Middle Ages 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 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 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 the 15th century. (1208–1276) dictated his autobiographical chronicles entirely in Catalan. Some of this territory nowadays makes up the
Catalan Countries. 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 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 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.
Early modern era Spain 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 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 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 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". 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.
France: 19th to 20th century After the French colony of
Algeria was established in 1830, many Catalan-speaking settlers moved there. People from 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, 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.
Spain: 18th to 20th century ;
Assimilated Spain (green), the former
Crown of Aragon, including the
Catalan-speaking lands;
Foral Spain (blue), the Basque-speaking territories; and
Colonial Spain (yellow) 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, 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 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 the 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, the 19th century saw a Catalan literary revival (), 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 the first one in Catalan since the end of the Civil War,
Avui, began to be published in 1976.
Present day 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 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 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 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 the promotion of the use of Catalan in Catalonia and in other territories, with entities such as (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 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 promotes 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 a large number of Catalan colonies that today continue to maintain the Catalan language. They also founded many Catalan casals (associations). == Classification and relationship with other Romance languages ==