April 2006

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THE GOVERNMENT OF ANDORRA TAKES MEASURES AGAINST DECLINING USE OF CATALAN

April 2006 – Andorra will set up a plan to stop the declining use of Catalan. This is the response by the Andorran government to the sociolinguistic survey issued at the end of March, which was carried out in 2004 and whose figures have been compared to those resulting from surveys made in 1995 and 1999 in order to have knowledge of the situation of the Catalan language and its position amongst other languages spoken in the Principality. The evaluation of the data will help experts to establish the general guidelines to improve the current situation of the historic language of the country, which is, paradoxically, the only official language of the state according to article 2.1 of the Constitution of 1993.

The study examines the level of knowledge of the main languages spoken in Andorra and concludes that Spanish is the language with highest levels of command. The survey also indicates that the levels of understanding and reading competences in Catalan are good, but that level decreases in speaking and writing. Spanish has become the most widely spoken language in Andorra in the last years despite the growing population with Andorran nationality and the Portuguese immigration, whereas Catalan has lost ground as a mother tongue (5.2 % less than figures of 1999). The study also reveals the increasing percentage of Portuguese as a mother tongue due to the immigration flow.

The results of the study show a decline in the use of Catalan and an increase in the use of other languages, especially Spanish, caused mainly by the rise of non-Catalan-speaking immigrants, as many of them adopt Spanish as the alternative to their mother tongue.

The linguistic behaviour of the population of Andorra has rapidly changed and is less favourable to the use of Catalan in private and informal spheres, even though Catalan prevails in formal and institutional contexts. In order to stop this tendency, the government of Andorra has decided to set up a national language welcome plan for the next three years, which includes the promotion of the language amongst the youngest generations through cinema in Catalan.