Catalan: A Major Minor Language

Identities can coalesce around geography, religion, ethnicity, borders, ideologies, or a combination of these things, in often fragile equilibria. Catalan identity is a complex cocktail, but its primary core is language. We will do a whirlwind tour of the Catalan language, discussing its history and longevity, its different expressions—in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Roussillon—the spectrum of Catalan linguistic policy, its strengths and weaknesses and prospect for survival.