Our Commo

n Europe

an RootsEuropean linguistic roots:

origin, evolution, present situation

Cor de Maria School, Olot, Catalonia, Spain

HISTORY OF OUR LANGUAGE:

CATALAN

Latin

Romanic language

Catalan

Spanish

Portuguese

Italian

French

I. Where does the Roman influence come from?

Roman Substra

te

Indo-European

Phoenician

Greek

Iberobasc

II. The Romanization

III. The Germanic influence

Roman Empire

Germansadopt Latin

IV. The Arabic influence

Arabic people came into the Iberic peninsula in the year 711.

V. The origin• Catalan language was born between the VIII

and X centuries.

Act of la Seu d’Urgell .

We can find this text in a document called ‘Capbreu’.

VI. Expansion of the Catalan Language

In 1137 Ramon Berenguer IV married Peronella and the Crown of Catalonia and Aragon was born.

The Catalan literature begins during this period, with Ramon Llull, the first European philosopher who used the Romance language for philosophy, science and theology, when everybody used Latin.

Llull is considered on of the creators of literary Catalan and the writer of the major work of Catalan literature.

During this century the 4 chronicles were written:

Bernat Descolt Chronicle. Rei Jaume I Chronicle. Ramon Muntaner Chronicle. Rei Pere III el Cerimoniós Chronicle

VII. Stylistic perfection

XIII to XVI C: Expansion of Catalan language

Casp Treat

In XV Century, Martí l’Humà died without children, and Casp Treat proclaimed Ferran d’Antequera the Spanish king.

Martí l’Humà Ferran d’Antequera

After the marriage of Ferdinand the Catholic to Isabela de Castile in 1469, the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon were united to create a single political unit: Spain.

It kept coustoms, however, the Catalan dynasty disappeared.

Among the examples of this literary period:

• Bernat Metge language with classic influence.

• Francesc Eixinenis and Vicent Ferrer, religious prose.

• Ausiàs Marc, the first Catalan poet who wrote in Catalan

Printing

The invention of printing contributes even more to its normalitzation.

VIII. Decline

During Charles I Kingdom, the Catalonia-Aragon crown lost its court, but it kept the institutions.

The noble people who had a lot of money adopted the Spanish language .

After the war “Guerra dels Segadors” the Catalan language was forbidden in some areas, such as education and official uses.

During the Succession War Catalonia fought for archduke Charles. For this reason Philip V created: Decret de Nova Planta.

The consequences were:

• We lost Menorca and Sardenya• Catalan language was forbidden

A lot of people were in favor of the Catalan recovery. Baldiri Reixach created institutions for children education.

In Catalonia there was a movement to recover the literary use of Catalan.

The Catalan language was introduced in the media: newspapers, magazines...

IX. The Renaissance

Modernism affected literature highly. Modernist authors like Maragall, Victor Català and Santiago Rossinyol were the most important Catalan writers.

Modernism

X. Recovery of our language

In the 20th Century, Enric Prat de la Riba created “Insitut d’Estudis Catalans “. Between 1913 and 1930, Pompeu Fabra wrote some catalan rules: Ortography rules (1913)

Gramatic rules (1918)

General diccionary (1932)

There were 26 newspapers in Catalan

There were Catalan radio stations

Catalan was used at school

Thanks to Pompeu Fabra:

The Catalan language was chased during Franco’s dictatorship.

The medium class kept the Catalan language but the low class adopted the Spanish language.

The Catalan language was forbidden in some areas.

In the 60’s the Catalan language was introduced, again, in the press and Òmnium Cultural was created.

XI. The persecution of our language during the government of Franco

The article of Catalonia was created in 1979. At the same time the Catalan language was declared the official language.

Catalan is the language used at school.

Finally, in 1994, acording Unesco, Catalan was the 10th language most translated in the world.

XII. Our language in democracy