Minority language success

Not only Catalan but in Catalan

Dublin, 27th September 2007

History of Catalan

First written document – “Homilies d’Organyà” (1080 -1095) 1714 – Defeat of Barcelona – Utrech Treaty – Felip V 1716 - First banning law for Catalan – “Decret de Nova Planta” Renaixença (literature movement) - June 18th 1907 “Institut

d'Estudis Catalans” Mission: “Recovery and organization about everything related with

the genuine Catalan culture” Pompeu Fabra with the support of “Institut d'Estudis Catalans”

1913 “Normes ortogràfiques” 1918 “Gramàtica catalana” 1932 “Diccionari general de la llengua catalana”

1931 – Recovery of “Generalitat de Catalunya”

History of Catalan

1936-1939 Spanish Civil War No Autonomous Government Public use of Catalan again banned

1975 End of Franco’s dictatorship 1977 Generalitat de Catalunya returning from exile 1978 Spanish Constitution

“Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State ” and as the official language, “All Spaniards have the duty to know it and have the right to use it ”, it goes on declare, “The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective autonomous communities with their statutes ”. “The wealth of the different language variations of Spain is a cultural heritage which shall be the object of special respect and protection.”.

History of Catalan 1979 Approval of “Estatut de Catalunya” 1983 Approval of “Llei de Normalització Lingüística” 2005 European Union approves the use of Catalan,

Galician and Basque in the European Parliament, Regions Committee and the European Council of Ministers

2006 Approval of new “Estatut de Catalunya” “Catalan is the mother tongue of the people of Catalonia and together with Spanish

are the official languages.” Later on, it states that “Catalan people have the right to use both official languages and the duty to know them.”

Minority Language? The 10th language in number of translations from other

languages It is present in more than 150 Universities outside Spain Position number 26 in total volume of pages at Internet 9 daily newspapers Around 200 radio stations with presence of more than 50% of

Catalan in their programs 2 full time TV channels Normal language at Education, Public Administration and

Catalan Parliament In terms of inhabitants Catalan is the 7th language in

comparison with the official languages of the EU

Minority Language?

Minority Language?

Catalan and new technologies

Normalisation of Catalan language as another language useful in the technological world and specifically at Internet In the 19th century for a language it was important to have

own literature, papers and magazines In the 20th century was important to have schools and a

strong presence in the media In the 21st century if you do not have an Internet presence

you don’t exist

“We will be what Saint Google says we are”Eva Piquer - Journalist

Catalan and new technologies

Early stages: direct funding from the Catalan government of products to be translated into Catalan.

“nice to have”

2nd stage: no more direct funding but technical and linguistic support

“must have”

Terminology 1985 – Creation of TERMCAT

sets out to guarantee the quality and availability of resources and working methods puts into practice in the public and private sectors

promotes the participation and implication of society in all its activities to motivate, in a multilingual scenario, the development of the terminology in Catalan language and to contribute to the general progress of this language in all the social scopes

The resources developed by TermCat are available through the Internet and can be browsed and downloaded

.cat Domain

“puntCat” foundation – non making profit association created in 2001

Founders: IEC CCRTV – Public Media Broadcasting company Economical support from Generalitat direct from the public

budget 15th of September 2005 – Approval of the .cat

domain 1st domain that represents a language and a

culture that doesn’t match the administrative or territorial boundaries of a State

.cat Domain

puntCAT Foundation – non making profit association managing the .cat domain

21000 records first year 3000 public institutions 40% of the remaining 18000 records are from individuals,

professionals, associations that asked for an Internet domain for the first time

Catalan at Internet January 2001: Catalan version for Altavista and Alltheweb 16th March 2001: Catalan version of Google January 2002: Catalan section of Lycos In January 2003 there were 10 Catalan websites among the top

thousand most visited Website Ranking for Catalan pages

1. La Caixa 2. Generalitat de Catalunya 3. Generalitat Valenciana 4. Ajuntament de Barcleona 5. Servei de Telemàtica Educativa de la Generalitat de Catalunya 6. El Periódico 7. Vilaweb 8. Fútbol Club Barcelona

Open Source Movement - SOFTCATALÀ

Softcatalà (http://www.softcatala.org/) is an non-profit-making association

Its aim is to promote the use of Catalan into the new technologies and Internet

Created in summer 1997. 2nd of october 1998

Catalan translation of Netscape Communicator 4.04 for Wndows Products

Mozilla, OpenOffice, Opera, Fedora (Red Hat), Linux, Gaim, Gimp, etc.

Google – collaboration in the first translation in 2001

Some important companies

IBM Translation volumes for 2006

Websphere ~ 800K words AIX ~ 800K words Lotus ~ 1,5 milion words Hardware ~ 150K words

Some important companies

Microsoft XP ~ 200K words Vista ~ 250K words Office 2003 ~ 250K words Office 2007 ~250K words

Windows Mobile 6 (now in translation) Marketing campaign through the web: “Fes un clic al català”

Localising in Catalan - Particularities

à, è, é, í, ò, ó, ú l.l (ASCII code 183)

Eg. Cancel Cancel.lar ç (ASCII code 231)

Eg. Barça, release llançament ï, ü

Eg. frecuency freqüència, provider proveïdor Use of apostrophes

Eg. the computer l’ordinador

Conclusion

Catalan language has got an important presence on the Internet

There is a need for SW products in Catalan, not only by the requirements of the Catalan public institutions but also from the individual users

A Catalan user will use the Catalan version if that version exists

Fèlix Donoso Localization – Software Engineer

Business Development Manager

Mail: felix.donoso@mss.es

Web: www.mss.es

Telf: +34 93 419 63 43

Fax: +34 93 419 65 61

Dirección: C/ Galileo, 303 6ª, 08028 Barcelona

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