Catalan in Majorca (Balearic Islands)

Majorca is the largest island in the Balearic archipaelago, in the north-western Mediterranean. The native population speak Catalan, with some local variation both between the islands and in different parts of Majorca.

The fieldwork was undertaken between February and November 1996, and was coordinated in two phases by srs. Agustí Baró and Jordi Vallespir, the latter being attached to the Universitat de les Illes Balears.

The interviews were done in the following towns: Palma (107), Alcúdia (7), Calvià (8), Inca (5), Lloseta, Manacor (8), Sa Pobla (9), Pollença (15), Valldemossa (5), Santanyí (15), Felanitx (11), Sóller and Port de Sóller (25), Petra (6), Pina (18), and others. The distribution was fixed in order to proportionally represent different kinds of urban structure: the large urban capital, booming tourist resorts, towns based on a mixed economy, and villages in rural, agricultural environments.

Though the sample is not representative of the whole of the archipælago and should not be interpreted as such, the demographic weight of Majorca, plus the fact that the smaller islands have been either less (Minorca) or more (Ibiza and Formentera) influenced by tourism in recent years (with the dramatic sociolinguistic changes such a development has provoked), probably make the data obtained from the sample fairly close to an overall picture of the islands.

The distribution of the scores on several variables (the low proportion of married people, the low number of offspring, and the high proportion of university-trained respondents), are clsear signs that the sample was biassed towards a younger than average age. Table 1 shows that a higher proportion than expected - 45% - were under 30 years of age:

The first issue raised in the survey was the name which locals give to their language, which like most Catalan-speaking territories, is often based on the name of the locality. Thus it was no surprise to find (table 2) that nearly two-thirds of our respondents claimed to "always" refer to the way they speak as Mallorquí (Majorcan), nearly all the remainder doing so "often". Most also use the term Catalan at least occasionally. As expected, hardly anyone uses the terms relating to the other islands, while the recently-coined term Balear, which is sometimes used in certain circles in Spanish-speaking Spain, appears to have no significant social basis.

Table 3 shows that three-quarters of the sample have lived in the same district (or in Palma) since the age of 3. Only one in ten parents of this Catalan-speaking sample are returned as having lived in non- Catalan-speaking Spain since the respondent was 3.

As expected, therefore, the figures relating to parental residence when the respondent was born (table 4) are very similar: three-quarters in "this district" or Palma, while only 4 resided in non-Catalan-speaking Spain at that time. It is worth noting that 6% of the sample were born in Valencia, most of which is Catalan-speaking.

As regards the 23 people born outside the Balearic Islands (table 5), just over half went to live there before the age of ten, while very few arrived beyond the age of 30. We can hypothesise that the acquisition of Catalan after this age becomes more difficult.

We enquired into the context in which those who learned Catalan outside the home had done so. Many respondents gave more than one answer. Nearly all stated in "personal relationships", while more than half also gave "at school", though it is unclear to what extent such a context was formal (teacher-pupil relationship) or informal (playground relationships). Curiously enough, three respondents, all males (by necessity), claimed to have learned Catalan whilst doing their military service (it is widely reported in Catalonia that the Catalan identity of non-Catalan-speaking Catalans is enhanced during military service, and that this leads to some actually using the language for the first time, in spite of its marginal formal presence in the Spanish armed forces). The data are shown in table 7:

The reasons for learning Catalan outside the home are varied - mostly being out of personal and integrative motivation or academic compulsion - though labour market requirements are hardly ever given (see table 8):

Language proficiency was investigated in both Catalan and Spanish for the main member of each respondent's family, as well as the main language used by the respondent to speak to each one. It is interesting (see table 9a) to note that there is a slight improvement in Catalan proficiency as recorded by respondents, over three generations. One in seven grandparents are returned as having (or having had) no proficiency in Catalan, these respondents presumably being either first or second generation immigrants. Again, this trend runs counter to what has been observed in many other minority language communities.

Table 9a. Family members' language competence: CATALAN

The respondents report a more rapid improvement in proficiency in Spanish (see table 9b). Yet again, one in seven grandparents are returned as as having (or having had) no proficiency in Spanish, and nearly two-fifths as having "a little" competence in the same language; these respondents presumably belong to longstanding Majorcan families. While the parental generation is seen in overall terms as having a lower proficiency in Spanish than in Catalan, respondents seem to assess their their brothers and sisters as having a slightly better knowledge of Spanish than Catalan, though the differences are very small.

Table 9b. Family members' language competence: SPANISH

Let us now turn to language use (table 10). The first item, which is at the heart of langĦuage reproduction at home, is the language used by parents to speak to each other, when the respondent was a child. Catalan predominates clearly, while monolingual Spanish is quoted by about 40 people (presumably, as before, those of first or second-generation immigrant origin, who have acquired Catalan as a second language).

Returning now to the language used by the respondents to talk with different members of the family, Catalan predominates very clearly in all six situations, being used by three quarters of the respondents (see table 11). The bilingual option, as expected, is only quoted by a small minority, whilst Spanish is used by about one sixth of the total. What is especially significant is there seems to be no decline in language use: respondents speak Catalan equally with all three generations.

Later in the questionnaire a control question was included. It contained a couple of the same situations investigated earlier (speaking with each parent) and the data correlate very highly. There is a predominant use of Catalan throughout (sse table 12), and no sign of intergenerational decline. Indeed, the exclusive use of Spanish with the offspring is only reported by one in twelve respondents.

Turning now to the respondent's own reported language competence (table 13), nearly all claim to understand and speak Catalan "very well" or "quite well", though one in eight claims to have poor reading ability, and close to half claim little or no writing proficiency in Catalan.

As far as Spanish is concerned, oral competence (both active and passive) is deemed to be very close to that of Catalan, but literacy is clearly higher in Spanish, especially as regards writing ability. This can easily be explained by the long absence of the Catalan language from the education system, until the late 1970s.

In order to look at the language proficiency of the respondents' partners, let us first see how many are married or live together. The next table (14) shows that only slightly above a half qualify, and this figure is another result of the bias in the sample selection, which overrepresents younger age-groups and university students.

Nevertheless, we have data on the language proficiency of over 200 partners (some of which do not live with the respondent). Over two-thirds are considered to have "very good" competence, and over half of the remainder have "quite good" competence.

As might be expected given the high levels of proficiency reprted, table 16 shows that the Catalan-speaking partners use Catalan within the family in most cases, though one fifth use Spanish with their parents. There seems to be a slightly higher proportion of use of Catalan with offspring, though it is not statistically significant.

If we return to the respondents' own immediate family environment, we can see in table 17 that they judge the language competence in both languages to be broadly similar.

Most respondents (three fifths) claim to have no children, while one quarter have two or more. The figures in table 18 again reveal that the average age of the sample is lower than expected (cf. table 1).

The respondents report that the language used by offspring to speak to each other is in three quarters of the cases, Catalan. Only 18% report that their offspring speak Spanish (or more Spanish than Catalan) together. This information gives a clear indication of the active process of language reproduction apparently going on in most families of Catalan-speakers.

It might be that the family is the only institution where the language is being reproduced. However, in looking (table 20) into the main language used in a number of the offsprings' activities (outside formal schooling) it is clear that the language is very much present in such activities, though it should be borne in mind that the sub-samples are small.

A final indicator of spontaneous language use on the part of respondents, which gives a clue as to the level of functional differentiation between Catalan and Spanish, came in the form of the language used to answer the phone at home and at work (see table 21). Yet again, Catalan seems to be used much more than Spanish.

Let us now return to the whole sample and look at the effect of the education system as a means of language production. It is significant to note in table 22 that very few respondents report monolingual Catalan-medium education, though from 18% to 30% report receiving some instruction through each language, in the compulsory age groups. It is also highly significant that at university level monolingual instruction through Spanish is only mentioned by a quarter of those responding to this particular item. This is a trend quite different from that observed in many language groups, where it is only at preschool and perhaps primary levels that any instruction is given through the respective language.

The number of respondents receiving or having received higher education is surprisingly high, probably revealing a skew in the sampling procedure employed. This should be borne in mind while discussing the remaining data.

The data reveal that over a third of parents reported not being able to find a school in Catalan. This probably applies especially to the older respondents, since the introduction of Catalan into schools as a subject and as a medium has only taken place (with a handful of exceptions, mainly in the private education sector) since the advent of the a democratic regime in 1977. Very few respondents actually claimed to have actively chosen a Spanish-medium school. On the other hand, bilingual schooling seems to be quite popular.

Given that a fair proportion (between 35% and 45%) say that they have/had no choice, as well as the high number of those not answering, it seems hardly worth giving the results to the question of how close was the school for the offspring in the language of the parents' choice. Instead, let us concentrate (table 24) on the language in which each subject is/was taught to the respondent's children. They have been ranked, starting with those subjects most often reported as being used to teach through Catalan. Apart from Catalan as a subject, Art, Religion / Ethics, Physical education and Biology seem to be/have been used to teach more than half the offspring through Catalan. In the other subjects (Geography, Mathematics, History, Modern languages, Latin and Physics & Chemistry) Spanish seems to have been the main language used.

The first issue raised in this context is the perception of the maintenance or decline of the use of the language in the community, over time (tables 25 and 26). Three quarters claim that they heard Catalan used often, as a child, in the street and in shops, and over half in clubs and the church. One fifth claim that they never heard Catalan used in church when they were children.

The following table shows very clearly that the perception of the use of Catalan in shops and the street has not declined; indeed, virtually noone "never" hears the language used in these contexts. There has been a slight increase, apparently, in the use of Catalan in clubs and societies, but the greatest increase has been in the church, where the former 31% who claimed that little or no Catalan was used when they were children has come down to under 12%. This may be in part due to the replies of older respondents, for whom the mass used to be, at least until the 1960's, in Latin.

Let us now look in much more detail at language use patterns within the community, in two steps. Firstly, we shall see to what extent the respondents participate in various social or community activities and, if they do so, what language or languages they use. However, we must analyse to what extent Catalan-speakers are perceived to take part in each particular activity. It is clear from the next table (table 27) that four-fifths of the respondents consider that Catalan-speakers predominate (more than half the people involved) in each of the social situations.

One would therefore expect the use of Catalan, on the part of respondents, to also be much more prevalent than the use of Spanish. Table 28 bears out this expectation, for over three-quarters of the repondents claim to use only Catalan, or more Catalan than Spanish, in four of the five situations: local friends, cultural activities, usually used shops and neighbours. Only in sports clubs does the level of Catalan sink slightly.

Secondly, the questionnaire surveyed language use in different daily situations such as visiting the doctor, ordering a drink or reporting a power cut. The results have been recorded in table 29, rank-ordered by the situations in which the highest proportion of respondents stated that they could use the language in the particular situation. In the right hand column another proportion is given: within the number who state they can use the language, how many state that they actually do? Both indicators give insights into the dynamics of language use.

It can be seen that in all situations both the possibility of using Catalan and its actual use are recorded by a considerable majority of respondents. The figures only start to drop in dealing with the tax office, the telephone company or taking the driving test. The sample therefore seems to be highly self-confident inasmuch as the public use of the language is concerned.

A last approximation to language use in the community is afforded by the replies to a question in which the language used by respondents in different social activities was investigated. The activities have been ranked in table 30 so that those in which Catalan is most recorded as being the only language used by respondents appear at the top of the list. It is clear that there are no activities where Spanish is used by the respondents more than is Catalan. However, the six activities in which Catalan is most used are only performed by a minority of the respondents.