When power changes its language, the language changes its destiny.
The linguistic historiography of Catalan, especially as observed from Mallorca, reveals that Latin – far from being a mere scholarly vestige – acted as a barrier against the attempts at Castilianization promoted by the Bourbons in the 18th century.
PalmA few days ago it was reported in the press – and also announced by the InfoCatólica website – that Pope Leo XIV had approved two normative texts: the General Regulations of the Roman Curia and the General Regulations for the Personnel of the Roman Curia. These documents establish the Vatican's new organizational and linguistic framework and, among other changes, deprive Latin of the central role it had held for centuries. It is stipulated that departments of ecclesiastical and administrative affairs must write their acts in Latin or another language, a formulation that leaves Latin unprotected against any modern language. At the same time, the requirement of "good knowledge of Latin" for Vatican employees is eliminated, and an administrative model is adopted that prioritizes Italian and other contemporary languages. However, the traditional Office of Latin Letters within the Secretariat of State is maintained, tasked with drafting and translating all kinds of documents into Latin, including the Pope's tweets.
In this section, we usually discuss linguistic and sociolinguistic concepts because our focus is on living languages: those that have a community of speakers and that develop within a framework of explicit and implicit policies that condition both their form and their use. The Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation's acceptance of 'tonto' as a valid form in informal register is no coincidence: it's a planned decision, just as deliberate as the fact that the expression 'cabeza de beba' (bean head) is not displayed.
Latin in the Vatican
In the Vatican, Latin is an "almost living" language because it lacks native speakers—the last ones yawned a long time ago—but it has institutional vitality. In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI ordered that the Holy See's website also be written in Latin. Lexicon Recentis LatinitatisThe dictionary, published by the Latinitas Foundation, based in the Vatican, is a repertoire with more than 15,000 neologisms that allows one to express contemporary concepts – from 'ambulance' ('arcera automataria') up to 'skyscrapers' ('caeliscalpium')– and serves as a guide to digital media such as EphemerisUndoubtedly, the Vatican is a planning agent for Latin, and it has now decided to lower the requirement for knowing it. The news of this new measure affects us closely. When an institution (or power) lowers the standard for a language, it inevitably loses skilled users, which directly impacts the linguistic quality and social functions of the language, since users gradually lose proficiency in it.
Languages don't shrink on their own: they need the help of language policies that discriminate against them. They are like a wool sweater: they don't shrink by themselves; someone has to wash it at a high temperature. Catalan is a telling example: it remains excluded from pharmaceutical labeling and from film releases on major platforms and distributors. Its vitality lies in the hands of governments and those in power, who are often reluctant to demand an optimal level of language proficiency—for example, from healthcare workers. The slogan of Carmen Rico-Godoy could be applied, which she uttered with impunity in 1981: "Demand Catalan in the centers of work, HE go too far, guys"[sic].
Linguistic historiography analyzes how a language has been conceived, explained, and represented throughout history: what discourses it has generated and what prestige—or disrepute—institutions have attributed to it. And it is precisely the linguistic historiography of Catalan, especially as observed from Mallorca, that reveals that Latin—far from being a mere scholarly vestige—acted as a barrier against the attempts at Castilianization promoted by the Bourbon monarchy in the 18th century.
Linguistic Assault
When the project to create the Medical-Practical Academy aimed to impose Castilian Spanish in medical studies – which until then had been taught using Latin manuals and, viva voceWith incursions of Catalan, the island university would rely on the classical language to stem the onslaught of the politically powerful language. The rector, Josep Reus, and several professors argued that replacing Latin with a vernacular language, such as Castilian, in medical education would degrade its studies. He proposed applying the measure to other, less prestigious disciplines, such as surgery. This was not an isolated argument: in contemporary Europe, Latin, as a language of prestige and neutrality, often acted as a protective barrier—in Denmark and Hungary against German and in Finland against Swedish—against the pressure of expanding languages. It is true that mutant season And that when power changes language, language changes destiny. Happy Holidays and remember that good wine makes good Latin.
