El dia 30 de maig, el diari anglès “The Independent” va publicar un article que portava per títol “Catalunya persegueix la llengua de Cervantes“. L’article recollia les declaracions de Gregorio Salvador, membre de la Reial Acadèmia de la Llengua Espanyola. directe!cat us explicà que Gregorio Salvador comparava la persecució del català durant la dictadura de Franco i la situació que viu el castellà en temps actuals.
Doncs l’associació Catalans UK va respondre immediatament l’article amb una carta enviada al diari anglès i publicada el 2 de juny. L’associació Catalans UK, reconeguda pel govern català com una de les 115 comunitats de l’exterior que treballen per projectar la llengua i cultura catalanes al món, declarava entre d’altres coses: “La publicació d’un article com aquest, utilitzant exemples ridículs i sense elaborar correctament un punt de vista contrari, creiem que s’havia de respondre”. Catalans UK és una organització sense ànim de lucre amb prop de 400 membres i simpatitzants, la majoria d’ells residents a la ciutat de Londres.
Aquí teniu la resposta enviada per Catalans UK
The rich history of Catalan
Sir: In an article on the situation of Spanish in Catalonia (30 May), the writer seems to wish to defend “the language of Cervantes” against the alleged attacks on it by those who apparently impose “regional tongues”.
Catalan is a romance language, with a thousand years of literary history and double the number of speakers of, say, Norwegian. Would the writer define Henrik Ibsen’s language as a “regional tongue”? So, what is it, in his view, that makes the language of Gaudi, Casals, Dali, Miro or, for that matter, Cesc Fàbregas, inherently inferior? Cervantes himself is unlikely to have agreed with him since in El Quijote he refers to Joanot Martorell’s Tirant lo Blanc, one of the pinnacles of our literary history, as “the best book in the world”.
Our language and literature is studied in more than 30 countries. Catalan studies were introduced in Britain in the 1940s, and the Anglo-Catalan Society, founded in 1954, is thriving. Twenty British universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, offer Catalan courses.
Catalan was persecuted by Spain for almost 300 years; only since 1980 has the autonomous Government of Catalonia been able to devise policies which enable Catalan children to be taught in their own language.
The Catalan Government, like any other serious institution, implements the Spanish Constitution, the Catalan Charter of Autonomy and the laws passed by the democratically elected Catalan Parliament.
All teenagers must be fully proficient in both Spanish and Catalan by the time they leave compulsory education. This is because we feel that a bilingual society can only be positive.
In Catalonia, the situation of Catalan is still one of inferiority in relation to Spanish. Most TV and radio stations, newspapers, films and commercial labels on products are in Spanish, and few judges can speak the language.
This means many Catalans still cannot use their mother tongue when they go to the cinema, buy their food or decide to file a lawsuit.
We are proud that Catalan is not a political weapon, but a language and a literature which enrich the Spanish and European heritage.
Roger Suarez
CATALANS UK, LONDON
