The role of small businesses in Catalonia's linguistic landscape

"In Catalonia you can go to any place, to a bakery, to a hairdresser, and if it's written in Spanish it already creates a feeling that Spanish predominates," says Mònica Barrieras Angàs, a professor at the University of Barcelona's Department of Catalan Philology.

To comply with a language law established in 1998, all businesses in Catalonia are required to provide written signs, price lists, advertising, payment documents, and spoken service in at least Catalan. The language regulations are based on the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 1979, which designates Catalan and Spanish as co-official languages but specifies Catalan as the "llengua pròpia" or native language with special status. 

But especially in Barcelona, the linguistic reality can look very different based on the establishment. 

Antonio Castillejo works at a bar and restaurant in Sant Martí, where most of the signs and menus are written in Spanish. He mainly speaks Spanish with customers and coworkers, and even encounters more English than Catalan. 

"In the past, Catalan was spoken much more," Castillejo says. "Now it's being lost, at least in business. And now there are many more foreigners, Catalan is hardly spoken, and now much, much more Spanish." 

Xavier Dengra i Grau, a board member at Catalan advocacy organization Plataforma per la Llengua, blames the disappearance of Catalan on a lack of enforcement. 

"These responsibilities, these duties are not being properly double checked," says Francesc Xavier Dengra i Grau, a board member at Catalan advocacy organization Plataforma per la Llengua. "Many of the new shops that are coming see that the shops around are already only in English or Spanish or in other languages, not in Catalan. And what we call the linguistic landscape in Catalan is disappearing." 

Across the city in Ciutat Vella, another small business has a different linguistic approach. At children's bookstore Abracabra, most signs are in Catalan or both Spanish and Catalan. The business also prioritizes speaking Catalan through their membership in a Catalan conversation program run by the Consortium for Linguistic Normalization. Local businesses who are part of the program host students from beginner Catalan courses to practice everyday conversation. 

Compared to the amount of Catalan spoken in large businesses and financial institutions, 2023 data from the Statistical Institute of Catalonia shows that small business is one sector where Catalan usage is higher.  

"People are more and more aware of linguistic rights," Dengra says. Over the last ten years, official complaints to the Catalan Consumer Agency over missing Catalan signage have skyrocketed. However, compliance with language requirements remains limited among Barcelona's business community.  

Migration, Catalan language, and business

Catalonia has experienced a major wave of immigration over the last 25 years. In Barcelona, immigrants now account for over a quarter of the city's population. Many of the area's foreign-born residents work in service jobs; according to data from the Catalan branch of trade union CCOO, Catalonia's foreign-born employees make up 60% of the hospitality industry. 

"Many of the people who arrive learn Spanish first because on the one hand it's Spain's main language, it's official here, and in many places it's the language a bit more in use, especially in the metropolitan area and in Barcelona," says Barrieras. "So, of course, it's hard to bring some of these people to Catalan afterwards."

Many newcomers to Catalonia also already speak Spanish; over half of Barcelona's international community is from Latin America. Other residents, like Castillejo, are originally from other parts of Spain. 

Although the Catalan government offers free beginner Catalan courses through the Consortium for Linguistic Normalization, spaces are limited in the classes.

"It's true that many of the people who arrive, especially during the initial period, have a very precarious situation, there are some who work many hours, so obviously it's complicated to be able to sign up for a Catalan course," Barrieras says. 

Another barrier to gaining proficiency in Catalan is a lack of opportunity for everyday practice, which Barrieras says can be a result of preconceived notions about race and the Catalan language. 

"Often when you see a person who by appearance or sometimes by surname seems to not be from here, you avoid speaking in Catalan even more because you think they must not speak Catalan. And that's already false," she says. 

The "convergence norm" and switching languages 

Castillejo, who is from Andalusia but has lived in Barcelona for many years, understands and speaks Catalan but says he's noticed the tendency of Catalan speakers in his family to automatically switch to Spanish with him. Barrieras calls this habit the "convergence norm" and says it started with the repression of the Catalan language during Francoism.  

To counter this, she emphasizes the responsibility of Catalan speakers to speak Catalan in everyday situations like ordering coffee or buying bread. 

"Language is for living and for coexisting," she says. "So as neighbors, as customers, we can also play our small part."  

Dengra describes the tendency of Catalan speakers to start with Spanish in certain situations as an example of diglossia, when a high status language dominates settings like formal education, administration and literature while an everyday or vernacular language is spoken more commonly in informal conversation. 

"So many people who speak Catalan at home or with their friends, they think that in some cases Catalan is not well regarded and it's better to start in Spanish," he says, citing the police and justice system as settings where people hesitate to speak Catalan.  

However, Barrieras says Catalonia's linguistic situation isn't an example of diglossia because Catalan is used in education, government, and many other formal situations. 

"In reality the problem is the use in informal communication situations," she says. 

Working to promote everyday Catalan 

At Abracadabra, learners practice Catalan with conversations usually related to book recommendations or the bookstore's activities. 

"These are conversational experiences similar to what they might have in their daily lives, interacting with people working in customer service or shops," says owner Enric Boluda. 

Other members of the Voluntariat per la Llengua (VxL) conversation program include over 4,500 stores, bars, and restaurants. Some offer discounts to participants in the program, who are also paired with a fluent Catalan speaker for weekly practice sessions. 

"We think it’s important for people - in this case newcomers to the country, who have the desire and perhaps also the need to learn Catalan and get certified in it - to be able to cooperate and collaborate with them, and offer them even this small conversational experience as part of their learning process," Boluda says. 

When it comes to the businesses that don't provide signage or service in Catalan, opinions vary on how to respond. 

"The aim is not to impose in a very strict way, but to do more education and negotiation. Not everyone agrees with it, but that's how things have been in recent years," Barrierras says.

Despite receiving increased complaints for non-compliance, the Catalan Consumer Agency has not reported similar increases in the number of sanctions issued. Because of this, Dengra believes more punitive measures such as fines are necessary in some cases. 

"We know that the government is increasing mediation, but we think that for the most troublesome cases, we cannot accept that only mediation is the solution," he says.