Parles Català? (Do you speak Catalan?) Foreigners who come to live on the Costa Brava, or anywhere else in the Province of Girona, realize pretty quickly (if they didn’t already know) that Catalan is the first language spoken here, not Spanish. Spanish is spoken too, of course, but very much as a second language. But “espanyol” isn’t even what Catalans usually call the language we refer to as “Spanish”, but rather “castellà”. So why is that? What’s the story?
Catalan IS a language
First of all, let’s get one thing straight: Catalan is NOT a “dialect of Spanish”, as some foreigners mistakenly think. It is a LANGUAGE. It is just as much a language as Portuguese, French, or Italian – languages with which Catalan has its Latin roots in common. NOR is Catalan just a “mix of Spanish and French” – another common misconception.
That would be like saying that Dutch is no more than a mix of German and English, for example. Dutch, German, and English are three distinct languages, among others, that evolved from common Germanic roots in the same way that Spanish, Catalan, and French have evolved into distinct languages from their Latin origins – also among others. Despite the similarities between, say, Spanish and Portuguese, you never hear anyone saying that Portuguese is a dialect of Spanish – and rightly so because it is not. Neither is Catalan.
Spanish or Castellano?
Let’s clarify something else too. The reason why Catalans almost never say “espanyol” when referring to the language we call “Spanish” in English is because, for them, that language is “castellà”, a tongue that comes from Castilla and is just one of several tongues native to the Iberian Peninsula. Hispania is what the Romans called the entire Iberian Peninsula, and from that name came “España”, or Spain.
Of course, Portugal later became its own sovereign country, and Spain nowadays comprises the rest of the Iberian Peninsula minus Portugal. Castilian (Castellano) is just one of a number of languages native to what is now Spain, but there are others: Galician, Basque and Catalan being the most widely known. Less well-known are Aragones and Astur-Leonese, but they are also languages, just like Catalan, not dialects.
There are dialects of Spanish, too, of course, like Canarian or Andalusian, but the aforementioned are fully recognized as languages. Check out this video map to follow the progression of the main languages that have been spoken throughout “Hispania” over the centuries.
So why is “Spanish” used to refer to the Castilian language where, in fact, there are numerous other “Spanish” languages? Well, there’s no one answer to that really, but rather a number of reasons.
Language suppression
Over the ages, there have been wars, alliances between crowns, migration, conquests, and so on, but “Castellano” (as it is written in its own language) eventually became the dominant language in most of Spain. Regrettably, at certain times, the rulers of the country deliberately suppressed the other languages with the intention of eradicating them altogether and replacing them with Castellano, most notably in recent history during the rule of Franco in the last century.
Following the victory of Franco’s forces in the Spanish Civil War, speaking Catalan in public was forbidden, with harsh penalties for anyone who disobeyed, and so the language was forced underground. All schools taught in Castellano only and, as a result, quite a lot of Catalans over a certain age have some difficulty writing their native language as it was, for the most part, only an oral language for them.
Catalan was only reestablished as the official language of education in Catalunya in 1983, and there is still much debate today around which language should be used and/or to what extent in Catalan schools.
As recently as October 2012, the then Minister of Education (no less!) declared that the objective of the right-wing Partido Popular government at the time was to “Spanishize” or “Spanishify” (there isn’t even a proper word for that!) the Catalans. His actual words were “españolizar a los niños catalanes” – “make the Catalan children Spanish”. Naturally, those words were very warmly and enthusiastically welcomed in Catalunya! (Insert emoji for ‘raising eyes to heaven’ 🙄 or ‘completely blowing top’ 🤯!)
Speak “Mexican”!
Imagine, if you will, that Mexico was never colonized by Europeans, and the various nations that were living there continued to evolve on their own without outside interference: the Aztecs, Mayans, and Olmecs. (There were others too, but let’s just keep it simple to illustrate the point.)
So, each had their own language, distinct from the other, although related. But imagine that over time, the Aztecs came to dominate the whole country, rule over it, and then try to impose their Aztec language on the others. Not only that, but now they referred to their language as “Mexican”, despite the fact that the other languages were also native to Mexico. Understandably, the Mayans and Olmecs would be less than happy. So it is with Catalan, or at least something along those lines.
Or take the country of India as another example. There are 22 official Indian languages, with so many other unofficial languages that they number in the hundreds. Even though Hindi is spoken by more Indians than any of the other languages in the country, it is never referred to as “Indian”, only as Hindi.
So what about Catalan itself?
Catalan descends from the Latin language, which was first brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans over 2000 years ago in 218 BCE. Before that, various Celtic, Celtiberian, and Iberian tongues were spoken throughout the peninsula; Iberian in the case of this part of the country that we now call La Costa Brava or Empordà. In fact, it was right here on the very same Costa Brava that the Romans began what was to become their conquest of the entire Iberian Peninsula!
During their Second Punic War with the ancient city of Carthage, they landed at the trading colony of their allies, the Greeks at Empuriès, (L’Escala today) and set up a fortress to prevent their enemy Hannibal and his Carthaginians from controlling Iberia and from there threatening Rome. (He did anyway, but that’s a whole other story!) Although it took the Romans nearly two centuries to complete their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, they retained control of it for over six centuries. Roman rule was bound together by their laws, the Roman road, and, of course, their language. (What have the Romans ever done for us?!)
Long after the Romans themselves were gone, their language remained, and between the 3rd and 8th centuries, Vulgar Latin – the non-literary Latin spoken by the general population – evolved in the lands of their former empire into various modern languages, Catalan among them. Collectively known as the Romance languages, the six most widely spoken by number of native speakers worldwide are Spanish (489m), Portuguese (283m), French (80m), Italian (67m), Romanian (24m), and Catalan (14m).
14 million Catalan speakers? But the population of Catalunya is only around 7 million. Yes, but Catalan is also spoken in Valencia, the Balearics, and Andorra – but more on that in a moment…
As you can see from the map above, there were numerous languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin in what was once the Roman Empire, many of them no longer widely spoken. Although it is a complicated and debatable subject, the still-living languages can be categorized into eight groups (which we won’t go into now), and some languages can straddle two or three groups, depending on which linguist you’re asking. That’s all far too complicated to get into here, but what is certain is that the closest relatives to Catalan, linguistically speaking, are Occitan and Gascon from the other side of the Pyrenees in France.
According to some linguists, Gascon is really a variety of Occitan, but others consider it a language in its own right. Occitanie was never a country or a kingdom, but its language was one of the most important in medieval Europe. In Catalunya today, Occitan is spoken in the Aran Valley, although it is known as Aranès, and Occitan-Aranès is a co-official language there, along with Català and Castellano. Modern-day Catalan and Occitan speakers can understand each other pretty well, with each speaking in their own language.
What about Valenciano?
As we mentioned earlier, there are more Catalan speakers in the world today than there are people living in Catalunya. That is because Catalan is also spoken in other parts of Spain, but it goes under different names. In Valencia, it’s referred to as Valenciano, and in the Balearic Islands, you have Mallorquín in Mallorca, Menorquín in Menorca, and Eivissenc in Ibiza/Eivissa. It’s all Catalan, though, with a few regional differences, although in the region of Valencia, you might sometimes see it written as català-valenciano (or vice versa) as a form of compromise.
If you travel to the southern part of the region of Valencia to Alicante, the language is still the same, but it is now called Alacant – although, in both Valencia and Alicante cities themselves, Castellano is dominant nowadays. Of course, Catalan (under whatever name) exists alongside Castellano-Spanish in all those places.
In the Autonomous Community of Valencia, the whole language debate has been a hot topic at various times, with some Valencianos refusing to accept that Valenciano was the same as Catalan. This is often politically motivated, and indeed, the Partido Popular at one stage, back in 2013, moved to officially recognize Valenciano as a separate language – only to be shot down by the Valencian Academy of Language AVP themselves, who confirmed that the two are one and the same language and castigated the P.P. for trying to use language as a dividing wedge and a political tool.
One of the reasons why many Valencians don’t like to be confused with Catalans or to call their language Català is because when the Crown of Aragón expanded to include Catalunya, Valencia was still under Moorish rule. When King Jaume I of Aragón conquered it in 1238, it was incorporated as the Kingdom of Valencia under the Crown of Aragon, and not into the Principality of Catalunya, and so was never “Catalan” as such, but rather both were under Aragonese rule.
“Spanish” is okay in English
So, hopefully, that explains to some degree some of the linguistic complexities of the country that is Spain. There is no need to go changing from saying “Spanish” to “Castilian” when speaking in English (or whatever your native language may be), but here in Catalunya, when asking someone if “hablas español” maybe try asking instead if “hablas castellano”? If the person is a non-Catalan Spaniard, they won’t mind either way, but if they are Catalan (or Basque, or Gallego!), they might just appreciate the fact that you are aware that Castellano is not the only “Spanish” language and that the others are not just “Spanish spoken badly”!
Indeed, it would also help if Spaniards themselves were taught that Spain is a country of several languages and maybe even encouraged to learn one or two of the others aside from Castellano. As recent history demonstrates, when one group tries to suppress another group’s language – the very cornerstone of any culture – the only reaction is going to be resistance. Some would argue that the Catalans “should just speak Spanish”, but then why should they?
Of course, they all can speak Spanish as well anyway, and they do, but why shouldn’t they speak Catalan first? Should the Dutch abandon their own language for German just because Germans are more numerous, for example?
Which to learn?
Foreigners in Catalunya tend naturally to learn Spanish rather than Catalan, and understandably so for many reasons. (At least the ones who bother to learn anything at all, that is!) Some may not have even been aware of the existence of Catalan before coming here, and others will have already learnt some Spanish in their home countries, while it is much less likely that Catalan would’ve even been available to learn in schools in other countries. And it is true that you can do just about everything in Spanish here, and it is also more useful for travel to other parts of the world, especially in the Americas, and so on and so forth.
However, for those coming to live in Catalunya, only positive things can come from learning at least some Catalan since it is the spoken language here, especially here in Girona Province. In the city of Barcelona and in Camp de Tarragona, you’ll hear more Castellano spoken, and even in Girona Province, you can get by without Catalan by speaking “Spanish”, but learning even just a few words and phrases here and there in català will endear you a lot more to the locals and probably help you to have a more positive experience overall. After all, what disadvantage could there ever possibly be to being able to speak another language?
“Merci”? Isn’t that French?
The Catalan word for “thanks” is gràcies, pronounced the same way as it is in Castellano, only spelt differently. However, you will very often hear Catalans saying “merci” instead to express gratitude, so what’s the story with that? Well, there is no one definitive answer to that, but rather a couple of theories. One is that it does indeed come from French, and this argument is supported by the fact that merci is rarely heard outside the Province of Girona, which, of course, borders France.
As to why it is used, well, some say that as Girona is the region most in favour of independence, the locals prefer to use a French word rather than their own “gràcies”, which sounds exactly like the Spanish – just to be different! Sound plausible? We’re not so sure…
The other most common explanation is that merci, in both French and Catalan, evolved from the Latin word “merces”, which meant “reward”. Indeed, in older Catalan, it was common to say “moltes mercés” rather than “moltes gràcies” (thank you very much), so it isn’t too much of a stretch to think that that evolved into merci in both languages. Whatever the truth, you’ll hear it said a lot here.
