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8 de març de 2014
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Alguer: The Catalan linguistic minority in Italy

Us reproduïm en aquest apunt un article en anglès que vàrem publicar el febrer de 2007 a Catalan Language News, una publicació de l’Observatori de la Llengua Catalana (hem actualitzat, però algunes dades).

Com veureu es tracta d’una presentació de la ciutat catalana de l’Alguer, amb tot un seguit d’enllaços que també hem actualitzat.

Fotografia d’Arnau Mayans, estudiant Erasmus a Sàsser i resident a l’Alguer, amb informació en català a l’Alguer (setembre, 2013.

L’Alguer (Alghero in Italian, s’Alighera in Sardinian) is a city in the north-west of the island of Sardinia, in the province of Sasser, in Italy. The 2011 census numbers the population at 43.992 inhabitants.

The Catalan language in Alguer

Catalan first came to Alguer in the 14th century, when Catalans settled in the area. Despite the mixture of the Catalan and Sardinian populations throughout history, until the decade of the 60s in the 20th century, the Sardinians who came to the city learnt to speak Catalan, as it was the lingua franca and the only means of really getting ahead in Alguer’s society.

The prestige of the Catalan language and in contrast, the low esteem in which Sardinian was held, as well as the relative independence of the city from the rest of the island, are other factors which explain the survival of the Catalan language, without of course forgetting the desire of the people of Alguer to differentiate themselves from other Sardinians.

From the decade of the 60s of the 20th century, however, things began to change. The development of tourism, population mobility, immigration and emigration, and the flood of mass media throughout Italy, the loss of population in the old city, the education system; all are elements which began to cause setbacks for the Catalan language. Many families stopped speaking Catalan to their children and used Italian; the language of state, schools, media, tourism and the newcomers: the language which brought with it new opportunities (this of course was the first generation which had had any real possibility of undertaking tertiary studies).

That being said, cultural and political movements in Alguer were soon to begin a process of awareness and recovery of Catalan culture during the 70s. From these bodies sprang groups which still today continue with this important task: the Obra Cultural de l’Alguer, the Escola de Alguerés Pasqual Scanu, the Ateneu Alguerés, the Associació per la Salvaguarda del Patrimoni Històric i Cultural de l’Alguer, and the Òmnium Cultural de l´Alguer, which together with the University of Sasser have promoted the education resource centre “Maria Montessori” working on behalf of teachers, young people and adolescents, with the aim of re-establishing the civic and social use of the Catalan language.

STATISTICS RELATING TO THE USE OF THE LANGUAGE

Unfortunately, the process of linguistic substitution has been accentuated during the last forty years until a situation has developed in which, as has been shown by a study carried out in 1998, that only 1.7% of mothers use Alguerès. When speaking to their children aged between 11 and 15 years and only 11.8% stated they use the language from time to time with their children. On the other hand, only 7.2% of these children use the language at some time, when speaking to their mothers.

Under the auspices of the Secretariat of Linguistic Policies of the Generalitat, in 2004 a survey of linguistic usage in Alguer was carried out; its prime objective was to obtain an approximation regarding linguistic usage in interpersonal relations of people younger than 18 years of age in Alguer, with special emphasis on being placed on the situation of the use of Catalan.

The entire study can be found at http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/docs/EULA2004.pdf, however, we have included the following tables, which can give some idea of a situation of a language in Alguer. See

INTERNET LINKS WITH INFORMATION CONCERNING THE CITY OF ALGUER

Internet links with information in Catalan concerning the city of Alguer:

Official Municipal website of the city of Alguer: general information (not updated)

Official Municipal website of the city of Alguer: tourist information

website with internet resource directory for Alguer (not updated)

Vilaweb’s Alguer edition

Online editition of the magazine L’Alguer, periòdic de cultura i informació of Alguer cultural organisation, “Obra cultural”

web-page of Obra Cultural; body working in defense of Alguer’s language and culture

web-page of the Maria Montessori educational resource centre, part of Òmnium Cultural de l’Alguer (not updated)

facebook of Òmnium Cultural de l’Alguer

Web-page of Enllaç, a body which from Catalonia supports Catalan language and culture in Alguer from Catalonia (not updated)

Representing the Government of Catalonia in Alghero

THE LEGAL SITUATION OF MINORITY LANGUAGES IN ITALY

As in other states in the European Union, Italy is characterised by an centralised linguistic system.

Article 6 of the Italian Constitution (dating from 1947), states textually: The republic protects linguistic minorities by special laws. Even so, this article lacked any force until the passing of the Law of Regulations in relationship to the protection of minority and historical languages (Law 15, 15th of December 1999, published in the Official Gazette nº 297 on the 20th of December 1999). Law 15 states that in regions which enjoy a special status, as well as in the provinces of Trent and Bolzano, their respective Statutes must always be taken into account, and in the case that there exists some other existing regulation, that which is to take precedence is that which favours the language and culture of the minority. Therefore, in the case of Catalan, what must take precedence is the regional law Ç of the 11th of September 1997 of the Promotion and Status of the culture and language of Sardinia. In fact, the only thing that the state law does is to consolidate that which was already established under Sardinian legislation.

Under Italian law, it is very clear that “the official language of the Republic is Italian”. However, in accordance with article 6 of the Constitution, and with European and international organisms, the “Republic is protector of the languages and cultures of its Albanian, Catalan, German, Greek, Slovenian and Croatian speaking citizens and those speakers of French, Franco-Provençal, Fruilan, Ladin, Occitane and Sardinian.” (See) It must be noted that in the case of Alguer, the Catalan city in Sardinia, the explicit reference to Catalan speakers, obviously, is reinforced by that which is established in article 19 in terms of international relations: working with other states to develop language and culture of those populations, which have previously been stated.

Even though it can´t be denied that the law is an important legislative step forward for the majority of linguistic minorities in Italy, it is also true that it is very difficult to redress the situation of linguistic substitution. Obviously it is an important fact that the law guarantees the presence of administrative staff who understand those minority languages in public organisms, as well as the fact that citizens are able to register their names and surnames in their own language.

In the area of teaching, the law establishes that the languages can be used in education activities (teaching in and of minority languages). However, what must be taken into account are the the administrative autonomy of the centres, curricular limitations in timetabling, which are regulated at state level, and moreover, that this can only be undertaken at the behest of parents.

In terms of nomenclature, municipal bodies can decide on the adoption of nomenclature which “conforms to traditions as well as local usage” as long as all such nomenclature is also accompanied by its Italian form.

The application of Sardinian and Italian laws in Alguer

Until the decade of the 90s of the 20th century, Catalan enjoyed no official status whatsoever, as at state level Italy still had not passed any legislation regarding linguistic minorities. However, in 1991, the City Council deemed in its municipal statute that there was a need to “protect, promote and spread awareness of the history of the Catalan language in its Algueres form, and local culture and traditions”, and to “give support to all those initiatives directed to the learning and use of the Catalan language”

In 1997, the government of Sardinia, passed the Promotion and Status of the culture and language of Sardinia Law, which implied an important initial step forward and which is clearly explicit: “la medesima valenza attribuita alla cultura ed alla lingua sarda è riconosciuta con riferimento al territorio interessato, alla cultura ed alla lingua catalana di Alghero”. Then again in 1999, a second important step was taken with the Italian state approved at legislative level Regulations in relationship to the protection of minority and historical languages according to which the Italian state would protect amongst others, the language and culture of the Catalan community.

The Sardinian law has allowed that, by means of Projecte Palomba – fruit of an agreement between the Òmnium Cultural and the City Council- the education resource centre “Maria Montessori” was able to undertake a programme incorporating Alguerès into schools during the 1998-1989 school year. Presently, it involves 80% of all classes (some 1800 students).

Italian law establishes that in all educational centres, the teaching of local culture in the areas of history, geography, musical, artistic and technical education must be introduced. Furthermore, the law permits that Catalan could become the curricular teaching language -always at the behest of the parents- in schools at infant, primary and intermediate levels; that is to say Catalan could move from being a language which is taught to become the language of instruction. For this reason “La Costura” was created, a teaching programme (within private schools), which began at entrance year level in 2004 – 2005 school year. This is an initiative of the Òmnium Cultural of Alguer and has the support of the Generalitat of Catalonia on resource and economic levels and staffing from the Alguer City Council and the Generalitat. With “La Costura”, classes are imparted in the form of Catalan spoken in Alguer, as well as having Italian and English classes, and there are now more than 15 students attending.

To reinforce and consolidate that which is already underway and to establish a solid base for this new Catalan educational project, in July of 2004 a collaborative agreement was signed between the Department of Presidency and the Department of Education of the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Alguer City Council. The desire is to promote the learning and teaching of Catalan to maintain and support the steps already undertaken by the Projecte Palomba, to promote the “La Costura” centre, to create grounds for contacts between students and teachers, principals and to promote cooperative steps in professional training to promote the spread, interchange and development of educational tools…

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