Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
Editor and Book Reviews Editor: John Edwards (St Francis Xavier University, Canada)
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Volume: 21 Number: 5 Page: 425–441
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Balancing Language Planning and Language Rights: Catalonia's Uneasy Juggling Act
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Charlotte Hoffmann
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In the 1980s, language planning in Catalonia was carried out against a background of general consensus that major language recovery measures were needed in order to improve the linguistic and sociolinguistic
situation of Catalan. Demographic and social conditions favoured language reforms aimed at making Catalan the official language of the autonomous region of Catalonia, promoting its use in public and in
the education system. Non-Catalans, too, supported these language policies as the use of Castilian (Spanish) was not restricted. This paper discusses the language planning measures resulting from the 1998
Law of Catalan. Catalonia seems to have reached a point where language recovery and language promotion come up against an evolving sociolinguistic situation marked by changed demographic conditions and
social attitudes. The debate about the 1998 Law of Catalan demonstrates that popular consensus can no longer be relied upon. Instead, conflicting views are being voiced as the promotion of Catalan above
Castilian has come to be seen as an infringement of the language rights of non-Catalans. Public discourse has become more polemical, bipartisan and politicised. The question arises as to how far a region
within a multilingual member state of the EU can go in promoting monolingual language policies.
© Multilingual Matters 2000
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