out in 2004 and has been compared to surveys from
1995 and 1999 which reveal situation of Catalan and its position compard
to the other languages spoken in the Principality. The evaluation of the
data will help experts establish the general guidelines required to
improve the current situation of the country's indigenous language.

The study examines the level of knowledge of the main languages spoken in
Andorra and concludes that Spanish is the language with the highest levels
of usage. The survey also indicates that the levels of understanding and
reading competences in Catalan are good, but that that level decreases
with speaking and writing.


Spanish has become the most widely spoken language in Andorra more
recently despite the growing population with Andorran nationality and
Portuguese immigration. Meanwhile Catalan has lost ground as a mother
tongue (5.2 % less than in 1999). The study also reveals the increasing
percentage of Portuguese as a mother tongue because of immigration. The
linguistic behaviour of the population of Andorra is rapidly changing and
is less favourable to the use of Catalan in private and informal spheres,
even though Catalan prevails in formal and institutional contexts. In
order to stop this tendency, one action that the government of Andorra
will do is to set up a national language welcome plan for the next three
years, including the promotion of the language amongst the youngest
generations through cinema in Catalan. (Eurolang 2006)

With thanks to Mercator Legislation for the original story.



Related links
Language Policy Board of Andorra (in Catalan)
	http://www.catala.ad/index_ex.htm
Constitution of Andorra
	http://www.andorramania.com/constit_gb.htm
Law on Official Language Use Planning, 16th December, 1999
	http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/butlletins/39-06.htm


http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2595&Itemid=1&lang=en