Posar la política en pràctica: la problematització de la planificació lingüística del català i les ideologies del discurs als mitjans de comunicació
| Autor | Farah Ali |
| Cargo | Assistant professor of Hispanic Studies, DePauw University |
| Páginas | 194-213 |
REVISTA DE LLENGUA I DRET #78
JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LAW
PUTTING POLICY INTO PRACTICE: THE PROBLEMATISATION OF CATALAN
LANGUAGE PLANNING AND IDEOLOGIES IN MEDIA DISCOURSE
Farah Ali∗
Abstract
The revitalisation of the Catalan language has been an ongoing effort in Catalonia for decades. The language policies
that have stemmed from this effort have perpetuated ideologies that promote the use and legitimisation of Catalan as
both an ofcial and a vehicular language. While this effort is widely regarded as an example of successful language
revitalisation, the process has not been without conict between Spanish and Catalan, particularly in terms of domains
of use and disparate attitudes towards the two languages (Newman & Trenchs-Parera, 2015; Woolard, 2016; Soler &
Gallego-Balsà, 2019; Ianos et al., 2020). Given that these policies aim to be implemented in public sectors, the objective
of this study is to examine how media discourse represents language practices in such domains. Using critical discourse
analysis, the present study draws on articles from Madrid- and Catalonia-based news sources that focus on language use
in public sectors. While differing perspectives on language use frequently appear together in the same texts, Madrid- and
Catalonia-based sources at times use different linguistic strategies to report the same events and often produce seemingly
contradictory discourse, such as reporting language discrimination against both Spanish and Catalan speakers in the
same domains.
Keywords: Catalan, Spanish, Catalonia, language ideologies, critical discourse analysis, news, language policy.
POSAR LA POLÍTICA EN PRÀCTICA: LA PROBLEMATITZACIÓ DE LA PLANIFICACIÓ
LINGÜÍSTICA DEL CATALÀ I LES IDEOLOGIES DEL DISCURS ALS MITJANS DE COMUNICACIÓ
Resum
Durant dècades, la revitalització de la llengua catalana ha estat un fet central i ha implicat un esforç continu a
Catalunya. Les polítiques lingüístiques sorgides d’aquest esforç han perpetuat ideologies que fomenten l’ús i la
legitimació del català com a llengua ocial i vehicular. Tot i que aquest esforç, en general, es considera un exemple de
revitalització lingüística d’èxit, el procés no ha estat exempt de conicte entre el castellà i el català, especialment pel
que fa als àmbits d’ús i les actituds diferents envers les dues llengües (Newman i Trenchs-Parera, 2015; Woolard, 2016;
Soler i Gallego-Balsà, 2019; Ianos et al., 2020). Atès que es volen implantar aquestes polítiques en els sectors públics,
l’objectiu d’aquest estudi és examinar si el discurs dels mitjans de comunicació és representatiu de les pràctiques
lingüístiques en aquests àmbits. Mitjançant l’anàlisi crítica del discurs, aquest estudi es basa en articles de mitjans
de comunicació amb seu a Madrid i Catalunya centrats en l’ús de la llengua als sectors públics. Malgrat que les
diferents perspectives sobre l’ús de la llengua sovint apareixen juntes en els mateixos textos, ls mitjans amb seu a
Madrid i Catalunya a vegades fan servir estratègies lingüístiques diferents per informar dels mateixos fets i sovint
produeixen un discurs aparentment contradictori, com per exemple denunciant la discriminació lingüística contra els
castellanoparlants i també contra els catalanoparlants en els mateixos àmbits.
Paraules clau: català; castellà; Catalunya; ideologies lingüístiques; anàlisi crítica del discurs; notícies; política
lingüística.
∗ Farah Ali, assistant professor of Hispanic Studies, DePauw University, farahali@depauw.edu
Article received: 19.01.2022. Blind reviews: 18.02.2022 and 09.04.2022. Final version accepted: 07.06.2022
Recommended citation: Ali, Farah. (2022). Putting policy into practice: The problematisation of Catalan language planning and
ideologies in media discourse. Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 78, 194-213, https://doi.org./10.2436/rld.
i78.2022.3783.
Farah Ali
Putting policy into practice: The problematisation of Catalan language planning and ideologies in media discourse
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 78, 2022 195
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Language policy, planning and practice
3 News media and critical discourse analysis
4 The present study
5 Methods
6 News article headlines
7 Conicting discourse on language discrimination
8 Language rights
9 Discussion and conclusion
References
Appendix
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Putting policy into practice: The problematisation of Catalan language planning and ideologies in media discourse
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 78, 2022 196
1 Introduction
Since Spain’s transition to democracy in 1978, the revitalisation of the Catalan language has been an ongoing
effort in Catalonia. The implementation of a number of language policies has created a situation that promotes
the use of and legitimises the status of Catalan as an ofcial language in this Spanish autonomous community
(Newman & Trenchs-Parera, 2015). However, such efforts have also resulted in language conict, such that
there is a certain degree of competition between Spanish and Catalan in terms of their domains of use and
availability to citizens in everyday services. Given that these policies aim to be implemented in public and
government-sponsored sectors, the objective of this study is to examine how media discourse represents
language practices in such domains and, specically, how media discourse represents language practices in
domains such as civil protection forces (i.e., the Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalan police force) and the Cos de
Bombers (Catalan re department)), educational institutions (at all levels), and in legal contexts. Of crucial
importance is the analysis of news media, which is widely dispersed to a mass audience, giving it the power to
signicantly shape social ideologies. Using critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003) to examine 45 news
articles from newspapers based in Madrid and Catalonia, this case study aims to shed light on how language
policies are put into practice, and how policy ideologies and goals are reected in media discourse, in a timely
exploration of an issue that remains relevant among the Catalan population as well as in scholarly research in
different disciplines. The topic is of paramount importance to Catalan policymakers in particular, who play
an integral role in communicating linguistic and political ideologies through policies which in turn extend to
language planning in Catalonia. The present study further shows how the broad dissemination of mass media
makes it a potentially impactful medium of discourse, with the power to shape the public’s perception of the
relationship between language and politics.
2 Language policy, planning and practice
Broadly speaking, language policy can encompass multiple aspects of language use in society, and may include
“a body of ideas, laws, regulations, rules and practices intended to achieve the planned language change in
the societies, group or system” (Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997, p. xi). More than that, however, language policy
is also a sociocultural process that is mediated by power relations, whereby language policies can “express
normative claims about legitimate and illegitimate language forms and uses, thereby governing language
statuses and uses” (McCarty, 2011, p. 8). Language planning, or the implementation of language policy,
involves deliberate efforts to enact the ideas and goals set forth in policies, and can include a range of efforts,
such as language standardisation and language in education. In both policy and planning, language ideologies
can often play a signicant role in shaping language regulations and practices: “Language ideologies are
morally and politically loaded representations of the structure and use of languages in a social world. They
link language to identities, institutions, and values in all societies.” (Woolard, 2020, p. 1).
While the historical presence and signicance of Catalan dates back centuries, much of what has constructed
the language’s modern status, use and connection to Catalan identity has been shaped by politics in post-
Franco Spain (Woolard, 2008). Following the death of fascist dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 and the
establishment of a new Spanish Constitution soon after in 1978, regional languages such as Catalan that had
been prohibited under the Francoist regime were granted recognition and co-ofcial status in their respective
autonomous communities. This right is noted in article 3 of the Spanish Constitution:
Artículo 3
1. El castellano es la lengua española ocial del Estado. Todos los españoles tienen el deber de
conocerla y el derecho a usarla.
2. Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades
Autónomas de acuerdo con sus Estatutos.
3. La riqueza de las distintas modalidades lingüísticas de España es un patrimonio cultural que
será objeto de especial respeto y protección.
Farah Ali
Putting policy into practice: The problematisation of Catalan language planning and ideologies in media discourse
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 78, 2022 197
Article 3
1. Castilian is the ofcial Spanish language of the State. All Spaniards have the duty to know
it and the right to use it.
2. The other Spanish languages shall also be ofcial in the respective Autonomous Communities
in accordance with their Statutes.
3. The wealth of the different language modalities of Spain is a cultural heritage which shall be
the object of special respect and protection.
(The Spanish Constitution, 1978)
In the case of Catalonia, the above article reinstated the use of Catalan and paved the way for a number of
language policies in support of the revitalisation of this previously endangered language. Various laws were
instrumental in achieving this, though perhaps the most signicant of these was the Llei de normalització
lingüística a Catalunya (Language Normalisation Act) of 1983. Later amended in 1998 as the Llei de política
lingüística (Language Policy Act), this was the rst law to reclaim space for Catalan in the public sphere,
afrming its ofcial status in Catalonia as well as relating it to Catalan identity:
[…] la Llei regula l’ús de les dues llengües ocials a Catalunya, i estableix mesures d’emparament i
promoció de l’ús del català per a aconseguir-ne la normalització i mesures de foment per a garantir-ne
la presència en tots els àmbits.
[…] the Act regulates the use of the two ofcial languages in Catalonia, and establishes measures to
protect and promote the use of Catalan in order to achieve its normalisation and measures to ensure
its presence in all areas.
(Generalitat de Catalunya, 1998)
One of the central goals of the Language Normalisation Act a Catalunya and the Language Policy Act was
to promote the use of Catalan in all areas of public life, but particularly in the sphere of education to ensure
that subsequent generations would develop equal competence in both Catalan and Spanish. Moreover, the
original text of the law employs the term “normalisation” to describe the everyday use of Catalan, as well as to
emphasise that the use of Catalan “should become ‘normal’ again” (Hoffmann, 2000, p. 430), an ideology that
has become commonplace in subsequent policies and has led to specic planning in different spheres of the
public sector. Besides education, language planning has made signicant gains in the legal eld. For example,
the Departament de Cultura (Catalan Ministry of Culture) and the Departament de Justícia (Catalan Ministry
of Justice) came to an agreement with the main professional organisations in the legal sphere to promote the
use of Catalan in legal environments, with the result that, as of 2015, more than 1,300 professionals have
enrolled in courses on Catalan language and legal terminology in Catalan (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2015).
Similarly, the Departament de Salut (Catalan Ministry of Health) has also made efforts to promote the use of
Catalan in the healthcare sector, such as providing Catalan language training for healthcare professionals and
providing key clinical texts and documents in Catalan (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2019).
Language policy and planning in Catalonia has been widely regarded as a success story in language
revitalisation. For the last few decades, all school-age children have been required to learn both Catalan and
Spanish, with the result that the number of Catalan speakers has steadily increased since the passing of the
aforementioned laws (Roller, 2002), and Catalan itself is often regarded as a public, de-ethnicised language,
or one that has at least successfully downplayed its ethnolinguistic boundaries (Pujolar, 2001; Woolard, 2003;
Pujolar & Gonzàlez, 2013; Newman & Trenchs-Parera, 2015; Aramburu, 2020). These claims have met with
disagreement in some circles, however, where it is argued that Catalan is a language indicative of exclusivity
(Roller, 2002) and whiteness (Khan & Balsà, 2021). At present, this exclusion appears to be salient among
racialised, lower-class members of Catalan society who may be distanced from identifying with and using
Catalan (Block & Corona, 2022).
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Putting policy into practice: The problematisation of Catalan language planning and ideologies in media discourse
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 78, 2022 198
Nonetheless, language ideologies in Catalonia have shifted a good deal over the last few decades (Soler &
Erdocia, 2020). Many studies have examined whether shifts in language use in Catalonia have played any role
in shifting ideologies and attitudes among communities in Catalonia. In an early study conducted soon after
the ratication of the Language Normalisation Act, Woolard and Gahng (1990) performed a matched-guise
test among students in Barcelona in 1980, and again in 1987, to examine shifts in attitudes towards Catalan
and Spanish. The study found that, while conicting attitudes were present among non-native speakers in
1980 (associating Catalan positively with status, and negatively with solidarity), these disparities appeared
to have diminished by 1987.
However, the association between Catalan and status remains signicant in Catalonia. Joubert (2011) has
aptly described the language as one that “embodies the complex combination of a minority position with
high prestige” (p. 222). The language capital (see Bourdieu, 1991) attached to Catalan is further evidenced by
employment data. From an economic perspective, Rendon (2007) notes that Catalan represents a signicant
positive premium, in that the probability of being employed increases with oral and/or written knowledge of
Catalan. These ndings are further supported by Di Paolo and Raymond (2012), who estimate that monthly
earnings are around 18% higher for individuals who are able to speak and write Catalan. However, it is worthy
of note that much of Catalan’s cultural capital is limited to the public sector, while Spanish has continued to
retain an important role in employment in the private sector (Pujolar, 2007).
As noted by Woolard and Gahng (1990), the connection between the Catalan language and solidarity,
group membership and identity has increased and become more nuanced since the implementation of the
aforementioned language policies. Newman and Trenchs-Parera (2015) point out the complexities of such
language identities, and the involvement of intersectionalities – gender or class, for instance – that shape
individuals’ language preferences. Moreover, Catalan’s place in Catalonia and its relationship with identity has
frequently been examined as having a status relative to that of Spanish. Woolard (2005, 2016) draws on the
notions of authenticity and anonymity as key elements that contribute to a language’s authority and legitimacy
in a given space, where authenticity refers to a speech variety deeply rooted in a community’s identity, while
anonymity reects a speech variety with no obvious roots in a specic group, as it is used by all. In the case
of Catalonia, Woolard (2005) has argued that Catalan is in the paradoxical position of having been heavily
linked to ethnic authenticity in order to ensure its survival as a minoritised language, and this has clashed with
the policy discourses that aim to establish Catalan as a public language typically characterised by anonymity.
This interplay between Catalan and Spanish is manifestly present in public discourse and popular attitudes.
Frekko (2011) uses data from a Catalan radio phone-in show to illustrate how individuals may use their
heteroglossic repertoire to construct language identities, such that Catalan represents personal identity, while
Spanish is positioned as a State language, thus creating monoglot identities in spite of heteroglossic language
practices. In a similar study looking at popular opinions in public discourse after the December 2017 elections,
Atkinson (2018) revisits Woolard’s notions of anonymity and authenticity, and observes that Spanish in
Catalonia may not be quite as anonymous as traditional associations would suggest, since popular discourse
shows that individuals associate Spanish as having clearly dened roots in the Spanish State and its history of
repression in Catalonia. However, this does not necessarily suggest that Catalan has supplanted Spanish with
regard to anonymity. Atkinson argues that language policy and planning in Catalonia has yet to successfully
“transform Catalan from an ethnic voice into a civic one” (p. 779). In a more recent attitudinal study, Byrne
(2020) argues that – within the context of Catalan independence discourse – both Spanish and Catalan appear
to represent anonymity, though perhaps to different degrees.
It is critical to note that the heterogeneity of Catalonia’s population may also result in diverse language attitudes
and identities. Immigrant populations in particular may present attitudes towards Catalan that diverge to some
extent from those of native Catalonians. In a study of immigrant students in Catalonia, both Madariaga et al.
(2016) and Huguet and Janés (2008) found that, while most attitudes towards Catalan were favourable, there
were still a signicant number of students with more neutral attitudes, and students from Spanish-speaking
countries had even less favourable attitudes towards Catalan compared to students from other backgrounds.
These ndings are not unique to immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries, however. In a more recent study
(Ali, 2022), Muslim women of diverse geographical backgrounds showed relatively neutral attitudes towards
Catalan and expressed a preference for Spanish. Additionally, immigrants who can be visibly identied as
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Putting policy into practice: The problematisation of Catalan language planning and ideologies in media discourse
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 78, 2022 199
non-European have the added challenge of experiencing some degree of exclusion, in that Catalan speakers
may assume they do not know Catalan and automatically use Spanish (Pujolar, 2010; Block & Corona, 2019).
3 News media and critical discourse analysis
As is evident from the inuence of language policy on the status of Catalan, public discourse can also play a
crucial role in shaping the linguistic behaviour of individuals and communities. Media discourse in particular
can be a barometer for sociopolitical change in a society, and therefore a powerful tool in perpetuating and
contesting language ideologies (Abdullah, 2014). News headlines alone are inuential in communicating
ideologies: besides informing readers about the content of a news article, headlines are often written to attract
attention (Kuiken et al., 2017) and may even be the only portion of an article that readers will notice and
remember (Dor, 2003). While headlines and articles produced in news media may represent latent or overt
political interests, this type of discourse reports on specic events to the masses, thus involving a variety
of active and passive participants: producers of texts and the parties whose interests they may represent,
individuals who may be the focus of news stories, and consumers of news (Fairclough, 1995; Devereux,
2014). Despite the different participants involved in the production of and engagement with a news item,
media discourse, like other public discourse, can appear as a monologue, given that the largest group of
participants, the audience, plays a passive role and makes no active contribution to the discourse (Fairclough,
1995). Considering the uneven roles of active and passive participants, such discourse may wield signicant
power to shape individual and group ideologies, though this social power may not be visible for much of the
time (Wodak, 2009). Fairclough (1989) notes: “[…] the hidden power of media discourse and the capacity of
the capitalist class and other power-holders to exercise this power depend on systematic tendencies in news
reporting and other media activities. A single text on its own is quite insignicant: the effects of media power
are cumulative, working through the repetition of particular ways of handling causality and agency, particular
ways of positioning the reader, and so forth.” (p. 54). This is especially crucial to the study of linguistic and
political ideologies, as both can iteratively construct community identities (Krzyżanowski, 2010).
In Spain, these ideologies have often been propagated by the press, whereby Spanish is pitted against other
languages in use in Spain (Marimón Llorca, 2021). In the Catalan context, Juárez Miró (2020) argues that
media discourse can be a major contributor to the disconnect between Catalan and Spanish societies. In
his study of media discourse, Juárez Miró demonstrates that Catalan and Spanish identities are constructed
differently, and frequently through an “us vs. them” lens that ties Catalan identity to secessionism; and that
Spanish and Catalan identities are given different treatment by Spanish and Catalan news sources.
Beyond the actual content of news reports, however, other elements can shape the interpretation of a news
story. These elements include images, word choice or, in multilingual contexts, code choice. Corominas (2007)
points out that, in Catalonia, the very process of language normalisation relied heavily on the mass media, and
involved the creation of public and private audiovisual media in the Catalan language. As Catalan reclaimed
some degree of space in the media, this resulted in an overall increase in Catalan usage in Catalonia.
With Catalan gaining a more prominent role in news media, both as the language of production and as the
occasional topic of discussion, the space it shares with Spanish in this sector can be an arena for language
conict. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) can be a useful way of examining the media discourse in this
context, since the media “enhances the constitutive effect of discourse – its power, that is, to shape widely
shared constructions of reality” (Mautner, 2008, p. 32), and thus holds the power to regulate everyday thinking
and inuence both politics and everyday life (Jäger & Maier, 2009). Moreover, CDA approaches linguistic
analysis through a sociopolitical lens through which to highlight processes in which different discourse
participants enact or contest unequal power dynamics (Van Dijk, 2015). These linguistic analyses may include,
but are not limited to, lexical and syntactic constructions, the use of rhetorical tropes (e.g., metaphors), and
narrative analyses (Richardson, 2007).
Farah Ali
Putting policy into practice: The problematisation of Catalan language planning and ideologies in media discourse
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 78, 2022 200
4 The present study
Language policy and planning evidently plays a vital role in shaping the linguistic situation in Catalonia, which
at times has resulted in the Spanish and Catalan languages maintaining polarised positions in this autonomous
community. Given the signicant impact that widely disseminated discourse (i.e., media discourse) may wield
over society, the objective of the present study is to examine how ideologies from Catalan language policies
are reportedly put into practice in the domains that fall under the jurisdiction of the Catalan Government,
the Generalitat de Catalunya. Specically, this study explores the way in which the media discourse in Spain
represents language practices and attitudes in public and ofcial domains. As such, four central questions
guide the present study:
1. How do news articles describe and characterise language practices in public and ofcial domains in
Catalonia?
2. How does the media discourse uphold or problematise language ideologies as reected in Catalan
language policy?
3. Given the shared ofcial status of Catalan and Spanish in Catalonia, how do these languages
compare in terms of their public use, as reported in news articles?
4. Do the Spanish and Catalan media differ in their approaches to this discourse, both in terms of the
source of news and the language of publication?
5 Methods
Using a CDA framework (Fairclough, 2003), this case study draws on data from 45 online newspaper articles
that focus on language use and attitudes in public and government-regulated contexts, such as the civil service,
education, advertising, and medical transactions. In order to determine whether publication sources and/or
language of publication could be inuencing factors, a mix of articles published in Catalan or Spanish were
selected (based on availability) from news sources based in either Madrid or Catalonia. Thirty of these articles
were published on Catalonia-based news sources – 15 in Spanish and 15 in Catalan – and another 15 articles
were published in Spanish on Madrid-based news sources (see Appendix). Articles from both regional bases
span a six-year period, from 2016 to 2022, with a relatively even distribution of publication dates. Articles
were chosen based on availability using the search terms català/catalàn and castellà/castellano. Another of
the inclusion criteria was that the linguistic situation in Catalonia needed to be the focus of the article. As a
result, various articles focused on Spanish and Catalan in other parts of Spain (i.e., Valencia and the Balearic
Islands) were excluded.
The rst step in this analysis consisted of conducting initial detailed readings of the articles and their headlines
to gain an overall understanding of the texts as well as an idea of the key concepts and themes. Using NVivo
12 (2018), the next step involved coding the articles by assigning descriptive codes to thes e emergent themes
and concepts. Lastly, broader themes among these codes were then identied as the central points of analysis.
These included linguistic strategies used to describe events and participants, as well as discourse relating
specically to language discrimination and language rights. In the next section, these themes are discussed in
turn, rst with a discussion of the linguistic strategies employed in the headlines of the articles, followed by
analyses focused on the content. Together, these analyses demonstrate how the media discourse characterises
language practices in the public sector as a reection or response to popular language ideologies and policies,
as well as how the discourse varies across news sources and languages of publication.
6 News article headlines
The headline of a news article serves a very different purpose from the article itself, and may be written by an
editor rather than by the author. Regardless of authorship, however, the headline offers a succinct summary of
the content of the news article while simultaneously attracting the attention of the reader, since it is the rst
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Putting policy into practice: The problematisation of Catalan language planning and ideologies in media discourse
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 78, 2022 201
excerpt of the text that will be read. In this section, the focus is specically on how these snippets of discourse
reect ideologies about Catalan and Spanish through the use of specic linguistic strategies.
First, given the brief time frame in which the analysed articles were published, several sources reported on the
same event, though at times employing a different word choice. In the examples below, three different sources
report on the same event, the Generalitat decision to change the minimum Catalan prociency requirement
for reghters:
La Generalitat empieza a exigir un C1 de catalán a los Bomberos que quieran trabajar en Cataluña
[The Generalitat makes a C1 in Catalan a requirement for reghters wishing to work in Catalonia]
(Madrid news source, Spanish: El Independiente, 2020)
El Govern empieza a pedir el nivel C1 de catalán a los Bomberos de la Generalitat
[The Catalan government is now asking Generalitat reghters for a C1 in Catalan]
(Catalonia news source, Spanish: Catalunya Press, 2020)
El Govern comença a demanar el nivell C1 de català als Bombers de la Generalitat
[The Catalan government is now asking Generalitat reghters for a C1 in Catalan]
(Catalonia news source, Catalan: Catalunya Press, 2020)
The most notable difference here is the use of the Spanish pedir and its Catalan equivalent demanar in the
articles from Catalonia-based sources. Both these verbs indicate “request,” while the article from the Madrid-
based source employs stronger wording by using exigir, indicating a demand or a requirement. Strong,
evocative language is certainly common in news article headlines, and is often used to draw in readers. Among
the articles analysed in the present study, this type of language was most frequently utilised in headlines that
focused on the use of Catalan, rather than Spanish. In additional, almost all these articles were published in
Spanish, albeit from news sources in both Catalonia and Madrid:
La “Gestapo” del catalán: graban y amenazan a un médico porque se habló en español a una paciente
[The Catalan “Gestapo”: a doctor is recorded and threatened for speaking to a patient in Spanish]
(Madrid source, Spanish: El Español, 2019)
La Generalitat, denunciada por tolerar el espionaje a alumnos en el patio para investigar si hablan catalán
[The Generalitat, denounced for tolerating spying on schoolchildren in the playground to nd out
whether they speak Catalan]
(Madrid source, Spanish: ABC, 2019)
“¡Parla en català, collons!”
[“Speak Catalan, damn it!”]
(Catalonia news source, Spanish1: El Periódico, 2019)
As is evident from the above examples, the headlines report critically on the regulation of the use of Catalan,
portraying the regulation as an act of policing. While ABC reports that the Catalan government is “spying”
on students, El Español goes further and compares those providing language regulation to the “Gestapo”.2
In the last example, El Periódico uses a quotation from the article itself, a direct command to use Catalan,
1 While the title itself uses Catalan, the cited article was published in Spanish.
2 This is a reference to the secret police of Nazi Germany responsible for political suppression, persecution and creating an
environment of fear in Germany’s occupied territories during World War II.
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uttered emphatically in Catalan, as denoted with the use of exclamation points and the insertion of collons.3
The allusions of these headlines to institutional involvement (i.e., La Generalitat, La “Gestapo”) suggest a
critical take on language planning in Catalonia. Planning appears to be recast as language policing, with a
clear emphasis on forcing the use of Catalan over Spanish. In contrast to the articles published in Spanish,
only one article published in Catalan employed a degree of evocative language:
La mala salut del català al pati de l’institut
[The poor health of Catalan in the playground]
(Catalonia source, in Catalan: La Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals, 2019)
Here Catalan is still the focus and is described with an expressive word choice. In this instance, however,
Catalan is portrayed in a more helpless role, described as being in “poor health”. Moreover, the headline
focuses on the Catalan language itself and in fact personies it, while the articles published in Spanish use
headlines that depict institutional bodies (i.e., the Generalitat) enforcing the use of Catalan.
This juxtaposition of the Catalan Government as an active agent and the victimisation of a language and its
speakers is further observable in grammatical constructions. Specically, some headlines use the active voice
for representing the former, and the passive voice for the latter:
Imputados dos mossos denunciados por un agente que se negó a escribir en catalán
[Two mossos4 accused by an ofcer who refused to write in Catalan]
(Madrid source, Spanish: 20 minutos, 2017)
La justicia obliga a un mínimo del 25% de enseñanza en castellano en Cataluña
[The Ministry of Justice requires a minimum of 25% of teaching in Spanish in Catalonia]
(Madrid source, Spanish: El País, 2020)
El Ayuntamiento de Barcelona margina el castellano
[Barcelona City Council marginalises Spanish]
(Catalonia source, Spanish: El Liberal, 2020)
El Congrés aprova l’esmena d’ERC, Podem i el PSOE que elimina el castellà com a llengua vehicular
a l’escola
[Congress approves the ERC, Podem and PSOE5 amendment to eliminate Spanish as the vehicular
language in schools]
(Catalonia source, Catalan: Catalunya Diari, 2020)
The rst headline cited above was the only article to use the passive voice, and reports on the alleged
victimisation of a member of the Catalan police force for using Spanish instead of Catalan. The other headlines
used either the active voice, or neither construction (e.g., “El catalán en el patio”). In the many cases where
the active voice was employed, institutional and governing bodies were typically assigned the agentive
role, (e.g., the Catalan Ministry of Justice, Barcelona City Council, and Congress) and connected to either
the centring of Catalan or the decentring of Spanish. In some instances, such as the examples from El País
3 collons: “damn it”. While the meaning of this term varies depending on context, it is an interjection frequently used in colloquial
speech to express annoyance or anger.
4 Also known as the Policia de la Generalitat de Catalunya, the Mossos d’Esquadra is under the exclusive jurisdiction of Catalonia.
5 These acronyms refer to Spanish and Catalan political parties: ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) is a pro-independence,
social democratic party in Catalonia; Podem/Podemos is a Spanish left-wing party with a local section in Catalonia (Catalunya en
Comú–Podem); PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) is a Spanish social democratic party.
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and Catalunya Diari, the headlines appear to assign agency to government bodies without casting them in a
positive or a negative light. However, in several cases, particularly among the articles published in Spanish,
these institutional bodies being assigned responsibility for language planning were more frequently portrayed
as tending to marginalise Spanish, discriminate against Spanish speakers, and enforce the use of Catalan.
7 Conicting discourse on language discrimination
As is evident from some of the headlines highlighted in the previous section, language discrimination is
a major theme in many of the news articles. However, one particularly striking aspect of these reports is
that, in some instances, different sources report on the same broad issues or specic events, yet produce
incongruous discourse that constructs its participants (i.e., Catalan-and Spanish-speaking individuals involved
in discrimination allegations) in diverging ways. For instance, a Catalonia-based source reports on language
discrimination against a police ofcer for using Spanish:
(...) los conictos en este ámbito vienen de lejos. En 2008, en época del Tripartito, un mosso destinado
en Girona fue sancionado por redactar un informe en español. Posteriormente, el castigo fue anulado
por la justicia ordinaria.
En 2018, otro agente – en este caso destinado en Sant Andreu, Barcelona – fue sancionado y suspendido
de empleo y sueldo por redactar los atestados en castellano en contra de lo ordenado por los mandos.
La excusa utilizada fue que cuestionó la autoridad de un superior.
[...conicts in this area go back a long way. In 2008, at the time of the Tripartite, a mosso stationed
in Girona was disciplined for writing a report in Spanish. The punishment was later revoked by the
ordinary courts.
In 2018, another ofcer – in this case stationed at Sant Andreu, Barcelona – was disciplined and
suspended from work without pay for writing reports in Spanish against the orders of his superiors.
The excuse given was that he questioned the authority of a superior.]
(Catalonia source, Spanish: Crónica Global, 2019)
In this example, a police ofcer who is a member of the Catalonia police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, is
reported to have been disciplined for using Spanish in a work-related written communication. It is also noted
that the actions taken against this employee were related to insubordination, rather than because the ofcer
in question contravened any specic language policy. However, the author of the article describes this detail
as an “excuse”, suggesting inadequacy in this rationale and hinting at the possibility that the ofcer’s use of
Spanish was the latent motive behind the punishment. While news reports focused on language use among
civil servants like the Mossos d’Esquadra are often critical of their enforcement of the use of Catalan use at
the expense of Spanish, the opposite is reported in the case of members of one of Spain’s two national police
forces, the Guardia Civil:
Un conductor a qui la Guàrdia Civil va aturar en un control scal i antiterrorista a Viladamat ha
denunciat que va patir “discriminació” per dirigir-se en català als agents. L’afectat ha presentat dues
queixes a la Comandància de Girona perquè considera que se’l va sotmetre a un escorcoll “ostentós” i
que es va produir “abús de poder”. El denunciant sol·licita que es revisi el cas i s’obri una investigació
interna per “irregularitats”.
[A driver who was stopped by the Civil Guard in a scal and anti-terrorist checkpoint in Viladamat
reported that he suffered “discrimination” for addressing the ofcers in Catalan. The victim has lodged
two complaints with the Girona Civil Guard Command because he considers that he was subjected to
an “ostentatious” search and that “abuse of power” took place.]
(Catalonia source, Catalan: Diari de Girona, 2020)
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Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 78, 2022 204
In this particular instance, a member of the Guardia Civil, the gendarmerie of Spain, is accused of discriminating
against a civilian driver for using Catalan. It is worth noting that, while the excerpt from Crónica Global
refers to an incident in Barcelona – where Spanish is more widely used than in any other part of Catalonia
– the incident reported in Diari de Girona took place in Viladamat, a small village in northern Catalonia
where the vast majority of the population is considered to be able to speak Catalan (Institut d’Estadística de
Catalunya, 2011). In other words, the discrimination being reported in each instance relates to the use of the
socially dominant language of those municipalities. One possible explanation for this discrimination may be
rooted in the differences in the police forces involved in each story. While the Guardia Civil is a national (and
thus Madrid-based) body that functions in Spanish and is directed by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior,
the Mossos d’Esquadra is under the authority of the Generalitat de Catalunya, which essentially functions
in Catalan. In each case, the authority of the police ofcers (or their superiors), and the languages used to
communicate this authority, take precedence in each of the reported incidents, and this creates conict where
that language is not the socially dominant language of the locale, as illustrated by the above excerpts.
Conict discourse can also be found in other domains of use. Multiple news outlets reported on the incident of
a video-recorded dispute between a doctor and patient at a local hospital in Girona, Catalonia, though victim
and perpetrator roles were assigned differently according to the source:
Son, al menos, nueve radicales que graban, amenazan y exigen, como si se tratara de un tribunal público,
al doctor Bonavent que justique por qué una doctora atendió en “lengua castellana” a una paciente el
pasado mes de septiembre. Dirigiendo al grupo está Santiago Espot, un conocido empresario, escritor y
activista por la independencia que se sitúa al lado del médico y le señala que el hospital ha “incumplido”
la “ley de política lingüística y el Estatuto de Cataluña”. El momento más surrealista del escrache se
produce cuando los acosadores preguntan al médico “si han echado ya a la doctora”. “¡Solo faltaría!”,
contesta el médico que todavía no entiende qué pretenden los activistas con esa actitud. Acorralado
bajo los gritos de los independentistas, el vídeo ha provocado polémica en las redes sociales. Jordi
Cañas, eurodiputado de Ciudadanos, tras compartirlo, ha comparado a los radicales con “la gestapo”.
[As if the scene were a public tribunal, at least nine radicals are recording, threatening and demanding
that Dr Bonavent justify why a doctor treated a patient in the ““Spanish language” last September.
Leading the group is Santiago Espot, a well-known businessman, writer and independence activist,
who stands next to the doctor and points out that the hospital has “failed to comply” with “language
policy law and the Statute of Catalonia”. The most surreal moment of the escrache6 occurs when the
bullies ask the doctor “if the (other) doctor has been red”. “Of course not!”, replies the doctor, not yet
understanding what the activists hope to achieve with this protest. Intimidated by the cries of the Catalan
independence movement, the video has stirred controversy on social media networks. Jordi Cañas,
Euro-MP for the Ciudadanos party, has shared the video and compared the radicals to “the Gestapo”.
(Madrid source, Spanish: El Español, 2019)
In this excerpt from El Español, a Madrid-based news source, the incident in question – an act of alleged
language discrimination between doctor and patient – is not the focal point of the news story. Rather, the
focus of attention is the noisy protest staged by individuals associated with the Catalan separatist movement
as a result of the doctor-patient dispute. In this news source, these individuals are variously referred to as
“radicals”, “bullies” and “the Gestapo”, and depicted as self-appointed vigilantes enforcing Catalan language
policy laws with aggressive tactics such as threats and demands for the doctor who had insisted on using
Spanish to be red.
By comparison, El Gerió Digital, based in Catalonia, reports on the same story from an entirely different
approach:
La Plataforma per la Llengua denuncia la “discriminació” i “vexació” d’una pacient de l’Hospital de
Figueres per parlar en català. L’entitat assegura que l’afectada, que va presentar una queixa al centre
6 A noisy protest in which individuals chastise public gures en masse, often involving chanting and/or harassment.
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hospitalari i a l’Institut Català de la Salut, va parlar en català a un metge i que aquest li va recriminar
armant que fa cinc anys que treballa aquí, que no l’ha après i que no té intenció de fer-ho.
[La Plataforma per la Llengua has denounced the “discrimination” and “harassment” of a patient at
Figueres Hospital for speaking Catalan. The organisation says that the victim, who led a complaint
with the hospital and the Catalan Institute of Health, spoke in Catalan to a doctor, who reprimanded (the
patient), stating that they (the doctor) had been working there for ve years, had not learned Catalan,
and had no intention of doing so.]
(Catalonia source, Catalan: El Gerió Digital, 2019)
The article published by El Gerió Digital makes no reference to the individuals referred to in El Español.
Instead, the article focuses on the altercation between the doctor and patient, in which the doctor insisted on
using Spanish when the patient spoke in Catalan. However, much like the article published in El Español, this
article also draws in other participants, namely La Plataforma per la Llengua, a non-governmental organisation
that promotes the use of Catalan and monitoring its status. As an additional participant in this text, La
Plataforma per la Llengua is positioned as an arbitrator in the conict, assigning responsibility to the doctor
and the hospital, while assigning the role of victim to the patient.
8 Language rights
Very closely tied to the theme of language discrimination, another recurring topic in many of the articles is
the discourse relating to language rights in Catalonia. Few articles included discourse that explicitly noted
the right to use a specic language. For example, only in one instance did any of the articles comment on
language rights attached specically to Catalan:
La Sala de Gobierno dice: “La señora jueza con sus expresiones fuera de tono y con el reiterado reproche
por descortesía dirigido hacia la señora letrada manifestó, primero, ausencia de equilibrio reexivo a la
hora de dirigir el acto procesal; segundo, escasa sensibilidad y compromiso activo de protección hacia
lo que signica el derecho a utilizar la lengua propia; y, tercero, y además, una falta de consideración
personal hacia la profesional afectada”.
[The Government Chamber says: “With her inappropriate tone and repeated reproaches for discourtesy
directed at the lawyer, the Honourable Judge demonstrated, rst, an absence of reective balance in
her direction of the procedural act; second, little sensitivity and active commitment to protect what
the right to use one’s own language means; and, third, a lack of personal consideration towards the
professional concerned.”]
(Catalonia source, Spanish: El Nacional, 2016)
The judge described in this news report is criticised for not allowing a lawyer to use Catalan during a trial.
While la lengua propia7 is not explicitly noted as Catalan in this excerpt, the article constructs Catalan
language rights as the main concern, and disregarding this right as the principal offence of the judge in
question. While no other article mentioned language rights specically pertaining to Catalan, other articles
focused on the right to use Spanish:
...los aspirantes se vieron privados de su derecho a ser examinados en castellano. Sólo le fueron
ofrecidos cuestionarios en catalán. Y no por error: la Generalitat deende la imposición de esta lengua
a los opositores.
[...the applicants were deprived of their right to be tested in Spanish. They were only offered
questionnaires in Catalan. And not by mistake: the Generalitat defends the imposition of the Catalan
language on job candidates.]
(Madrid source, Spanish: El Mundo, 2019)
7 A legal term used to describe ofcial languages in different autonomous communities in Spain.
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La profesora de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Isabel Fernández, miembro de Impulso
Ciudadano, Universitaris per la Convivència y Foro de Profesores, ha reprochado a PpL de “buscar
siempre el enfrentamiento” y explica que “mi asignatura este año está anunciada en español (lengua
vehicular) y seguramente habrá seminarios en catalán. Y no será para vulnerar los derechos lingüísticos
de los castellanohablantes”.
[Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) professor Isabel Fernández, a member of Impulso
Ciudadano, Universitaris per la Convivència and Foro de Profesores, has reproached PpL8 for “always
seeking confrontation” and explains that “my subject this year has been announced in Spanish (vehicular
language), and there will certainly be seminars in Catalan. And that will not be designed to violate the
language rights of Spanish speakers.”]
(Catalonia source, Spanish: Crónica Global, 2020)
No obstante, el mosso ha llevado el caso nalmente a la justicia porque cree que los dos mandos se
extralimitaron y que trataron de cercenar su derecho a escribir el atestado en castellano, según las fuentes.
[However, the mosso has nally brought the case to justice because he believes that the two commanding
ofcers exceeded their powers and that they tried to curtail his right to write the report in Spanish,
according to sources.]
(Madrid source, Spanish: 20 Minutos, 2017)
All of these excerpts, printed in Spanish, report on the right to use Spanish for work-related communication,
namely, healthcare job applications, university course instruction, and ling police reports. In each of them,
individuals are reportedly pushing back against efforts in their workplace to impose the use of Catalan, in
favour of Spanish, noting in each instance that being denied the opportunity to use Spanish at work was a
violation of their rights. It is also worth noting that, in the excerpt from Crónica Global, Professor Isabel
Fernández’s quote includes a parenthesis which claries that Spanish is assigned as the “lengua vehicular”, a
phrase typically associated with Catalan, especially in pre-university education. While it is unclear whether
this parenthesis was added by the author of the article or by Professor Fernández herself, its presence suggests
that Spanish is viewed as the default language in the university setting, centring the discussion of language
rights around the use of Spanish.
More commonly found in news reports, however, was discourse that emphasised the right to use any language
in Catalonia, though this discourse was focused on the use of Catalan in each of the instances below:
Interpelados sobre este planteamiento, los Mossos d’Esquadra niegan que haya ninguna imposición
lingüística a los agentes. Aseguran que es “falso” que se les prohíba el uso de una u otra lengua, e
insisten en que castellano y catalán son de uso habitual “en la calle, en las comisarías y en las emisoras”
y que se han hecho “atestados e informes en castellano cuando ha hecho falta”.
El propio presidente de Impulso Ciudadano, José Domingo, señala que de esta sentencia se inere sin
ninguna duda que los mossos d’esquadra tienen derecho a utilizar español y catalán de forma indistinta
entre ellos y con sus superiores “como cualquier otro funcionario de la Generalitat”.
[Questioned about this approach, the Mossos d’Esquadra deny the imposition of any language on their
ofcers. They assert that it is “false” that they are prohibited from using one language or the other,
insisting that both Spanish and Catalan are in common use “on the street, in police stations and on radio
stations” and that “statements and reports” have been made “in Spanish when necessary”.
The president of Impulso Ciudadano himself, José Domingo, points out that this sentence infers without
any doubt that the Mossos d’Esquadra have the right to use Spanish and Catalan interchangeably, with
each other and with their superiors, “like any other ofcial of the Generalitat”.]
(Catalonia-based source, Spanish: Crónica Global, 2019)
8 Plataforma per la Llengua.
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In this excerpt, language use and regulation among the Mossos d’Esquadra is rst described equitably: no
language is imposed, and “both Spanish and Catalan are in common use”. However, the excerpt goes on to
centre Catalan by indicating that Spanish is used “when necessary”. This phrasing suggests that Catalan is
the default language in this domain, and that Spanish can be used as an alternative. A similar discourse can
also be seen in an article published in the same year from a Madrid-based source:
«El catalán es la lengua propia y ocial» de la universidad, aunque, a diferencia de lo que ocurre en
la escuela, donde se impone un modelo monolingüe en la lengua autonómica, en el ámbito académico
el profesor tiene libertad para utilizar en clase cualquiera de los idiomas ociales en la comunidad
(catalán y castellano). También el inglés, en función de la planicación del centro. Del mismo modo,
los alumnos tienen la misma libertad para expresarse en ambas lenguas en sus actividades académicas.
[“Catalan is the ofcial language that corresponds to” the university. However, unlike the situation
in schools, where a monolingual model is imposed in the autonomous language, in the academic
environment teaching staff are free to use either of the autonomous community’s ofcial languages
(Catalan and Spanish) in the classroom. Even English, depending on the centre’s planning. Similarly,
students have the same freedom to express themselves in either language in their academic activities.]
(Madrid source, Spanish: ABC, 2019)
This excerpt opens by situating Catalan as the principal language in universities in Catalonia, but then goes
on to note that both instructors and students have the freedom to use either Catalan or Spanish (or sometimes
even English). The text goes further by juxtaposing this linguistic freedom in universities against the situation
in primary and secondary educational institutions, where Catalan is reportedly “imposed”.
9 Discussion and conclusion
This study has examined how media discourse characterises language practices in public and ofcial domains
in Catalonia, and has resulted in a number of ndings. First, the media discourse in Spain frequently uses a
variety of linguistic strategies to describe the conict between Spanish and Catalan, wherein perpetrators and
victims of language discrimination are discursively constructed, not only among individuals, but also in the
languages themselves. This is achieved through word choice (e.g., using evocative language) and grammatical
constructions, such as employing the active or passive voice to assign blame and victimhood, respectively.
However, such representations occur in disparate ways that often depend on the source and language of the
news article. Madrid-based sources (all published in Spanish), for instance, are typically more critical of the
use of Catalan, and use the linguistic strategies noted above to portray the Catalan language being imposed
at the expense of Spanish. Catalonia-based sources published in Spanish9 portray Catalan in a similar way,
but these news reports avoid the use of strong language evocative of policing in the way that Madrid-based
sources do.
News articles published in Catalan, on the other hand, stand in stark contrast. Not only do they focus more
on the marginalisation of Catalan, but these articles generally fall short of criticising the use of Spanish in the
way that Spanish language articles criticise the use of Catalan. These differences suggest that the language
of media discourse is a more signicant factor than the news source itself (whether Madrid- or Catalonia-
based) with regard to the ideologies and attitudes being represented. In addition, the discrepancies between
Catalan and Spanish language publications suggest that language plays a critical role in constructing political
ideologies and national identities, much in the way described by Krzyżanowski (2010) and Atkinson (2018).
This is particularly salient in the similar treatment given by Spanish language articles from both Madrid and
Catalonia-based sources to the themes of language rights and language discrimination, with articles from
both groups of sources focusing on the marginalisation of and right to use Spanish, and even more so when
associating the Catalan language with policing and political radicalism. Collectively, the disparities described
above contribute to perpetuating the “us vs. them” disconnect between Catalan and Spanish that Juárez Miró
(2020) has noted as being prevalent in Spanish media discourse.
9 One exception to this observation is the Spanish language article from El Nacional, which publishes primarily in Catalan.
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This study also supports Corominas (2007) argument that media discourse is deeply connected to language
policy discourse, though it is both upheld and challenged in different instances. First, policies have a notable
presence in the news articles analysed, often being evoked in language-related altercations. For example,
the use of “vehicular language” permeates both policy and media, and is connected to the notion of the
normalisation of Catalan (Generalitat de Catalunya, 1998). While Catalan is frequently described as the
vehicular language and thus the socially dominant code, the same phrase is occasionally used to describe
Spanish. This is suggestive of a pushback against Catalan and its role as the dominant language, since Spanish
occupies this role outside of Catalonia, and even in parts of Catalonia (namely, Barcelona). The connection
between policy and media discourse is further evidenced by the frequent mention of institutional bodies in
many of the news articles. Institutional and organisational voices such as the Generalitat de Catalunya and
the Plataforma per la Llengua, respectively, are positioned as active participants either advocating for and
defending the right to use Catalan or, alternatively, policing and enforcing the use of Catalan. Ultimately,
these bodies are used to both uphold and contest language ideologies related to Catalan.
Finally, an interesting pattern to emerge from this study is the way in which language conict in specic
domains is reported across different news articles. While language discrimination and conict are reported
across different domains of use, the language of focus appears to depend on the source of publication as well
as the location of the reported incident. Discrimination for using Spanish is often reported to have occurred
in Barcelona, where Spanish is most frequently used, while discrimination for using Catalan is reported in
other parts of Catalonia, where Spanish is less prevalent. The prevalence and social dominance attached to
each language is a potentially critical component in deciphering language conict in Catalonia, which can be
seen in an examination of reports on specic domains of use. Returning to the examples of reports focusing
on interactions involving police ofcers, there is a stark difference in the discourse according to the specic
police force involved, as well as the location of the reported incidents. Catalonia’s police force, the Mossos
d’Esquadra, is reported to discriminate on the basis of use of Spanish, while discrimination on the basis of use
of Catalan is reported for the national police force, the Guardia Civil. In other words, the vehicular language
of these authorities is strongly connected to the language of the government that oversees them (Catalonia
and Spain, respectively).
Given the signicant potential impact of policy and media discourse on shaping public opinion (Fairclough,
1989, 1995; Devereux, 2014), this study highlights issues that are relevant to both the linguistic and political
situation in Catalonia. It is, however, a small-scale case study focusing on a very particular context; further
research is needed for drawing generalisable conclusions. Moving forward, future studies should further
examine the role of publication language in the representation of language conict in Catalonia, using a
broader scope and a wider publication time frame than the one presented here, as a diachronic layer of
analysis may also shed light on historical changes in discourse. Additional research in this area could also
use linguistic approaches to specically address political discourse in the media, namely, the discourse on
Catalan separatism, and how the construction of and opposition to Catalan nationalism relates to language
ideologies. With an ever-changing political landscape in Catalonia and Spain, the media discourse continues
to be a relevant point of analysis as it adapts to reect popular and political ideologies (Juárez Miró, 2020).
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Appendix
Articles sourced from Madrid
Article title Year News source
Ajuste de cuentas en catalán: historia de dos venganzas en la
Generalitat 2022
El Confidencial
Autonómico
Incumplimientos de la Generalitat contra el castellano y a favor
del catalán 2022 El Mundo
Endurecen la exigencia de catalán para los bomberos de la
Generalitat 2020 El Mundo
La justicia obliga a un mínimo del 25% de enseñanza en
castellano en Cataluña 2020 El País
La Generalitat empieza a exigir un C1 de catalán a los Bomberos
que quieran trabajar en Cataluña 2020 El Independiente
La Generalitat, denunciada por tolerar el espionaje a alumnos en
el patio para investigar si hablan catalán 2019 ABC
La ‘Gestapo’ del catalán: graban y amenazan a un médico porque
se habló en español a una paciente 2019 El Español
Rodillo contra el español en la universidad catalana 2019 ABC
“Ninguna” escuela pública catalana cumple con el 25% de horas
mínimas de castellano 2019 La Razón
Los Mossos valorarán más en los concursos internos el dominio
del catalán 2019
El Confidencial
Autonómico
El catalán en el patio 2019 El País
La Generalitat obliga a opositores sanitarios a examinarse en
catalán 2019 El Mundo
La sanción por desobediencia de un mosso a un superior que los
titulares han convertido en un debate sobre la lengua 2018 El Diario (eldiario.es)
Imputados dos mossos denunciados por un agente que se negó a
escribir en catalán 2017 20 minutos
La Generalitat desobedecerá al TSJC y no modicará su política
lingüística 2016 El País
Farah Ali
Putting policy into practice: The problematisation of Catalan language planning and ideologies in media discourse
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 78, 2022 212
Articles sourced from Catalonia
Article title Year News source
¿Cuándo se quebró la paz lingüística? 2022 La Vanguardia
Un alto asesor de Cambray acata las sentencias lingüísticas del
Govern 2022 Crónica Global
El Consell de l’Advocacia pide al Govern proponer a Sánchez
que los jueces deban saber catalán 2021 Catalunya Press
El Ayuntamiento de Barcelona margina el castellano 2020 El Liberal
El Govern empieza a pedir el nivel C1 de catalán a los Bomberos
de la Generalitat 2020 Catalunya Press
Plataforma per la Llengua arremete ahora contra las universidades
por usar el castellano 2020 Crónica Global
Ciutadans quiere reprobar a la portavoz Budó por discriminación
lingüística 2019 La Vanguardia
“¡Parla en català, collons!” 2019 El Periódico
La Navidad, en catalán: así discriminan el castellano en las
escuelas de Cataluña 2019 Crónica Global
“Por lo visto, si te expresas en español estás incapacitado para
ser Mosso d’Esquadra” 2019 El Periodico
Jesús Rul: “La inmersión lingüística en catalán vulnera derechos
de los alumnos porque discrimina y lesiona” 2019 El Liberal
Así funciona la discriminación lingüística en los Mossos
d’Esquadra 2019 Crónica Global
El irónico vídeo sobre la discriminación del castellano en las
aulas catalanas 2018 La Vanguardia
Los web de los Mossos, sólo en catalán e inglés 2017 La Vanguardia
Sanción a una jueza por no dejar hablar catalán a dos abogadas 2016 El Nacional
Articles published in Catalan
Article title Year News source
Vila-seca, en contra del 25% en castellà: «Ara i sempre, l’escola
en català» 2022 Nació Digital
Nova sentència pel 25% en castellà: ara en un institut de Vila-seca 2022 Ara
L’abandó de la llengua a l’escola: el cas de les Aules d’Acollida 2021 El Punt Avui
La Guàrdia Urbana de Vic protesta parlant en castellà 2021 El Nacional
El català busca al Congrés el tracte donat al castellà 2021 El Punt Avui
El congrés espanyol debat una proposició no de llei per acabar
amb la imposició legal del castellà 2021 Vilaweb
El Congrés aprova l’esmena d’ERC, Podem i el PSOE que
elimina el castellà com a llengua vehicular a l’escola 2020 Catalunya Diari
El Govern comença a demanar el nivell C1 de català als Bombers
de la Generalitat 2020 Catalunya Press
Denuncien discriminació per parlar català en un control de la
Guàrdia Civil 2020 Diari de Girona
L’Hospital de Figueres es va disculpar amb la pacient que va ser
discriminada per parlar en català 2019 El Gerió Digital
Farah Ali
Putting policy into practice: The problematisation of Catalan language planning and ideologies in media discourse
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 78, 2022 213
Article title Year News source
La mala salut del català al pati de l’institut 2019
La Corporació
Catalana de Mitjans
Audiovisuals
Quan la policia vulnera els drets lingüístics 2019 El Temps
El desinterès de la justícia per la llengua catalana esdevé crònic 2018 El Punt Avui
Els Mossos sancionen per falta greu un agent que es va negar a
vetar el castellà 2018
El Periodico de
Catalunya
El debat sobre la immersió lingüística no arriba a les aules 2018 El Pais(.cat)
