This is an accepted version of this page
104-671: The Republican Left of Catalonia ( Catalan : Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya , ERC ; IPA: [əsˈkɛrə rəpubːliˈkanə ðə kətəˈluɲə] ; generically branded as Esquerra Republicana ) is a pro-Catalan independence , social democratic political party in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia , with a presence also in Valencia , the Balearic Islands and the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales ( Northern Catalonia ). It
208-728: A 2011 study the total number of Catalan speakers was over 9.8 million, with 5.9 million residing in Catalonia. More than half of them spoke Catalan as a second language, with native speakers being about 4.4 million of those (more than 2.8 in Catalonia). Very few Catalan monoglots exist; virtually all of the Catalan speakers in Spain are bilingual speakers of Catalan and Spanish, with 99.7% of Catalan speakers in Catalonia able to speak Spanish and 99.9% able to understand it. In Roussillon , only
312-424: A denomination based on cultural affinity and common heritage, that has also had a subsequent political interpretation but no official status. Various interpretations of the term may include some or all of these regions. The number of people known to be fluent in Catalan varies depending on the sources used. A 2004 study did not count the total number of speakers, but estimated a total of 9–9.5 million by matching
416-521: A large number of Catalan colonies that today continue to maintain the Catalan language. They also founded many Catalan casals (associations). One classification of Catalan is given by Pèire Bèc : However, the ascription of Catalan to the Occitano-Romance branch of Gallo-Romance languages is not shared by all linguists and philologists, particularly among Spanish ones, such as Ramón Menéndez Pidal . Catalan bears varying degrees of similarity to
520-495: A minority of French Catalans speak Catalan nowadays, with French being the majority language for the inhabitants after a continued process of language shift . According to a 2019 survey by the Catalan government, 31.5% of the inhabitants of Catalonia predominantly spoke Catalan at home whereas 52.7% spoke Spanish, 2.8% both Catalan and Spanish and 10.8% other languages. Spanish was the most spoken language in Barcelona (according to
624-647: A network of community-run schools engaged in Catalan language immersion programs. In Alicante province , Catalan is being replaced by Spanish and in Alghero by Italian . There is also well ingrained diglossia in the Valencian Community , Ibiza , and to a lesser extent, in the rest of the Balearic islands . During the 20th century many Catalans emigrated or went into exile to Venezuela , Mexico , Cuba , Argentina , and other South American countries. They formed
728-1002: A shared history with the Western Romance innovative core, especially Occitan. Like all Romance languages, Catalan has a handful of native words which are unique to it, or rare elsewhere. These include: The Gothic superstrate produced different outcomes in Spanish and Catalan. For example, Catalan fang "mud" and rostir "to roast", of Germanic origin, contrast with Spanish lodo and asar , of Latin origin; whereas Catalan filosa "spinning wheel" and templa "temple", of Latin origin, contrast with Spanish rueca and sien , of Germanic origin. The same happens with Arabic loanwords. Thus, Catalan alfàbia "large earthenware jar" and rajola "tile", of Arabic origin, contrast with Spanish tinaja and teja , of Latin origin; whereas Catalan oli "oil" and oliva "olive", of Latin origin, contrast with Spanish aceite and aceituna . However,
832-427: A strong supporter of Catalan independence , as well as being regionalist , Catalan nationalist , eco-nationalist , and left-wing nationalist . Additionally, it advocates for republicanism and regionalism , and has a federalist faction. It is a catch-all/big tent party in nature, and is generally positioned as centre-left to left-wing . Referendums Local Its basic political principles are defined in
936-513: A transition from Medieval to Renaissance values, something that can also be seen in Metge 's work. The first book produced with movable type in the Iberian Peninsula was printed in Catalan. With the union of the crowns of Castille and Aragon in 1479, the Spanish kings ruled over different kingdoms, each with its own cultural, linguistic and political particularities, and they had to swear by
1040-532: A tripartite with the PSUC and the socialists or favouring Convergència i Unió (CiU), Barrera—refractory to alliances with parties from a Marxist tradition—determined ERC would vote Jordi Pujol (CiU) as president of the Generalitat without compensation and without joining the government, as a gesture of "national unity". In 1984, however, ERC only obtained five deputies, and began a brief period of decline, overshadowed by
1144-564: Is a Western Romance language . It is the official language of Andorra , and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spain : Catalonia , the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community , where it is called Valencian ( valencià ). It has semi-official status in the Italian comune of Alghero , and it is spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France and in two further areas in eastern Spain:
SECTION 10
#17330848270561248-602: Is also the main sponsor of the independence movement from France and Spain in the territories known as Catalan Countries , focusing in recent years on the creation of a Catalan Republic in Catalonia proper. Its current president is Oriol Junqueras and its secretary-general is Marta Rovira . The party is a member of the European Free Alliance . ERC, a party of relevant Catalan politicians including Francesc Macià , Lluís Companys and Josep Tarradellas , played an important role in Catalan and Spanish politics during
1352-415: Is mandatory in all schools, but it is possible to use Spanish for studying in the public education system of Catalonia in two situations—if the teacher assigned to a class chooses to use Spanish, or during the learning process of one or more recently arrived immigrant students. There is also some intergenerational shift towards Catalan. More recently, several Spanish political forces have tried to increase
1456-579: Is pronounced [kətəˈla] in the Eastern Catalan dialects, and [kataˈla] in the Western dialects. In the Valencian Community and Carche , the term valencià [valensiˈa] is frequently used instead. Thus, the name "Valencian", although often employed for referring to the varieties specific to the Valencian Community and Carche, is also used by Valencians as a name for
1560-686: The Basque Nationalist Party added in a show of solidarity faithful to its line of agrarian social justice, which it tried to apply in Navarre , and a considerable nationalist exacerbation, which favored the paramilitary activities and the separatist propaganda of the Joventuts d'Estat Català , directed by Josep Dencàs . Dencàs managed the Ministry of the Interior and on 18 September, retaliating against
1664-640: The Catalan Countries ). The party is also federated with parties in the Balearic Islands and in Northern Catalonia in France, as well as with Republican Left of the Valencian Country in the Valencian Community . Except for their Balearic counterpart, none of the latter currently have any parliamentary representation in their respective territories, though they do have eight municipal councillors in
1768-642: The Catalan League , a new denomination of the veteran Regionalist League of Catalonia , were absent. The new law was equivalent of the State "law of leases" that could not be approved by the Cortes Generales in the summer of 1933, which guaranteed to the rabassaires the exploitation of lands for a minimum of six years and the right to access the property of the plots that they had been cultivating uninterruptedly for more than eighteen years. The Crop Contracts Law
1872-526: The Crop Contracts Law , which protected tenant farmers and granted access to the land they were cultivating, but it was contested by the Regionalist League and provoking a legal dispute with the Spanish government. In October 1933, Joan Lluhí and other members of the l'Opinió Group, as well Josep Tarradellas , left ERC because there were in disagree with Macià over the distribution of powers between
1976-722: The Crown of Aragon , and Catalan was present all over the Mediterranean world. During this period, the Royal Chancery propagated a highly standardized language. Catalan was widely used as an official language in Sicily until the 15th century, and in Sardinia until the 17th. During this period, the language was what Costa Carreras terms "one of the 'great languages' of medieval Europe". Martorell 's novel of chivalry Tirant lo Blanc (1490) shows
2080-825: The Executive Council and the President of the Generalitat, and founded the Nationalist Republican Left Party (PNRE). On 6 October 1934, Lluís Companys, who had been elected by the Parliament of Catalonia as the new President of the Generalitat after the death of Francesc Macià in December 1933, following the entry of right-wing ministers of the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA) into
2184-463: The Gascon dialect ) is similar to the distance among different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century and still today remains its closest relative. Catalan shares many traits with the other neighboring Romance languages (Occitan, French, Italian , Sardinian as well as Spanish and Portuguese among others). However, despite being spoken mostly on
SECTION 20
#17330848270562288-479: The Honor Award of Catalan Letters (1969). The first Catalan-language TV show was broadcast in 1964. At the same time, oppression of the Catalan language and identity was carried out in schools, through governmental bodies, and in religious centers. In addition to the loss of prestige for Catalan and its prohibition in schools, migration during the 1950s into Catalonia from other parts of Spain also contributed to
2392-479: The Iberian Peninsula , Catalan has marked differences with the Iberian Romance group ( Spanish and Portuguese ) in terms of pronunciation , grammar, and especially vocabulary; it shows instead its closest affinity with languages native to France and northern Italy, particularly Occitan and to a lesser extent Gallo-Romance ( Franco-Provençal , French , Gallo-Italian ). According to Ethnologue ,
2496-751: The L'Opinió Group of Joan Lluhí i Vallescà . The party had done extremely well in the municipal elections of 12 April 1931. Two days later, on 14 April, few hours before the proclamation of the Spanish Republic in Madrid , Macià proclaimed in Barcelona the Catalan Republic within the Iberian Federation. This was not exactly what had been agreed in the Pact of San Sebastián , so three days later they negotiated with
2600-629: The Rabassa Morta ("dead strain"), a special type of land leasing for vineyards in Catalonia, and promote their access to the land they were cultivating. The Crop Contracts Law was not implemented because it was revoked by the Court of Constitutional Guarantees of the Spanish Government . The negotiation that followed between the Spanish and Catalan governments was interrupted by the Events of 6 October ,
2704-509: The Second Republic , the Civil War , the anti-Francoist resistance and the transition to democracy . Recovering a key position during the 2000s, it became a coalition partner in various Catalan governments, obtaining in 2021 the presidency of Catalonia for the first time since 1980 after the appointment of Pere Aragonès as President of the Generalitat . In 2022, it had 9,047 members. After
2808-590: The Socialist Union of Catalonia and other minor left-wing parties, won a large majority of seats (67 of 85), while the previously hegemonic Regionalist League , representing a more conservative view of Catalan nationalism, came in second place but far behind ERC (17 from 85). From this strong position, the ERC sought to improve the living conditions of the popular classes and the petite bourgeoisie, approving laws in areas such as in culture, health, education and civil law, and
2912-554: The anarcho-syndicalist movement in Barcelona, while Miquel Badia , of the Republican Left of Catalonia , was commissioned to the Public Order services of Catalonia. However, since neither of the two governments wanted to start a new confrontation, representatives of the same negotiated over the summer the introduction of amendments in the regulation that the law had to develop. But the agreement reached between Samper and Companys
3016-453: The consul in Barcelona was also asked. He declared that Catalan "is taught in schools, it is printed and spoken, not only among the lower class, but also among people of first quality, also in social gatherings, as in visits and congresses", indicating that it was spoken everywhere "with the exception of the royal courts". He also indicated that Catalan was spoken "in the Kingdom of Valencia, in
3120-606: The eastern strip of Aragon and the Carche area in the Region of Murcia . The Catalan-speaking territories are often called the Països Catalans or "Catalan Countries". The language evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees . Nineteenth-century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival , culminating in the early 1900s. The word Catalan is derived from
3224-712: The last Catalan parliamentary election in 2021 , the Republican Left of Catalonia has 33 seats in the Parliament of Catalonia , making it the largest group by number of seats, tied with the PSC, and second in number of votes. It also has one seat in the Balearic Parliament . Until 2010, it was one of the three coalition members of the tripartite left-wing Catalan Government , together with Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC) and Initiative for Catalonia Greens (ICV). The coalition
Republican Left of Catalonia - Misplaced Pages Continue
3328-559: The laws of each territory before the respective parliaments . But after the War of the Spanish Succession , Spain became an absolute monarchy under Philip V , which led to the assimilation of the Crown of Aragon by the Crown of Castile through the Nueva Planta decrees , as a first step in the creation of the Spanish nation-state ; as in other contemporary European states, this meant
3432-600: The 11th and 14th centuries. During the 11th and 12th centuries the Catalan rulers expanded southward to the Ebro river , and in the 13th century they conquered the lands that would become the Kingdoms of Valencia and the Majorca . The city of Alghero in Sardinia was repopulated with Catalan speakers in the 14th century. The language also reached Murcia , which became Spanish-speaking in
3536-645: The 15th century. In the Low Middle Ages , Catalan went through a golden age, reaching a peak of maturity and cultural richness. Examples include the work of Majorcan polymath Ramon Llull (1232–1315), the Four Great Chronicles (13th–14th centuries), and the Valencian school of poetry culminating in Ausiàs March (1397–1459). By the 15th century, the city of Valencia had become the sociocultural center of
3640-454: The 19th century saw a Catalan literary revival ( Renaixença ), which has continued up to the present day. This period starts with Aribau 's Ode to the Homeland (1833); followed in the second half of the 19th century, and the early 20th by the work of Verdaguer (poetry), Oller (realist novel), and Guimerà (drama). In the 19th century, the region of Carche , in the province of Murcia
3744-465: The Arabic element is generally much more prevalent in Spanish. Situated between two large linguistic blocks (Iberian Romance and Gallo-Romance), Catalan has many unique lexical choices, such as enyorar "to miss somebody", apaivagar "to calm somebody down", and rebutjar "reject". Traditionally Catalan-speaking territories are sometimes called the Països Catalans (Catalan Countries),
3848-543: The Balearic Islands and six councillors in the Valencian Community. Occitan Republican Left , formed in 2008, acts as the Aranese section of the party. The Republican Left of Catalonia is the oldest political party in Catalan politics that has supported the idea of a sovereign Catalan nation for the entirety of its existence. From the inception of ERC in 1931, they have always been in favor of statehood for Catalonia. After
3952-461: The Catalan countryside, especially in the sector of the vineyard, in which some 70,000 small farmers dedicated to the cultivation of grapes did not have ownership of the land, but cultivating it under the rabassa morta and ran the risk of being evicted from the land. On 21 March 1934, the Parliament of Catalonia unanimously approved the Crop Contracts Law by the deputies present — those of
4056-904: The Catalan government were sentenced by the Supreme Court of the Republic and jailed, while the Statute of Autonomy was suspended until February 1936. In 1936, at the dawn of the Spanish Civil War , ERC became part of the Popular Front to contest that year's election . Esquerra became the leading force of the Popular Front, (called Front d'Esquerres , "Left Front" in Catalan) in Catalonia, which it won 41 from 54 Catalan seats, 21 of them belonging to ERC. The new left-wing Spanish government pardoned Companys and
4160-401: The Dictatorship. After the death of General Franco (1975), ERC celebrated in July 1976 the 8th National Congress, in which Barrera was confirmed as leader. In the election to Constituent Cortes of 1977, ERC went into coalition, as it was not yet legalized because of its status as a Republican party. ERC had requested registration in the register of political parties on 14 March of that year, but
4264-555: The European framework and together with an ideological position of the left that takes the defense of democracy and environment, human rights and rights of the peoples, and based its ideology and political action on social progress and solidarity. In the 1993 Spanish general election , ERC recovered its presence in the Congress of Deputies. The same year, Jordi Carbonell and Avel·lí Artís i Gener "Tísner", Left Nationalists members, joined ERC. The local elections of 28 May 1995 represented an important quantitative and qualitative leap of
Republican Left of Catalonia - Misplaced Pages Continue
4368-515: The Generalitat, chaired by the socialist Pasqual Maragall , assuming six government departments, among which the "Conseller en Cap" ( Prime Minister ), belonging to Carod-Rovira. The other five ministries assumed by ERC were Education ( Josep Bargalló ), Welfare and Family ( Anna Simó ), Commerce, Tourism and Consumption ( Pere Esteve ), Government and Public Administration ( Joan Carretero ) and Universities, Research and Information Society ( Carles Solà ). In addition, another ERC leader, Ernest Benach ,
4472-432: The Government of the Spanish Republic, unlawfully declared a Catalan State within a Spanish Federal Republic . CEDA was considered close to fascism and, therefore, it was feared that this was the first step towards suppressings the autonomy and taking complete power in Spain. The proclamation was quickly suppressed by the Spanish army, and the Catalan government was arrested. The party leaders (including Companys itself) and
4576-404: The League "It put forward the defense of the economic interests of its potential voters to that of the autonomic powers, contradicting the desire expressed in its programmatic declaration of 1933 to aspire to a formula of much wider autonomy". On 8 June 1934, the Court of Guarantees declared, by 13 votes to 10 and without many of its members having heard the case, that the Parliament of Catalonia
4680-456: The Madrid government that Macià would become president of the Generalitat of Catalonia , an autonomous Catalan government within the recently founded Spanish Republic . In September 1932, the Spanish Republican Cortes approved the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia which, among other provisions, granted a Catalan Parliament with full legislative powers, and it was elected on 20 November 1932 . The Republican Left of Catalonia, in coalition with
4784-417: The Ministry of Interior - a month after the elections - responded: "The name proposed by the entity, referring to a political system incompatible with the one that is legally valid in Spain, can represent an assumption of inadmissibility ". The party tried a coalition with Left Front or with Democratic Convergence, although finally it allied with the Party of Labour of Spain . The name of the electoral coalition
4888-613: The Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis to the south. From the 8th century onwards the Catalan counts extended their territory southwards and westwards at the expense of the Muslims , bringing their language with them. This process was given definitive impetus with the separation of the County of Barcelona from the Carolingian Empire in 988. In the 11th century, documents written in macaronic Latin begin to show Catalan elements, with texts written almost completely in Romance appearing by 1080. Old Catalan shared many features with Gallo-Romance , diverging from Old Occitan between
4992-473: The Spanish province of Alicante settled around Oran , while those from French Catalonia and Menorca migrated to Algiers . By 1911, there were around 100,000 speakers of Patuet , as their speech was called. After the Algerian declaration of independence in 1962, almost all the Pied-Noir Catalan speakers fled to Northern Catalonia or Alicante. The French government only recognizes French as an official language. Nevertheless, on 10 December 2007,
5096-463: The Spanish Transition. The entrance of these young people dynamizes the party, and in the Catalan election of 1988 obtained six seats. In 1989 a new direction led by Àngel Colom assumed the independence of Catalonia as a political aim. As a result of this new orientation, in 1990, the National Front of Catalonia , a historic organization founded in exile in 1940, joined ERC. In 1991, the organization Terra Lliure reconsidered its strategy, and abandoned
5200-430: The Statement of Ideology approved at the 19th National Congress in 1993. This is organised into the three areas that give the organisation its name: Esquerra (commitment to the Left's agenda in the political, economic and social debate), República (commitment to the Republican form of government vs. Spain's current constitutional monarchy ) and Catalunya ( Catalan independentism , which, as understood by ERC, comprises
5304-401: The armed struggle, where some of its members joined ERC and many of those who formed Catalunya Lliure were incorporated too. These facts turned ERC, de facto, into the reference of the left-wing Catalan independentism. The results obtained in the 1992 election to the Parliament of Catalonia placed ERC as the third political force of Catalonia, with the support of more than 210,000 voters and
SECTION 50
#17330848270565408-403: The control of the situation, de facto controlled by the anarchist trade union CNT and their militias, and attempted to organize the war efforts in Catalonia. President Companys appointed Josep Tarradellas Conseller Primer (Prime Minister) in order to form a coalition government with the other Republican forces, including anarchists and communists. However, the party unsuccessfully tried to avoid
5512-419: The diminished use of the language. These migrants were often unaware of the existence of Catalan, and thus felt no need to learn or use it. Catalonia was the economic powerhouse of Spain, so these migrations continued to occur from all corners of the country. Employment opportunities were reduced for those who were not bilingual . Daily newspapers remained exclusively in Spanish until after Franco's death, when
5616-402: The dispute between the landowners and rabassaires . In December 1933, the president of the Government of Catalonia, Francesc Macià , was replaced by Lluís Companys , one of the founders of the Unió de Rabassaires , whose main objective was access to the land of the rabassieres tenants. Company's immediately stated his intention to carry out an agrarian reform adapted to the specificity of
5720-452: The fall of Primo de Rivera (1930), the Catalan left made great efforts to create a united front under the leadership of left-wing independentist leader Francesc Macià. The Republican Left of Catalonia was founded on the Conference of the Catalan Left held in Sants , Barcelona, on 19 March 1931 as the union of the independentist Estat Català ( Catalan State ), led by Francesc Macià , the Catalan Republican Party , led by Lluís Companys and
5824-451: The first one in Catalan since the end of the Civil War, Avui , began to be published in 1976. Since the Spanish transition to democracy (1975–1982), Catalan has been institutionalized as an official language, language of education, and language of mass media; all of which have contributed to its increased prestige. In Catalonia , there is an unparalleled large bilingual European non-state linguistic community. The teaching of Catalan
5928-490: The full control of Catalonia by the Republican government, enacted after the May Days event. The party was declared illegal (along with all other participants in the Popular Front ) by Francisco Franco after he came to power in 1939. The former president of the Catalan Generalitat , Lluís Companys , was arrested by Nazi German agents in collaboration with Vichy France , returned to Spain and executed on 15 October 1940 in Montjuïc Castle , Barcelona. Since 1939, despite
6032-415: The hegemony of the center-right Catalan nationalist coalition CiU. This trend persisted during the next years. In 1986, it lost its presence in the Spanish Cortes. In 1987, the National Call manifesto was published, signed by personalities like Àngel Colom and Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira , who wanted ERC to bring together the new generation of independentists that aroses as a result of the disenchantment with
6136-420: The imposition of the political and cultural characteristics of the dominant groups. Since the political unification of 1714, Spanish assimilation policies towards national minorities have been a constant. The process of assimilation began with secret instructions to the corregidores of the Catalan territory: they "will take the utmost care to introduce the Castilian language, for which purpose he will give
6240-447: The institutional presence of the party. ERC recovered the presence in many local councils of Catalonia, reaching more than 550 elected councillors and 32 mayors, and thus becomes the third municipal political force. In the 1995 Catalan election , ERC obtained the best result in number of votes since the Republic era, more than 305,000 voters and 13 seats. In 1996, after a serious internal crisis, Àngel Colom, along with Pilar Rahola left
6344-425: The islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Sardinia, Corsica and much of Sicily, in the Vall d "Aran and Cerdaña". The defeat of the pro-Habsburg coalition in the War of Spanish Succession (1714) initiated a series of laws which, among other centralizing measures, imposed the use of Spanish in legal documentation all over Spain. Because of this, use of the Catalan language declined into the 18th century. However,
SECTION 60
#17330848270566448-410: The language as a whole, synonymous with "Catalan". Both uses of the term have their respective entries in the dictionaries by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL) and the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC). (See also status of Valencian below). By the 9th century, Catalan had evolved from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the eastern end of the Pyrenees , as well as the territories of
6552-606: The language in features closer to Occitan (and French ). There is evidence that, at least from the 2nd century AD, the vocabulary and phonology of Roman Tarraconensis was different from the rest of Roman Hispania. Differentiation arose generally because Spanish, Asturian , and Galician-Portuguese share certain peripheral archaisms (Spanish hervir , Asturian and Portuguese ferver vs. Catalan bullir , Occitan bolir "to boil") and innovatory regionalisms (Spanish novillo , Asturian nuviellu vs. Catalan torell , Occitan taurèl "bullock"), while Catalan has
6656-415: The late nineteenth century. The movement of the agricultural disease into Catalonia during the late 1800s and early 1900s led to the widespread destruction of the areas grapevines , and consequently, the replacement of prevalent European native strains with those of American origin. Difficulties for those working the land where compounded, as the new vine strains proved to be significantly shorter-lived than
6760-566: The lexical similarity between Catalan and other Romance languages is: 87% with Italian; 85% with Portuguese and Spanish; 76% with Ladin and Romansh ; 75% with Sardinian; and 73% with Romanian. During much of its history, and especially during the Francoist dictatorship (1939–1975), the Catalan language was ridiculed as a mere dialect of Spanish . This view, based on political and ideological considerations, has no linguistic validity. Spanish and Catalan have important differences in their sound systems, lexicon, and grammatical features, placing
6864-427: The linguistic census held by the Government of Catalonia in 2013) and it is understood almost universally. According to 2013 census, Catalan was also very commonly spoken in the city of 1,501,262: it was understood by 95% of the population, while 72.3% over the age of two could speak it (1,137,816), 79% could read it (1,246.555), and 53% could write it (835,080). The share of Barcelona residents who could speak it (72.3%)
6968-406: The linguistic varieties subsumed under the cover term Occitan language (see also differences between Occitan and Catalan and Gallo-Romance languages ). Thus, as it should be expected from closely related languages, Catalan today shares many traits with other Romance languages. Some include Catalan in Occitan, as the linguistic distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as
7072-436: The members of the Catalan government, restoring the self-government. In June Estat Català split from ERC, while the PNRE rejoined it. During the Spanish Civil War ERC, as the leading force of the Generalitat, tried to maintain the unity of the Front in the face of growing tensions between the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) and the pro-soviet Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC), while struggled to recover
7176-421: The most temperate and disguised measures so that the effect is achieved, without the care being noticed". From there, actions in the service of assimilation, discreet or aggressive, were continued, and reached to the last detail, such as, in 1799, the Royal Certificate forbidding anyone to "represent, sing and dance pieces that were not in Spanish". The use of Spanish gradually became more prestigious and marked
7280-443: The obtaining of 11 seats, after a campaign in which, for the first time a party that appeared as a pro-independence party was widely popular. The 18th National Congress of ERC, held in June 1992, approved the reform of its statutes in the face of electoral growth, militancy and territorial presence. ERC advocates in its first statutory article the territorial unity and independence of the Catalan Countries , building its own state within
7384-439: The other hand, there are several language shift processes currently taking place. In the Northern Catalonia area of France, Catalan has followed the same trend as the other minority languages of France, with most of its native speakers being 60 or older (as of 2004). Catalan is studied as a foreign language by 30% of the primary education students, and by 15% of the secondary. The cultural association La Bressola promotes
7488-554: The other parties were obliged to agree with ERC. After several weeks in which it seemed that he would close an agreement with CiU (center-right and nationalist party), it finally opted for a "progressive pact" (called the Pact of the Tinell or popularly the "Tripartit") with the Socialists' Party of Catalonia and the ecosocialist coalition ICV-EUiA . ERC became part of the tripartite government of
7592-593: The party and founded the Independence Party . This party, however, had a short life. In the local elections of 1999, they obtained poor results and Pilar Rahola, who presented himself as head of the list in Barcelona, did not obtain a seat. After that, the party was dissolved. In November 1996, the 21st National Congress of ERC was held. The militants chose a new direction for the party, with Josep Lluís Carod-Rovira as new president and Joan Puigcercós as new general secretary. The new direction announced some changes on
7696-522: The percentage of speakers to the population of each area where Catalan is spoken. The web site of the Generalitat de Catalunya estimated that as of 2004 there were 9,118,882 speakers of Catalan. These figures only reflect potential speakers; today it is the native language of only 35.6% of the Catalan population. According to Ethnologue , Catalan had 4.1 million native speakers and 5.1 million second-language speakers in 2021. According to
7800-460: The population self-identifies with both Catalan and Spanish equally, 36.4% with Catalan and 47.5% only Spanish. In 2003 the same studies concluded no language preference for self-identification within the population above 15 years old: 5% self-identified with both languages, 44.3% with Catalan and 47.5% with Spanish. To promote use of Catalan, the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalonia's official Autonomous government) spends part of its annual budget on
7904-586: The proclamation of the Catalan State , and the arrest of Catalan President Lluís Companys . The Rabassa Morta ("Dead strain" in Catalan ) was a type of contract that was widespread in Catalonia , whereby a lessee rabassaire ("Strain lessee ") rented a portion of land to grow vines , on the condition that the contract was dissolved if one-third of the first strains planted had died. The legal nature of this contract
8008-404: The promotion of the use of Catalan in Catalonia and in other territories, with entities such as Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística (Consortium for Linguistic Normalization). In Andorra , Catalan has always been the sole official language. Since the promulgation of the 1993 constitution , several policies favoring Catalan have been enforced, such as Catalan medium education. On
8112-413: The rest of the territories. (% of the population 15 years old and older). (% of the population 15 years old and older). Crop Contracts Law The Crop Contracts Law ( Catalan : Llei de Contractes de Conreu ) was a law passed by the Parliament of Catalonia on 21 March 1934, and enacted on the symbolic date of 14 April 1934. The basic purpose of the law was to protect the tenant farmers from
8216-496: The social level, including in schools and the University of Barcelona . The Catalan language and culture were still vibrant during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), but were crushed at an unprecedented level throughout the subsequent decades due to Francoist dictatorship (1939–1975), which abolished the official status of Catalan and imposed the use of Spanish in schools and in public administration in all of Spain , while banning
8320-543: The sole official language of the region. Shortly after the French Revolution (1789), the French First Republic prohibited official use of, and enacted discriminating policies against, the regional languages of France, such as Catalan, Alsatian , Breton , Occitan , Flemish , and Basque . After the French colony of Algeria was established in 1830, many Catalan-speaking settlers moved there. People from
8424-512: The start of the decline of Catalan. Starting in the 16th century, Catalan literature came under the influence of Spanish, and the nobles, part of the urban and literary classes became bilingual . With the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), Spain ceded the northern part of Catalonia to France , and soon thereafter the local Catalan varieties came under the influence of French , which in 1700 became
8528-406: The strategy: it does not renounce the independence of Catalonia, but it stops using that idea as the only reference. The new direction wanted to place the party as the new reference of the Catalan left. On 16 November 2003, in the election to the Parliament of Catalonia , ERC obtained 23 seats, becoming the "key party" that would define the composition of the government, since to obtain the majority
8632-457: The term referring to a person first appears in the mid 14th century as Catelaner , followed in the 15th century as Catellain (from Middle French ). It is attested a language name since at least 1652. The word Catalan can be pronounced in English as / ˈ k æ t ə l ə n , - æ n / KAT -ə-lən, -lan or / ˌ k æ t ə ˈ l æ n / KAT -ə- LAN . The endonym
8736-514: The territorial name of Catalonia , itself of disputed etymology. The main theory suggests that Catalunya ( Latin : Gathia Launia ) derives from the name Gothia or Gauthia ('Land of the Goths '), since the origins of the Catalan counts, lords and people were found in the March of Gothia , whence Gothland > Gothlandia > Gothalania > Catalonia theoretically derived. In English,
8840-775: The then General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales officially recognized Catalan as one of the départment's languages and seeks to further promote it in public life and education. In 1807, the Statistics Office of the French Ministry of the Interior asked the prefects for an official survey on the limits of the French language . The survey found that in Roussillon , almost only Catalan was spoken, and since Napoleon wanted to incorporate Catalonia into France, as happened in 1812,
8944-403: The use of Catalan in them. Between 1939 and 1943 newspapers and book printing in Catalan almost disappeared. Francisco Franco's desire for a homogeneous Spanish population resonated with some Catalans in favor of his regime, primarily members of the upper class, who began to reject the use of Catalan. Despite all of these hardships, Catalan continued to be used privately within households, and it
9048-588: The use of Spanish in the Catalan educational system. As a result, in May 2022 the Spanish Supreme Court urged the Catalan regional government to enforce a measure by which 25% of all lessons must be taught in Spanish. According to the Statistical Institute of Catalonia , in 2013 the Catalan language is the second most commonly used in Catalonia, after Spanish , as a native or self-defining language: 7% of
9152-416: The vines they replaced. Thus, the contracts were completed in a very short time and the landowners, seeing that the cultivation of the vine was no longer profitable, expelled the rabassieres to cultivate other plantations. On the other hand, the rabassaires maintained that the replanted vineyards were the same old strain, which could perpetuate the life of the vineyard. This led to an effective gridlock in
9256-559: The weak situation of the party, almost disbanded after the Francoist occupation of Catalonia , ERC went underground and tried to organize anti-fascist resistance around Manuel Juliachs and Jaume Serra. In 1945, the ERC Congress, held in Toulouse since many ERC members lived in exile in France, appointed former Minister Josep Tarradellas as Secretary General, a position he left in 1954 when he
9360-451: Was Left of Catalonia–Democratic Electoral Front ( Esquerra de Catalunya-Front Electoral Democràtic ). The coalition won a seat (Barrera). Some of the electoral promises were the Statute of Autonomy or a referendum about the Monarchy. In October 1977, President Josep Tarradellas (a founder of the party in 1931) returned to Catalonia and the Generalitat was restored. A new text of the Statute
9464-498: Was able to survive Franco's dictatorship. At the end of World War II , however, some of the harsh measures began to be lifted and, while Spanish language remained the sole promoted one, limited number of Catalan literature began to be tolerated. Several prominent Catalan authors resisted the suppression through literature. Private initiative contests were created to reward works in Catalan, among them Joan Martorell prize (1947), Víctor Català prize (1953) Carles Riba award (1950), or
9568-518: Was based on the invasion of state powers, those referring to contractual obligations, that Article 15 of the Constitution of 1931 reserved to the State, while the Government of Catalonia argued that by virtue of Article 12 of the Statute, it corresponded to the legislation in matters of agrarian social policy, that the government's argument was the lack of powers of the Parliament to place the evidence to
9672-467: Was broken when the new government headed by Alejandro Lerroux was set up in Madrid at the beginning of October and three CEDA ministers were part of it. The Revolution of October 1934 began immediately afterwards, in which Companys was one of the protagonists of the Events of 6 October , in which the Catalan State was proclaimed within the " Federal " Spanish Republic. The failure of the proclamation led to
9776-447: Was discussed: while some considered it a rental of the land, others (the majority) considered it a long-term lease. In the eighteenth century, there was an increase in the value of the land at the same time that inflation soared. The landowners considered themselves harmed by the improvements in agricultural methods that prolonged the life of the vineyards, while the rent lost value and extended for several generations. The conflict
9880-477: Was drafted, which ERC opposed because it did not guarantee a minimum self-government. However, in the referendum for its approval, in 1979, ERC was in favour, as it was the only way to regain autonomy. In the first election to the restored Parliament of Catalonia, in 1980, ERC obtained 14 seats (out of a total of 135), which brought Barrera to the Presidency of the Parliament of Catalonia. At the crossroads of forming
9984-448: Was elected President of the Generalitat of Catalonia in exile, replacing Josep Irla . The office of General Secretary of ERC then passed to Joan Sauret. At the end of World War II , in view of a possible overthrow of Francoist Dictatorship with the intervention of the Allied forces, the direction of ERC in exile sent to Catalonia Pere Puig and Joan Rodríguez-Papasseit. During those years ERC
10088-603: Was elected President of the Parliament. Despite having been one of the main forces behind the movement for amendment, the party eventually opposed the 2006 changes to the Catalan Statute of Autonomy to increase Catalonia's autonomy. It did so on the grounds that it did not do enough to increase Catalan self-government. This caused a government crisis with its partners (specially with the PSC) which led to an early election in 2006 . The party has been described as social democratic and
10192-469: Was incompetent on the subject and thus annulled the law. The response by the Government of Catalonia was the approval by the Parliament of Catalonia of a virtually identical law on June 12. The annulment of the Crop Contracts Law created a serious political crisis between Madrid and Barcelona , including the withdrawal of the Republican Left of Catalonia deputies from the Cortes Generales, to which
10296-624: Was lower than that of the overall Catalan population, of whom 81.2% over the age of 15 spoke the language. Knowledge of Catalan has increased significantly in recent decades thanks to a language immersion educational system. An important social characteristic of the Catalan language is that all the areas where it is spoken are bilingual in practice: together with French in Roussillon, with Italian in Alghero, with Spanish and French in Andorra, and with Spanish in
10400-696: Was met with radical opposition from the Catalan Agricultural Institute of San Isidro, which grouped the most important landowners, and the Regionalist League of Catalonia, who asked the government of the Radical Republican Party of Ricardo Samper , that the League and the CEDA supported in Cortes Generales, to appeal the law before the Court of Constitutional Guarantees , which it did on 4 May. The appeal
10504-659: Was often uneasy due to tensions related to the new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia . The snap election on 25 November 2012 saw ERC rise to a total of 21 seats in the Catalan Parliament. Out of Catalonia, it has thirteen seats (fifth largest group) in the Spanish Parliament , eleven seats in the Senate (third largest group) and two seats in the European Parliament . Catalan language Catalan ( català )
10608-504: Was present at the Council of Catalan Democracy and the Council of Democratic Forces. In 1952, Heribert Barrera returned to the interior and assumes the direction of the party de facto . On 11 September 1964, the National Day of Catalonia , ERC and other groups organized the first anti-Franco demonstration since the end of the war. ERC participated successively in any initiative that confronts
10712-524: Was repopulated with Valencian speakers. Catalan spelling was standardized in 1913 and the language became official during the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939). The Second Spanish Republic saw a brief period of tolerance, with most restrictions against Catalan lifted. The Generalitat (the autonomous government of Catalonia, established during the Republic in 1931) made a normal use of Catalan in its administration and put efforts to promote it at
10816-575: Was resolved in favor of the owners, when the Barcelona Provincial Court ruled in 1756, that the contract would be dissolved by either the death of the vineyards, or fifty years after its signing, later confirmed by the Civil Code of 1889. The system was the source of several disputes, especially after the arrival of phylloxera , an agricultural disease affecting vines, which originated in France in
#55944