Semi-speakers of Catalan as a remnant of history. How language barriers have shaped Catalan identity. How language barriers have shaped Catalan identity.

Abstract

What are the certain patterns of collective identity of whom has been taken own identity language away by force? If a culture is symbolized by a language, what will happen if another language replaces to the existing language to interfere the symbolization of the culture? The research focuses on individuals, who are the semi-speakers of Catalan language. In other words, monolingual Castilian speakers, who have failed to develop full fluency and proficiency of Catalan language in the bilingual communities in Spain, Barcelona where I did my fieldwork. Catalonia as a nation having own language had struggled over centuries of political control by the Spanish central government and had been imposed to employ Castilian in public. The speakers who have been deprived a language, they have recognized a self-awareness of discrepancy in ethnic identity and become an ambivalent identity. The hypothesis is that the experience of being excluded from Catalan linguistic community because of the low-proficiency may link to the phenomenon of shame as the internal and external sanction of the individuals.