The legislature has been a "black four-year period" for the language and culture of the Balearic Islands. This is the assessment made by the president of the Obra Cultural Balear, Antoni Llabrés, after attending the third and final general policy debate of the term, which, according to the entity, has confirmed the bad omens it had at the beginning of the legislature.

The slingers of the Balearic Islands will have to prove their aim once again, but this time on a game board. Foners: Herois de la Mediterrània is the new proposal from Roqueta Lúdica, a family cooperative game in Catalan that turns these historical figures into protagonists of a fantastic adventure to defend the coast against the arrival of different types of enemies.

Have you ever had it happen that, while telling an anecdote, the word you are looking for does not come to you? Or that you start a sentence with all the confidence in the world and, halfway through, you need an 'mmm' to buy time? Maybe you are one of those who speak almost without stopping, but it could also be that you need to take a pause to organize your ideas before continuing. If you had to describe your way of speaking, what would you say? And do you think there is something in your rhythm that distinguishes you from the rest?

The Obra Cultural Balear (OCB) and the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) are organizing the conference series The language that is sung. Music and linguistic normalization (1986-2026), which began this Thursday and will continue until Saturday at Ca n’Oleo, in Palma. The series proposes a look at the role of music as a space for cultural, educational, and linguistic transmission, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of linguistic normalization policies and the 50th anniversary of Cucorba, a musical and educational project linked to the dissemination of music in Catalan among children.

Surely everyone has said or heard at some point a sentence like this: “The construction of the building lasted two years”. If we look at it, this sentence has something curious: there is a noun, ‘construction’, that does something that, at first, we wouldn't expect from a noun: it has a duration. We can say how long the construction lasted, we can say it was fast or slow and even that it was constant. On the other hand, if we say that “the construction at the end of the street is new”, we are no longer talking about the process of building, but about the result: the building that has been built. The word is exactly the same, but what it designates is quite different.

MÉS per Palma has denounced that the signage and institutional advertising of the new Parc Verd de Llevant are written "exclusively in Spanish" and do not incorporate Catalan. The party considers that this situation constitutes a breach of the Municipal Regulation on Linguistic Normalization of Palma.

The linguistic assertiveness courses by Plataforma per la Llengua offer resources to gain confidence and avoid the automatic switch to Spanish in everyday conversations.

New case of linguistic discrimination at a hospital center in the Balearic Islands. On this occasion, the Policlínica Miramar has been the scene of a new episode of violation of patients' linguistic rights, accompanied, even, by threats.

‘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.

A tongue twister is a sentence that is difficult to pronounce. Usually, tongue twisters are used as games, especially to entertain children with little more than words. We have all tried to say, as quickly as possible, tongue twisters like ‘Setze jutges d’un jutjat mengen fetge d’un penjat, si el penjat fos despenjat es menjaria els setze fetges dels setze jutges del jutjat’ (Sixteen judges of a court eat the liver of a hanged man, if the hanged man were unhanged he would eat the sixteen livers of the sixteen judges of the court), and ‘Un plat pla blanc ple de pebre negre està’ (A flat white plate full of black pepper is). If we look at the characteristics of these sentences, we will find a shared element: the repetition of a sound. The repetition of a sound is a stylistic device that we call alliteration and which also occurs in poetry, as in that verse by Josep Maria de Sagarra, “Vinyes verdes vora el mar” (Green vineyards by the sea). But unlike alliteration, a tongue twister consists of the repetition, usually at high speed, of alternating sound sequences. With this system, the difficulty arises when a different but similar sound appears. If we think about ‘Un plat pla blanc ple de pebre negre està’, the mistake we usually fall into is reaching ‘pebre negre’ and pronouncing ‘peble negle’ or, if we want to prevent it, pronouncing ‘pre’ and not ‘ple’. In these cases, the ‘l’ and the ‘r’ are consonants that are pronounced by placing the tongue at the same point in the mouth, before the upper teeth. In a tongue twister like ‘De genollons collia codonys, de genollons codonys collia’ (Kneeling he picked quinces, kneeling he picked quinces) the change in the order of the word ‘codonys’ and the similarity of the first syllable with the word ‘collia’ can cause us to say “de genollons codonys codia’” or, due to the similarity of the last syllable of ‘genollons’ and ‘codonys’, to say “de genollons collons collia”. The second one will surely be the one that will make the person who challenged us to pronounce the tongue twister laugh.

—Samuel, in all sincerity, will you speak to your children in Catalan?

When you walk down the street, do you notice the language of the signs? Probably not much, which is quite normal. If we pass by a coffee shop and it says ‘coffee’, we are surely not aware that we have just read a word in English. If we enter a supermarket and see ‘ofertas’, we probably don't ask ourselves why that is written in Spanish either. And if in front of a restaurant we find ‘pa amb oli’, it is possible that we think about it even less. The words are there, but we don't always see them as words. However, what would happen if, for one day, we paid attention to them?

The Obra Cultural Balear (OCB) has announced the 40th edition of the 31st of December awards, awards that recognize individual and collective initiatives linked to the promotion and use of the Catalan language and the defense of the identity of the Balearic Islands.

Catalan as a welcoming language has been the theme of the third session of the IEC-ARA cycle in Palma, IEC Questions: we question, we understand, we converse, which is promoted by the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC) and ARA Balears.

After last week's newtons and greengage plums, we can continue searching for proper names hidden within everyday vocabulary. Once again, we just need to look around a little. We can put on some sneakers to go for a run or some hiking boots to go on an excursion. If during these activities we catch a bit of a cold and get a headache, we might have to take an aspirin. And, if the headache goes away and we decide to go out for dinner, we might use mascara to dress ourselves up a bit more.

In an overcrowded territory that annually breaks records for tourist arrivals, it is not news that a group of 28 students comes to spend two weeks there. However, things change when the reason for their stay is known: they have come to learn Catalan. During these two weeks, Palma has hosted nearly thirty university students of Catalan from various countries around the world. They have come from the United Kingdom, Serbia, Romania, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and Poland to immerse themselves and learn firsthand about our language, culture, and territory.

The stubbornness of the councilor gonella Joan Pons Torres to declare menorquí and the salted article as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Menorca (BICIM), and thus protect it from the 'threat' of standard Catalan, is about to explode in his hands. The legal subterfuges he has sought in order to impose his initiative against the official linguistic and academic criteria of entities and institutions have backfired.

How many of you have started a conversation in Catalan and, after a short while, ended up speaking in Spanish? Perhaps the other person had answered you in Spanish but understood you perfectly. Perhaps you didn't know if they spoke Catalan. Perhaps it was someone you had just met and didn't want to make them feel uncomfortable, or perhaps, quite simply, it just came out that way.