Catalan News Ed. 13 - February 2007

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Catalan Language News 13 - February 2007

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WHO ARE WE?
The Catalan Language Observatory was set up in 2004 by cultural organisations from
all the Catalan-speaking lands, with the purpose of monitoring the Catalan language
rigorously and objectively.

MEMBERSHIP
The following organisatio ns are members of the Observatory:
· Acció Cultural del País Valencià
· Associació de Juristes per la llengua
· Casal Jaume I de Fraga
· Casal Jaume I de Perpinyà
· Centre Internacional Escarré per a les Minories Ètniques i les Nacions (CIEMEN)
· Centre Unesco de Catalunya
· Comitè de Seguiment de la Declaració Universal de Drets Lingüístics
· Consell de Col·legis d'Advocats de Catalunya
· Culturalnord
· Fundació Congrés de Cultura Catalana
· Institut Linguapax
· Obra Cultural Balear
· Observatori de la Universitat d'Alacant
· Omnium Cultural
· Omnium Cultural de l'Alguer
· Organització pel Multilingüisme
· Plataforma per la llengua

With the support of:
· Institute of Catalan Studies
· Television of Catalonia
· IJLV - the Joan Lluís Vives Institute -, whose members are the following
universities:
- Abat Oliba CEU University
- Autonomous University of Barcelona
- International University of Catalonia
- Jaume I University
- Miguel Hernández University (Elx)
- Open University of Catalonia
- Pompeu Fabra University
- Ramon Llull University
- Rovira i Virgili University
- Technical University of Catalonia
- Technical University of Valencia
- University of Alacant
- University of Andorra
- University of the Balearic Islands
- University of Barcelona
- University of Girona
- University of Lleida
- University of Perpinyà
- University of Valencia
- University of Vic

With the support of:

GENERALITAT DE CATALUNYA


LINKS TO SITES WITH GENERAL INFORMATION ON CATALAN
Generalitat de Catalunya Government of Catalonia
Govern de les Illes Balears Government of the Balearic Islands
Generalitat Valenciana Government of the Valencian Community
Parlament de Catalunya Parliament of Catalonia
IEC Institute of Catalan Studies
institut Ramon Llull


ALGUER: THE CATALAN LINGUISTIC MINORITY IN ITALY

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Alguer, (Alghero in Italian, s'Alighera in Sardinian) is a city in the north-west
of the island of Sardinia, in the province of Sasser, in Italy. The 2006 census
numbers the population at 42.289 inhabitants.

The Catalan language in Alguer

Catalan first came to Alguer in the 14th century, when Catalans settled in the
area. Despite the mixture of the Catalan and Sardinian populations throughout
history, until the decade of the 60s in the 20th century, the Sardinians who came
to the city learnt to speak Catalan, as it was the lingua franca and the only means
of really getting ahead in Alguer's society.

The prestige of the Catalan language and in contrast, the low esteem in which
Sardinian was held, as well as the relative independence of the city from the rest
of the island, are other factors which explain the survival of the Catalan
language, without of course forgetting the desire of the people of Alguer to
differentiate themselves from other Sardinians.

>>From the decade of the 60s of the 20th century, however, things began to change.
The development of tourism, population mobility, immigration and emigration, and
the flood of mass media throughout Italy, the loss of population in the old city,
the education system; all are elements which began to cause setbacks for the
Catalan language. Many families stopped speaking Catalan to their children and used
Italian; the language of state, schools, media, tourism and the newcomers: the
language which brought with it new opportunities (this of course was the first
generation which had had any real possibility of undertaking tertiary studies).

That being said, cultural and political movements in Alguer were soon to begin a
process of awareness and recovery of Catalan culture during the 70s. From these
bodies sprang groups which still today continue with this important task: the Obra
Cultural de l'Alguer, the Escola de Alguerés Pasqual Scanu, the Ateneu Alguerés,
the Associació per la Salvaguarda del Patrimoni Històric i Cultural de l'Alguer,
and the Òmnium Cultural de l´Alguer, which together with the University of Sasser
have promoted the education resource centre "Maria Montessori" working on behalf of
teachers, young people and adolescents, with the aim of re-establishing the civic
and social use of the Catalan language.



STATISTICS RELATING TO THE USE OF THE LANGUAGE

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Unfortunately, the process of linguistic substitution has been accentuated during
the last forty years until a situation has developed in which, as has been shown by
a study carried out in 1998, that only 1.7% of mothers use Alguerès. When speaking
to their children aged between 11 and 15 years and only 11.8% stated they use the
language from time to time with their children. On the other hand, only 7.2% of
these children use the language at some time, when speaking to their mothers.

Under the auspices of the Secretariat of Linguistic Policies of the Generalitat, in
2004 a survey of linguistic usage in Alguer was carried out; its prime objective
was to obtain an approximation regarding linguistic usage in interpersonal
relations of people younger than 18 years of age in Alguer, with special emphasis
on being placed on the situation of the use of Catalan.

The entire study can be found at
http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/docs/EULA2004.pdf, however, we have included
the following tables, which can give some idea of a situation of a language in
Alguer. See



INTERNET LINKS WITH INFORMATION CONCERNING THE CITY OF ALGUER

Internet links with information in Catalan concerning the city of Alguer:

Official Municipal website of the city of Alguer: general information

Official Municipal website of the city of Alguer: tourist information

website with internet resource directory for Alguer

Vilaweb's Alguer edition

Online editition of the magazine L'Alguer, periòdic de cultura i informació of
Alguer ultural organisation, "Obracultural"

web-page of Obracultural; body working in defense of Alguer's language and culture

web-page of the Maria Montessori educational resource centre, part of Òmnium
Cultural de l'Alguer

Web-page of the Archive of Traditions of Alguer, research centre for Catalan
culture in Sardinia

Web-page of Enllaç, a body which from Catalonia supports Catalan language and
culture in Alguer from Catalonia

Internet links with information in Italian concerning the city of Alguer:

Official Municipal website of the city of Alguer: general information

online press, mainly in Italian but with some parts in Alguerès -online version
only

CatalanTV web-page. News bulletins can be seen in Catalan on this local chanel




THE LEGAL SITUATION OF MINORITY LANGUAGES IN ITALY

As in other states in the European Union, Italy is characterised by an centralised
linguistic system.
Article 6 of the Italian Constitution (dating from 1947), states textually: The
republic protects linguistic minorities by special laws. Even so, this article
lacked any force until the passing of the Law of Regulations in relationship to the
protection of minority and historical languages (Law 15, 15th of December 1999,
published in the Official Gazette nº 297 on the 20th of December 1999). Law 15
states that in regions which enjoy a special status, as well as in the provinces of
Trent and Bolzano, their respective Statutes must always be taken into account, and
in the case that there exists some other existing regulation, that which is to take
precedence is that which favours the language and culture of the minority.
Therefore, in the case of Catalan, what must take precedence is the regional law Ç
of the 11th of September 1997 of the Promotion and Status of the culture and
language of Sardinia. In fact, the only thing that the state law does is to
consolidate that which was already established under Sardinian legislation.

Under Italian law, it is very clear that "the official language of the Republic is
Italian". However, in accordance with article 6 of the Constitution, and with
European and international organisms, the "Republic is protector of the languages
and cultures of its Albanian, Catalan, German, Greek, Slovenian and Croatian
speaking citizens and those speakers of French, Franco-Provençal, Fruilan, Ladin,
Occitane and Sardinian." (See) It must be noted that in the case of Alguer, the
Catalan city in Sardinia, the explicit reference to Catalan speakers, obviously, is
reinforced by that which is established in article 19 in terms of international
relations: working with other states to develop language and culture of those
populations, which have pr eviously been stated.

Even though it can´t be denied that the law is an important legislative step
forward for the majority of linguistic minorities in Italy, it is also true that it
is very difficult to redress the situation of linguistic substitution. Obviously it
is an important fact that the law guarantees the presence of administrative staff
who understand those minority languages in public organisms, as well as the fact
that citizens are able to register their names and surnames in their own language.

In the area of teaching, the law establishes that the languages can be used in
education activities (teaching in and of minority languages). However, what must be
taken into account are the the administrative autonomy of the centres, curricular
limitations in timetabling, which are regulated at state level, and moreover, that
this can only be undertaken at the behest of parents.

In terms of nomenclature, municipal bodies can decide on the adoption of
nomenclature which "conforms to traditions as well as local usage" as long as all
such nomenclature is also accompanied by its Italian form.

The application of Sardinian and Italian laws in Alguer

Until the decade of the 90s of the 20th century, Catalan enjoyed no official status
whatsoever, as at state level Italy still had not passed any legislation regarding
linguistic minorities. However, in 1991, the City Council deemed in its municipal
statute that there was a need to "protect, promote and spread awareness of the
history of the Catalan language in its Algueres form, and local culture and
traditions", and to "give support to all those initiatives directed to the learning
and use of the Catalan language"

In 1997, the government of Sardinia, passed the Promotion and Status of the culture
and language of Sardinia Law, which implied an important initial step forward and
which is clearly explicit: "la medesima valenza attribuita alla cultura ed alla
lingua sarda è riconosciuta con riferimento al territorio interessato, alla cultura
ed alla lingua catalana di Alghero". Then again in 1999, a second important step
was taken with the Italian state approved at legislative level Regulations in
relationship to the protection of minority and historical languages according to
which the Italian state would protect amongst others, the language and culture of
the Catalan community.

The Sardinian law has allowed that, by means of Projecte Palomba - fruit of an
agreement between the Òmnium Cultural and the City Council- the education resource
centre "Maria Montessori" was able to undertake a programme incorporating Alguerès
into schools during the 1998-1989 school year. Presently, it involves 80% of all
classes (some 1800 students).

Italian law establishes that in all educational centres, the teaching of local
culture in the areas of history, geography, musical, artistic and technical
education must be introduced. Furthermore, the law permits that Catalan could
become the curricular teaching language -always at the behest of the parents- in
schools at infant, primary and intermediate levels; that is to say Catalan could
move from being a language which is taught to become the language of instruction.
For this reason "La Costura" was created, a teaching programme (within private
schools), which began at entrance year level in 2004 - 2005 school year. This is an
initiative of the Òmnium Cultural of Alguer and has the support of the Generalitat
of Catalonia on resource and economic levels and staffing from the Alguer City
Council and the Generalitat. With "La Costura", classes are imparted in the form of
Catalan spoken in Alguer, as well as having Italian and English classes, and there
are now more tha n 15 students attending.

To reinforce and consolidate that which is already underway and to establish a
solid base for this new Catalan educational project, in July of 2004 a
collaborative agreement was signed between the Department of Presidency and the
Department of Education of the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Alguer City
Council. The desire is to promote the learning and teaching of Catalan to maintain
and support the steps already undertaken by the Projecte Palomba, to promote the
"La Costura" centre, to create grounds for contacts between students and teachers,
principals and to promote cooperative steps in professional training to promote the
spread, interchange and development of educational tools...



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