Quebec and Catalonia

The commemoration of the 25e birthday of the Charter of the French language (bill 101) is a good occasion to highlight the tight fabric of ideas, proposals, complicities and mutual experiences in the field of linguistic policies which our two countries have shared during this period.

The Charter of the French language establishes the principles which are at the foundation of the French language policy in Quebec, the most important of them undoubtedly being that of the concept of the French language as a foundation of the Quebec society, the most explicit element of its national and cultural identity. In the same way, Llei de Política Lingüística of Catalonia (bill 1/1998) defines the Catalan language as the fundamental component of the shaping and the national personality of Catalonia and as the basic instrument for the communication, the integration and the social cohesion of all its citizens, independently of their geographical origin. In both cases, all this is affirmed with a clear will of permanence and projection in the future.

Our two countries, Quebec and Catalonia, have in common the fact of considering their respective languages, French in Quebec and the Catalan in Catalonia, as fundamental traits of their national realities in a context which is characterized by economic and cultural internationalization, which they face with determination and in a positive spirit, while being in contact with two of the languages with the greatest international diffusion, Spanish and English, i.e. while being subjected to an extraordinarily strong pressure in the fields of new technologies of the communication and information, the culture and the total market, as many sectors which favour the most diffused languages. This pressure, put aside what is already ensured by the legislative framework of these languages, obliges the citizens to a personal bilingualism which often drifts towards a bilingualism of greater amplitude, introducing a kind an uncertainty into the process of standardization and hegemony of their own languages, uncertainty which obliges them to regularly revise their policies and their laws.

The Charter of the French language and the language policy of Québec constituted a reference model for Catalonia. When Catalonia, in 1980, following the re-establishment of its self-government institutions, undertook its first actions to recover control over the Catalonian language and the parliamentary process needed to elaborate the Llei de Normalització Lingüística in 1983, it paid close attention to the Québec linguistic model, both at the legislative and the political levels.

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The collaboration between the Direcció General de Política Lingüística de la Generalitat de Catalunya and Québec's Office de la langue française has been permanent and important. We have shared numerous strategies, which, despite their differences and their necessary adaptation to contextual circumstances, had numerous points in common.

The influence of the Charter of the French language of Québec on the Llei de Normalització Lingüística (Law 7/1983), and the Catalonian regulation being applied, is visible notably through the echo which articles 2 to 6 of the Charter of the French language, which pertain to the fundamental linguistic rights, have found as part of article 2 of the Catalonian legislation of 1983.

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http://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/ressources/bibliotheque/ouvrages/amenagement_hs/ral01_charte_reniu_vf.pdf