Language and ideology in Valencia’s left-wing and centre-left-wing political parties: a preliminary study

Abstract

Since the time of transition to formal democracy in Spain, language has been an element of ideological conflict in Valencia, to the point of becoming one of the issues that has influenced the political process in this territory. Over time, the initial positions on language in the various left-wing and centre-left-wing political parties and the linguistic models have been nuanced, perhaps with the aim to adapt them to Valencia’s linguistic reality. This paper presents the results of an empirical qualitative research study based on grassroots members of political parties (Bloc, EUPV and PSPV-PSOE) to determine their discourse with respect to Valencia’s own specific language and to compare such discourse with the parties’ official guidelines. Generally speaking, it may be concluded that the discourse on Valencia’s specific language which was accepted in the 1970s, based on the thinking of Joan Fuster, has undergone very little change despite the identitary revisions that were initiated in the 1980s and transferred to the parties in the subsequent decades.

Keywords: ideology, identity, language, Valencia, political parties.