A language in a state of emergency: data, discourses and prospects vis-à-vis linguistic replacement in Castelló de la Plana

Abstract

This paper examines the setbacks undergone by the Catalan language in the last fifty years in the town of Castelló de la Plana and its surrounding areas due to the political, social and demographic changes that took place during the transition period from the Franco dictatorship to democracy. This, coupled with a language policy that has displayed a persistent hostility towards the Catalan language, has given rise to a well-entrenched linguistic substitution, where the hegemony of the Spanish nationalist discourse of the right wing and part of the left has continued to perpetuate certain linguistic practices. As a result, Catalan has been in a state of emergency for some time, taking on an eminently folkloric status that is associated with the provincial nature of local customs and celebrations, just as it was stigmatised under the Franco regime. In this article, we suggest a number of strategies envisaged to change this situation and bring about a reversal of this linguistic substitution by building an alternative political hegemony based on a project for the recovery of the region. At the heart of such policy, Catalan language promotion would take on new meaning.

Key words: Castelló de la Plana, local customs, state of emergency, celebrations, folklore, linguistic habitus, political hegemony, identity, provincialism, linguistic substitution.