Call it whatever you want... but not Catalan

Palma‘Catalan’ is the scientific name of the language spoken in the Balearic Islands. This is established by the Statute of Autonomy, although, colloquially, the demonym of each island is used, and ‘pagès’ in Formentera. However, over the centuries, many denominations have been used to refer to it: ‘our language’, ‘vernacular’, ‘mother tongue’, ‘own’, ‘regional’, etc. Often, so as not to have to say ‘Catalan’, because it was understood –and is still understood– that whoever speaks Catalan might be Catalan, and some did not want –do not want– to fall into this identification. We remember the range of synonyms when the European Day of Languages (September 26) is celebrated.

As Antoni Mas notes, the most surprising thing of all is that, from the time of the Christian conquest –carried out mainly by Catalans, and hence the linguistic transmission– and until the 17th century, everyone called the language of the Islands ‘Catalan’ apparently without any problem. In fact, the expression ‘Catalan language’ appeared for the first time in a Romance language in 1341 in a Valencian document, a territory also essentially repopulated from Catalonia.

Between the 14th century and the end of the 16th century, the usual designation in Mallorcan documentation was 'Catalan', with multiple variants that sound quite beautiful and medieval, such as ‘romanç catalanesch’, ‘pla catalanesch’, ‘catalanice’, ‘ydioma cathalanorum’, ‘letra catalanischa’ and ‘vestidura catalana’. In this period, the demonym ‘Catalan’ to refer to the language appears on twenty-six occasions, and ‘Mallorcan’ only on six. The first references to ‘Mallorcan’ in allusion to the language used do not appear until the beginning of the 15th century. Even in 1576, the Mallorcan printer Gabriel Guasp communicated that he had published a treatise originally written in Italian and “translated into the Catalan language”.

It does not seem to be a coincidence that the substitution of ‘Catalan’ for ‘Mallorcan’ coincided to a large extent with widespread Castilianization: the adoption, at least by the elites, of the ‘language of the empire’ – at that time it really was, an empire. In the 17th century, the designation ‘Catalan’ became very infrequent, and was used mainly in reference to ancient texts. But there was an awareness that it was a common language: in 1550 there is a record of a book that was written in “our Mallorcan language”, when it was the work of the Valencian Joan Roís de Corella.

The invention of ‘Llemosí’

As Mas highlights, the chroniclers of the time played a significant role in the change to 'Mallorcan': Joan Binimelis, Joan Dameto, and Vicenç Mut, who, it should not be forgotten, were on the payroll of the 'jurats', equivalent to current councilors or advisors, that is, of the privileged. The chroniclers used the expression 'Mallorcan language', which complicated the situation quite a bit, because it was not entirely clear whether it was the language only of the island or of the entire kingdom of Mallorca, as well as the rest of the Archipelago.

The designation ‘Balearic’ was also used for the language, albeit in very specific environments, particularly the religious one. The circumstance was that the Baleari eloquio, later wielded by the defenders of a Balearic language, was what corresponded to the scope of the diocese at that time, that is, Mallorca and Menorca. Ibiza and Formentera were left out; they did not speak ‘Balearic’. Other expressions for the language were ‘mother tongue’ and ‘vulgar’.

In this same period, another designation, ‘Limousin’, that is, Occitan, gained popularity to refer to the common language. In other words, the language spoken in the Balearic Islands was brought by the Catalans. But, for their part, they would have also adopted a language from abroad: Occitan. In this way, the existence of a common language could be accepted, but without using the uncomfortable demonym: ‘Catalan’.

An enthusiastic supporter of Limousin in the 19th century would be the Menorcan scholar established in Mallorca, Josep Maria Quadrado. According to Joan Mas i Vives, around 1851 he accepted with satisfaction to participate in the project of a collection, a library of Limousin authors, for which he would be in charge of editing some texts by Ramon Llull. This good disposition disappeared when Marià Aguiló recovered the same idea, but under the name of Biblioteca Catalana: the dreaded word, ‘Catalan’, had reappeared, which produced a certain rejection in Quadrado, by identifying it with the politics of a marked vindicative character that was beginning in the Principality.

The matter reached such a point that a chair of Limousin was created in Madrid at the school of librarians. Marià Aguiló could have occupied it, but he refused. He did not accept this term as a substitute for ‘Catalan’. Against that of ‘Limousin’, the Association for the Culture of Mallorca would explicitly manifest itself around 1934 to establish the difference between Occitan and Catalan. Whatever they called it, there was no doubt that it was Catalan: from the outside, Pascual Madoz had determined, in 1848, that the islanders “speak the Limousin or Catalan language”.

When grammars and dictionaries began to appear, the authors did not use the term 'Catalan' either. General principles of the Minorcan language or easy way to learn to read, speak and write this language, by Antoni Febrer i Cardona, dates from 1804. Joan Josep Amengual, a supporter of 'Limousin', published in 1835 a Grammar of the Majorcan language. In 1840 appeared the Majorcan-Castilian dictionary and the first that has been brought to light, by Pere Antoni Figuera. In 1858, the first fascicle of the New Majorcan-Castilian-Latin dictionary, also by Amengual, and the Grammar of the Minorcan language, by Juli Soler i Siquier.

The language of the 1931 Statute

In contrast, when an enthusiastic priest from Manacor, Antoni Maria Alcover, publicly launched the project to write a dictionary in 1901, he made it very clear from the very beginning that it had to be called “of the Catalan language”, and with this name he headed the Invitation letter to all friends of this language, with which I asked for their collaboration “to all who speak, to all who love this language, let us call it Mallorcan, Catalan, Valencian, Limousin, Roussillonnais, for the name we must not disagree”. Although he had to adopt the title Catalan-Valencian-Balearic Dictionary, so as not to encounter that irrational repugnance existing in the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands for the common name: “I do not want, once it is made, that then Valencians and Balearics, upon hearing Catalan Dictionary, do not say: Oh Catalan? Well, it's not for us! Duis-lo to the of Catalonia”. The same old story.

That same year, 1901, the councilors of Palma were granted the right to express themselves, in their interventions, in the ‘language of Mallorca’. Only two years earlier, it had been established as a condition for accessing the position of secretary of the Consistory to know how to speak and write in ‘Mallorcan’. Just as the republican period began (October 1931), individual proposals from the councilors requested that, to access civil service positions, “knowledge of the regional language” and “knowing the Mallorcan language” be required.

The Republic also brought the proposal to draft a statute of autonomy for the Balearic Islands. The preliminary draft, presented by the Association for the Culture of Mallorca, provided that the ‘maternal’ and ‘Spanish’ languages “would be official languages”. This term ‘maternal’ sounded like the language one learns from the mother's lips. But, as Daniel Escribano observes, it also suggested a certain infantilization of the language, in contrast to the language of adults, Spanish. And even more so in a society as sexist as that one was. However, that proposal never went forward.

It would not be until the 1983 Statute that the word so often avoided over the centuries would be consecrated, by establishing that “the Catalan language, proper to the Balearic Islands, has, together with Spanish, the character of an official language”. With the famous comma included, which establishes that it is the ‘proper’ language of the Archipelago. At last: Ca-ta-lan. Calling things by their name seems to be a world of trouble.

Information prepared based on texts by Antoni Mas i Forners, Daniel Escribano, Joan Mas i Vives, Antoni Janer Torrens, Miquel Julià, Antoni Ignasi Alomar i Canyelles, J. N. Hilgarth, Josep Amengual, Josep Massot i Muntaner and Pere Fullana.