Linguistic Consciousness among Adolescents in Catalonia: A Case Study from the Barcelona Urban Area in Longitudinal Perspective

Abstract

Summary: This ethnographic case study from 2007 investigated linguistic consciousness in a public high school in the Barcelona urban area previously studied in 1987. Catalan was found to retain its high status and connote “elegance”, while Spanish is now characterized as a debased language by the majority of students in this case study from varying linguistic backgrounds. Students do not recognize register variation in Catalan. Ethnolinguistic boundaries have weakened considerably since 1987. Peers are no longer categorized on the basis of language background, but in voluntaristic and commodified stylistic terms. Bilingualism is the normal expectation, and while language choice has lost its solidarity value since 1987, functional Castilian monolingualism is a socially marked choice. [Keywords: language attitudes, language ideology, linguistic identity, national identity, youth language].