Albisteak
Basque, the common language of the Basques
I would like to make the most of this opportunity to offer a few comments on the use made by some segments of the media (and certain manifestos) of the concept of a «common language». It is a use that I believe to be both perverse and politically influenced. I offer this opinion in the midst of a maelstrom of pure propagandist media in Spain focused around the Manifesto in defence of the common language, in which the desire to establish a linguistic hierarchy is expressed openly and frankly for the first time since the start of the transition to democracy. According to this hierarchy, Spanish is the language that all citizens of Spain need to know, while the other official languages (Galician, Basque, Catalonian) play only a minor role as dispensable afterthoughts. Savater et al. express this view very clearly: the public space would be completely occupied by Spanish, and the other languages would all be dispensable. In any case, the right of monolingual Spanish speakers to remain monolingual is fiercely defended and all kinds of obstacles are placed in the path of the sociolinguistic integration of immigrants in the Catalonian or Basque languages.
The first question we should ask is for whom a specific language is «common», in what space, and in which fields the community thus created is valid. The common language of the Basque community is Euskera, or the Basque language, just as Catalonian is the common language of the Catalonians and Swedish is the common language of the Swedes. The second question we should ask is what type of community is established between people who speak different languages. And this question is clearly linked to a third: in which field does this communication between people who speak different languages take place.
In a multilingual context, such as our own, the majority of us have languages in common with citizens from other linguistic communities. In addition to their first common language, which is their own language, many Basque speakers also have French in common with French citizens and Spanish in common with Spanish citizens. Some will even have German in common with German speakers or Portuguese or Italian in common with Portuguese citizens and Italians. If we look at this issue from a European perspective, then it becomes obvious that the most generalised common language, streets ahead of any other, is English. Should the signatories of the latest «Manifesto» perhaps refer to English? Indeed, why don't they talk about English, which is patently absent from all signposts in Quintanilla de Onésimo?
Finally, each and every one of our societies are, in their own way, multilingual. In Catalonia, around three hundred different languages are spoken to differing degrees. The language policy of the Catalonian Regional Government aims to ensure that Catalonian becomes the common language of all these speakers of different languages.
Bernat Joan i Marí
Expert in sociolinguistics and deputy in the European Parliament.
