Comparació de la política lingüística de la Generalitat de Catalunya amb el sistema lingüístic belga

Abstract

Language policies were born in order to help languages survive. Catalan is a language that clearly has faced many linguistic wars. The most recent one was Franco’s dictatorship, in which Catalan was forbidden and censored. In 1983, the Generalitat de Catalunya passed a law on linguistic policies, to make sure of the survival of our language, culture and traditions, and to promote Catalan in all circles of society. In this work the Catalan language policies will be analyzed from a specific point of view: education. They will also be compared with the linguistic situation in Belgium. Belgium is a multilingual country with three official languages, with a different reality. In Catalonia, Catalan has been associated with nationalism and social division, and this work will show that Catalan builds bridges, and that Catalonia is a land of welcome and respect. In Belgium, however, there are three different linguistic policies and education laws, which is clearly a problem. When it comes to results and conclusions, we discover that social division is a political problem but not linguistic. Also, the work shows how bilinguism is not always a positive thing if there is a lack of balance, because it also opens two different ways to see the world and if there is not a balance between them, speakers choose one side. Finally, there is a similarity between both Catalan and Belgian systems and we will discover both systems are very well-planned, but there is no politic goodwill to make these policies a success.