The head of the General Council governing the Val d'Aran, Maria Vergés, has sent a letter to the speaker of the Spanish Congress, Francina Armengol, to request that the language spoken in the semi-autonomous Pyrenean valley, Aranese, be approved for use in the Spanish lower house. The General Council of Aran explained that this request follows the decision to allow such status to the other three co-official languages of the Spanish state - Catalan, Basque and Galician - and taking into account that in the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia and the Special Regime Law of Aran, the particularity of the Val d'Aran, as well as the status of Aranese as an official language of Catalonia, are recognized.
Vergés notes that "the recognition of linguistic diversity" marks "a huge step" in "respect and consideration for its speakers". Thus, she added: "By allowing Aranese to be spoken in the chamber, a significant step would be taken for the protection, projection and recognition of our cultural diversity and the guarantee that all voices are heard."
Aranese, vehicular in schools
In April, the Parliament of Catalonia approved the use of Aranese as vehicular language in schools in the semi-autonomous mountain region. This legislative change modified the law on Catalan language in classrooms to declare Aranese as a vehicular language, and the debate was attended by Vergés, the Síndica, or general council head, of Aran. The initiative was passed with the votes of ERC, the PSC, Junts and the Comuns. Vergés asserted that this was an initiative to protect the Aranese language and claimed that the Aran Valley is "a greater political subject that must not be subject to parternalism".
As expected, there were also dissenting voices. Vox called the legislative initiative "absurd", "stupid" and "colossal" and accused the groups supporting it of wanting to "eradicate Spanish" in Catalonia. "Aranese is not Spanish and, therefore, it is not outlawed like Spanish," said a member of the far-right party.
Seeking a consensus
The speaker of the Spanish Congress, shortly after being elected, stated that she would work hard to ensure that the co-official languages could be used in Congress "as quickly as possible". "I want to try to have a dialogue between all of us so that we can meet this goal as quickly as possible", she affirmed. Now, it will be necessary to see if Aranese is included in this consensus.
A 2018 linguistic census found that 60% of the population of Val d'Aran - or just over 5,000 people - spoke the Aranese language, while around 80% of the resident population in the mountain valley understood it. Aranese is considered to be a dialect of Occitan, spoken by several hundred thousand people across a broad sweep of southern France, a little of Italy and in the Val d'Aran. It is also a close linguistic relative of Catalan.