Valencian linguistic conflict

The Valencian linguistic conflict refers to the linguistic, social and political problems that have arisen since the middle of the century XX around the Valencian language in the Valencian Community. A linguistic conflict occurs when two or more linguistic systems interact in the same territory under unequal conditions, and in the case of the Valencian Community when describing this problem, a double aspect can be distinguished, that is, on the one hand, the conflict between the areas of use of Valencian and Spanish, and on the other hand, the conflict between the affiliation of Valencian with respect to the rest of Catalan and the Occitan-Roman diasystem.

In 1969, the sociologist Rafael Lluís Ninyoles, in his work Conflicte lingüístic valencià, was the first to apply the concept of linguistic conflict to the case of Valencian, although in the early sixties Joan Fuster had made the idea explicit in several of his writings. Ninyoles, situating the issue in the conflictive dynamics that all language contact usually generates, analyzed aspects of the Valencian linguistic conflict that included the discussion about the name and entity of the Valencian language, a discussion that would break out during the Spanish Transition in what was known as the "battle of Valencia", and also as the "language war" or "battle of the language". The discussion about Valencian and Catalan, despite having focused the debate, even hiding other factors, is considered secondary to the true background of the Valencian linguistic conflict, that of the institutional marginality of the language in the Valencian Community and its subordination with respect to Spanish.

Although at an academic level the condition of Valencian as a linguistic variety within Catalan is widely demonstrated —according to a normative opinion of the Valencian Academy of Language (official body in charge since 2001 of preparing the orthographic and grammar regulations of Valencian) assumed by the Generalitat Valenciana, Catalan and Valencian belong to the same linguistic system (or, in actual words, they are the same language with two different denominations)—, In its opinion, the AVL defends the use of the denomination Valencian for the Catalan language as a whole, and asks that this onomastic duality not be an excuse to give a fragmented image of the language. Most authors agree that the so-called Valencian linguistic conflict has been the result of a political and ideological instrumentalization that, from the end of the Franco regime and the transition, has been taking root and structuring within Valencian society.