There was this interview. It was with the philologist who is responsible for linguistic use at the IB3 broadcaster. At the conclusion of the interview she says of the Balearic language that it doesn't exist. To speak of a Balearic language is provocative, just as it is when one refers to the Catalan of Mallorca. It is the philological way, but she doesn't like it because, for centuries, we have called it Mallorquín.
In Mallorca, it can appear, there are more philologists than you can shake a dictionary at. These "students" of languages, be they actual students, professors or hobbyists, proliferate to an extent that is hard to comprehend for those of us brought up without an obsession with arguing over languages and their historical significance. Philologist was a word, a profession if you like, that I was well aware of before coming to Mallorca, but never had it occurred to me that there would be a place where the philologist seems as common as the town hall official, and as equally bloody-minded in all likelihood.
And the town halls have their own quasi-philologists, the councillors who are charged with the responsibility for what, through literal translation, is linguistic normalisation but which is better translated as standardisation. Either noun will do, as the whole term is a euphemism for Catalan. Or is it?
The philologist of the interview, Mariantònia Lladó, has a contentious responsibility at IB3. Anything to do with language has the potential to be contentious - which is one reason why there are so many philologists knocking around - and at IB3 it has been just this. It has all had to do with an issue that will, for the great majority of you, seem impenetrable and arcane, but that is because you will not be obsessed with the detail of language, one that is so micro-scrutinised that there are arguments which haggle over the use of the word "the". At IB3, "the" became a politico-philological battle. The Partido Popular, which ruled the broadcaster through its government vice-president Antonio Gomez and then José Manuel Ruiz, who failed so spectacularly in becoming mayor of Calvia, insisted that the Mallorquín "the" should be used and not the Catalan "the". Mariantònia, elsewhere in the interview, reveals her "the" preference, lamenting the fact that, except out in the villages of Mallorca, the "new generations" use the literary "the", i.e. the Catalan one.
For the Bauzá PP, so desirous of distancing itself from anything marked with the stamp of Catalonia, the intervention over "the" at IB3 went to the heart of its linguistic politics, and the very notion of there being a linguistic politics can strike many as being somewhat absurd. But that's because they are not bound up in the ceaseless polemic that can appear to define all politics of Mallorca.
The PP line, and that of Mariantònia (and I hope I'm not misrepresenting her), is to promote the languages of the islands at the expense of Catalan. Yet this can appear to be - in political terms - contradictory. The PP disassociates itself from notions of nationalism - those which are not Spanish nationalist - but it advocates a distinct language, Mallorquín. And what, as far as nationalism is concerned, is more nationalist than a language? But then, it isn't contradictory if it is accepted that there are minority languages/dialects within the framework of the grand nationalism of Spain and it also isn't contradictory if this acceptance is one to cock a snook at the pretensions of Catalan nationalism which involve a geographically broader area than just Catalonia - the mythical Catalan Lands.
Inherent to this line is an argument that the languages of the islands, and each island lays claim to having one, are the products of some form of separate development. Well, quite clearly there has been. When there are 250 plus kilometres of sea that divorce Mallorca from the Catalan heartland as well as a history of Arabic language and Vulgar Latin (and it is this which is the root of the "the" argument), there was bound to have been linguistic modification. But the mother tongue is Catalan (and/or variants that themselves influenced and created Catalan). To refer to the "Catalan of Mallorca" is, however, says Mariantònia, provocative. And in this, for many Mallorcans in my experience, she is right. Mallorcans speak Mallorquín and not Catalan, albeit there are obvious, very strong similarities.
So, one comes back to this business of linguistic normalisation, sometimes determined at town halls by councillors who proudly speak their Mallorquín (and nothing else) but within an ideological framework of Catalan nationalism and with responsibility for the normalisation of Catalan. And ditto the schools, where the argument is over the promotion of Catalan, not of Mallorquín.
Still, this all helps to allow philology to flourish and for there to be never-ending arguments, and the fact is that they will never end.
Showing posts with label Mallorquín. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mallorquín. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 09, 2015
Thursday, June 19, 2014
I Am Of Mallorca, Catalan Island
This is part of a poem, the next verse of which starts "heroes of Mallorca, Catalan heroes", that is entitled "I Am Catalan". Apologies for any translation mistakes, but it's a reasonable attempt in expressing the sentiments of something which could quite easily be written nowadays but was in fact written just a short time after the outbreak of the Civil War. In a few lines, it is a poem which manages to pack in references to Mallorca's natural environment - the Sierra of the Tramuntana - and to key moments in history, i.e. the conquest by Jaume I, the Germanies ("agermanats") uprising led in Mallorca by Joanot Colom, and the War of the Spanish Succession, with all the consequences that this had for Catalonia and Mallorca.
The poem was written by Pere Capellà. He died sixty years ago, and there will be events to commemorate his death, especially in the towns of Algaida and Montuïri as well as Palma later this year. He lived in all three. And the remarkable thing about Pere Capellà is that he ever got to live in Montuïri and Palma and that he managed to die of natural causes at the early age of 47.
As other prominent members of the Republican Left party in the Balearics were shot, it is quite possible that Capellà, who was the leader of this party in Algaida, would have also been shot. To make him an even more likely target for the firing-squad, it wouldn't have gone unnoticed that his literary career had taken off in 1931 when he had penned "Cançons republicanes" (Republican songs). However, when the coup took place, Capellà was able to flee Mallorca and head for Barcelona. He fought for the wrong side and was in Madrid when the city fell to the Nationalists. He was arrested and sentenced in 1940 to twenty years' imprisonment.
But it is at this point that Capellà's story took a turn that in some ways contradicts what might generally be thought about post-Civil War Mallorca. For starters, he served only three years of his sentence. He was released on parole and returned to Mallorca but not to Algaida. The authorities there were reluctant to let him come back, fearing that things might kick off with the local Falange. So, the town hall in neighbouring Montuïri let him come to their town. He was to live there for eight years before moving to El Terreno in Palma, and by that time he was a celebrated dramatist as well as poet.
His involvement with the theatre was through a company called Artis. In 1949, this company staged a production in Palma's Teatre Principal. It was a great success and it was attended by officials from the Franco regime. Despite the difficulties presented by the political system, he was able to write using colloquial language, which meant Mallorquín. He also wrote for a newspaper under the pseudonym Mingo Revulgo, initially in Castellano but then in Catalan. The name was taken from what had also been the pseudonym of a writer of satirical verses who had criticised the Castilian king, Henry IV, in the fifteenth century. These verses were known as "glosas", a word from which the Mallorcan "glosador" folk performer comes, and Capellà was himself also a glosador.
It was evident, even earlier than when Capellà was staging his theatre productions, that glosadors were tolerated by the Franco regime. Though Capellà would have preferred to have been using Catalan and not the colloquial language, it was better than having to use Castellano. But it was clear from his poem, "I Am Catalan", where his sympathies lay, i.e. with a greater Catalan nation. As such, he was expressing precisely the views that some today express. His theatrical work, through expedience rather than desire, used the colloquial language, which is precisely what the Balearic Government would today prefer to Catalan.
The Franco regime wasn't entirely stupid. It couldn't afford to alienate local cultures, and so it allowed Catalan dialects. Capellà was an accomplice in this, though he would have hated having being so. But in having being so, he wrote more than just plays or poems. He wrote, against his instincts, the sub-plot of today's contentious and tragi-comedy play - Mallorquín versus Catalan.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Mallorca's Salad (Sic) Days
The word "sic" is directly lifted from Latin. Its literal meaning is "thus". It has come to be used in the written form as a means of highlighting an error, such as a misspelling, a malapropism or simply wrong usage. It is commonly used to poke fun, which is appropriate, as there is so much fun that one can have with Latin and linguistic arguments in Mallorca.
These arguments are ones with which we are all too familiar. They centre on Catalan or not Catalan and, for the linguistically uninitiated or couldn't-care-lesses (sic), they are frequently arcane to the point of being beyond comprehension or stupid to the point of long having dispensed with common sense or rationality.
Of course, one man's language is his to defend, as indeed is an alternative language or dialect, so one can't and shouldn't be too dismissive of another man's language argument. However, there are occasions when intrusion into someone else's argument is required, if only to highlight what might appear to be the pettiness of the debate.
While the polemic in Mallorca is one which typically embraces the linguistic parallel universes of Catalan and Castellano, there is an idiomatic black hole which exists in the Catalan universe, inside which resides mini-universes that have diverged from Vulgar Latin roots. This is a divergence, the peculiarity of which is made even more peculiar by the fact that it centres on what in original Latin was that language's set of intensive pronouns. In Latin there is no such thing as a definite or indefinite article - "the" or "a". In Catalan there most definitely is. Or rather, there most definitely are.
Ipse, ipsa, ipsum. You can blame all of them because they are at the heart of the row that has found its way into the Balearic parliament. In the Mallorquín dialect (and in a few other Catalan dialects), these pronouns led to a localised Vulgarisation of the article. It is why Mallorquín uses "es" and "sa" instead of the normal Catalan "el" and "la" (the same as Castellano therefore).
This Mallorquín branch line of definite article usage is known as the "article salat". In Castellano "salat" becomes "salado". The salad days aren't so much salad days of innocence as salad days of the linguistic argument having its heyday. They're arguing over the bloody definite article.
This has all arisen because the Mallorcan broadcaster IB3 has started to use "es" and "sa" in its news reports instead of "el" and "la". Why should this inspire an argument? Believe it or not, and you will believe it, it all has to do with the Partido Popular regional government's antagonism towards Catalan. There has been an outcry. The accusation is that the government is interfering with the editorial independence of IB3 (and this is not the first time that it has been accused of doing so) by pressing its anti-Catalan agenda and its pro-Balearic dialects agenda as a complement to Castellano.
Both forms of the article are commonly used in Mallorca, but there is a general distinction made in terms of literary/more formal usage and everyday usage. The Catalan article is used for the former. Hence, it might be deemed appropriate for news reports. This is how opponents of the introduction of the "salat" see things. They also see the use of the "salat" as a deliberate ploy to undermine Catalan.
The government insists that the "salat" usage reflects colloquial speech and that its use by IB3 "dignifies" linguistic peculiarities. But the government's vice-president, Antonio Gómez, who, it just so happens, was for a time the director-general of IB3, isn't saying who made the decision to adopt it. At the Universitat de les Illes Balears, where linguistic standards tend to be decided, the view is that the "salat" damages the standard use of Catalan and that it introduces conflict where none had previously existed. This, unfortunately, sums up how the government has conducted its language policy. It has sought fights, and its increasing unpopularity reflects what have been, for the most part, unnecessary fights.
These arguments are ones with which we are all too familiar. They centre on Catalan or not Catalan and, for the linguistically uninitiated or couldn't-care-lesses (sic), they are frequently arcane to the point of being beyond comprehension or stupid to the point of long having dispensed with common sense or rationality.
Of course, one man's language is his to defend, as indeed is an alternative language or dialect, so one can't and shouldn't be too dismissive of another man's language argument. However, there are occasions when intrusion into someone else's argument is required, if only to highlight what might appear to be the pettiness of the debate.
While the polemic in Mallorca is one which typically embraces the linguistic parallel universes of Catalan and Castellano, there is an idiomatic black hole which exists in the Catalan universe, inside which resides mini-universes that have diverged from Vulgar Latin roots. This is a divergence, the peculiarity of which is made even more peculiar by the fact that it centres on what in original Latin was that language's set of intensive pronouns. In Latin there is no such thing as a definite or indefinite article - "the" or "a". In Catalan there most definitely is. Or rather, there most definitely are.
Ipse, ipsa, ipsum. You can blame all of them because they are at the heart of the row that has found its way into the Balearic parliament. In the Mallorquín dialect (and in a few other Catalan dialects), these pronouns led to a localised Vulgarisation of the article. It is why Mallorquín uses "es" and "sa" instead of the normal Catalan "el" and "la" (the same as Castellano therefore).
This Mallorquín branch line of definite article usage is known as the "article salat". In Castellano "salat" becomes "salado". The salad days aren't so much salad days of innocence as salad days of the linguistic argument having its heyday. They're arguing over the bloody definite article.
This has all arisen because the Mallorcan broadcaster IB3 has started to use "es" and "sa" in its news reports instead of "el" and "la". Why should this inspire an argument? Believe it or not, and you will believe it, it all has to do with the Partido Popular regional government's antagonism towards Catalan. There has been an outcry. The accusation is that the government is interfering with the editorial independence of IB3 (and this is not the first time that it has been accused of doing so) by pressing its anti-Catalan agenda and its pro-Balearic dialects agenda as a complement to Castellano.
Both forms of the article are commonly used in Mallorca, but there is a general distinction made in terms of literary/more formal usage and everyday usage. The Catalan article is used for the former. Hence, it might be deemed appropriate for news reports. This is how opponents of the introduction of the "salat" see things. They also see the use of the "salat" as a deliberate ploy to undermine Catalan.
The government insists that the "salat" usage reflects colloquial speech and that its use by IB3 "dignifies" linguistic peculiarities. But the government's vice-president, Antonio Gómez, who, it just so happens, was for a time the director-general of IB3, isn't saying who made the decision to adopt it. At the Universitat de les Illes Balears, where linguistic standards tend to be decided, the view is that the "salat" damages the standard use of Catalan and that it introduces conflict where none had previously existed. This, unfortunately, sums up how the government has conducted its language policy. It has sought fights, and its increasing unpopularity reflects what have been, for the most part, unnecessary fights.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Catalan Or Mallorquín: A dichotomy
Miquel Àngel Pradilla is a professor of sociolinguistics at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, which has five centres, one of them in Tarragona in Catalonia. He is the co-ordinator of the sixth study for the Observatorio de la Lengua into the speaking, writing and understanding of Catalan in the different regions where it is spoken. The latest report, using data for 2012, says that the number of people who speak Catalan has topped the ten million mark for the first time. Catalonia registers the lowest number of people who don't know Catalan - 14.8% of the population - while in the Balearics, the percentage who don't know Catalan is virtually double, 28.5%. Taking all Catalan speakers together, the Catalan language is at sixteenth position among the languages of Europe in terms of the number of people who speak it, and the population of the different Catalan-speaking regions is 13.6 million.
Pradilla believes that a key reason for the rise in the number of Catalan speakers is education, i.e. the fact that Catalan is used as a teaching language. He is probably right to believe this, and the fact that Catalan-speakers, thanks to teaching, are increasing in their number may help to explain moves taken by national and regional governments to stop it increasing any more; we are talking, naturally enough, about the new national education bill and trilingual teaching in the Balearics.
But whenever there is discussion of or reports into Catalan-speaking, a question arises. What sort of Catalan is being referred to and what brand of Catalan is actually being spoken? And then there's a further question. Why, in a Catalan-speaking region such as the Balearics, is there a president of the regional government who seems so determined to want to do Catalan down?
The two questions tie in with each other and the answer to both, without wishing to sound daft, is Catalan, while a different answer could just as appropriately be Catalonia, and Barcelona in particular. To understand the politics of language in Mallorca and the Balearics and to understand the politics that run through the trilingual teaching law, one has to understand that, yes, there is an attack by the regional government on Catalan but it is an attack founded as much on antipathy towards Barcelona and Catalonia as it is an attack on the language per se.
Bauzá comes at the issue of language from a perspective moulded by a nationalist ideology. This is not nationalism as in Mallorca nationalism, one that would want greater autonomy, but nationalism as in Spanish nationalism; Spain as one state. The notion of a separate Catalonia or even a collection of "Catalan Lands" is anathema to such nationalism. It is a fear that somehow Catalonia and Barcelona might come to rule over the Balearics as part of a separate group of Catalan Lands that goes to the heart of the politics.
But this is a fear which is all but irrational. As repeated surveys of what people in the Balearics identify with show, an identity with the Catalan Lands barely even registers. There is absolutely no popular desire for the Balearics to become a part of such a group and there is little or no chance that such a group would ever come into existence. There are organisations in the Balearics, such as the OCB (Obra Cultural Balear), which might one day wish there to be a Catalan Lands, and there are political parties to the left who hold a similar view, but as far as the man in the street is concerned, the idea of the Catalan Lands is dead in the water. Indeed, if you speak to many Mallorcans, their attitude towards Barcelona and Catalonia is the same as Bauzá's. They don't want anything to do with Barcelona, except with the football team, and many of them insist that they don't speak Catalan but Mallorquín, which is probably because they do.
Bauzá has been consistent in advocating the use of the islands' Catalan dialects as well as Castellano. For his opponents, however, this is red rag. There are small, minority parties in Spain, very much to the right of the Partido Popular and to Bauzá, who advocate the same thing. These are the ultra-nationalists, ones who can't stand Catalonia and everything it represents, including Catalan. Bauzá, where some of his opponents are concerned, is bundled in with the far-right nutters; an association which is far from accurate.
Now, however, the regional government appears to be taking its attack on Catalan further and shifting the language argument towards the use of the islands' dialects. The Institute of Balearics Studies is preparing a book which pushes to one side certain Catalan usage and replaces it with Mallorquín usage. This book, so it is being said, wouldn't just be a set of recommendations for how to use Mallorquín but also become a manual for official use - by public-sector employees and ultimately by schools.
The government seems to think the time is right to make this shift in the language argument, and it may not be wrong to think this. If Mallorcans say they speak Mallorquín, why should they object? But many Mallorcan parents have sided with the teachers over trilingual teaching and the attack not on Mallorquín but Catalan.
There is a seemingly eternal dichotomy in local society about its Catalan heritage and its current-day language and politics, and it is a dichotomy that might be about to get even more difficult to reconcile.
Pradilla believes that a key reason for the rise in the number of Catalan speakers is education, i.e. the fact that Catalan is used as a teaching language. He is probably right to believe this, and the fact that Catalan-speakers, thanks to teaching, are increasing in their number may help to explain moves taken by national and regional governments to stop it increasing any more; we are talking, naturally enough, about the new national education bill and trilingual teaching in the Balearics.
But whenever there is discussion of or reports into Catalan-speaking, a question arises. What sort of Catalan is being referred to and what brand of Catalan is actually being spoken? And then there's a further question. Why, in a Catalan-speaking region such as the Balearics, is there a president of the regional government who seems so determined to want to do Catalan down?
The two questions tie in with each other and the answer to both, without wishing to sound daft, is Catalan, while a different answer could just as appropriately be Catalonia, and Barcelona in particular. To understand the politics of language in Mallorca and the Balearics and to understand the politics that run through the trilingual teaching law, one has to understand that, yes, there is an attack by the regional government on Catalan but it is an attack founded as much on antipathy towards Barcelona and Catalonia as it is an attack on the language per se.
Bauzá comes at the issue of language from a perspective moulded by a nationalist ideology. This is not nationalism as in Mallorca nationalism, one that would want greater autonomy, but nationalism as in Spanish nationalism; Spain as one state. The notion of a separate Catalonia or even a collection of "Catalan Lands" is anathema to such nationalism. It is a fear that somehow Catalonia and Barcelona might come to rule over the Balearics as part of a separate group of Catalan Lands that goes to the heart of the politics.
But this is a fear which is all but irrational. As repeated surveys of what people in the Balearics identify with show, an identity with the Catalan Lands barely even registers. There is absolutely no popular desire for the Balearics to become a part of such a group and there is little or no chance that such a group would ever come into existence. There are organisations in the Balearics, such as the OCB (Obra Cultural Balear), which might one day wish there to be a Catalan Lands, and there are political parties to the left who hold a similar view, but as far as the man in the street is concerned, the idea of the Catalan Lands is dead in the water. Indeed, if you speak to many Mallorcans, their attitude towards Barcelona and Catalonia is the same as Bauzá's. They don't want anything to do with Barcelona, except with the football team, and many of them insist that they don't speak Catalan but Mallorquín, which is probably because they do.
Bauzá has been consistent in advocating the use of the islands' Catalan dialects as well as Castellano. For his opponents, however, this is red rag. There are small, minority parties in Spain, very much to the right of the Partido Popular and to Bauzá, who advocate the same thing. These are the ultra-nationalists, ones who can't stand Catalonia and everything it represents, including Catalan. Bauzá, where some of his opponents are concerned, is bundled in with the far-right nutters; an association which is far from accurate.
Now, however, the regional government appears to be taking its attack on Catalan further and shifting the language argument towards the use of the islands' dialects. The Institute of Balearics Studies is preparing a book which pushes to one side certain Catalan usage and replaces it with Mallorquín usage. This book, so it is being said, wouldn't just be a set of recommendations for how to use Mallorquín but also become a manual for official use - by public-sector employees and ultimately by schools.
The government seems to think the time is right to make this shift in the language argument, and it may not be wrong to think this. If Mallorcans say they speak Mallorquín, why should they object? But many Mallorcan parents have sided with the teachers over trilingual teaching and the attack not on Mallorquín but Catalan.
There is a seemingly eternal dichotomy in local society about its Catalan heritage and its current-day language and politics, and it is a dichotomy that might be about to get even more difficult to reconcile.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
The Illogic Of Catalan
The Catalan language arrived in Mallorca on horseback. Jaume I of Aragon rode across his newly conquered domain, dispensing Catalan linguistics and Catalan traditions.
There is absolutely no question as to the roots of Mallorcan language and culture and there should be no question as to what historically binds Mallorca to the mainland of Spain. This is not Castile and the Castellano language, it is Catalonia (or Aragon to be strictly accurate) and the Catalan language.
The usurping of this historical connection has occurred on different occasions over the centuries, and we all know about the attempts to destroy this connection and so therefore language and traditions during the Franco period. In the democratic, post-Franco era, Mallorcans have been able to resurrect in a fully open fashion their language and traditions, and in so doing, tourists, who in Franco times might well have been completely ignorant of anything cultural or linguistic that didn't bear the hallmark of Castile, have come to appreciate that local culture isn't, or isn't predominantly, a "Spanish" one.
Though tourists might have been unaware of an alternative version of culture, for the Mallorcans, the traditional culture didn't disappear. A particularly striking example of how the Catalan tradition still burnt during the Franco time was the staging of a glosadors contest in Felanitx in the 1940s, a time when Spanish Nationalism was at its most ferocious and vicious. In theory, such an event was not permitted, but it occurred nevertheless.
But then, what tradition was it that had been upheld during those years of prohibition? Was it Catalan or was it Mallorquín? Where the glosadors were concerned, and they were arguably the most important socio-cultural agents for maintaining linguistic tradition, it wasn't Catalan. It was Mallorquín.
It is this blurring of tradition that is at the heart of the endless arguments over language in Mallorca. While these arguments are normally styled as being between Catalan and Castellano, there is a whole separate debate regarding the Mallorquín dialect and Catalan. President Bauzá has recently reiterated his view that there are four island languages (or dialects) and he has done so by steadfastly ignoring the claims of Catalan.
The Bauzá line is, in a key respect, illogical. It pays no regard to the historical connection to Jaume I. Without Jaume, there would have been no Catalan in Mallorca and equally there would have been no Mallorquín. Catalan and Mallorquín are, therefore, well and truly part of a common heritage. There can be no debate.
But debate there most certainly is, and it is driven by political philosophy. Catalan is anti-Hispania, and is therefore, where Bauzá and others of similar views are concerned, a "bad thing". Catalan is anti-Hispania in being the language of separatism and dissent and so therefore a further bad thing. That Catalan bequeathed to Mallorca its own linguistic variant is airbrushed away in the pursuit of advancing a nationalistic dogma.
The more I come to appreciate how Mallorca was during Franco's time, the more it appears that, even if there was unofficial approval, the local dialects were not stamped on with anything like the ferocity that Catalan was; the glosadors staging a contest in a public theatre was a prime example. And it is this nationalist alliance between Castellano, the main language (despite Catalan being a co-official language), and the local dialects that represents Bauzáist philosophy. Unfortunately for the president, though, there are other political voices who proclaim the same philosophy, and they are very much to the right in a way that Bauzá isn't, because they are the neo-fascists.
Though it can seem illogical to seek to downplay the historical connection through Jaume and so downplay the role of Catalan, its traditions, its very being as a political entity as the motherland of Mallorcan language and traditions, I'm not convinced that Bauzá may not be right. The education debate, that of Catalan v. Castellano, muddies the water to an extent, and it does so because Mallorcan people appear to end up arguing against what many otherwise believe. And what they believe, at least mostly all I have ever spoken to about the subject, is in accordance with the Bauzá line. They don't want to be associated with Catalan. That may seem illogical as well, because of the historical connection, but for most Mallorcans, they take pride in Mallorquín and in not wishing to be ruled by Barcelona.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
There is absolutely no question as to the roots of Mallorcan language and culture and there should be no question as to what historically binds Mallorca to the mainland of Spain. This is not Castile and the Castellano language, it is Catalonia (or Aragon to be strictly accurate) and the Catalan language.
The usurping of this historical connection has occurred on different occasions over the centuries, and we all know about the attempts to destroy this connection and so therefore language and traditions during the Franco period. In the democratic, post-Franco era, Mallorcans have been able to resurrect in a fully open fashion their language and traditions, and in so doing, tourists, who in Franco times might well have been completely ignorant of anything cultural or linguistic that didn't bear the hallmark of Castile, have come to appreciate that local culture isn't, or isn't predominantly, a "Spanish" one.
Though tourists might have been unaware of an alternative version of culture, for the Mallorcans, the traditional culture didn't disappear. A particularly striking example of how the Catalan tradition still burnt during the Franco time was the staging of a glosadors contest in Felanitx in the 1940s, a time when Spanish Nationalism was at its most ferocious and vicious. In theory, such an event was not permitted, but it occurred nevertheless.
But then, what tradition was it that had been upheld during those years of prohibition? Was it Catalan or was it Mallorquín? Where the glosadors were concerned, and they were arguably the most important socio-cultural agents for maintaining linguistic tradition, it wasn't Catalan. It was Mallorquín.
It is this blurring of tradition that is at the heart of the endless arguments over language in Mallorca. While these arguments are normally styled as being between Catalan and Castellano, there is a whole separate debate regarding the Mallorquín dialect and Catalan. President Bauzá has recently reiterated his view that there are four island languages (or dialects) and he has done so by steadfastly ignoring the claims of Catalan.
The Bauzá line is, in a key respect, illogical. It pays no regard to the historical connection to Jaume I. Without Jaume, there would have been no Catalan in Mallorca and equally there would have been no Mallorquín. Catalan and Mallorquín are, therefore, well and truly part of a common heritage. There can be no debate.
But debate there most certainly is, and it is driven by political philosophy. Catalan is anti-Hispania, and is therefore, where Bauzá and others of similar views are concerned, a "bad thing". Catalan is anti-Hispania in being the language of separatism and dissent and so therefore a further bad thing. That Catalan bequeathed to Mallorca its own linguistic variant is airbrushed away in the pursuit of advancing a nationalistic dogma.
The more I come to appreciate how Mallorca was during Franco's time, the more it appears that, even if there was unofficial approval, the local dialects were not stamped on with anything like the ferocity that Catalan was; the glosadors staging a contest in a public theatre was a prime example. And it is this nationalist alliance between Castellano, the main language (despite Catalan being a co-official language), and the local dialects that represents Bauzáist philosophy. Unfortunately for the president, though, there are other political voices who proclaim the same philosophy, and they are very much to the right in a way that Bauzá isn't, because they are the neo-fascists.
Though it can seem illogical to seek to downplay the historical connection through Jaume and so downplay the role of Catalan, its traditions, its very being as a political entity as the motherland of Mallorcan language and traditions, I'm not convinced that Bauzá may not be right. The education debate, that of Catalan v. Castellano, muddies the water to an extent, and it does so because Mallorcan people appear to end up arguing against what many otherwise believe. And what they believe, at least mostly all I have ever spoken to about the subject, is in accordance with the Bauzá line. They don't want to be associated with Catalan. That may seem illogical as well, because of the historical connection, but for most Mallorcans, they take pride in Mallorquín and in not wishing to be ruled by Barcelona.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Agony Without Ecstasy: Glosadors
At a Sant Antoni celebration in Muro one year, a friend and I took ourselves away from our group that was assembled at a bar terrace in order to investigate what could only have been described as a God-awful racket. It was being made by an elderly lady and a younger gentleman. She was playing the ximbomba, he wasn't, and they were taking turns in making utterances in a tuneless half-sung fashion. I knew what they were, as I had encountered such utterances before, though not with the "musical" accompaniment. They were glosadors, two of the many Mallorcan performers of the art of the "glosa".
It's impossible to describe glosadors as singers, as they specialise in singing only in the loosest sense of the word. What they aren't, are straightforward verse poets. The glosa can and does veer off at a tangent, an improvisational element being important, as the glosador rarely, if ever, performs alone; he or she is normally in "competition" with at least one other and quite often with several others. The improvisation, indeed the whole performance, can also be aided by alcohol. Some glosadors stick to water in order to lubricate the vocal chords, such as they are, but others can take on board copious amounts of wine or mezcla, so much so that the performances become more like drinking-song contests.
The glosador tradition dates back at least to the nineteenth century when "professional" glosadors emerged who would travel the island to take on rivals in glosa combats. The glosadors, historically, have played an important part in Mallorca's culture, not just because they are part of a folk tradition but also because they were a vital conduit for disseminating information.
Mallorquín, as with other local Mediterranean dialects and lesser languages, used not to be written, and one reason why it wasn't written was because few Mallorcans would have been able to read it. Lack of education and little by way of print media made the written word pretty much redundant. Those who could read were the elite and they wouldn't have been reading Mallorquín, even if scripts or texts had been available. So the glosadors were a means of communication. Their songs could be ribald, but they also provided political and social commentary, with satire an essential ingredient.
The lack of written Mallorquín means that little of the work of glosadors from years ago has been captured for posterity. While some will have been handed down, in the time-honoured fashion by which storytelling is passed on, only fragments will have been. The essence of the glosa was, in any event, of the time, rather than it being folk storytelling. There is an example, however, of a combat that took place in 1944 in Felanitx and which was written down. What is quite revealing about this contest was that it was of course conducted in Mallorquín, and yet it took place at a time when Catalan and Catalan dialects were supposedly banned - for public purposes at any rate. Perhaps it demonstrates that the totality of proscription wasn't as total as is generally assumed. And perhaps it also shows that it was the glosadors who helped to keep the popular use of Catalan and Mallorquín alive before the Franco regime did start to relax its linguistic prohibition.
Nowadays, the glosadors are identified with the politics of language. One of them, Santa Margalida's "Xurí" (most glosadors have nicknames), contributed to a publication in defence of Catalan in which he referred to history repeating itself in Catalan being attacked. The glosadors are, therefore, very much part of the wider movement to defend the island's Catalan culture, and at a dinner ahead of the Sant Antoni fiestas in Sa Pobla, mayor Biel Serra, a member of the Partido Popular who is one of the more sympathetic towards language defence in the party, fought an impromptu glosa battle with opposition political leaders.
The glosa is most certainly an acquired taste. The chances are that you wouldn't have a clue what the glosadors were on about, while the style can verge on the excruciating. But this is down, in no small part, to the fact that the local accent sounds as though it is being spoken/sung by someone who is in agony. This is the nature of the Mallorquín dialect and accent, however. The vocal sound isn't lovely; it isn't ecstatic, it is in pain. Yet for all that glosadors may seem impenetrable to the foreign observer, it should be noted that they play and have played a significant part in the island's culture. Go along and see them some time, and just laugh when the Mallorcans laugh.
Xurí featured in this glosador combat; Xurí is the young one.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It's impossible to describe glosadors as singers, as they specialise in singing only in the loosest sense of the word. What they aren't, are straightforward verse poets. The glosa can and does veer off at a tangent, an improvisational element being important, as the glosador rarely, if ever, performs alone; he or she is normally in "competition" with at least one other and quite often with several others. The improvisation, indeed the whole performance, can also be aided by alcohol. Some glosadors stick to water in order to lubricate the vocal chords, such as they are, but others can take on board copious amounts of wine or mezcla, so much so that the performances become more like drinking-song contests.
The glosador tradition dates back at least to the nineteenth century when "professional" glosadors emerged who would travel the island to take on rivals in glosa combats. The glosadors, historically, have played an important part in Mallorca's culture, not just because they are part of a folk tradition but also because they were a vital conduit for disseminating information.
Mallorquín, as with other local Mediterranean dialects and lesser languages, used not to be written, and one reason why it wasn't written was because few Mallorcans would have been able to read it. Lack of education and little by way of print media made the written word pretty much redundant. Those who could read were the elite and they wouldn't have been reading Mallorquín, even if scripts or texts had been available. So the glosadors were a means of communication. Their songs could be ribald, but they also provided political and social commentary, with satire an essential ingredient.
The lack of written Mallorquín means that little of the work of glosadors from years ago has been captured for posterity. While some will have been handed down, in the time-honoured fashion by which storytelling is passed on, only fragments will have been. The essence of the glosa was, in any event, of the time, rather than it being folk storytelling. There is an example, however, of a combat that took place in 1944 in Felanitx and which was written down. What is quite revealing about this contest was that it was of course conducted in Mallorquín, and yet it took place at a time when Catalan and Catalan dialects were supposedly banned - for public purposes at any rate. Perhaps it demonstrates that the totality of proscription wasn't as total as is generally assumed. And perhaps it also shows that it was the glosadors who helped to keep the popular use of Catalan and Mallorquín alive before the Franco regime did start to relax its linguistic prohibition.
Nowadays, the glosadors are identified with the politics of language. One of them, Santa Margalida's "Xurí" (most glosadors have nicknames), contributed to a publication in defence of Catalan in which he referred to history repeating itself in Catalan being attacked. The glosadors are, therefore, very much part of the wider movement to defend the island's Catalan culture, and at a dinner ahead of the Sant Antoni fiestas in Sa Pobla, mayor Biel Serra, a member of the Partido Popular who is one of the more sympathetic towards language defence in the party, fought an impromptu glosa battle with opposition political leaders.
The glosa is most certainly an acquired taste. The chances are that you wouldn't have a clue what the glosadors were on about, while the style can verge on the excruciating. But this is down, in no small part, to the fact that the local accent sounds as though it is being spoken/sung by someone who is in agony. This is the nature of the Mallorquín dialect and accent, however. The vocal sound isn't lovely; it isn't ecstatic, it is in pain. Yet for all that glosadors may seem impenetrable to the foreign observer, it should be noted that they play and have played a significant part in the island's culture. Go along and see them some time, and just laugh when the Mallorcans laugh.
Xurí featured in this glosador combat; Xurí is the young one.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, January 30, 2012
The Dictionary Man: Antoni M. Alcover
It is, I guess, the fact of being a historian by degree and of being a some time creator of street maps that the names of streets hold such an interest.
There is much to be learnt from street names. They can add considerably to your vocabulary, if you are minded to become acquainted, that is, with the Catalan for the eight winds of the Mediterranean, various flowers and all manner of birds. There is also a great deal of historical knowledge to be acquired. Street names are as good an introduction as any to the largely obscure and unknown history of Mallorca. Even those native Mallorcans who have lent their names to streets and who enjoy some fame away from the island, such as Ramon Llull, remain generally unknown to most foreigners.
It also helps to have a passing interest in anthroponymy, the science of human names. I say interest; it is more a case of a fascination as to diversity of names, be they Christian or surname, and their geographical locations and origins.
In the process of giving local names cartographical representation, the regularity with which the same names appeared drew me to conclude that there were those who had to have greater significance than others. Names with apparent obscurity such as Francesc de Borja Moll and Antoni Maria Alcover required appreciation.
Borja Moll and Alcover lie parallel to each other in Puerto Alcúdia. Neither is a remarkable street. The first has a similarly unremarkable Guardia Civil building at one entrance, the second is next to a BP garage. It would be easy, therefore, to overlook both streets and both names. Yet there was a great deal of sense in having two streets in close proximity named in such ways. Borja Moll and Alcover go together like the horse and carriage.
Alcover was a linguist, painter, journalist and all-round man of the Catalan languages and culture. Languages are appropriate. He embarked on one of the great linguistic projects, that of the dictionary of the Catalan languages (i.e. versions and dialects), a project that was completed by Borja Moll.
A native of Manacor, that 2012 is the 150th anniversary of the year of Alcover's birth holds some significance greater than simply being an anniversary; 2012 could be a defining year for Catalan in Mallorca and for another native of Manacor, Antoni Pastor, who has found himself in the position of defending the language.
It is admitted that the anniversary falls at a time when the situation regarding Catalan is both "delicate and complicated", made so by political dogma. Manacor, now the centre of so much opposition to attacks on Catalan, is celebrating the anniversary by opening a library and by staging various activities devoted to Alcover's memory and legacy.
Historical figures such as Alcover, especially if they are integral to the island's culture, have acquired a reverence that has spilled over into their having become reference points for political and cultural argument. This is no more so the case than with Ramon Llull, yet Llull, one fancies, might not have taken kindly to the way in which his name is now taken as a metaphorical flag being waved at the head of a linguistic army. Llull popularised Catalan but he was enough of a linguistic liberal to have advocated the teaching of Arabic.
Alcover has been adopted by both sides of the local Catalan argument. As a linguist chronicler of the variants of the Catalan lands, his words underpin the cultural impulse towards independence for the Catalan lands. This is one side of the argument. The other is that he was a promoter of Mallorquín, and one favoured by those opposed to any hint of independence, most obviously the Partido Popular.
The official PP line is that Mallorquín (and the dialects of the other islands) are ok, while Catalan is not. It is the acceptance of "our language" (Mallorquín) that makes the PP position so difficult to come to terms with. Alcover's dictionary demonstrated, if nothing else, that it is hard to establish an overarching definition of Catalan (Valencians, for instance, would argue their case over that of Catalonians). The PP line is far more political than linguistic; it is one that rejects the notion that Catalonia has first call on Catalan and has any right to impose its language on Mallorca.
In practice, this doesn't happen, as it is the dialect that is spoken and not Catalan in its purest sense, whatever that is. This, though, makes it just as difficult to comprehend the defence of Catalan. Which Catalan is being defended?
150 years since Alcover's birth and his name this year will come to mean more than just a street name, but his name will often be taken in vain in an argument in which both sides appear to have long ago disappeared far up their linguistic backsides.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
There is much to be learnt from street names. They can add considerably to your vocabulary, if you are minded to become acquainted, that is, with the Catalan for the eight winds of the Mediterranean, various flowers and all manner of birds. There is also a great deal of historical knowledge to be acquired. Street names are as good an introduction as any to the largely obscure and unknown history of Mallorca. Even those native Mallorcans who have lent their names to streets and who enjoy some fame away from the island, such as Ramon Llull, remain generally unknown to most foreigners.
It also helps to have a passing interest in anthroponymy, the science of human names. I say interest; it is more a case of a fascination as to diversity of names, be they Christian or surname, and their geographical locations and origins.
In the process of giving local names cartographical representation, the regularity with which the same names appeared drew me to conclude that there were those who had to have greater significance than others. Names with apparent obscurity such as Francesc de Borja Moll and Antoni Maria Alcover required appreciation.
Borja Moll and Alcover lie parallel to each other in Puerto Alcúdia. Neither is a remarkable street. The first has a similarly unremarkable Guardia Civil building at one entrance, the second is next to a BP garage. It would be easy, therefore, to overlook both streets and both names. Yet there was a great deal of sense in having two streets in close proximity named in such ways. Borja Moll and Alcover go together like the horse and carriage.
Alcover was a linguist, painter, journalist and all-round man of the Catalan languages and culture. Languages are appropriate. He embarked on one of the great linguistic projects, that of the dictionary of the Catalan languages (i.e. versions and dialects), a project that was completed by Borja Moll.
A native of Manacor, that 2012 is the 150th anniversary of the year of Alcover's birth holds some significance greater than simply being an anniversary; 2012 could be a defining year for Catalan in Mallorca and for another native of Manacor, Antoni Pastor, who has found himself in the position of defending the language.
It is admitted that the anniversary falls at a time when the situation regarding Catalan is both "delicate and complicated", made so by political dogma. Manacor, now the centre of so much opposition to attacks on Catalan, is celebrating the anniversary by opening a library and by staging various activities devoted to Alcover's memory and legacy.
Historical figures such as Alcover, especially if they are integral to the island's culture, have acquired a reverence that has spilled over into their having become reference points for political and cultural argument. This is no more so the case than with Ramon Llull, yet Llull, one fancies, might not have taken kindly to the way in which his name is now taken as a metaphorical flag being waved at the head of a linguistic army. Llull popularised Catalan but he was enough of a linguistic liberal to have advocated the teaching of Arabic.
Alcover has been adopted by both sides of the local Catalan argument. As a linguist chronicler of the variants of the Catalan lands, his words underpin the cultural impulse towards independence for the Catalan lands. This is one side of the argument. The other is that he was a promoter of Mallorquín, and one favoured by those opposed to any hint of independence, most obviously the Partido Popular.
The official PP line is that Mallorquín (and the dialects of the other islands) are ok, while Catalan is not. It is the acceptance of "our language" (Mallorquín) that makes the PP position so difficult to come to terms with. Alcover's dictionary demonstrated, if nothing else, that it is hard to establish an overarching definition of Catalan (Valencians, for instance, would argue their case over that of Catalonians). The PP line is far more political than linguistic; it is one that rejects the notion that Catalonia has first call on Catalan and has any right to impose its language on Mallorca.
In practice, this doesn't happen, as it is the dialect that is spoken and not Catalan in its purest sense, whatever that is. This, though, makes it just as difficult to comprehend the defence of Catalan. Which Catalan is being defended?
150 years since Alcover's birth and his name this year will come to mean more than just a street name, but his name will often be taken in vain in an argument in which both sides appear to have long ago disappeared far up their linguistic backsides.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
United We Speak: Catalan or Mallorquín?
When is a language a dialect, and when is a dialect a language? Opinion as to the distinction between the two is one on which you will find a lack of unanimity. Linguists themselves can't agree.
If you are inclined to do so, you can go back far enough with most "languages" and argue that they are in fact dialects. It all depends where you want to start. But for current-day purposes, there are languages which are undeniably languages, one of them being Catalan. Or is it? A definition of a language is that it should be that of a "state". You may have noticed that there is no Catalan "state".
Alternatively, a language is a language if there exists a "standard" form, which is the case with Catalan. Except, of course, that there are variants. Nevertheless, the language has its own "code" in that dictionaries determine the standard form. The fact of there being variants does not negate a claim to being a language. Were it to, then English would fail the test. In the case of English, standard codes of language as set out by dictionaries, most obviously the Oxford English Dictionary, are important as there is no body which arbitrates on what is or isn't standard English, as is the case with Spanish (Castilian) or French.
The problem with these variants, however, is the vagueness as to the language-dialect distinction. Let's take Mallorquín. Is it a language? There is no Mallorcan state and there isn't a specific language code, or at least as far as I am aware. Where it appears, in dictionary form, is in the work of Antoni Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll who included Balearic languages (or are they dialects) in an all-embracing Catalan dictionary.
Greater unanimity of opinion surrounds the political dimension as to whether a language is a language or a dialect. Think what you will of the politicisation of the language debate in Mallorca, but to deny the importance of politics would be to completely fail to understand the debate, and it is a debate that has been sparked into ever more controversial life by the leader of the Partido Popular (PP), José Ramón Bauzá, who has said he will reform the so-called law on linguistic normalisation if his party wins power in May next year. This would have the effect of relegating Catalan in favour of Castilian and the languages of the individual islands.
What Bauzá argues is that there is no such thing as a "unity of Catalan". He seems to believe that Mallorquín and the other languages of the Balearics are that - languages, and not therefore dialects of Catalan. Why does he think this? The reasoning is political. If Mallorquín is distinct, then so is Mallorca from Catalonia. The political motive lies with his alliance with the Spanish state and not the aspirations of a Catalan state, language and all.
Bauzá has attempted to prove linguistically that Mallorquín is not a dialect by mentioning certain Catalan words that are not used in Mallorca or the Balearics. He has come unstuck, his theory being disproved by teachers at the institute in Inca from where a protest of schools in Mallorca is being planned against him. Moreover, even if they weren't used, this wouldn't prove anything. Dialects do tend to change words. Indeed Bauzá's whole linguistic argument is preposterous. The Catalan lineage from the time of the conquest of the thirteenth century is indisputable, except by a few who claim that a brand of Catalan was imported directly from southern France. Mallorquín has fundamental differences to Catalan, such as with the definite articles "es" and "sa" (and even these aren't used in all instances), but the differences are not so great as to suggest some sort of separate development or major divergence that might qualify it as a distinct language.
Town halls in Mallorca have responded to Bauzá by approving Catalan as Mallorca's "own language". Manacor has just followed the likes of Sa Pobla, Pollensa and Inca in doing so. Why should they do this? Apart from the political aspect, the town halls are their own local repositories of culture, and language is indivisible from culture. In Manacor, there is an additional political flavour. The mayor is Antoni Pastor, a member of the PP who does not see eye to eye with Bauzá.
But what makes this all the more curious is that claims for a Mallorquín language are therefore being denied by those who oppose Bauzá, be they from his own party or from the left of the political spectrum. So Mallorquín is a dialect, and to say it isn't would be to deny the supremacy of Catalan. It is a somewhat bizarre argument when you consider nationalist pretensions to the existence of a Mallorquín language, though perhaps it isn't so bizarre when you consider that in a different Catalan-speaking part of Spain, Valencia, the far-right has supported the notion of a separate language to the extent of calling for linguistic secession from Catalan.
Ultimately, it doesn't really matter whether you call Mallorquín a dialect or a language. What does matter is where you stand on the issue politically. And that, it would appear, is all that matters.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
If you are inclined to do so, you can go back far enough with most "languages" and argue that they are in fact dialects. It all depends where you want to start. But for current-day purposes, there are languages which are undeniably languages, one of them being Catalan. Or is it? A definition of a language is that it should be that of a "state". You may have noticed that there is no Catalan "state".
Alternatively, a language is a language if there exists a "standard" form, which is the case with Catalan. Except, of course, that there are variants. Nevertheless, the language has its own "code" in that dictionaries determine the standard form. The fact of there being variants does not negate a claim to being a language. Were it to, then English would fail the test. In the case of English, standard codes of language as set out by dictionaries, most obviously the Oxford English Dictionary, are important as there is no body which arbitrates on what is or isn't standard English, as is the case with Spanish (Castilian) or French.
The problem with these variants, however, is the vagueness as to the language-dialect distinction. Let's take Mallorquín. Is it a language? There is no Mallorcan state and there isn't a specific language code, or at least as far as I am aware. Where it appears, in dictionary form, is in the work of Antoni Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll who included Balearic languages (or are they dialects) in an all-embracing Catalan dictionary.
Greater unanimity of opinion surrounds the political dimension as to whether a language is a language or a dialect. Think what you will of the politicisation of the language debate in Mallorca, but to deny the importance of politics would be to completely fail to understand the debate, and it is a debate that has been sparked into ever more controversial life by the leader of the Partido Popular (PP), José Ramón Bauzá, who has said he will reform the so-called law on linguistic normalisation if his party wins power in May next year. This would have the effect of relegating Catalan in favour of Castilian and the languages of the individual islands.
What Bauzá argues is that there is no such thing as a "unity of Catalan". He seems to believe that Mallorquín and the other languages of the Balearics are that - languages, and not therefore dialects of Catalan. Why does he think this? The reasoning is political. If Mallorquín is distinct, then so is Mallorca from Catalonia. The political motive lies with his alliance with the Spanish state and not the aspirations of a Catalan state, language and all.
Bauzá has attempted to prove linguistically that Mallorquín is not a dialect by mentioning certain Catalan words that are not used in Mallorca or the Balearics. He has come unstuck, his theory being disproved by teachers at the institute in Inca from where a protest of schools in Mallorca is being planned against him. Moreover, even if they weren't used, this wouldn't prove anything. Dialects do tend to change words. Indeed Bauzá's whole linguistic argument is preposterous. The Catalan lineage from the time of the conquest of the thirteenth century is indisputable, except by a few who claim that a brand of Catalan was imported directly from southern France. Mallorquín has fundamental differences to Catalan, such as with the definite articles "es" and "sa" (and even these aren't used in all instances), but the differences are not so great as to suggest some sort of separate development or major divergence that might qualify it as a distinct language.
Town halls in Mallorca have responded to Bauzá by approving Catalan as Mallorca's "own language". Manacor has just followed the likes of Sa Pobla, Pollensa and Inca in doing so. Why should they do this? Apart from the political aspect, the town halls are their own local repositories of culture, and language is indivisible from culture. In Manacor, there is an additional political flavour. The mayor is Antoni Pastor, a member of the PP who does not see eye to eye with Bauzá.
But what makes this all the more curious is that claims for a Mallorquín language are therefore being denied by those who oppose Bauzá, be they from his own party or from the left of the political spectrum. So Mallorquín is a dialect, and to say it isn't would be to deny the supremacy of Catalan. It is a somewhat bizarre argument when you consider nationalist pretensions to the existence of a Mallorquín language, though perhaps it isn't so bizarre when you consider that in a different Catalan-speaking part of Spain, Valencia, the far-right has supported the notion of a separate language to the extent of calling for linguistic secession from Catalan.
Ultimately, it doesn't really matter whether you call Mallorquín a dialect or a language. What does matter is where you stand on the issue politically. And that, it would appear, is all that matters.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Talk Talk
The Germans have a marvellously literal vocabulary. Take the word "Mundart"; it is the German for dialect. Literally, it means mouth-type. Dialect and accent, though of course different, are often interwoven in creating a sort of über-Mundart, if I can use such an expression. One begets the other, or is it the other way round? The Germans can also lay claim to one of the most horrid accents known to European man - rural Franconian in Bavaria. Not only horrid, it is incomprehensible even to those who speak it.
I was thinking about Mundart and accents and mouth-types this afternoon; mouth-types should just as equally apply to accents. In fact I was thinking about all this after yesterday's piece. But it hit home when I went for an hour or so's cooling by the sea. There were two young Mallorcan women. Not unattractive it must be said. Shame about the mouth-type. I know many Mallorcans, and most are dear, sweet people, but they are possessed of one great flaw - they sound as though they are cats being strangled, and usually cats being strangled very loudly. For a people who apparently have a trait which eschews drawing attention to themselves, the Mallorcans have a strange way of showing it, when it comes to what emanates via their vocal chords. One of my Mallorcan neighbours has a gob on her the size of Albufera, and she is hardly unique.
Most languages, dialects and accents are tolerable, even if some, like Dutch, grate like nails being drawn down a blackboard. Not all mouth-types can attain the sensuous perfection of the French or the rich melodies of the Irish. Local accents in Britain are not necessarily the stuff of mouth-type beauty - dense Brummie for instance; Mallorquín is the sort of Brummie of the "Spanish" languages. Listen to a bunch of Mallorcans speaking and there is this repetitiousness of the "cha-aaah" sound, which lends itself to the strangled-cat metaphor. Then there is the sheer length of some vowel sounds. Take a very short word like "bé" (the equivalent of bien in Spanish). This is not just the whole nine yards of long vowels, it is the whole nine hundred yards - beeeaaaarrrr. Strangled cats and strangled sheep.
You see, when they go on about defence of local languages and all the rest, they are missing one vital test - whether it actually sounds any good or not. There are doubtless local accents and dialects dotted around Europe that could compete, for sheer rhapsodic quality, with the French, but Mallorquín is not one of them. And then you come back to the volume. All those sound limiters in bars and so on, has anyone ever thought about fitting one to a Mallorcan?
Anyway, we all speak with different tongues, and linguistic diversity is something to be celebrated not criticised. I speak with a tongue. Right here on this blog. I just have. There is my tongue. Can you see it? Inside my cheek. All of this stuff in my tongue; all of this I have just written. True or false, as Riki Lash might ask - in an American accent.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Beatles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QShSmpI0r9k). Today's title - Er, well who did this?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
I was thinking about Mundart and accents and mouth-types this afternoon; mouth-types should just as equally apply to accents. In fact I was thinking about all this after yesterday's piece. But it hit home when I went for an hour or so's cooling by the sea. There were two young Mallorcan women. Not unattractive it must be said. Shame about the mouth-type. I know many Mallorcans, and most are dear, sweet people, but they are possessed of one great flaw - they sound as though they are cats being strangled, and usually cats being strangled very loudly. For a people who apparently have a trait which eschews drawing attention to themselves, the Mallorcans have a strange way of showing it, when it comes to what emanates via their vocal chords. One of my Mallorcan neighbours has a gob on her the size of Albufera, and she is hardly unique.
Most languages, dialects and accents are tolerable, even if some, like Dutch, grate like nails being drawn down a blackboard. Not all mouth-types can attain the sensuous perfection of the French or the rich melodies of the Irish. Local accents in Britain are not necessarily the stuff of mouth-type beauty - dense Brummie for instance; Mallorquín is the sort of Brummie of the "Spanish" languages. Listen to a bunch of Mallorcans speaking and there is this repetitiousness of the "cha-aaah" sound, which lends itself to the strangled-cat metaphor. Then there is the sheer length of some vowel sounds. Take a very short word like "bé" (the equivalent of bien in Spanish). This is not just the whole nine yards of long vowels, it is the whole nine hundred yards - beeeaaaarrrr. Strangled cats and strangled sheep.
You see, when they go on about defence of local languages and all the rest, they are missing one vital test - whether it actually sounds any good or not. There are doubtless local accents and dialects dotted around Europe that could compete, for sheer rhapsodic quality, with the French, but Mallorquín is not one of them. And then you come back to the volume. All those sound limiters in bars and so on, has anyone ever thought about fitting one to a Mallorcan?
Anyway, we all speak with different tongues, and linguistic diversity is something to be celebrated not criticised. I speak with a tongue. Right here on this blog. I just have. There is my tongue. Can you see it? Inside my cheek. All of this stuff in my tongue; all of this I have just written. True or false, as Riki Lash might ask - in an American accent.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Beatles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QShSmpI0r9k). Today's title - Er, well who did this?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
I Say High, You Say Low
At the risk of further suggestions that I have a personal agenda, which I do not, more on the Castilian-Catalan language debate. Yesterday's "Diario" reported on the support by a group called "La Mesa del Turismo" (tourism table if you like) for a so-called manifesto for a common language, issued by a group of intellectuals who seek to defend the use of Castilian. This table includes none other than Air Berlin, who were at the centre of the apparent row regarding the "invitation" by the Balearic Government to use Catalan (14 June: Where The Air Is Rarefied).
On 2 July, the Mallorca Council announced that it would use 400,000 euros to promote the use of Catalan in the restaurant sector. The president of the "table" talks of "a linguistic police" imposing Catalan on the restaurants. The group is also concerned about language for things such as road signs and, in general, for Spanish tourists, Castilian speakers and foreigners.
So, here we have a clique of intellectuals making common cause with business in pursuing a common language - Castilian - and a local council that is prepared to spend public money in order to get menus printed in Catalan. One is almost inclined to wish a plague on both their asylums. In today's "Diario", the Catalan actor Jordi Dauder is reported as saying that "Castilian is not in danger, for God's sake", pointing out that the manifesto is a "political maneouvre". He speaks sense, though the Mallorca Council's restaurant language initiative is hardly anything else.
There is something vaguely absurd about a manifesto that seeks to defend what is the national language in the sense that it is spoken by more Spaniards as a first language than it is not. By the same token, interference in how businesses (restaurants) operate, as was the case with Air Berlin, should be a matter for businesses not for politicians. It isn't as if Catalan (or Mallorquín) is not already the language that is used. A restaurant owner chooses his language or languages based on his market; therefore, he will usually display a menu in Catalan (or Mallorquín), which is as it should be if that is his main market. Road signs are the same. Come from Palma Airport, and you do not see Puerto de Alcúdia, you see Port d'Alcúdia, the Catalan version.
Both sides of this debate seem to be lapsing into posturing. As I have said before, the overriding factor should be one of pragmatism, which would generally mean the use of Castilian. But not at the expense of what is, after all, a far from insignificant language - Catalan. It is though a debate that will not go away, as it runs far, far deeper than the mere use of road signs. History and cultures are intrinsically bound up in the debate, and recent history (that of the Franco era) saw the outlawing (in official circles at any rate) of a language spoken by millions. Post-Franco, the Spanish constitution has as one its precepts the defence of the different languages. Consequently, the debate is institutionally sanctioned. Go back further, and the creation of the Spanish nation at the time of the Catholic Kings was a defining moment in the linguistic debate. As most who know about business affairs will acknowledge, there is no such thing as a merger, there is only acquisition or at least one dominant partner. So it was with the union through marriage of Aragon and Castile. Isabel wore the trousers in that marriage, and Castile and its language came to dominate through the greater strength of Castile's trade and through the creation of empire. But go back further, to the time of King Jaime I, the liberator of Mallorca, and there is the firm hand of Catalan written onto the manuscript, or manifesto if you prefer. Jaime was, along with Ramón Llull, one of the great Catalan-ists, even if Llull was more eclectic in his linguistics.
In the Mallorcan context, therefore, there is the force of one of the island's most important figures (arguably the most important figure) to sustain and support the debate. But that, of course, ignores the fact that Catalan and Mallorquín are not the same thing. The latter may be a derivative of the former, but it differs in many respects. I bow to the insights in "Beloved Majorcans" which make it clear that Mallorquín is not just a less direct language than Catalan it is also a language that reflects a specific society and character. When the language debate is positioned on the polarities of Castilian and Catalan, it fails to recognise, in Mallorca at any rate, that neither is the local language.
The posturing is not one that arises in everyday life here. Most Mallorcan people are well aware that incomers do not speak their language. As a consequence, in addition to the Mallorcans who choose to use Castilian in any event, the languages co-exist in relative harmony. I, for example, can understand much written Mallorquín but I can't speak it, so I use Castilian, and so do those to whom I speak. I have never once, bar some ribbing, encountered any opposition to this. The politicans and the intellectuals are, it would seem, talking over the heads of the common people. But then, 'twas ever thus.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Dionne Warwick (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gsUuZMpXHk). Today's title - one says one thing, the other another - who was this?.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
On 2 July, the Mallorca Council announced that it would use 400,000 euros to promote the use of Catalan in the restaurant sector. The president of the "table" talks of "a linguistic police" imposing Catalan on the restaurants. The group is also concerned about language for things such as road signs and, in general, for Spanish tourists, Castilian speakers and foreigners.
So, here we have a clique of intellectuals making common cause with business in pursuing a common language - Castilian - and a local council that is prepared to spend public money in order to get menus printed in Catalan. One is almost inclined to wish a plague on both their asylums. In today's "Diario", the Catalan actor Jordi Dauder is reported as saying that "Castilian is not in danger, for God's sake", pointing out that the manifesto is a "political maneouvre". He speaks sense, though the Mallorca Council's restaurant language initiative is hardly anything else.
There is something vaguely absurd about a manifesto that seeks to defend what is the national language in the sense that it is spoken by more Spaniards as a first language than it is not. By the same token, interference in how businesses (restaurants) operate, as was the case with Air Berlin, should be a matter for businesses not for politicians. It isn't as if Catalan (or Mallorquín) is not already the language that is used. A restaurant owner chooses his language or languages based on his market; therefore, he will usually display a menu in Catalan (or Mallorquín), which is as it should be if that is his main market. Road signs are the same. Come from Palma Airport, and you do not see Puerto de Alcúdia, you see Port d'Alcúdia, the Catalan version.
Both sides of this debate seem to be lapsing into posturing. As I have said before, the overriding factor should be one of pragmatism, which would generally mean the use of Castilian. But not at the expense of what is, after all, a far from insignificant language - Catalan. It is though a debate that will not go away, as it runs far, far deeper than the mere use of road signs. History and cultures are intrinsically bound up in the debate, and recent history (that of the Franco era) saw the outlawing (in official circles at any rate) of a language spoken by millions. Post-Franco, the Spanish constitution has as one its precepts the defence of the different languages. Consequently, the debate is institutionally sanctioned. Go back further, and the creation of the Spanish nation at the time of the Catholic Kings was a defining moment in the linguistic debate. As most who know about business affairs will acknowledge, there is no such thing as a merger, there is only acquisition or at least one dominant partner. So it was with the union through marriage of Aragon and Castile. Isabel wore the trousers in that marriage, and Castile and its language came to dominate through the greater strength of Castile's trade and through the creation of empire. But go back further, to the time of King Jaime I, the liberator of Mallorca, and there is the firm hand of Catalan written onto the manuscript, or manifesto if you prefer. Jaime was, along with Ramón Llull, one of the great Catalan-ists, even if Llull was more eclectic in his linguistics.
In the Mallorcan context, therefore, there is the force of one of the island's most important figures (arguably the most important figure) to sustain and support the debate. But that, of course, ignores the fact that Catalan and Mallorquín are not the same thing. The latter may be a derivative of the former, but it differs in many respects. I bow to the insights in "Beloved Majorcans" which make it clear that Mallorquín is not just a less direct language than Catalan it is also a language that reflects a specific society and character. When the language debate is positioned on the polarities of Castilian and Catalan, it fails to recognise, in Mallorca at any rate, that neither is the local language.
The posturing is not one that arises in everyday life here. Most Mallorcan people are well aware that incomers do not speak their language. As a consequence, in addition to the Mallorcans who choose to use Castilian in any event, the languages co-exist in relative harmony. I, for example, can understand much written Mallorquín but I can't speak it, so I use Castilian, and so do those to whom I speak. I have never once, bar some ribbing, encountered any opposition to this. The politicans and the intellectuals are, it would seem, talking over the heads of the common people. But then, 'twas ever thus.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Dionne Warwick (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gsUuZMpXHk). Today's title - one says one thing, the other another - who was this?.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Speaking In Tongues
Hackneyed cliché time – education is a political football. No more so than in Mallorca where the language of education is as much a part of the political keepy-uppy as the curriculum.
The Partido Popular (PP), which enjoys something of a polls lead in Mallorca ahead of the general election in March, has said that it will make castellano (Castilian, or Spanish if you prefer) the language of education, regardless of location. It has also said that it will introduce English learning from age three. The electorate has more pressing concerns than which language is to be used to teach its children, but it is a subject that has the power to divide more than most.
In Mallorca, where Catalan dominates the educational scene, there is the additional complication that Mallorquín lays claim to its own status as a language. Far from everyone will accept that Mallorquín is merely a variant of Catalan. In some respects it isn’t. A Catalan speaker from Barcelona struggles with Mallorquín, not just because of the accent but also because elements of the local language are different. Even something as basic as the definite article is different. In Catalan, the masculine and feminine “the” is “el” and “la”, the same as Castilian; in Mallorquín, it is “es” and “sa”. In Mallorca, it isn’t a simple (!) case of reconciling the educational claims and needs of two languages – Castilian and Catalan – but of three.
Regional autonomy and also respect for regional languages, suppressed under Franco, have been things of Spanish democracy since the end of the dictatorship, but both have opened cans of worms, albeit for laudable reasons. Standardisation of education may make sense for centralist-minded politicians, but it creates tensions because of the decentralisation of institutions. They are essentially incompatible. The PP may yet win the election and press ahead with its Castilian-first philosophy. It would win a lot of supporters among those who find it absurd that the national language should not have primacy. The problem is that there are plenty who disagree that Castilian is the national language. And education is the battlefield, or should that be playing-field?
And while on language, elsewhere I saw something about Spanish politeness or rudeness as they are expressed through language – Castilian in this case. It was said that “gracias” and “por favor” were not generally used, certainly not to the extent that the British would use “thank you” or “please”. In the case of “por favor”, this is generally true, but with “gracias” it is not. In shops, for instance, it is the norm for a checkout person or assistant to say “gracias” as they hand over change. I don’t find or believe that the usage is any less than would be usual in Britain with “thank you”. As to the lack of “por favor”, this is not, as is claimed, a function of grammar negating its necessity. It is not used because it is not used. No more difficult than that. In French, there is similar disinclination to use “s’il vous plaît”. It has nothing to do with grammar, it is convention. Say to a waiter, “tomo un café” (I’ll have a coffee), the “por favor” is superfluous unless you really want to use it. It is not rude, it is just convention.
QUIZ
Yesterday – What else but “Vienna”, Ultravox. Today’s title – album by? (American, innovative, have been “quizzed” here before.)
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
The Partido Popular (PP), which enjoys something of a polls lead in Mallorca ahead of the general election in March, has said that it will make castellano (Castilian, or Spanish if you prefer) the language of education, regardless of location. It has also said that it will introduce English learning from age three. The electorate has more pressing concerns than which language is to be used to teach its children, but it is a subject that has the power to divide more than most.
In Mallorca, where Catalan dominates the educational scene, there is the additional complication that Mallorquín lays claim to its own status as a language. Far from everyone will accept that Mallorquín is merely a variant of Catalan. In some respects it isn’t. A Catalan speaker from Barcelona struggles with Mallorquín, not just because of the accent but also because elements of the local language are different. Even something as basic as the definite article is different. In Catalan, the masculine and feminine “the” is “el” and “la”, the same as Castilian; in Mallorquín, it is “es” and “sa”. In Mallorca, it isn’t a simple (!) case of reconciling the educational claims and needs of two languages – Castilian and Catalan – but of three.
Regional autonomy and also respect for regional languages, suppressed under Franco, have been things of Spanish democracy since the end of the dictatorship, but both have opened cans of worms, albeit for laudable reasons. Standardisation of education may make sense for centralist-minded politicians, but it creates tensions because of the decentralisation of institutions. They are essentially incompatible. The PP may yet win the election and press ahead with its Castilian-first philosophy. It would win a lot of supporters among those who find it absurd that the national language should not have primacy. The problem is that there are plenty who disagree that Castilian is the national language. And education is the battlefield, or should that be playing-field?
And while on language, elsewhere I saw something about Spanish politeness or rudeness as they are expressed through language – Castilian in this case. It was said that “gracias” and “por favor” were not generally used, certainly not to the extent that the British would use “thank you” or “please”. In the case of “por favor”, this is generally true, but with “gracias” it is not. In shops, for instance, it is the norm for a checkout person or assistant to say “gracias” as they hand over change. I don’t find or believe that the usage is any less than would be usual in Britain with “thank you”. As to the lack of “por favor”, this is not, as is claimed, a function of grammar negating its necessity. It is not used because it is not used. No more difficult than that. In French, there is similar disinclination to use “s’il vous plaît”. It has nothing to do with grammar, it is convention. Say to a waiter, “tomo un café” (I’ll have a coffee), the “por favor” is superfluous unless you really want to use it. It is not rude, it is just convention.
QUIZ
Yesterday – What else but “Vienna”, Ultravox. Today’s title – album by? (American, innovative, have been “quizzed” here before.)
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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