Hi.
As was the case with Romanian/Moldovian, it seems that documents translated into both Valencian and Catalan tend to be identical in both languages, so linguistically there is very little difference between the two languages.
Nevertheless, I do feel that the requester has the right to petition ISO 639 for a code for Valencian should the requestor wish to do so, though 'val' would not work, as Addison has pointed out.
However, although having the code 'ca' stand for both languages may be a little problematic from a political standpoint, Addison Phillips has summarized the problems with having a separate code:
Phillips, Addison
addison at amazon.com Mon Jun 15 17:11:21 CEST 2009
> . . .
> - ISO 639 (and thus this registry) already recognizes Valencian/Catalan with the subtag > 'ca'. You need to convince ISO 639 that Valencian is a separate language meriting its
> own code.
> - The variant subtag 'valencia' is already registered (in this registry) as a way of
> indicating Valencian (as a variety of 'ca').
> - ISO 639-3 already assigns the code 'val' to the language Vehes, making it unavailable.
> . . .
Because of what Addison has said (above), it makes little sense to me to have a new subtag for the Valencian language, and I would not support the registration of a language subtag. I think Valencian is better off being represented by the current two-letter code.
For the 'political side' of the Catalan-Valencian controversy I checked out several links:
1.
http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3175&Itemid=0* * *
2.
http://www.101languages.net/catalan/valencian.html "Conversely, many Valencians who advocate distinguishing the languages do so to resist a perceived Catalan nationalist agenda aimed at absorbing Valencian language and identity, and incorporating Valencians into a constructed nationality centered in Catalonia."
"The latest political controversy regarding Valencian occurred on the occasion of the drafting of the European Constitution in 2004. The Spanish government supplied the EU with translations of the text into Basque, Galician, Catalan, and Valencian, but the Catalan and Valencian versions were identical. While professing the unity of the Catalan language, the Spanish government claimed to be constitutionally bound to produce distinct Catalan and Valencian versions because the Statute of the Autonomous Land of Valencia refers to the language as Valencian. In practice, the Catalan, Valencian, and Balearic versions of the EU constitution are identical, although some compromises over spelling may have been involved in making them so."
* * *
3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valencian"There is a current among some Valencians known as
blaverism which claims that Valencian is an independent language from Catalan. These theories are usually supported by politicians rather than linguists. They are mostly based on disputing the origin of the language in Valencia."
Best,
C. E. Whitehead
cewcathar <at> hotmail.com
RSS Feed