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The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights and the Valencian Case

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The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights and the Valencian Case Authors: Angel V. Calpe Climent / Voro López Verdejo Editor: Real Academia de Cultura Valenciana. Valencia, 2002. Collection: Serie Filologica number 24 Idiom: Valencian and English IBSN: 84-921559-6-5 Translation: Angel V. Calpe Climent THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS AND THE VALENCIAN CASE INTRODUCTION TO THE VALENCIAN LANGUAGE SITUATION Since the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, there has been an international movement claiming for specific Right Charters that developed this idea of a Universal corpus of rights. Now we have, for instance, the Universal Declaration of Children’s Rights or, in this case, the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights. This Declaration was discussed in Barcelona in June 1996 and supposes the acknowledge of right so evident for the Valencian people as, for instance, that every linguistic community has the right to express in its own language, to codify and standardise it without induced or forced interferences, to use it as the vehicle of every social expression, to use their own system of proper names and so on. In consequence, the plenary meeting of the Valencian Legislative Chamber adhere to this Declaration on November 14th 1996, few months after having been proclaimed. Paradoxically, some people that have claimed the application of these linguistic rights to other languages, systematically deny that the Valencian linguistic community may be subject of some of these rights. We have therefore considered very convenient to publish this Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights in Valencian language, adding this introduction to properly place the Valencian case and commenting some of its articles that are specially significant and relevant for us, the Valencian people. The Valencian case is very peculiar. It is a language of culture, with an undeniable literary and historic tradition, that has produced a Golden Age which had great influence in other European literatures, that counts with a significant number of speakers and that is officially protected by the public institutions of the country where it is spoken, almost equal under the law to the —1/35— language that puts pressure over it, the Spanish. However, there are circumstances that arise some concerns about the future of the Valencian language. The historical pressure of Spanish (or Castilian) has replaced the Valencian in a lot of social spheres, especially as for written expressions. So, nowadays, the almost equivalent legal status of both languages, Valencian and Castilian, is misleading and pretends a non-existing bilingualism. The asymmetric social presence of Valencian and Castilian is beyond any doubt in favour of the last one and even now we can say there is an active opposition in certain social sections against the use and promotion of the Valencian language, just partially corrected in recent times. The Public Administration supports only half-heartedly the process of linguistic normalisation and, when it effectively supports our language, uses a linguistic model very influenced by neighbouring tongues, specifically by Catalan. This linguistic model induces doubts and conflicts to speakers. On the other hand, the Valencian is practically an unknown language, almost a ghost one, out of our boundaries. To better understand how we have arrived to this bizarre situation, we must go back to our past. Looking back to History, in the XIIth and XIIIth centuries Provence and its language, Provençal, marked literary and linguistic rules inside the Occitanoromance diasystem; Languedocian, Valencian, Catalan and Majorcan writers ? as well as some Aragonese and Italian ones? followed these rules creating the known as Troubadourish lyric poetry. In the XVth century, the economic and cultural splendour moved to the Kingdom of Valencia. This kingdom was the most prosperous of this period in the Southwest of Europe. Valencian language was the only official one in the Kingdom of Valencia from 1238 to 1707, when Valencian laws were abolished by the Bourbon dynasty ? in spite of this, today a majority of the Valencian population still speaks Valencian language? . In Valencia were born important writers as Arnau de Vilanova, Gilabert de Proxita, Arnau March, Pere March, Antoni Canals, Ausias March, Jordi de Sant Jordi, Joanot Martorell, Joan Roïç de Corella, Jaume Roig, Sor Isabel de Villena, Bernat Fenollar, Narcis Vinyoles or Jaume Gaçull. These writers and their works brought about the Golden Age of Valencian literature and turned Valencia one of the most important cultural centres of Europe. Some significant examples will help to prove this point. Joanot Martorell’s Tirant Lo Blanch is considered by critics as the first modern novel; Ausias March’s poems had great influence in the contemporaneous European literature; the first printing in the Iberian peninsula was established in the city of Valencia and here was published the first book, Trobes en lahors de la Verge Maria, written by several authors, in 1474. The same printing published the first Biblia edited in a Romance language, translated by the Valencian monk Bonifaci Ferrer ? Saint Vicent Ferrer’s brother? , and later destroyed by the Inquisition. We can still read in its surviving colophon: ...fon trelladada [...] en lo monestir de Portaceli de lengua latina en la nostra valenciana... [...translated [...] in the Portaceli monastery from the Latin language into our Valencian language.] The Valencian Joan Esteve finished in 1472 the first bilingual Romance dictionary, in this case Latin-Valencian, titled Liber elegantiarum. It was eventually published in Venice in 1489. There we can read in this epilogue: Explicit liber elegantiarum Johannis Stephani, viri eruditissimi, civis Valentiani, regie auctoritate notarii publici, latina et valenciana lingua exactissima diligencia emendatus... —2/35— [Here finishes the elegance book from Joan Esteve, very erudite man, Valencian citizen, public notary of royal authority; in Latin and Valencian languages in the most exactness and elegance corrected] In this period other Romance languages were unaware of printing books and lacked of cultured literature though, later, some of these languages, as Castilian, will be the support of great European empires. The consequence of Valencian cultural splendour is that Valencian writers marked rules and styles and shaped the literary languages within their linguistic diasystem. Some classic works were translated into Valencian, in spite of the effort necessary to do that. So, the Valencian Antoni Canals translated Valerio Maximo in 1395 in spite of existing a previous Catalan translation indicated by the author in the manuscript: ...tret del lati en nostra vulgada lenga materna Valenciana axi com he pogut jatssessia que altres l’agen tret en lenga cathalana empero com lur stil sia fort larch e quasi confus... [...translated from Latin in our vulgar Valencian mother language as I have been able to, though others have translated it to Catalan language, but in a very rude style and almost confusing.] El Blanquerna, from the Majorcan writer Ramon Llull, was translated to the Valencian language too, by Joan Bonlabi, in 1521, as it is stated in the front page of the edition: ...Traduit y corregit ara novament dels primers originals y estampat en llengua Valenciana. [...Translated and corrected now from the first originals and printed in Valencian language.] Out of the boundaries of the Occitanoromance diasystem Valencian works were edited. For instance, an edition of Ausias March’s poems printed in Valladolid in 1555 for Castilian readers, thus enclosing a bilingual Valencian-Castilian vocabulary made by Juan de Resa, Felipe II chaplain. Not been the only example, today this publishing characteristic would be unthinkable, given that practically no Spanish reader would dare trying to read and understand a book written in Valencian. As we have said, the Valencian language was a model to be followed by the most important writers belonging to the Occitanoromance diasystem from XIVth to XXth centuries. But at the beginning of the XXth century, the Catalan nationalism entrusted Pompeu Fabra the composition of a modern normative grammar for the Catalan language. Fabra imposed as the literary linguistic model the “barceloni”, the Barcelona dialect. He wasn’t specially skilled for the work ? he was an industrial engineer? and in his short linguistic knowledge considered mistakenly that Valencian words and idioms were too much influenced by Castilian language. Therefore he decided to give pre-eminence to the eastern forms, used in Barcelona, that in a lot of cases were actually more influenced by Spanish than the rejected Valencian or western linguistic forms. The need of the Catalan nationalism of a strong and specific language to strengthen its political idea broke the Occitanoromance diasystem. This fact was set denying the historical linguistic and literary bonds beyond the Pyrenees, thus breaking with the Languedoc, in France, and trying to impose the Catalan language name as well as the new Catalan grammar and spelling normative to the Valencian and Majorcan languages in Spain, where the political expansionist goals of the Catalan nationalism were regarded as easier. In this secessionist and, at same time, expansionist manoeuvre, the Catalan nationalism got a distinctive language of its own, snatched from the Occitanoromance diasystem. In order to give credibility to this language, as they lacked of medieval works and authors of importance, the Valencian Golden
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