The language / Catalan in Europe

Catalan, a unique case in Europe

Catalan cannot be considered a minority language since it differs from such languages because of a series of factors placing it among European languages spoken by a medium-sized population:

• Because of its legal status. It is the official language in one sovereign state (Andorra) and shares the status with Castilian as the official language in three autonomous communities and that, together with the fact that the teaching of Catalan is obligatory within the school system, has given it a significant weight within the Spanish administration.
• Because of  demography. Catalan is the seventh most-spoken language in the European Union. The number of people who speak it is greater than those who speak Finnish or Danish, and is equivalent to the number of speakers of Swedish, Greek and Portuguese in Europe.
• Because of its socio-linguistic situation. It has been passed down from generation to generation. 95% of citizens from Andorra, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, along with over 80% from the Community of Valencia, understand it. Furthermore, people who settle in these areas tend to learn it and use it in public and even in within the family.
• Because of its strong literary tradition. It is endowed with written
  texts from the 11th century on and now boasts more than 1,200 living authors (source: Institució de les Lletres Catalanes).
• Because of its linguistic range. Catalan is a fully codified, regulated and
  standardised language accepted by academics as well as the average citizen on the street. It has a recognised linguistic authoritative source (Institut d'Estudis Catalans), and its linguistic resources and studies on grammar, lexicography, etymology, dialectology, terminology, history of the language and onomastics are comparable with those of the great Romance languages. There is a standard Catalan dictionary and many other definition definition dictionaries in the Catalan language, along with bilingual dictionaries in the most important world languages, including English, Castilian, French, German, Russian and Chinese. Furthermore, Catalan is a language open to newly-coined words and phrases with a terminology centre -Centre de Terminologia (TERMCAT) - established to bring new changes in the Catalan language into standard usage