January 2005

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SPAIN: NEW DRIVING LICENSE DIFFERENTIATES BETWEEN CATALAN AND VALENCIAN

January 2005 – The issue of the unity of the Catalan language still remains open, in spite of the latest advancements, such as the memorandum submitted by Spain requesting the officiality of its three co-official languages in the EU. This time the controversy is quite minor, as the differentiation is merely due to one word, but nonetheless significant, since it affects an official document. While until now the Spanish driving license included a bilingual text (in Spanish and in one of the three co-official languages), the new, more modern and handy edition of the document is being issued in four different bilingual versions, corresponding to Galician, Basque, Catalan and Valencian. Moreover, the form to apply for the license is also available in four bilingual versions.

Considering it is an official identification document and it includes a very short text, the difference between the Catalan and Valencian versions by only one word can hardly be coincidental, but the product of a will to differentiate between the two. In fact, the Valencian version of the word in question (“expén”, in the Catalan version “expedeix”) is a wrong translation, as it has a different meaning than the original Spanish word. While the meaning of “expide”, in Spanish, corresponds to the verb “to issue”, the Valencian version of the word corresponds to a verb that means “to sell”. A small detail after all, but quite revealing.

The possibility to issue a multilingual driving license is already implemented in other countries, such as Finland (in Finnish and Swedish) and Wales (in English and Welsh, although Welsh is not an official language). Other documents and items where multilingualism may be implemented, thus having a big pedagogical impact, are the ID, coins or stamps.