Linguístic life stories: Central Europe, North America and Catalonia

Abstract

First of all, several definitions of linguistic stories and some earlier thinkers on them are presented, including Saint Augustine, William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, Martí de Riquer, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the research groups GELA and PLURAL, Carles Feixa and Joan Carles Mèlich. All these studies and proposals help us to understand the ontogenesis and the phylogenesis of language competence, language uses and language ideologies across lifetimes and generations. The core of the article discusses the linguistic stories from 28 sources, mostly literary, from three areas: Central Europe, North America and Catalonia. Deep plurilingual vitality is found in central Europe, a powerful trend towards anglicisation in North America and a vernacularisation process in favour of Spanish in Catalonia today, even though social groups loyal to the autochthonous Catalan language still remain.