Does Barcelona (still) speak Catalan?

Almost two years ago, this servant published a Punyalada in this same digital newspaper (Does Barcelona speak Catalan?, 12-02-2020) as a result of the unstoppable process of linguistic substitution of our language in the Metropolitan Area. Temps era temps, in the article I recalled some data, already old at that time, from the Enquesta d'Usos Lingüístics de la Població (Idescat), a sample that analyzed the period 2013-2018 certifying that, although Barcelonans understand, read, speak and write our language in very high percentages (93.4%, 85.3%, 78.7% and 60.6%, respectively) Catalan was the habitual language of a scarce 27.5% of Barcelonans and only 16.5% of citizens always used it when starting a conversation. The study added a certainly dark panorama regarding the frequent use of the language in traditionally Catalan-speaking areas such as small businesses (13.1%), banks and savings banks (24.4%) and hospitals (20.6%). The article concluded: "Catalan, in Barcelona, ​​is a known language, but it is undergoing a process of disappearance."

The debate about the health of our language has returned to the tribe's news after a bunch of recent surveys were publicized, certifying that the use of Catalan among young people does not reach 25% in any district, standing at percentages of practical disappearance in places like Nou Barris (5%). It has made me laugh a little, not to say cry, that most municipal and national authorities have had a sudden attack to give better health to our language; as I said at the beginning, these percentages have been known for at least five years without anyone having moved their ass to mitigate them.

Catalans, it is well known, have a natural tendency to work only when campanades a morts ring, but I put on record the data (collected by the administration itself!) so that whoever feigns surprise also looks like a cynic. The country's authorities, especially those in the cultural field, knew perfectly well what was happening and have chosen to nap or react only when the poor beast has already lost liters of blood.

The Youth Survey 2020, recently resurrected by many media outlets, certifies that the habitual use of Catalan among people aged 15 to 34 (soon, by the way, youth will reach 40!) has fallen from 35.6% to 28.4%. Indeed, there is not a single Barcelona district where Catalan predominates among young people, and apart from the striking percentage in Nou Barris, we find other particularly worrying ones such as Ciutat Vella (16%), Sants (23%), or Eixample (35.9%). Many people have been surprised that Sarrià-Sant Gervas has the best score among our neighborhoods, with 44.9%, but they are completely missing the point, because Sarrià was one of the last towns to join Barcelona around 1921, and it is very normal that its inhabitants took care of the language as a heritage value; this point, as it happened in 2020 and happens now, summarizes the core like no other. The language survives and is enriched when administrations and citizens preserve and care for it as a fundamental key to their cultural, economic, and political bond.

It is curious that Ada Colau and company have reacted to the cited figures by stating that they will promote the approach of influencers to schools and through an increase in linguistic training in areas such as healthcare. All this is very good, and I will celebrate if the mayor manages to have Coldplay perform El Cant de la Senyera; but any measure will be a mere patch if it is not first promoted that Catalan is necessary and essential to live in the city, which not only means that it has identical protection as English in London or French in Paris, but that the language is a sufficiently prestigious vehicle to make it an insurmountable requirement at an economic and labor level. Languages, contrary to what the sentimentalists say, are not forms of communication, but vehicles of coercion and power through which a culture is imposed. Let's forget poetry and speak plainly: Catalan will survive in Barcelona (and by rebound, throughout the country) if it has enough strength to replace Spanish and fight head-to-head with the few globalized languages in the world.

Languages, contrary to what the sentimentalists say, are not forms of communication, but vehicles of coercion and power through which a culture is imposed