Language policies of Francoist Spain

Language politics in Francoist Spain centered on attempts in Spain under Franco to increase the dominance of the Spanish language (Castilian) over the other languages of Spain. The regime of Francisco Franco had Spanish nationalism as one of its bases.

Under his dictatorship, the Spanish language (known in some parts of Spain as castellano, i.e., Castilian) was declared Spain's only official language. The public use of other languages was either banned, frowned upon or despised depending on the particular circumstances and timing, whilst the use of non Castilian names for newborns was forbidden in 1938, except for foreigners. The situation evolved from the harshest years of the immediate afterwar (especially the 1940s, also the 1950s) to the relative tolerance of the last years (late 1960s and early 1970s); Franco died in 1975, and his successor Juan Carlos of Spain began the Spanish transition to democracy.

Previous situation

For the first time in the history of Spain, the Second Republic recognised Galician, Basque, and Catalan as official languages when it granted autonomy for some regions with a local language.

The Spanish language

As part of the nationalistic efforts:

• Spanish films were produced only in Spanish. Foreign films were required to be dubbed.
• Spanish names and Spanish versions of Catholic and classical names were the only ones allowed. Leftist names like Lenín and regional names like even the Catalan Jordi (after Catalonia's patron saint, Saint George) were forbidden and even forcibly replaced in official records. Only Christian names in Spanish were allowed in official documents.

In the regime's most radical discourse, languages other than Spanish were often considered "dialects" in the sense of speeches that were not developed enough to be "real languages". Basque was different enough that it could not be taken as a debased form of Spanish but was despised as a rural language of limited currency, unfit for modern discourse. This never happened at the academic level, though.

All these policies became less strict and more permissive as time passed.

Evolution

The Press Law of Manuel Fraga Iribarne replaced the pre-publication censorship with after-the-fact punishments.

Situation by areas

Andalucia

• Andalusian Spanish

Aragon

• Aragonese language

Asturias

• Bable

Balearic Islands

• Balearic

Basque Country

• Basque language
• The Catholic Church had supported the Basque nationalists aligned with the Republic.
• Creation of Standard Basque by Euskaltzaindia
• Unofficial Basque-language schools (ikastola).

Catalonia

• Catalan language
• Montserrat
• Salvador Espriu
• Joan Manuel Serrat was not allowed to sing La La La in Catalan for the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 and, unwilling to sing it in Spanish, was replaced by Massiel, who won the contest.

Galicia

• Galician language
• The exiles and emigrants in Buenos Aires took a great role in Galician literature.

León

• Leonese language

Spanish Guinea

• Pichinglis
• Fernando Poo
• Río Muni
• History of Equatorial Guinea: The Spanish also helped Equatorial Guinea achieve one of the continent's highest literacy rates
• Annobonese language (Fá d'Ambô)

Navarre

CA Osasuna was allowed to maintain its Basque name, unlike other football teams with non-Spanish names.

Spanish North Africa

• Ceuta, Melilla, Spanish Morocco, Spanish Sahara, international Tangier

Valencian Community

• Valencian

Caló

• Caló (Spanish Romani)

See also

• Language policy in France
• Language politics

External links

• Cronologia de la repressió de la llengua i la cultura catalanes ("Chronology of the repression of Catalan language and culture", in Catalan with Spanish quotations).
• Ministerio de la Gobernación (Gazeta of 17 May 1940) (CCITT T.& G4 Facsimile TIFF). Order of 16 May 1940 forbidding the use of generic foreign terms in lettering, samples, advertisements, etc.