Un tema oblidat: les relacions interdialectals del català

Abstract

Summary: This article analyzes language attitudes regarding the most important varieties of Catalan: Catalan from Barcelona, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. With this objective and using the matched-guise technique, we studied how speakers of these varieties evaluate their own variety and one other. In the case of Valencian and Balearic speakers, the exovariety assessed was Catalan from Barcelona, while speakers from Barcelona evaluated the Valencian variety. The study shows the influence of the speakers’ gender when rating a language, as well as the problems to identify it geographically. This identification is essential when considering languages with little variation or when speakers know it diffusely. The results are interpreted in the framework of pluricentric languages: speakers adhere considerably to their own variety, which is only accompanied with the rejection of foreign varieties by speakers from Barcelona, the dominant variety. [Keywords: Language attitudes; matched-guise; Catalan varieties; pluricentric languages]