Regional languages. Spanish practice

The delicate politics of language recognition

SPAIN'S foreign minister, Miguel ngel Moratinos, may have meant well when he asked the European Union to make four regional tongues - Catalan, Basque, Valencian and Galician - “official languages”. Yet Catalan nationalists were furious. They accused Mr Moratinos of making an “artificial” distinction between Catalan and Valencian, which they deem a mere dialect of Catalan. Josép Llus Carod-Rovira, head of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), said that, if Valencian were included, Catalan should not be. An ERC spokesman accused the government of “ignorance, lack of culture and bad political faith”. Yet the centre-right Valencian government supported the plan.

The Catalan government is strict on language: it has fined the Spanish postal service €30,000 ($37,000) for not having all its labels and stamps in Catalan. Language is central to Catalonia's demands for more autonomy from Madrid. Catalan claims to be the seventh-most-used language in the EU. It is spoken in three other regions: the Balearics, parts of Aragon and - say the Catalans - Valencia.

Mr Moratinos denied any intention of opening a “linguistic war”. He noted that Valencia's regional statute provides for Valencian to be an official language, alongside Castilian. “What I would say to the Catalans is that they should be very satisfied, and I know that they are,” he added, soothingly.

Alfonso Ussa, a commentator for the daily newspaper La Razn, called Mr Moratinos's plan a “ridiculous Babelish petition”. He and other critics fear that the debate could spread to Spain's other dialects and languages, such as Mallorquin, Aran (spoken in one valley in Catalonia) and Panocho (spoken in parts of Murcia). Right on cue, a member of the Asturias regional government has demanded that Bable (sic), an Asturian dialect, be given official recognition. “This linguistic diversity does not authorise us to turn Europeans mad with these demands...for the simple reason of good manners,” harrumphed Mr Ussa.

In its usual spirit of “consensus and dialogue”, the government has set up a committee to resolve the dispute. The deputy leader of the Catalan government, Josép Bargall, has suggested the compromise “Catalan/Valencian”. But this was rejected by the Valencians. The tongues will keep wagging.

Spain's proposal to the EU that Catalan, Basque, Valencian and Galician become official languages has caused tensions in Spain.