Social Use and Normalization of the Dutch in Flanders and the Catalan in the Valencian Community
“Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic anda thu, wat unbidan we nu?” (All the birds are making their nests, except you and I. What are we waiting for?). These lines are from a medieval love song, one of the first handwritten texts in Dutch and, consequently, Flemish Dutch. This poem from the 12th century was written by a monk with quill and ink. Another language with its first written testimonies in the Middle Ages, between the late 12th and early 13th centuries, is Catalan, and consequently, Valencian, with the “Homilies d’Organyà” (Homilies of Organyà). These are fragments of a sermon intended for the preaching of the Gospel.
Both languages, Catalan and Dutch, exhibit “onomastic duality”, as highlighted by Vicent Climent Ferrando, a Ph.D. in Political and Social Sciences from Pompeu Fabra University and EU Expert in Immigration and Integration. This means that the same language has two denominations: Dutch or Flemish Dutch; Catalan or Valencian. Dutch is the same language spoken in Flanders, Flemish Dutch. Similarly, Catalan is the same language spoken in the Valencian Community, Valencian. Therefore, these are convergent languages, meaning that the different languages in these territories constitute the same linguistic system. In this article, we will delve into the similarities and differences between Dutch in Flanders and Catalan in the Valencian Community concerning the social use and normalization of these two languages, which coexist or have coexisted with another dominant language: French in the Flemish case, and Spanish in the Valencian case.
Under the moon on the long river the canoe slides to the sea”.
Firstly, let’s analyze the main characteristics of each language. Dutch is an official language in six countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint-Maarten. According to the TaalUnie, the institution that develops and promotes Dutch and ensures its standard model, “there are currently approximately 24 million Dutch speakers: around 17 million of them live in the Netherlands, 6.5 million in Belgium, and 400,000 in Suriname”. Thus, in terms of native speakers, Dutch ranks eighth in the European Union’s language ranking.
“The Dutch spoken in Belgium is the same language as spoken in the Netherlands but with a different accent”, explains Veerle Schuyten, department head of Media and Tourism at PXL Hogeschool and a master of Dutch-Flemish Language and Literature from Radboud University. Ulrike Vogl, Ph.D. in Dutch Linguistics from the University of Vienna and professor of Dutch Linguistics at Ghent University, adds: “Dutch is a pluricentric language, meaning there is a standard model and different national varieties”. The standard model, officially established by the TaalUnie, sets the same grammatical and spelling rules for all Dutch speakers. “Any Fleming knows Het Groene Boekje, the official Dutch spelling guide”, exemplifies Schuyten.
In addition to the grammatical rules of the TaalUnie, the language in Flanders is regulated by Belgium’s language legislation. “An important turning point in the recognition of Dutch was the establishment of the linguistic boundary in the Sixties, the language laws that were based upon it and the gradual conversion into a federal state”, remarks Ulrike Vogl. Before that, when Belgium was founded in 1830, its Constitution guaranteed individual linguistic freedom, which in practice led to almost complete Frenchification of public life. As a result of the linguistic boundary, Belgium is subdivided into four language areas: the Dutch-language area, the French-language area, the German-language area, and the bilingual Dutch-French area (Brussels’ city and its 19 municipalities), as it can be read in the Documentation Centre on the Vlaamse Rand.
Therefore, the principle that one language is the official language in a defined territory (or in Brussels: two languages) was also constitutionally and legally preserved. It established that the regional language must be used in certain matters, such as education. The Educational Language Act of 1963 prescribes that “the language for education in the homogenous Dutch language area is Dutch, except for all education of foreign languages”.
The Lights and Shadows of the Statute of Autonomy of the Valencian Community
In contrast, Valencian is not governed by the principle of territoriality, giving it a very disadvantaged position in the Spanish state. “To this difference and constraint must be added a complicating factor: the historical delay in adopting the democratic system”, underlines sociolinguist Albert Bastardas in his article La planificació lingüística en els casos flamenc, basc i català: una nota comparativa (Linguistic planning in the Flemish, Basque, and Catalan cases: a comparative note). In fact, there was no language regulation law for Valencian until 1983 when the “Llei d’ús i ensenyament del valencià” (Law of use and teaching of Valencian) was approved, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year.
This law could be enacted “after the basic laws of autonomy and the Generalitat were established, just after the entry into force of the Statute of Autonomy of the Valencian Community in 1978,” clarifies Brauli Montoya, Ph.D. in Catalan Philology from the University of Alacant and academic member of the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL), an institution that determines the linguistic regulations for the variety of the Catalan language known as Valencian. The autonomy statute does not recognize the unity of Valencian with Catalan, leaving the linguistic conflict of Valencian secessionism open.
Therefore, in this transitional context, a turbulent time of struggle for autonomy symbols was experienced, determining the current situation of the Valencian language, which fights to be a fully normalized language in society. “The option chosen was regionalism and discussing the name of the language instead of recovering it,” points Raquel Casesnoves, Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Montreal and Catalan sociolinguist at the University of València. This is how it ended up being a secondary language, dominated by the use of Spanish and with a situation of diglossia in Valencian society.
Catalan, which presents two fundamental dialectal varieties: Eastern Catalan and Western Catalan, with lexical, phonetic, and grammatical differences, is spoken in over 68,000 km2 across four European states: Andorra, Spain (Catalonia, the Valencian Country, the Balearic Islands, the western strip in Aragon, and the Carxe in Murcia), France (Northern Catalonia), and Italy (the city of Alghero on the island of Sardinia). According to data from the Institut Ramon Llull, the organization responsible for the international projection of Catalan language and culture, it has around 10 million speakers, making it the 13th language in the European Union in terms of the number of speakers, ahead of Finnish or Gaelic. However, Catalan is not recognized as an official language in the European Union. Nevertheless, the Council of Europe drafted the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, a document that Spain ratified, unlike other states that have not, such as France or Italy.
The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua and the Nederlandse TaalUnie
Catalan is regulated by different public institutions depending on the dialectal variety, with collaboration agreements between them. The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL), which we mentioned earlier, oversees the regulations of Valencian, while the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC) deals with Catalan regulations. Additionally, there is an advisory institution in the Balearic Islands, the Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics (IEB). The AVL was created in 1998, 20 years after the approval of the autonomy statute, “with the aim of pacifying the linguistic conflict between supporters of standardization toward Catalan and those who advocated for regionalism and anti-Catalanism”, states the academic member Brauli Montoya, emphasizing that regionalists promote Spanish as the preferred language.
In contrast, Dutch maintains a unique and international institution for all dialectal varieties, the Nederlandse TaalUnie or Dutch Language Union, established by a treaty between Belgium and the Netherlands, signed in 1980. Therefore, Flemings have no problem asserting that they speak the same language as the Dutch. The concern of Dutch philologists revolves around two linguistic phenomena present today: “timotisation in the Netherlands and destandardisation in Flanders”, notes the professor of Dutch at Ghent University, Ulrike Vogl. Timotisation involves the speaker “having a tolerance for variations from the standard model and still thinking they are speaking it”, clarifies the philologist. As for destandardisation, this phenomenon involves speakers “considering it unimportant to learn the standard model”, which they denigrate because they prefer to preserve their dialectal variety.
One reason why the standard Dutch is losing prestige in Flanders is the ambiguity and lack of consideration for dialectal varieties in some public spaces. “Which regional variety should be allowed on public TV?”, Vogl exemplifies. Additionally, with the rise in support for the far-right in the upcoming Belgian elections in June 2024, “the far-right wing defends proficiency in standard Dutch, opposing the dialects of Dutch”, claims the professor from Ghent University.
Language Health Reports of 2021: “High use of Dutch dialects in Flanders” and “One in two Valencian speakers does not choose their language as the starting point for any conversation”
Thanks to the results of the latest 2021 research report on the state of Dutch, commissioned by TaalUnie and conducted every two years by the Meertens Institute of the Netherlands, Ghent University in Belgium, and the Institute for Teacher Training and Anton de Kom University of Suriname, it has been concluded that “the use of dialects and regional languages deserves more attention”. It stands out the “higher frequency of the use of dialects and regional languages in social interactions in Flanders than in the Netherlands”, but in both areas, they are less discussed on social media and at work. Overall, Dutch performs well in social interactions, on social media, and at work. However, “Dutch must continue to receive support in higher education, given the increasing use of English”.
On the other hand, the latest “Enquesta de coneixement i ús social del valencià” (Survey on knowledge and social use of Valencian) from 2021, conducted by the Directorate General for Language Policy and Multilingualism Management, under the Conselleria d’Educació of the Generalitat Valenciana, concluded that more Valencian is known, but this does not necessarily mean it is spoken more. In the last five years, there is a “generalized increase in oral, reading, and writing competence”, but this improvement is not accompanied by an increase in its use. According to this survey, “Spanish speakers have learned Valencian, but they don’t use it, and one out of every two Valencian speakers does not choose it as the starting language for any conversation”.
In fact, Mireia Cortés, a Valencian speaker and a student at the University of València, confirms that despite having had a nationalist and progressive regional government over the past four years, in both formal and informal contexts, “there still exists a language hierarchy: Valencian speakers tend to switch to Spanish when interacting with someone who speaks to them in this language”. Cortés emphasizes that “it is very common that when a Spanish-speaking person enters a group of Valencian speakers, everyone starts using Spanish to communicate”. In contrast, Stefano Marroccoli, a Flemish student at the University of Hasselt and a Dutch speaker, states that he “always” speaks Dutch when addressing someone and only switches to English on social media.
So, what is the solution to prevent a language from ceasing to be used by its native speakers? Raquel Casesnoves is clear about where to start: “A language must be useful; if it is not useful, it is neither spoken nor learned”. One way to make it useful is to normalize its use in the media. In 2019, the Valencian public radio and television were recovered, and they are focused on the dissemination of the language. “However, there is still much to be done, starting with recovering the progress we had made, due to the change in government, and aiming for a cohesive linguistic community,” confesses Casesnoves.
And if we compare the situation with the Dutch, is a federal state like Belgium a solution for the normalization of Valencian? “In federalism, no other language would compete with the official one, and this can be seen in the monolingual regions of Wallonia and Flanders”, sustains Vicent Climent. However, “this is only a utopia because the Spanish Constitution would not allow it”, points out the doctor in Political and Social Sciences from Pompeu Fabra University. In addition, a conditioning factor taken into consideration by Albert Bastardas is “the demographic weight of the Flemish in the whole Belgian state”, which means “greater political weight than the Catalan speakers”, who are a minority compared to the population of the entire Spanish state.
To this, the ups and downs with political influence are added, as languages are a highly politicisable matter, “especially if they are minority languages (as it is the valencian)”, adds Raquel Casesnoves. “But language must be public policy; if you don’t make policies, the small language ends up dying” Climent recalls. In any case, one must bear in mind what Manuel Sanchis Guarner, a humanist considered the initiator of modern Philology in the Valencian lands, said: “Una llengua no mor perquè no guanye nous parlants: només mor si la deixen de parlar aquells qui la parlen” (A language does not die because it does not gain new speakers: it only dies if those who speak it stop speaking it).