Language Policy in the World of Business and Consumer Affairs: from Non-Existence to Ineffectiveness

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the policies promoting the Catalan language1 in the world of business and consumer affairs in Catalan-speaking territories. As is already well known, Catalan-speaking territory is divided into seven different political/administrative units and so, right from the very start, we must speak of language-related policies — in the plural — practised (if practised they be) in these different units. It is not the goal of this chapter to explain these differences between language policies in Catalan-speaking territories. What it can do is make two or three obvious assessments. The existence of a language policy in the world of business and consumer affairs depends, to begin with, on the existence of a political authority — at state or regional level — able to promote it. It is this single fact that already creates a split between the possibilities enjoyed by Andorra and Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, on the one hand, and the Département des Pyrénées Orientales, la Franja and l’Alguer, on the other. Secondly, the existence of this policy, or at least its degree of intensity, also depends upon the ideological orientation of the political decision-makers in charge of existing political powers.KeywordsLanguage PolicyRetail TradeBalearic IslandAutonomous CommunitySocial UsageThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.