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>Compare the Catalans, who are very passionate about teaching a standard version of their language Warm is an odd way to describe them, so I'm gonna try to give a more thorough explanation. Catalan in Catalonia (and Valencia and the Balearic Islands, I am a Valencian myself who grew up speaking and up to this day speaks Catalan regularly) has always been the "standard" language of the land, and Spanish was never the majority language of the region until 50 years ago (and it became the majority language because of immigration from other parts of Spain during the Nationalist Dictatorship of Franco, who until the late 60s/early 70s actively persecuted and discouraged the Catalan Language[Btw that immigration from other parts of Spain happened because Catalonia was an economic powerhouse compared to other parts of Spain, and this also one of the reasons why they are "autonomous" and the Catalan Language is official and whatnot, since you simply have more purchasing power politically speaking if you're richer than everyone in the country at the time). Heck, the Spanish State tried to completely eliminate it actively for 300 years ever since 1714 until 1978 and yet they couldn't, contrary to what happened in France. Now the language is completely official in the region alongside with Spanish and education there, even sometimes in unis, is taught completely in Catalan (except in some cases), and this has been an "issue", mostly to people from outside of Catalonia who think that Catalans don't learn how to speak Spanish ranging from "completely" to "properly" (A lie btw, I until college went to a 100% Catalan Speaking School and I can assure you that I can speak Spanish more than fine). But it's impossible at the same time to not learn Spanish in Catalonia. Why? Because all the media is in Spanish. Catalan Speaking media is simply weak and dead. And this is the "bigger" problem of the language. Catalan, while it may be in a rather good position in Catalonia, will never truly be a language of culture for people anymore. This saddens me, it really does, because I love my native language, however, I realize that this would happen to the language regardless if Spanish existed or not because just look at for example Sweden -they speak a small language close to English and thus most young people enjoy their culture in English, even going as far as to sometimes Englishize Swedish (and this has been an issue in Catalan too with Spanish, for example with the famous barbarismes [when you choose a Spanish word over a native Catalan one, for example: salida vs eixida (exit)]). Overall, I genuinely believe that Catalan is gonna almost die in the next 100 years. Although at the same time I'd even wager to that on a 100 year timeframe I'd even wager to say that Spanish and any other language spoken in a free country is in danger to English. |