The evolution of private language uses in Catalonia between 1997 and 2008

Abstract

In this paper, a study is made of the evolution of the language uses in Catalonia from 1997 to 2008. A large-scale immigration from different parts of the world took place in this period. This involved over one million people and brought about notable changes in the country’s sociolinguistic situation. With mathematical inevitability, the percentages of use of the Catalan language have decreased while the number of Catalan speakers has remained basically stable. In inter-generational family language transmission, Catalan has continued to undergo notable growth while the other languages have continued to recede. In the period under study, the number of persons who have shifted to Catalan in the inter-generational transmission has clearly increased. The persons adopting the Catalan language are above all initially Spanish-speaking, while persons whose initial language is neither Catalan nor Spanish show a greater tendency to shift to the latter.

Key words: private language uses, evolution of language uses, inter-generational language transmission, Catalan language, Catalonia.