I have discussed many times about what the language that is spoken in Catalunya, Regne de València, Illes Balears, Aragón, Múrica, South of France, Alghero and Andorra, which I speak, should be named. And I said many times that if "Catalan" was called "Pepito Language", Valencians would not have a problem to say they speak Pepito when also Catalans are saying they speak Pepito.Whether that language begun in Catalunya or València is not what I want to talk about. Some people say that the origins are in València, supporting this idea in the fact that the first book written in the language was written in the Valencian variety. Others, like at the Wikipedia think otherwise.
The fact that there has been a rivalry between València and Catalunya is common knowledge. The fact that "they" dislike "us" is not news. The fact that they would kill themselves before accepting they speak Catalan, is... stupid, obviously, because there is no-one in Western countries who would fight for their believes like they did in the past or like they are doing (not saying is good) in some Islamic countries.
The thing is that last year, despite the opinion of most of the philologists, Valencian became a Language de jure as it became the official language of the Kingdom of València. Not really sure what was the new thing from the law made in the 80's, though, they were talking about that on the news.
So a language. OK, I am going to start writing in my CV that I understand Valencian as a Near Native although I speak it differently, but they can understand me.
There is not such a problem in Illes Balears or Andorra. I never heard a Andorran saying that s/he speaks Andorran, and it is a different country than Spain and could do whatever they wanted. Though, they say they speak Catalan.
But as always, there is two sides of the coin. There are those people who think that Valencian is a total distinct language from Catalan and there are those who think it is the same. This is me, for example.The other day I ran into a demonstration in my town. Imagine, a town where nothing ever happens and there it was the Baix Gaià'n Correllengua (lit. run-tongue) by the CAL, an association to preserve the Catalan Language. Baix Gaià is the region where my town is, a non-comarca, to make themselves distinct from the comarca of Tarragonés.
So, in the image you can see a rather small demonstration. Sorry, the picture isn't good but I made it with my cell phone. In the banner it says "One tongue, one nation" and it depicts the map of where Catalan is spoken except for Alghero, in Italy. So, they want the union of all the Catalan speaking territories. Though, what is important here is that they consider all those regions as speaking one same language. Isn't that funny? And the funniest thing is that those people came from València and from Terres de l'Ebre or La Quinta Província (again, this is a non-province in the south of Catalunya that is commonly distinguished from the rest of the province of Tarragona, also by non Quinta-Província'ns).
In this picture you can see a €10 note with some stuff written on it. I got it a couple of days after the demonstration. The 'bingo' thing, I don't know why is it t here and either why the SE of Poland and the E of Belarus and Ukraine is marked. But, as you can see, it is written "Is not Spain" near a circle around Catalunya. Not even all the "Païssos Catalans".
This note was given to me by an old lady who comes to the bar where I work. She is Catalan and her language is Catalan and nothing else. I translate to her what was written and she said something like "Silly: of course Catalonia is Spain, it has always been. So stupid! Aren't we Spanish?" I nodded. Yeah, we are, right? Who am I to argue with an old lady?
Also, as you can see, there is a circle around Galicia and the slogan "Nunca Máis" (with as spelling mistake): the only intelligent thing in this post.
Tomorrow I will spend the note. If you see it around, let me know.
[Sorry I am not here much but I've been quite busy. Also, the change of season has affected me a lot, even though I love Fall. I am quite moody these days and, on top, I am ill.]
[This post is obviously dedicated to Ian, the most international Clicktalan.]
The fact that there has been a rivalry between València and Catalunya is common knowledge. The fact that "they" dislike "us" is not news. The fact that they would kill themselves before accepting they speak Catalan, is... stupid, obviously, because there is no-one in Western countries who would fight for their believes like they did in the past or like they are doing (not saying is good) in some Islamic countries.
The thing is that last year, despite the opinion of most of the philologists, Valencian became a Language de jure as it became the official language of the Kingdom of València. Not really sure what was the new thing from the law made in the 80's, though, they were talking about that on the news.
So a language. OK, I am going to start writing in my CV that I understand Valencian as a Near Native although I speak it differently, but they can understand me.
There is not such a problem in Illes Balears or Andorra. I never heard a Andorran saying that s/he speaks Andorran, and it is a different country than Spain and could do whatever they wanted. Though, they say they speak Catalan.
But as always, there is two sides of the coin. There are those people who think that Valencian is a total distinct language from Catalan and there are those who think it is the same. This is me, for example.The other day I ran into a demonstration in my town. Imagine, a town where nothing ever happens and there it was the Baix Gaià'n Correllengua (lit. run-tongue) by the CAL, an association to preserve the Catalan Language. Baix Gaià is the region where my town is, a non-comarca, to make themselves distinct from the comarca of Tarragonés.
So, in the image you can see a rather small demonstration. Sorry, the picture isn't good but I made it with my cell phone. In the banner it says "One tongue, one nation" and it depicts the map of where Catalan is spoken except for Alghero, in Italy. So, they want the union of all the Catalan speaking territories. Though, what is important here is that they consider all those regions as speaking one same language. Isn't that funny? And the funniest thing is that those people came from València and from Terres de l'Ebre or La Quinta Província (again, this is a non-province in the south of Catalunya that is commonly distinguished from the rest of the province of Tarragona, also by non Quinta-Província'ns).
In this picture you can see a €10 note with some stuff written on it. I got it a couple of days after the demonstration. The 'bingo' thing, I don't know why is it t here and either why the SE of Poland and the E of Belarus and Ukraine is marked. But, as you can see, it is written "Is not Spain" near a circle around Catalunya. Not even all the "Païssos Catalans".This note was given to me by an old lady who comes to the bar where I work. She is Catalan and her language is Catalan and nothing else. I translate to her what was written and she said something like "Silly: of course Catalonia is Spain, it has always been. So stupid! Aren't we Spanish?" I nodded. Yeah, we are, right? Who am I to argue with an old lady?
Also, as you can see, there is a circle around Galicia and the slogan "Nunca Máis" (with as spelling mistake): the only intelligent thing in this post.
Tomorrow I will spend the note. If you see it around, let me know.
[Sorry I am not here much but I've been quite busy. Also, the change of season has affected me a lot, even though I love Fall. I am quite moody these days and, on top, I am ill.]
[This post is obviously dedicated to Ian, the most international Clicktalan.]
Listening to "I Miss You (Dobie Rub Part One - Sunshine Mix)" from Björk's album "Telegram".