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Conflicting discourses on language rights in the Basque Autonomous Community

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Abstract

The handling of linguistic diversity in the Basque Autonomous Community has been an area of constant political debate since the establishment of the Basque–Spanish co-official linguistic regime and the introduction of a process to revitalize Euskara (the Basque language) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Much of that debate has materialized in claims related to the language rights of citizens. This paper analyzes discourses about language rights in three political organizations, the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV), the Abertzale Left (Ezker Abertzalea), and the Popular Party (PP), through an analysis of their electoral programs for the Basque Parliament from the first elections to the present day (1980–2016). Although the linguistic system of the Basque Autonomous Community seems consolidated, the analysis has shown that policy proposals are profoundly conditioned by the form of understanding language rights and that these in turn are influenced by distinct national projects. EAJ-PNV advocates for an effective equal opportunity to choose between Spanish and Basque in all spheres of use, motivated by its ethnocultural conception of the Basque Nation. The Ezker Abertzalea demands the right to live in Basque throughout the Basque Country with Basque as the common language of its plurilingual state project. The PP focuses on the negative side of language rights based on the common language status of Spanish and the right of citizens to remain monolingual in Spanish.

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Notes

  1. Although a dual quantitative–qualitative analysis was carried out in the research on which this article is based, here we limit ourselves to just a qualitative approach. For a more detailed explanation of the methodology followed in the content analysis see: Goirigolzarri-Garaizar (2017).

  2. Beyond the state contexts, this kind of argument—critical with multilingual regimes—is also reproduced in debates on language and globalization (De Swann 2001; Archibugi 2005; Van Parijs 2011; May 2014).

  3. A good example of this is the contribution of May (2014), who, taking up a position in favor of linguistic minorities, says that individual and public multilingualism does not just provide greater opportunities for linguistic justice, but, against all intuition, also facilitates the social inclusion and mobility of linguistic minorities in an increasingly globalized world.

  4. The concept of linguistic normalization originated in Catalan sociolinguistics (Aracil 1965) and refers to a widespread complete process of conferring official status on and diffusing a minority language—in conflict with another dominant variety—throughout all spheres of life within a community.

  5. Herri Batasuna (first to fifth legislatures), Euskal Herritarrok (sixth to seventh legislatures), Euskal Herriko Alderdi Komunista (eighth legislature), Batasuna (banned from participating in the ninth legislative election) and Euskal Herria Bildu (tenth to eleventh legislatures).

  6. These and the following years refer to the electoral programs of the party under study in each section. All quotes have been traslated from the originals in Spanish by the authors.

  7. In this context, the term Euskadi refers to the Basque Autonomous Community, even though the party uses the word simultaneously to refer to Euskal Herria, the seven provinces that make up the Basque cultural territory on both sides of the Pyrenees: Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, and Nafarroa in the Spanish state and Lapurdi, Behe Nafarroa, and Zuberoa in the French state.

  8. In general terms, linguistic proficiency levels are established on the basis of the number of Basque speakers in each territory (Arzoz 2015) and not in response to the “real” or “objective” demand for service in Basque that the PP proposes.

  9. The latest data on matriculation in early childhood, primary, and secondary education for the academic year 2016–2017 (Gobierno Vasco 2016) demonstrate that 70.4% of students were being taught in Model D (Basque); 24% in Model B (Basque-Spanish); 5% in Model A (Spanish), and 0.6% in Model X (Spanish without Basque as an obligatory subject).

  10. However, the majority of the BAC´s Parliament, both historically and currently, supports positive policies for the standardization of Basque language, although with different degrees of enthusiasm, (Goirigolzarri-Garaizar 2017). This majority is mirrored by the population according to opinion polls such as the VI. Sociolinguistic Survey (Gobierno Vasco et al. 2016). Still the situation in the wider Spanish state is substantially more oppositional, as shown by the repeated judicialization of the linguistic legislation in Catalonia (see for example Ginard 2011; May 2012) and the emergence of new political formations (Ciudadanos, Vox…) more openly critical than the PP regarding linguistic rights.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Fernando Ramallo for his careful reading and suggestions for improvement of the first version of this article.

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Goirigolzarri Garaizar, J., Landabidea Urresti, X. Conflicting discourses on language rights in the Basque Autonomous Community. Lang Policy 19, 505–525 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-019-09534-z

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