Language Attitudes and Minority Rights: The Case of Catalan in France

By James Hawkey

This book presents a detailed sociolinguistic study of the traditionally Catalan-speaking areas of Southern France, and sheds new light on language attitudes, phonetic variation, language ideologies and minority language rights. The region’s complex dual identity, both Catalan and French, both peripheral and strategic, is shown to be reflected in the book’s attitudinal findings which in turn act as reliable predictors of phonetic variation. The author’s careful discursive analysis paints a clear picture of the linguistic ideological landscape: in which French dominates as the language of status and prestige. This innovative work, employing cutting-edge mixed methods, provides an in-depth account of an under-examined language situation, and draws on this research to propose a number of policy recommendations to protect minority rights for speakers of Catalan in the region. Combining language attitudes, sociophonetics, discourse studies, and language policy, this will provide an invaluable reference for scholars of French and Catalan studies and minority languages around the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Release date: Apr 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9783319745978

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© The Author(s) 2018

James HawkeyLanguage Attitudes and Minority Rightshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74597-8_1

1. Research Context: Northern Catalonia

James Hawkey¹ 

(1)

School of Modern Languages, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

This chapter offers an in-depth discussion of the research context, focusing on the history of Northern Catalonia and the resultant linguistic situation. Section 1.1 presents the demographics of the region, as well as clarifying the differences between Northern Catalonia, the Pyrénées-Orientales and Roussillon. Section 1.2 consists of an overview of the history of Northern Catalonia from the eighth century to the present day, and how this has contributed to current identity politics in the area. Section 1.3 focuses on the external history of the French and Catalan languages in Northern Catalonia, which, when viewed in the broader socio-historical context given in Sect. 1.2, will allow for an understanding of present-day attitudes and ideologies regarding the two languages. Section 1.4 provides a detailed description of the autochthonous language varieties spoken in twenty-first century Northern Catalonia, giving the relevant phonetic characteristics of local and supralocal varieties of French and Catalan. This chapter will thus ensure familiarity with the linguistic, ideological and political history of Northern Catalonia, as well as with the language varieties that have emerged as a result. With full contextual knowledge, this case study can then be examined through the prism of the attitudes-policy interface presented in the introduction.

1.1 Where Is Northern Catalonia?

Northern Catalonia (Cat. Catalunya (del) Nord,¹ Fr. Catalogne (du) Nord) is the name given in this book to a collection of historic districts (Cat. comarques, singular comarca) situated at the southernmost point of mainland metropolitan France, at the eastern end of the Pyrenees. These comarques—Roussillon (Cat. Rosselló), Conflent, Vallespir , Cerdagne (Cat. Alta Cerdanya) and Capcir —correspond to different geographical features: the valleys of Conflent, Vallespir and Cerdagne , the Capcir plateau and the Roussillon plain. As we will see at various points in the book, there is still an acute awareness of these different historic comarques, with each retaining a somewhat separate identity. The comarques of Northern Catalonia all form part of the present-day French administrative département of Pyrénées-Orientales , along with the traditionally Occitan speaking comarca of Fenouillèdes (Cat. Fenolleda, Occ. Fenolheda). As such, the terms Northern Catalonia and Pyrénées-Orientales , while often used interchangeably, are subtly different (Fig. 1.1).²

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Fig. 1.1

Map of the Pyrénées-Orientales , detailing the different comarques

Demographically, Northern Catalonia is dominated by the city of Perpignan (Cat. Perpinyà) and its greater metropolitan area, which occupies a large part of the comarca of Roussillon (see Table 1.1).

Table 1.1

Population statistics (INSEE 2015) for Pyrénées-Orientales , divided by traditional comarca and urban area of Perpignan

Given its importance in terms of population, it is unsurprising that Roussillon frequently overshadows the other Northern Catalan comarques. The term Roussillon /Rosselló is often used in French and Catalan as a synonym for Northern Catalonia as a whole, with the terms roussillonais/rossellonès employed to refer to the varieties of Catalan spoken in the region.³ Indeed, prior to the Revolution, France was organised into provinces, and the pre-Revolution province of Roussillon included the comarques of Conflent, Vallespir , Cerdagne and Capcir . However, for our present purposes, the generalisation of the term Roussillon is problematic, given the distinct character of each Northern Catalan comarca. The popular usage of Roussillon as a designation for the whole region is also potentially ambiguous: does the term refer to the historic comarca or the whole of Northern Catalonia? For this reason, the term Northern Catalonia is used here when discussing the whole region under examination, with Roussillon reserved for the comarca. Pyrénées-Orientales , where it is used, refers to the administrative département, that is to say, Northern Catalonia plus the Fenouillèdes .

Due to its linguistic and cultural heritage, Northern Catalonia forms part of a larger entity known as the Catalan Countries (Cat. Els Països Catalans ). The Catalan Countries is chiefly cultural in nature, and corresponds to the areas where Catalan is an autochthonous language variety, namely Catalonia, Northern Catalonia, Andorra, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, the city of Alghero (l’Alguer) in Sardinia, a section of Aragon known as the Franja de Ponent, and a small area of the Autonomous Community of Murcia known as El Carxe. These regions share a complex relationship, with varying degrees of pan-Catalan sentiment claimed by different groups at different times. The role played by Northern Catalonia as part of both France and the Catalan Countries will be examined in the following historical overview.

1.2 Historical Overview of Northern Catalonia

Present-day Northern Catalonia is the product of a complex history, at various times falling under Catalan, Spanish and French jurisdiction. Inhabitants of the region exhibit multiple, co-occurring national and regional identities, which are best initially examined through study of the history of Northern Catalonia. While the area is of central strategic importance on the Mediterranean coast, for centuries it has found itself at the periphery of a number of great nation-states. This history of the region will reveal a number of political and ideological shifts, which will contribute to our understanding of the manifestations of identity in modern Northern Catalonia.

In 711, Muslim troops landed in Gibraltar and quickly swept northwards, taking control of the Iberian Peninsula, before crossing the Pyrenees six years later to occupy vast swathes of Gaul. The areas along the eastern Pyrenees were reconquered by the Frankish king Pepin the Short in the mid eighth century, with his son Charlemagne continuing incursions southwards to quell the Muslims on Iberian soil. This reconquered Frankish territory along the Pyrenees (and spreading south as far the Ebro Delta) comprised a series of independent pre-feudal counties, collectively known as the Marca Hispànica, a buffer zone between the Moorish south and the Frankish north, which prevented further Muslim attacks on Gaul. This territory is also referred to retrospectively as Catalunya Vella (Old Catalonia) and encompassed the entire region of Northern Catalonia as well as the northern part of today’s autonomous community of Catalonia . The various counties of Catalunya Vella paid tribute to overlords in Gaul, and their borders potentially corresponded to pre-existing (Visigothic) administrative divisions in the region (Ferrando Francés and Nicolás Amorós 2011: 47). The first manifestation of unity between the Catalan counties came about during the reign of the fabled Guifré I el Pelós (r. 870–897), count of Urgell and Cerdanya in the Pyrenees, who went on to acquire the counties of Barcelona, Osona, Girona and Conflent. Guifré I thus united land from north of the Pyrenees to beyond the city of Barcelona under one ruler (although these territories were subsequently divided among his successors), and his descendants remain in power to this day, as the monarchs of Spain. The eastern Pyrenees (including the area corresponding to present-day inland Northern Catalonia) is often seen as the cradle of Catalan culture, as the region from which the early Catalan counts (as well as the masses of people who accompanied them) originated. Of course, the use of ‘Catalan’ to describe these areas at this time is somewhat anachronistic. Although the counts of Barcelona and the eastern Pyrenees go on to rule areas that would with time be considered indisputably Catalan, and while Guifré el Pelós is arguably the most central figure in the Catalan origin story, the term ‘Catalan’ does not yet exist in the late ninth century, and any sense of unity among these territories is still embryonic.

Frankish influence over the Catalan counties diminished in the centuries following Charlemagne’s death, so as to be practically non-existent by the tenth century (Ferrando Francés and Nicolás Amorós 2011: 49). This was confirmed in 984, when Count Borrell II of Barcelona asked his Capetian overlords for assistance in defending his city against attacks from Moorish forces. Help never came and as a result, the Catalan counties gained de facto independence in 988; from this point on, each count exercised complete economic, legal and administrative control over their territory (Marcet i Juncosa 2015: 31–32). The marriage of Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona and Petronilla of Aragon in 1137 resulted in the dynastic union between the counts of Barcelona and the crown of Aragon. The coastal county of Rosselló (corresponding to the Roussillon plain in present-day Northern Catalonia) paid homage to the counts of Barcelona from 1131, and in 1172, total control passed to Alfons I of Barcelona, thus incorporating Rosselló into the domains of the Catalan-Aragonese crown. This early union of Catalan territories was accompanied by a repopulation movement from the Pyrenean counties of Pallars, Ribagorça, Urgell, Conflent and Cerdanya spreading southward to Barcelona.

The success of feudalism provided the necessary conditions of political and administrative stability for the first phase of Catalan colonial expansion in the twelfth century. This consisted of annexation and incorporation of land to the north: in addition to Provence (brought under Catalan control through a dynastic union in 1112), the territories of Béarn, Bigorre, Comminges, Carcassonne-Béziers, Nîmes and Melgueil were all required to pay fealty to the Catalan-Aragonese crown. This period of expansion was curtailed by a crushing defeat in 1213 at the hands of Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Muret. The northern boundary of the Catalan dominions was subsequently fixed under the terms of the Treaty of Corbeil (1258). These stated that France were to renounce all claim to territories south of the border, and the Catalan-Aragonese crown would do likewise regarding areas to the north. Rosselló, Conflent, Cerdanya and Capcir formed the northernmost boundary and remained Catalan, which is reflected in the external limits of the Països Catalans to this day—the Fenouillèdes found itself under French jurisdiction. The de facto independence from the French crown enjoyed by the Catalan counties for nearly three centuries was now de jure, enshrined in law. The establishment of the border resulted in extensive fortification and repopulation of settlements in Northern Catalonia, notably Salses, Canet, Le Boulou, Prats-de-Mollo, Collioure, Villefranche-de-Conflent and Vinça (Catafau 2012: 25). The position of Northern Catalonia as a frontier zone was to have a profound effect on the region’s fortunes, both positively and negatively. Due to ongoing disputes between France and Aragon, a number of atrocities were committed in the area, most notably the sacking of Elne in 1285 in which many men, women and children in the town were slaughtered. However, inhabitants also profited from the trade and contraband that the border region attracted (Catafau 2012: 26). In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, the briefly independent Kingdom of Mallorca controlled the territory, with Perpignan as joint capital with Palma. However, by the mid-fourteenth century, the Northern Catalan counties were firmly integrated within the Catalan-Aragonese union, with Perpignan as the second-most populous Catalan city (Catafau 2012: 27). Catalonia was by this point in its second phase of colonial expansion, taking control of Valencia (1238) and Xàtiva (1244) to the south, and Mallorca (1229), Ibiza and Formentera (1235), Menorca (1287), Athens (under Catalan jurisdiction, 1303–1311) and Alghero (1354) to the east.

This period of prosperity and territorial growth was brought to an end in the fifteenth century. The demise of feudalism, combined with increased productivity from Genoa and other Italian states led to a loss of Catalan markets (Botran i Pahissa et al. 2014: 89). The death of King Martin in 1410 was followed by a succession crisis for the Catalan-Aragonese crown. The signing of the Compromise of Caspe in 1412 resulted in the accession of Ferdinand I, a Castilian claimant from the Trastámara dynasty, with the consequence that Aragon soon came under Castilian influence. The marriage of Ferdinand II and Isabella of Castile in 1469 brought Castile and Aragon under joint rule, and their conquest of the Moorish Emirate of Granada in 1492 marks the unification of Spain, with their daughter Joanna and grandson Charles I becoming the first monarchs of all Spain (simultaneously) in 1516. With new colonies in Latin America, Spain’s colonial power grew exponentially under Philip II (r. 1556–1598), who increasingly ruled his dominions from the newly established capital in Madrid. Far from its position of relative power in fourteenth-century Aragon, Northern Catalonia had become a peripheral outpost of an overlooked part of Spain.

The Thirty Years’ War broke out in 1618, a dynastic and religious conflict that soon implicated all leading European powers. Concerning the history of Northern Catalonia, the most important division was between the Protestant French Bourbon Monarchy on one side, and Catholic Spanish Habsburg Empire on the other. During this period, the relationship between Catalan regions of Spain and the central government in Madrid vastly deteriorated. In 1620, Philip III demanded that a fifth of taxes levied in Barcelona be paid to the Spanish government, and for this to be backdated to 1599. Even the highly Castilianised Catalan nobility protested strongly at such measures, and the chasm between Barcelona and Madrid widened (Marcet i Juncosa 2015: 98). However, Catalan territories were far from united on all fronts; exasperated at the loss of industry and trade in Perpignan (overshadowed by Barcelona), the local ruling bourgeoisie pushed an agenda of secession of Northern Catalonia from the rest of Catalonia. While not all supported this, there was an undoubted internal rivalry between Perpignan and Barcelona, which was to influence the course of the Thirty Years’ War in Catalonia. The dispute between Madrid and Barcelona came to a head with the uprising of 1640, initiating the Catalan Revolt (or Reapers’ War) of 1640–1659. Catalonia entered into an alliance with France against Spain, instating Louis XIII as Count of Barcelona. The war raged between French-Catalan forces and Castilian troops, with Perpignan falling to the French in 1642. While the Thirty Years’ War ended elsewhere in Europe in 1648, the Catalan Revolt continued for eleven more years. In 1659, peace negotiations were initiated, following several years of devastating plague, the death of Louis XIII (and resultant regency of Louis XIV), French internal rebellions and the Spanish re-taking of Barcelona in 1652.

In 1659, the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees largely determined the border between France and Spain. While both nations agreed that the Pyrenees should form the boundary, the details of where exactly the dividing line was to fall were far from self-evident, since the eastern Pyrenees do not constitute a single mountain chain, but rather several interconnecting ridges, plains and valleys, which left the status of inland areas of Northern Catalonia in dispute. The wording of the French and Spanish versions of the 1659 Treaty differed somewhat as to the role of the Pyrenees, and this was to form the basis of each nation’s initial territorial claim. In French, the mountains are described as those that ‘anciently’ separate the two countries, and in Spanish as those that ‘commonly had always been the division’ (Sahlins 1989: 44), and this ancient versus modern debate characterised early negotiations. The French cited the local administrative divisions of the Roman Empire, placing Northern Catalonia under their jurisdiction, while the Spanish turned to the 1258 Treaty of Corbeil (which placed the boundary at the Corbières ridge, meaning Northern Catalonia fell under Spanish control), as well as medieval canon law, and ethnographic findings from contemporary inhabitants concerning which mountains actually constituted the ‘true’ Pyrenees (Sahlins 1989: 45–46). In deciding the location of the boundary, history was to be invoked alongside geography and military strategy, notably when it came to the Conflent valley. Running from the Cerdagne plain towards Perpignan, both sides advanced their claims to the area. The French were unwilling to cede Perpignan since its occupation in 1642, with Cardinal Richelieu’s claim that ‘that which is conquered by the sword cannot be returned’ (Sahlins 1989: 31), and they maintained that if the Spanish were to gain control of the Conflent, Perpignan could never be secure. Meanwhile, the Spanish claimed that the Conflent valley and the Cerdagne plain were mutually dependent, and so if Spain were to control Cerdagne , it would also require the Conflent. Working gradually from the outside in towards the Cerdagne valley, the Spanish ceded their rights to the Conflent, while the French renounced claims to the southernmost disputed territories of Urgellet and Ribas (Sahlins 1989: 48). However, Cerdagne itself was far more difficult to resolve, as a valley with no mountains to act as a boundary. Eventually, the Céret conferences of 1660 determined that Spain would retain control of the Cerdagne with the exception of thirty-three villages and their jurisdictions (Sahlins 1989: 48). These villages were to be decided in the Llívia accord of November 1660, which raised the issue of the status of the town of Llívia as a ‘village’. It was ultimately determined that Llívia could not be considered a village, and as such could not be brought under French jurisdiction, even though all land surrounded it was eligible. This led to the exclave of Llívia, which to this day remains part of Spain (the different border claims and relevant areas can be seen in Fig. 1.2). From this point on, Northern Catalonia formed an integral part of France.

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Fig. 1.2

Evolution of the southern French border in the eastern Pyrenees

The years immediately following French annexation constituted a period of transition for the region’s inhabitants. Northern Catalonia was subject to new systems of taxation from the French Crown, including la gabelle, a hefty duty on salt, which was a valued commodity in the seventeenth century. To avoid the tax, inhabitants continued their age-old (henceforth illegal) practices of obtaining salt from Catalonia, now over the border in Spain. This contraband trade was facilitated by a group of local activists, the Angelets de la Terra (‘little angels of the land’), who operated between 1663 and 1672. Historians have variously interpreted the actions of the Angelets as a Catalan nationalist outcry against French sovereignty (Marcet i Juncosa 2015: 115), or simply resistance to what was perceived as unfair levies on the part of the government, since any popular Catalanist sentiment would be contingent on nationalist ideologies that were unlikely to have been widespread at the time (Ayats 1997: 61). Regardless of their true intentions, the Angelets figure in the public consciousness to this day as the example of the first Northern Catalan rebellion against an oppressive and unsympathetic French state (Blair Noble 2012: 36). In subsequent decades, industry all but disappeared from the region, with the near-abandonment of local iron and copper mines. However, despite the changes that accompanied the handover from Spain to France, the newly incorporated Northern Catalonia retained certain long-standing societal structures, which differentiated the area from the rest of France. These included the burgesos honrats (‘honoured bourgeoisie’), the dominant class of Perpignan society, whose continued existence underlined the potential incompatibility of the French and Catalan socio-political systems (Marcet i Juncosa 2003: 549). The early eighteenth century brought a period of relative stability for Northern Catalonia, and moves towards economic growth and domestic peace for France. Le Roy Ladurie (1996: 304–313) highlights a number of ways in which the ancien régime sought to create a sense of French national identity, including the gradual spread of education programs, and the integration of regional nobilities into a centralist Francophone élite. It is maintained that the French Crown’s continued role as defender of the Catholic faith was effective at fostering a sense of loyalty in staunchly Catholic Roussillon, and that the advent of the Bourbon monarchy in Spain encouraged good relations between Catalan nobility and the French state, given the dynastic and political closeness of the French and Spanish monarchies (Le Roy Ladurie 1996: 316). However, this last point fails to take into account the anti-Bourbon stance of Catalonia during the War of the Spanish Succession, and the subsequent Bourbon sanctions against Catalan institutions implemented by the Decrets de Nova Planta of 1716. In the last years of the ancien régime, relations between Northern Catalonia and the centralist French monarchy were arguably characterised by an ambivalent sense of calm, combining ‘a resigned and reticent attitude’ (Le Roy Ladurie 1996: 313–314) on the part of the Northern Catalans with a desire to safeguard their distinctive socio-political institutions (such as the burgesos honrats