Responds to an article by Strubell, "Language, Democracy, and Devolution in Catalonia," explaining differences between various dialects grouped under the Catalan umbrella and focusing on the context of the new language-policy legislation, the impact of the new legislation, tensions arising from the implementation of the language policy,…

Responds to an article by Strubell, "Language, Democracy, and Devolution in Catalonia," noting the lack of congruence between the Catalan nation defined culturally and linguistically and Catalonia the polity. The paper examines nationalist discourse, identity, and evolution, and discusses the limits of devolution (borders and internal…

Analyzes the issues at stake in the debate over official language legislation in the United States, focusing on the agenda of U.S. ENGLISH, an organization promoting the legislation of English as the official language of the United States. The article argues that restricting language rights can lead to social segregation and that people speak…

Responds to an article by Strubell, "Language, Democracy, and Devolution in Catalonia," arguing that the nationalism that already exists is viewed as the norm and suggesting that the Catalan nationalism and its attempts at affirmative action are menacing. The paper worries that demographic realities might push Catalan nationalism into…

This special issue, written in German and French, is a collection of articles that were presented to the Swiss Association for Applied Linguistics during 2001 and which can be categorized as "linguistic biographies" organized under the auspices and support of the Forum du bilingualisme (Forum of Bilingualism) in Bienne (Biel) and the…

Catalan, although a minority language within Spain, enjoys great prestige within Catalonia. This article attempts to explain how conflicts in Europe, national and Catalan election politics, educational policies, and the "cold war" waged against the Catalan government together affected a change in public opinion toward a reluctance to…

Provides a brief overview of the sociolinguistic situation in which the Catalan immersion program is being implemented and discusses the issues related to the main feature that distinguishes the program--the low socioeconomic background of the students. Also discussed are current theories about the discontinuity between the language used at home…

Reports on interviews in representative areas of Galicia, Spain, with both open-ended and standardized items on usage of the minority language (Galician) and the official language (Spanish). The findings revealed that upper age, low social status, and rural residence were associated with minority language choice, and that during adolescence,…

A sociolinguistic analysis of pronunciation patterns of postnuclear occlusive consonants in northern peninsular Spanish resulted in (1) understanding of the vitality of the use of distinct allophonic variations; (2) characterization of sociolinguistic usage tendencies in relation to speakers' demographic characteristics; and (3) identification of…

Interviews with Catalan- or Castilian-speaking children of parents from each of those linguistic backgrounds found that there were fewer "mixed" families than previously suggested by research and that association with one dialect frequently depended on such diverse factors as type of school attended, neighborhood, and desire for social…

Presents an overview of the geological and historical context of Catalan, explaining that today, Catalonia has both a political and cultural definition. Section 1 focuses on territory in political and cultural terms. Section 2 discusses Catalan and the Romance dialect continuum. Section 3 examines cultural centers and political allegiances. (SM)

The dequeismo phenomenon is occurring more frequently in spoken Spanish in both Spain and in Latin America. Introduction of the preposition "de" before "que" in nominal complements exploits one recourse in Spanish, namely the deictic capacity of prepositional "de" as a marker or introducer of the speaker's…

Linguists should not only observe but actively try to control the internationalization of languages. Borrowings may be harmful to the smooth functioning of a language and contribute to the loss of its distinctive character. (Text is in Spanish.) (TL)

Analyzes the language of advertising and the expressive devices it uses to capture the attention of the consumer and arouse his/her interest. Condemns the artificiality of this language and the social values it reflects, quoting profusely from the works of Herman Glaser and other contemporary authors. (MES)

Reviews the history of Catalonia, its language policy, and strategies/methods by which the Catalan language was introduced into the educational system (e.g., by educating the teaching staff, using Catalan in instruction and educational administration, developing Catalan-language teaching materials, and developing immersion programs in Catalan for…