ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

An Analysis of Place Name Signs in València Joan Carles Membrado Tena

DOI: 10.2436/15.8040.01.193

Abstract València (officially Comunitat Valenciana) is a territory in eastern inhabited by five million people where both Catalan/Valencian and Castilian/Spanish are official languages. The official use of Catalan was banned in València in 1707 but restored in 1983, after democracy finally arrived in Spain. From 1983 to the present, Catalan has made significant legal advances, among them the reinstatement of the original Catalan official names of municipalities. As a result, road signs referring to these names – as do most road signs – are also in Catalan. Road signs (for drivers), along with street names (for pedestrians) are perhaps the main instrument of symbolic perception for understanding the sociolinguistic situation of a territory. In València there are different public administrations in charge of the management of roads, highways and streets, and each of them has its own criteria regarding signs. Whereas the Valencian Government (the Generalitat) generally tends to favour using Catalan in this context in the Catalan-speaking areas of València, the Ministry of Development (Ministerio de Fomento) uses Spanish in road signs and the official forms for place names. Municipalities, which are responsible for street signs, do not follow a uniform pattern, since each of them acts on its own. As for transportation-related buildings, the names of railway stations tend to be in Catalan, whereas airports are in Spanish; in both cases, explanatory signs are bilingual (Spanish/Catalan or vice versa) or trilingual (these two, plus English).

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1. Introduction The use of place names can be analysed from a variety of standpoints, such as the purely functional one (as a help for people to find the place they are looking for), the cultural one (when and why a place name was born), or the ideological one (as an identity sign that characterises a place) (Bracho 2008: 189). Road and street signs are major instruments of symbolic perception for understanding the sociolinguistic situation of a territory. If we are on the road about 65 km south of Alacant, in the region of Murcia, we may see a road sign on the A-7 highway saying “ 65”, in Spanish. 12 kilometres north along the same road, another sign will read “Alicante 53”; even though we are now in València, this place name sign is still in Spanish only. When we are only 23 km to the south of Alacant, we will find a bilingual (Catalan/Spanish) sign saying “Alacant/Alicante 23”. If we go on along the same road, past Alacant, 18 km to the north of that city we may spot a sign in our rear- view mirror saying “Alacant 18”, in Catalan only. This example (figure 1) shows us how difficult it to understand València and its sociocultural realities from the toponymic signs to be found there. There are, however, some patterns that can help us do it, and it is those patterns that we are going to deal with in this paper. Nevertheless, we have to take into account that the patterns that we find will often be subject to variation and exceptions: factors such as the year in which a sign was made, a change in the name of a municipality, in some administration’s criteria for place name signs, or in who is in charge of a road – from the Generalitat to the Spanish Government or vice versa – may all affect our findings.

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1893 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

Figure 1. Different versions of Alacant/Alicante in A-7 road signs.

As regards street names, if you visit the old quarter of València city and, besides visiting monuments, you want to eat a good Valencian paella, you will find that – even though there are fewer options for doing so than one might expect – one of the most reasonable places for paella can be found in a street officially called Calle Tundidores. You decide to go there, but when you thought you had finally reached it, most street signs read “Carrer dels Abaixadors”. Is there any explanation for that? Yes, there is one, having to do with València’s peculiar sociolinguistic situation. As far as railway stations are concerned, in three of the main railway stations in València city, including València-Nord, we can read the name València, with an accent – i.e., in Catalan – even though the official name of this city does not have an accent –i.e., it is a Spanish name. At Alacant station, you can read “Alacant Terminal”, in Catalan, everywhere; but you might have trouble finding a station employee who will speak to you in Catalan, as Catalan has lost a lot of ground in that city in the last decades and it is not necessary to speak it in order to work on Valencian railways. Such atypical situations referring to place name signs in roads, streets and stations will be the subject of this paper. But before dealing with the patterns that can be found in place name signs in València, we should first go over the sociolinguistic situation of this territory.

Map 1. Location of València in the Western Mediterranean sea.

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1894 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

2. The sociolinguistic situation in València València, also known in the Catalan language as País Valencià or, historically, Regne de València, and officially called Comunitat Valenciana, is a territory inhabitated by 5 million people and located in eastern Spain, whose main cities are València city1 (800,000 inhabitants; almost 2 million people live in its metropolitan area), the Alacant-Elx agglomeration (330,000 and 230,000 inhabitants, respectively; 750,000 in the whole urban area) and Castelló (180,000 inhabitants; 315,000 in its urban area).

Map 2. Historical Catalan/Valencian-speaking and Spanish- speaking areas in València.

València is located south of and Aragón, east of Castile and Murcia, west of the Balearic Islands,2 and north of the Algerian coast3 (map 1). Both Catalan (officially known as valencià, Valencian, in this territory) and Spanish or Castilian (castellà, i.e. Castilian, is the traditional name of the Spanish language in València and the other Catalan-speaking lands) are official languages. There are two areas in València according to the language historically spoken in each of them: the Catalan-speaking area (72% of the territory, where 87% of Valencians live), and the Spanish-speaking area (28% of the territory, 13% of the population) (map 2). After the 36-year-long Franco dictatorship, Spain became a decentralised state upon the establishment of democracy. Spain has been divided since into 17 autonomous regions or comunidades (communities), one of which is València (map 3). Many of these comunidades have deep historical roots: this is no doubt the case for València, which was a Kingdom with its own Parliament, laws, and other institutions from

Map 3. Autonomous regions in Spain.

1238 to 1707. The autonomous government of València is called la Generalitat, a historic institution created in 1418 in order to collect taxes for València’s king (figure 2). The Generalitat was banned in 1707, along with the medieval kingdom and the teaching and the official use of Catalan in València. In 1982 the Generalitat was re-established, and so were the official use and the teaching of Catalan just one year later, nearly three centuries after they were banned.

1 The official name of the Valencian capital is , but in this paper we will call it València city, in order to distinguish it from the Valencian land (officially Comunitat Valenciana), which will be called València in these pages. 2 Palma de Mallorca is 300 km to the east of València city, but the island of Eivissa (Ibiza in Spanish) is only 100 km off València’s easternmost point (cap de la Nau, La Nau Cape). 3 Oran (Algeria) is 260 km south of Alacant and 370 km south of València city. Alger is 330 km off València’s easternmost point (cap de la Nau, La Nau Cape).

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1895 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

Catalan/Valencian now enjoys extensive legal support thanks to the Law on the Use and Teaching of Valencian (1983), and it is widely used in fields such as schools, the media, festivals and place name signs. However, it is seldom used for business, and knowledge of Catalan is hardly ever a requirement for getting a job. If we search for the reasons explaining why Catalan in València has not achieved the level of social use and prestige that it has in Catalonia – or even in the Balearic Islands – we need to go back to the period 1977-1983, during the Spanish transition to democracy, when the language and identity of València became a matter for political dispute. Was the language to be called Catalan or Valencian? Was it to have – generally speaking – the same spelling and grammatical rules as Catalan or a completely different set of such rules? Was the official name of the territory to be País Valencià (Valencian Country) or Regne de València (Kingdom of València)? (Comunitat Valenciana [] was the eventual – rather unappealing – compromise.) Was the city of València’s name to be spelled with an accent or not? These and other conflictive issues (e.g., symbols such as the territory’s flag and anthem) weakened Valencian identity – and its most characteristic trait, the territory’s historic language – at a moment when it could have regained strength after centuries of official subordination and persecution.

Figure 2. Palau de la Generalitat Valenciana.

Only a part of Valencian society, more in medium-sized and small towns than in the big cities, and especially people working in the field of public teaching, took positions in favour of the Catalan/ in those years, but most people gave scarce support to those who defended it, and many regarded them as marginal, or even radical. Although AVL4 surveys show that progress has been made in the knowledge of Catalan among young people in the last decades, it is equally true that conversations between strangers – even if they are Catalan speakers, a fact unknown to each other – are mainly and by default in Castilian/Spanish; so, more people can speak Catalan, but fewer people use it: polls say that the oral use of this language in València has declined at an alarming rate over the period 1995-2004: those who always or habitually use it at home have decreased from 44 to 35%, while those who always or habitually use Spanish at home have gone up, from 48 to 53%. We must take into account that in 1995 only 1% of the inhabitants of València were immigrants from other states, whereas in 2004 non-Spanish immigrants were more than 10% (17% in 2011). These immigrants usually try to integrate into Valencian society by learning Spanish (when it is not their mother tongue). These data show that the process of linguistic substitution of Castilian/Spanish for Catalan/Valencian which began centuries ago has not come to an end in our own time, despite the – very limited – institutionalisation of the latter language in València after the establishment of democracy in 1977.

4 Since 1998 the official authority in the field of the Catalan/Valencian language in València has been the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL). The survey we are referring to is Llibre blanc d’ús del valencià (AVL, 2005).

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1896 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

3. Legislation about place names signage in valència In decentralized Spain, all 17 autonomous regions have had authority over some areas – including health, education and most roads – transferred to them by the Spanish Government over the past decades. Thus, even though strategic highways and roads connecting two or more regions remain under the charge of the Spanish Ministry of Development (Ministerio de Fomento),5 which is responsible for the signage there, the remaining highways and roads6 are under the charge of the Valencian Conselleria d’Infraestructures, which has responsibility for the signs to be placed there according to the laws of the Valencian Generalitat. Most road place signs refer to municipality names, showing how far they are from a given point, how to enter or exit them, or simply that you are entering or leaving the place at the moment. Thus, the contents of place signs depend mostly on official municipality names. The Law 4/1983, November 23, on the Use and Teaching of Valencian says, in article 15, point 1, that the Generalitat is the institution determining the official names of Valencian municipalities, which can be monolingual in Spanish or Catalan, or bilingual in both languages (Spanish/Catalan or vice versa). Point 2 states that the official municipality names are to be used in public signs (in roads, but also in stations and other public buildings), respecting international rules. As regards the language used for words other than place names, article 1 of Decree 145/1986, November 24, establishes that the language to be used in the signage of all highways, roads, footpaths, railway and bus stations and managed by the Valencian Generalitat in the Spanish-speaking area is Castilian (i.e. Spanish), whereas in the Catalan- speaking area it is Valencian (i.e. Catalan) and also, when deemed necessary, Spanish. Furthermore, the Order of December 1 1993, on the use of official languages in road signage, states in points 1 and 2 that the general criterion for the use of official languages (both in place names and in other words) in signage is that in the Catalan-speaking area they are to be in Catalan, and in Spanish in the Spanish-speaking area.7 This Order also states that if a place name (a river’s, for instance) should be present in both areas, signs alluding to it are to be in the language of the area in which each of them is located.8 As regards those signs that can be found on the roads and highways managed by the Spanish Ministry of Development, Royal Decree 1,428/2003, of November 21, on the General Regulations of Motor Vehicles and Road Safety, refers to the language of signs in article 138, stating that the languages to be used in road signs are Castilian/Spanish and, in bilingual regions, their official languages as well. Municipalities and other places are to be referred to by their official names, and, when it is deemed necessary for the purposes of identification, also in Spanish. The Ministry of Development uses the REL (Registro de Entidades Locales, i.e. the Spanish register of municipalities and other units of local government) as its source for the official names of all municipalities.

5 Such as the Mediterranean Corridor (AP-7, A-7), connecting València with Catalonia, France and the rest of Europe, northwards, and Murcia and Andalusia, southwards; the València-Madrid (A-3), Alacant-Madrid (A- 31), Saragossa-Sagunt (A-23), and Almansa-Xàtiva (A-31) highways; and the following national roads: Burgos- Vinaròs (N-232), Cádiz-Barcelona (N-340), and València-Almería (N-332). A Ministry of Development road name begins with AP if it is a toll highway (autopista de peatge), with an A (autovia) if it is a free highway and with an N if it is a two-lane only – one for each direction – national road (carretera nacional). 6 Valencian Generalitat road names begin with CV (Comunitat Valenciana); they include some highways such as CV-10 (-), CV-35 (València-Xelva), CV-40 (Canals-Albaida), and CV-80 (Sax-). 7 Which is the predominant language in every Valencian town and village is determined by Title V of the Law on the Use and Teaching of Valencian, which presents a list of Valencian municipalities and the predominant language – Catalan or Spanish – in each of them. In 72% of València’s territory, Catalan is the predominant language, and in the remaining 28% it is Spanish; as for the population, 87% of it live in the Catalan-speaking area, and 13% in the Spanish-speaking area. 8 For example: Riu Millars in the Catalan-speaking area, and Río Mijares in the Spanish-speaking area.

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1897 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

Regarding street signs, the Law 4/1983, November 23, on the Use and Teaching of Catalan/Valencian, states, in article 15, point 1, that street names are to be determined by the town councils concerned.

Figure 3. Explanatory words in signs produced by the Generalitat Valenciana.

Figure 4. Explanatory words in signs produced by the Ministry of Development.

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1898 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

4. Highway and road signage There are two different criteria for the language(s) used on highway and road signs: the Valencian Generalitat’s and the Spanish Ministry of Development’s. The former favours the use of the Catalan language in historical Catalan-speaking areas, and of Spanish in historical Spanish-speaking areas, respecting international norms and symbols to facilitate understanding the signs to drivers who do not speak either Catalan or Spanish (figure 3). Since 72% of the Valencian territory and 87% of its population live in historical Catalan- speaking areas, the road signage dependent on the Valencian government is mostly in Catalan,9 which is employed along with Spanish whenever it is deemed necessary. In the highways and roads managed by the Ministry of Development, by contrast, the language used for signage has to be bilingual (Spanish/Catalan) by law, theoretically at least; in fact, Spanish is almost always the only language to be found there10 (figure 4).

Map 4. Official name of the Catalan-speaking Valencian municipalities.

As most road signs refer to municipalities’ names, the language used on them depends on the towns’ official names. This is particularly the case on those roads managed by the Spanish Government. There are 542 municipalities in València: 1 in 4 (146) lie in the historical Spanish- speaking area, all of them having a monolingual official name in Spanish.11 3 in 4 municipalities (396) lie in the historical Catalan-speaking area, where only the Spanish (often castilianised, i.e. translated into Spanish or adapted to its spelling) versions of names were official before the establishment of democracy; since 1977, however, most of these towns and villages have been renamed in order to reinstate their original Catalan name.12 In 2011, 316 out of the 396 Catalan-speaking municipalities in València had a monolingual official name in Catalan (map 4); many of them, however, never had to change their name because its Catalan form was identical to the one that had been used before 1977, and which back then was considered to be Spanish – rather illogically, as in

9 Among the Catalan words we can find in road signs are Canvi de sentit (U-turn), Nord (North), Sud (South), Urbanitzacions (Residential developments), Centre ciutat (City Center), Eixida (Exit), Via de servei (Service road), etc. 10 Sometimes we find bilingual signs (figure 2), such as the ones referring to the highway’s name. Autopista del Mediterráneo/Autopista de la Mediterrania [sic] (the correct spelling would be Autopista de la Mediterrània); Autovía del Mediterráneo/Autovía de la Mediterrània. 11 Among them there are towns that belonged to Castile before the 19th century, such as and Requena, and towns that spoke Catalan before the 18th century, but not today, such as the historical Oriola (, Spanish and official), the seaside resort city of Torrevella (, Spanish and official) and the industrial town of . 12 Changing the official name of a municipality depends on the town council, but the new name must be confirmed by the Generalitat and the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL).

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1899 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA many cases it did not even sound like a Spanish-language name.13 Most Catalan-speaking Valencian municipalities, on the other hand, did have to change their name in order to restore the original Catalan form or adapt it to current Catalan spelling.14 32 municipalities changed their official name to make it bilingual (Catalan/Spanish or vice versa), including major cities such as Alacant, Elx and Castelló.15 Finally, in 48 cases the names used before 1977 went on untouched, even though they had been previously translated or adapted into Spanish (i.e. castilianised) or needed some slight change in order to adapt their medieval-Catalan forms to modern Catalan spelling; most of these municipalities are small villages, but an exception is València city, officially Valencia, with no accent. On road signs produced by the Valencian Generalitat, official municipality names are not always the preferred forms. When a town has a bilingual official name, the Generalitat habitually uses the Catalan/Valencian form only (figure 5). Even in many cases where only the Spanish version of the name is official, road signs refer to it exclusively in Catalan, as happens in Sorita (official and Spanish: Zorita del ), la Vall d’Alba (Vall d’Alba), Canyada (Cañada), (Facheca), Llucena (Lucena), (Benasal), etc. (figure 6). València city is mostly referred to by its official and Spanish name, Valencia, but on some highway signs, its name is written with an accent: València (Catalan name, unofficial).

Figure 5. Municipality names on signs produced by the Generalitat Valenciana whose official names are bilingual (Alacant/Alicante, Alcoy/Alcoi, /Elx, Castellón/Castelló, Benicasim/Benicàssim) but on road signs are written only in Catalan

13 This group includes, for instance, the coastal cities of , , Teulada/Moraira, Oliva, Cullera, Sueca and Benicarló; the airport city of Manises; historical Morella; and the industrial cities of Onda, Ibi, , Paterna, Mislata and Catarroja, the last three of them located in the agglomeration of València city. 14 This is the case, for instance, of Vila-real (known in Spain, and even in Europe, for its important football team, even though this team is named after the city’s now unofficial Spanish – castilianised – name, CF). It is also the case of comarca (a comarca is a geographical unit comprising several municipalities) capitals such as Gandia, Alzira, Dénia, Ontinyent, Vinaròs ans Llíria; of industrial cities such as and la Vall d’Uixó; of coastal cities such as , Tavernes de la Valldigna and Alcalà de Xivert – Alcossebre; and of some cities in the metropolitan area of València city (Burjassot, Torrent, Xirivella, Aldaia, Alaquàs, Quart de Poblet) and in the Alacant agglomeration (Sant Joan, and ). 15 And also medium-sized cities such as the industrial cities of Sagunto/Sagunt, Alcoy/Alcoi, San Vicente / Sant Vicent or Almazora/, and the coastal cities of / la Vila Joiosa, Jávea/, Borriana/Burriana, Benicasim/Benicàssim, and Peníscola/Peñíscola.

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1900 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

Figure 6. Municipality names on signs produced by the Generalitat Valenciana whose official names are the Spanish ones (San Rafael, Zorita, Benasal, Cañada, Sierra en Garcerán, Vall d’Alba) but on road signs are written in Catalan.

Figure 7. Municipality names on signs produced by the Ministry of Development whose official names are bilingual, as written on these road signs.

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1901 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

Figure 8. Municipality names on signs produced by the Ministry of Development whose official names are in Catalan (Alcalà de Xivert) or bilingual (Sant Jordi / San Jorge, Peníscola/Peñíscola, /Chert) but on road signs are written only in Spanish.

The Spanish Ministry of Development always – in theory – uses the official names of municipalities (figure 7); if these names are bilingual, both names are written, one in each language. This criterion is valid for both linguistic areas in València (Catalan-speaking and Spanish-speaking), but not for the regions bordering València. In those regions where Spanish is the sole official language (Murcia, Castile-La Mancha and ), only the Spanish version of Valencian bilingual names is presented on signs. But in Catalonia, which borders on València to the north, and where the Catalan language is co-official (together with Spanish, as in València), Valencian municipalities can be referred to on Ministry of Development signs by their official names (Castellón/Castelló; Valencia; Alacant/Alicante) or by the Catalan ones (Castelló, València, Alacant). In some cases, Ministry of Development road signs do not follow the Ministry’s own rules, especially in the north-eastern area known as el Baix Maestrat, close to Catalonia, where some municipalities having an official bilingual name (Xert/Chert, Sant Jordi/San Jorge, Peníscola/Peñíscola) or even a monolingual Catalan one (Alcalà de Xivert) appear on signs under a Spanish name (Alcalá de Chivert on the N-340, Peñíscola on the N-340 and AP-7; Chert and San Jorge on the N-232) (figure 8). Maybe all those signs were made before the towns officially changed their name into a Catalan or a bilingual form, and they have never been renewed since. On the other hand, on other roads we see towns having a bilingual name that appear on Ministry of Development signs by the Catalan version of their name only – as in the new AP-7 ring road of Alacant, were Alcoi and Sant Vicent del Raspeig are referred to only in Catalan and not by their official forms (which are Alcoy/Alcoi and San Vicente del Raspeig/Sant Vicent del Raspeig; it is true that the latter of these bilingual names is very long in its full version, which maybe led the Ministry to shorten it). It is therefore obvious that the Ministry’s rules for road signs are not always applied; there are many exceptions, which may depend on three factors: how old the signs are; the considerations of pragmatism and common sense; and if the road – with all its signs – has recently been transferred to the Ministry from the Generalitat or vice versa (since, as we have seen above, the rules establishing the languages to be used for explanatory words and place names on road signs are not the same in both institutions). In fact, there is a fourth, random, factor,

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1902 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA which is a possible lack of competence on the part of the clerk in charge of spelling place names on signs. The Ministry of Development signage rules, together with the listed exceptions, help us to explain the example in our introduction, about the Ministry-managed A-7 highway. Along this highway we can find València’s second city successively referred to on signs as Alicante, Alacant/Alicante and Alacant. The “Alicante 65” sign which can be seen in the Murcia region responds to the criterion that Valencian bilingual place names are to appear in Spanish – and only in Spanish – in monolingual Spanish-speaking regions. The “Alicante 53” sign that we found in the Spanish-speaking area of València, in Oriola, is not explained by the fact that it is located in a Spanish-speaking area (since the Ministry’s criteria do not make differences between València’s two linguistic areas, and therefore this sign ought to read “Alacant/Alicante”); the real reason for it is that this highway was built in 1990, months before the city of Alacant adopted a bilingual official name (Alacant/Alicante). The “Alacant/Alicante 23” sign reflects the city’s official name, and therefore follows the Ministry’s rules. Finally, the “Alacant 18” sign that can be seen to the north of the city is because this stretch of A-7 (formerly CV-40) was managed by the Generalitat for a time after it was built, and therefore its signs follow the Generalitat’s norms, not the Ministry’s.

5. Street signage As mentioned before, the language(s) used on street signs are determined by town councils. Since each of the 542 Valencian municipalities is in charge of its own urban signage, disparate situations abound in Catalan-speaking municipalities, depending on each corporation’s sensitivity towards Catalan/Valencian and its social status. These disparities, however, do not happen in the Spanish-speaking area, where virtually all street signs are written in Spanish. Using the street finder Cartociudad we have surveyed the main cities among the 396 Catalan-speaking municipalities of València (map 5). Despite the many variations, we can detect some patterns: in a group comprising Benicarló, Vila-real, Llíria, Paterna, Quart de Poblet, Sueca, Algemesí, Alzira, Carcaixent, Gandia, Ontinyent, Alcoi, , la Vila Joiosa, Mutxamel, and , all or almost all street signs are in Catalan. This required an important effort on the part of town councils, since it implied replacing (almost) all the street signage in these towns, as before 1977 all street and other official signs in Spain had to be in the Castilian/Spanish language – Catalan, Galician, and Basque being officially banned. In a second group comprising Benicàssim, Borriana, Cullera, Xàtiva, Oliva, Dénia, Xàbia, and Elx, most official street names are in Catalan, but Spanish names are not uncommon; the replacing effort has not therefore been as thorough there as in the former group. In a third group (including Petrer, la Vall d’Uixó, and Onda), many new streets have received signs in Catalan, but the signs in Spanish in the older ones have been kept. A fourth model is that of Benidorm and Ibi, where the street signage in the city centre appears mainly in Catalan, but Spanish prevails on signs in outlying neighbourhoods. In a fifth group (Vinaròs, Morella, Castelló, Almassora, Sagunt, Calp, Sant Vicent del Raspeig, Novelda, València city and many cities next to the Valencian capital, such as Mislata, Xirivella, Burjassot, Manises, Aldaia, Alaquàs, and Torrent), most street names are officially in Spanish, and Catalan is only used in the names of some outlying new streets (and sometimes in those of a few streets in the city centre as well); even though most street names in these municipalities are officially in Spanish, there are cases where – rather incongruously – street signs are mainly in Catalan, as in València city (figure 10), or are bilingual, as in Castelló de la Plana. The last group,

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1903 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA including Santa Pola and Alacant,16 does not present even one official street name in Catalan, which is the same situation that we find in the historical Spanish-speaking area of València; the difference between Alacant and historically Spanish-speaking towns such as Oriola (Orihuela) and Torrevella (Torrevieja) is that the street signage in the former appears in official Spanish and in unofficial Catalan. As an aside, we can mention that there is one historically Spanish-speaking town, Bunyol, where we can find bilingual signage on road (not street) signs. It is astonishing to see that many small towns in València still keep some street names with obvious connections to the rhetoric and the propaganda of Franco’s fascist dictatorship. This fascist signage (including streets dedicated to Franco himself, and referring to the dictator by the typically fascist title Caudillo – which was the Spanish version of the Italian Duce or the German Führer – or by the military title Generalísimo) can still be seen in the main streets and squares of villages such as , Catí, Santa Magdalena, , La Yesa, Fageca, ,17 , and Ludiente (all these villages have fewer than one thousand inhabitants) and Nàquera (5,000 inhabitants). There are, however, some bigger towns with similar street names: La Pobla de Vallbona, for instance, with more than 20,000 inhabitants, has an Avenida José Antonio (dedicated to the founder of Spanish Fascism, José Antonio Primo de Rivera) and Peníscola, an 8,000-people town in the winter with more than 100,000 residents in the summer months, has among its main streets a Plaza del Caudillo and an Avenida Primo de Rivera. In Alacant, València’s second city, a street devoted to Miguel Primo de Rivera (dictator of Spain from 1923-1930 and father of José Antonio) remains, and in the fourth Valencian city, Castelló de la Plana, a square was recently dedicated to Franco’s pro-Nazi Minister for Foreign Affairs Ramón Serrano Suñer. Sometimes, this kind of street signs honouring the dictatorship are written in Catalan (José Antonio becomes Josep Antoni and Caudillo Cabdill or Caudill [sic]), which is remarkable since this language was persecuted and officially banned by Franco (figure 9).

Figure 9. Carrer de Josep Antoni (la Pobla de Vallbona) and Plaça Caudill (Nàquera).

5.1. València city Currently most street name signs in València city are in Catalan/Valencian, since during the last decade, new street name signs were made in this language and they were placed either besides the old signage in Spanish or replacing it (figure 10). Despite this important step in the linguistic valencianisation of name streets, the official version of València city street

16 The only Catalan street names in Alacant are those referring to place names such as lo Morant, Garbinet, Benidorm or Teulada, for which there is no Spanish translation or adaptation, although Callosa d’en Sarrià street is an exception (this town was called Callosa de Ensarriá, in Spanish, before 1977). In fact, we have found a single Catalan street name in Alacant not referring to another place name: Carrer del Llobarro (‘sea bass street’), which maybe can be explained by the possibility that the people who officially named this street in this way were not aware that llobarro is a Catalan word with a Spanish equivalent, lubina. 17 Paradoxically, one of Alfondeguilla’s central squares is officially called “Plaza del Caudillo/Plaça del Cabdill”, with its name in both Spanish and Catalan; thus, a language that was persecuted and officially banned during Franco’s dictatorship is used for honouring the memory of the dictator – and under the most typically fascistic of his titles.

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1904 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA names is still the Castilian/Spanish one in all but a few cases.18 This blatant incongruity may be the cause of a lack of correspondence between the address that you expect to find and the one that you can read on signs once you get there (you might be looking for a street officially called Tundidores, but signs in it read ‘Abaixadors’; the same may happen with Zurradores/‘Assaonadors’, Cerrajeros/‘Manyans’, and many other streets) (figure 11).

Figure 10. Street signs in València city, mostly written in Catalan.

Figure 11. Street signs in València city where Catalan and Spanish versions are completely different (the only official name is the Spanish one)

Bus stop signs are only in Catalan and most of the public address system announcing the names of stops on buses is in Catalan. The PA system in the underground network is only in Catalan, and among its stations, those having a Catalan name (Facultats, Xàtiva, Àngel Guimerà, Plaça Espanya, Grau-Canyamelar, les Arenes, Sagunt, Tarongers, etc.) are more abundant than those having a Spanish one (Aragón, Colón, Alameda, Ayora, etc.).

18 To find Catalan-language official street names we have to visit some new neighbourhoods, created in the last fifteen years in peripheral areas such as Campanar, the City of Arts and Sciences, Montolivet, Orriols and the Universitat de València’s Campus dels Tarongers. Apart from these, we can find a couple of well-known squares (plaça del Xúquer and plaça de la Porta de la Mar), four large avenues (Regne de València, Ausiàs March, Tres Forques and Corts Valencianes), and the streets in the industrial park Vara de Quart, built in the 1980’s (Gremis, Traginers, Argenters, etc.).

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1905 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

Figure 12. Exonym inconsistencies: some Spanish toponyms in Catalan (Zaragoza/Saragossa) and some Catalan toponyms in Spanish (Catalunya/Cataluña)

Historical exonyms in Catalan for Spanish-speaking towns outside València are frequent in València city street signs – such as Saragossa, Terol, Osca, Alcanyís, Conca, Aragó (but the metro station there is called Aragón) – even though officially these streets are named after the modern Spanish version of those towns’ names (Zaragoza, , Huesca, Alcañiz, Cuenca, Aragón). On some traffic signs, exonyms are presented in a bilingual way: one can see some “Zaragoza/Saragossa” signs at València city’s north exit, although not far from there, at the north entrance to the city, there is a very large road sign which reads “Av. Cataluña”, in Spanish. Finding a Spanish-language toponym (Cataluña) referring to a Catalan-speaking region close to a Catalan-language place name (Saragossa) referring to a Spanish-speaking city certainly seems a remarkable inconsistency (figure 12).

Figure 13 Two versions of the València city taxi logo, one with a grave accent and one with an acute one

Figure 14 València Council’s logo: the one above without an accent and the two beneath with one.

The very name of València city is affected by anomaly, as the official name of the central Valencian province is bilingual (València/Valencia), but that of the city which is its – and the whole region’s – capital is only in Spanish. Most university scholars argue that the Catalan/Valencian version of this name should carry a grave accent (València), but there are some who believe that the accent should be acute (Valéncia) (Casanova, 2011, 284). This controversy makes it easier for the town council to keep the Spanish version of the city’s name (Valencia, with no accent) as the only official one. But, even though the form València is not recognised as official, the Valencian regional TV station (Canal 9), the two public universities in the city, its three main railway stations, taxis (figure 13) and often even the town council itself use it (as in the logo ‘Ajuntament de València’) (figure 14).

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1906 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

Figure 15 Tourist attractions in València city: two of them in Catalan, one hybrid Catalan-English and one in Spanish

Finally, with regard to tourist attractions, Catalan names are more common in those created in the last fifteen years: l’Oceanogràfic, l’Hemisfèric, l’Umbracle, Veles e Vents (meaning ‘Sails and Winds’), Palau de la Música, el Parotet (‘little dragonfly’), Pont de l’Assut de l’Or (‘Golden Dam Bridge’), Pont del Regne (Kingdom Bridge’), Pont de l’Exposició (‘Exhibition Bridge’),19 etc., but there are also Spanish names (Marina Real Juan Carlos I, Palacio de Congresos), and places with a long hybrid Catalan- Spanish name (Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía). There is even one hybrid Catalan-English name (Port America’s Cup) (figure 15).

6. Railway stations and airports Even though railways are managed by the Spanish Government, the criterion used in their signage is similar to the one that, as we have seen, the Valencian Generalitat uses on its road signs, since station names are in Catalan in the Catalan-speaking area. Big railway stations such as Castelló, Alacant and València have a monolingual Catalan name.20 In València city, although as we have seen the city’s official name is Valencia – in Spanish, with no accent – four of its five railway stations (València-nord, València-Cabanyal, València-Font Sant Lluís and València-Sant Isidre) have been given a Catalan name, but this has not been the case for the new temporary high-speed train station (called Valencia-Joaquín Sorolla) (figure 16).

Figure 16 Two main railway stations in València city: one officially in Catalan and one in Spanish

The names of Valencian airports are in Spanish only, although the indicative signs at the airports of València (Manises) and Alacant (l’Altet) are trilingual – in Spanish, Catalan and English.

19 These three ‘ponts’ (i.e. bridges) have alternative, familiar un-official names which are often used by many Spanish speakers: el Jamonero (‘slice ham machine’), las Gárgolas (‘gargoyles’) and la Peineta (‘little comb’), respectively. 20 It is both paradoxical and symptomatic of València’s current sociolinguistic situation that in Alacant railway station, where signs are in Catalan only, a user may be forced to present an official complaint after using Catalan for trying to buy a ticket there and being refused it by several employees: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/Comunidad/Valenciana/estacion/Alicante/niega/atender/valenciano/elpepuespva l/20071211elpval_11/Tes

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1907 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

7. Conclusions Street and road signage is an instrument of symbolic perception of a territory’s identity; in the case of València, where there is a peculiar sociolinguistic situation, we can expect such peculiarity to be reflected in signs too. 72% of Valencian territory lies in the historical Catalan-speaking area, and 87% of Valencians live there, although only one-third of people in this area usually speak Catalan at home. These data show that the process of linguistic substitution of Castilian/Spanish for Catalan/Valencian, which began centuries ago, has not yet come to an end. Nevertheless, Catalan signage – not only on place name roads and streets, but in many explanatory signs – is now far more frequent than it was in the 1980’s, after decades of Franco’s dictatorship (when the Catalan language was banned from any official use). On the other hand, since the 1980’s the use of Catalan in València has decreased in many everyday contexts: at home, with friends or when shopping (Ros, 2005, 23). Valencian road names follow two different patterns: on the one hand, those that are produced by the regional government (the Valencian Generalitat) show that some effort has been made to promote the use of Catalan/Valencian in the area where this language has been spoken historically, as both place names and the explanatory words that accompany them on signs are mainly in Catalan. On the other hand, signage on roads managed by the Spanish Ministry of Development carry the official form of place names (which can be monolingual, in Spanish or in Catalan, or bilingual in both), whereas explanatory words are mostly in Spanish. Depending on how old a particular sign is, these road signage patterns may be followed or not, as a recent change in a municipality’s name, or in who is responsible for the management of a road, may account for exceptions – which are quite frequent. Street signs are a responsibility of town councils but, far from having a unified approach, each council has chosen its own formula for them. We can thus distinguish between councils showing a particularly positive attitude towards the Catalan language (among them those of big- and medium-sized cities such as Elx, Gandia, Alcoi and Vila-real, where official street names and street signs are entirely or mostly in Catalan), and others in whose towns few streets have an official Catalan name – such as València city, Castelló and Alacant, three major Valencian cities where street signs presenting un-official Catalan versions of street names are nevertheless abundant, even a majority in the case of València city. In the latter, most of the metro station and bus stop names are in Catalan too, and the same holds for its new tourist attractions, where Catalan names prevail. The Valencian Generalitat, and many Valencian municipalities as well, have made a considerable effort over the last decades in order to promote signage in Catalan in streets, roads, railway stations and tourist attractions. Unfortunately, we cannot say that a comparable effort has been made in order to promote the public use of this language and give it prestige. Most Valencian authorities do not speak it in public frequently; many hardly ever use it. It is therefore unsurprising that, for most people – including most Valencian speakers of Catalan – Spanish remains the important language, whereas Catalan is still relegated to secondary, subordinate status. There is no doubt that the presence of Catalan on signs has increased over the last decades – not just on road or street signs, but also on those found in many businesses, for instance restaurants or baker’s and confectioner’s shops, which are often given Catalan names as a signal of Valencian identity, of following the territory’s rich culinary traditions; in many of these businesses, however, their name is the only thing you will find in Catalan. So, even if it is important for the future of Catalan/Valencian that this language be used on signs, it is far from sufficient. If the lack of a determinate policy to give social prestige to Catalan/Valencian should continue, it may find itself, in a not too distant future, in a situation similar to that of Gaelic in Ireland, a language spoken by very few people at home (less than

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1908 ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA

2% of the Republic of Ireland’s inhabitants use it in this context), even though its presence on signs is outstanding all over the country.

8. Bibliography Bracho, Llum. 2008. El comportament ideològic a través de la toponímia. En Llengua & Literatura: revista anual de la Societat Catalana de Llengua i Literatura, 19, 189-220. Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Casanova, Emili. 2010. Estado actual de los estudios sobre toponimia valenciana. En: Toponimia de España. Estado actual y perspectivas de la investigación, 195-212. Patronymica Romanica, 24. Berlín: De Gruyter. Casanova, Emili. 2011. Comunidad Valenciana. En: Toponimia hispánica. Origen y evolución de nuestros topónimos más importantes, 257-292. València: Denes. Gobierno de España. 2011. Datos del Registro de Entidades Locales (REL). Madrid: Ministerio de Política Territorial y Administración Pública. http://ssweb.mpt.es/REL/ Institut Cartogràfic Valencià. Web map server Cartociudad for València. Instituto Geográfico Nacional. Membrado, Joan Carles. 2010. Experiencias para la introducción de la toponimia en el Institut Cartogràfic Valencià. En: III Jornada de la Comisión Especializada de Nombres Geográficos (CENG): toponímia y sociedad. València: Consejo Superior Geográfico, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, Institut Cartogràfic Valencià i Universitat de València. Membrado, Joan Carles. 2010. Introducció geogràfica a la toponímia municipal valenciana. En: Postgrau de Toponímia 2010-2011. Toponímia i cartografia. València: ADEIT, Universitat de València. Montoya, Brauli (1986): Variació i desplaçament de llengües a Elda i Oriola. Alacant: IAC Juan Gil-Albert. Pérez, Aigües Vives. 2001. Legislació sobre onomàstica: el cas valencià. En: Congrés Internacional de Toponímia i Onomàstica Catalanes, 977-984. València: Denes. Querol, Ernest (coord.) (2007): Llengua i societat als territoris de parla catalana a l’inici del segle XXI. L’Alguer, Andorra, Catalunya, Catalunya Nord, la Franja, Illes Balears i País Valencià. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya, Secretaria de Política Lingüística, Publicacions de l’Institut de Sociolingüística Catalana, Sèrie Estudis, núm. 12. Ros, Honorat (coord.). 2005. Llibre blanc sobre l’ús del valencià. València: Publicacions de l’Acadèmia Valenciana de la llengua. Rosselló, Vicenç. 2004. Toponímia, geografia i cartografia. València: Universitat de València.

Joan Carles Membrado Tena Geography Department University of València [email protected]

Els noms en la vida quotidiana. Actes del XXIV Congrés Internacional d’ICOS sobre Ciències Onomàstiques. Annex. Secció 8 1909