Els principis de llengua pròpia i llengües oficials en l'articulat de la Llei 1/1998, de 7 de gener, de política lingüística

Resum

The author portrays the new Language Policy Act as a renewal of the Catalan government's political commitment to the Catalan language, as a legislative improvement with respect to the Language Normalisation Act of 1983, and as a clarification of the two juridical concepts on which the idea of language normalisation is founded: the concept of autochthonous language (which applies only to Catalan) and the concept of official language (which applies both to Catalan and Castilian). The concept of autochthonous language has three basic aspects: an administrative-institutional aspect (Catalan shall be the language of all institutions), a territorial aspect (Catalan shall be the preferential language within Catalonia), and a cultural aspect (the use of Catalan must be fostered). On the other hand, the concept of official language gives rise to the freedom of choice of official language and the right to know both official languages. After this general presentation, the author devotes the rest of his paper to a survey of the Act's articles so as to show which norms are based on the concept of autochthonous language and which ones are based on the concept of official language. With regard to the administrative-institutional aspect of the autochthonous language, articles on the Catalan administration, education and public companies advertising are discussed; as for the territorial aspect, the relevant articles concern place-names, public registers, public services, signs and labels; regarding the cultural aspect, the articles dealt with refer to higher education, private media, advertising, etc. As far as the concept of official language is concerned, the author provides a gloss on the articles that develop the right to learn both Catalan and Castilian and those which refer to the free choice of official language in a number of areas, such as the Catalan and State administration, public documents and the courts.