Wie aus dem 'valencià' eine eigene Sprache wurde. Kritische Analyse des "Dictamen" und des "Nou Estatut"

Abstract

Summary: In this article I discuss whether at a legal level valencià is a variety of Catalan or an independent language. There has always existed more than one way to denominate the autochthonous language that was and is spoken in the Comunitat Valenciana, the most popular having been “català” and “valencià”, and the academic world has never doubted that these expressions are synonyms. In the 1970’s, however, after the death of Franco, right-wing political parties started a campaign of secession for the Comunitat Valenciana and tried to establish the independent language “valencià” at a legal level. In the Nou Estatut, valencià is now treated as an independent language. But in a dictamen the Language Academy of València admits that the Comunitat Valenciana shares a language with Catalonia. [Keywords: language conflict, language policy, Catalan varieties, Països Catalans, linguistic separatism, Catalan, Valencian Catalan]