This is too improvised to be a proper post, but there’s a little tussle going on here about how many native speakers of Catalan there really are. If you’ve got sourced stats, please post them.
Similar posts
- Maltese
While the nature of the European Union means that Catalan (ca 4 million mother tongue speakers) isn’t likely to become an - Language use survey
While nationalist politicians continue to exaggerate hugely the number of Catalan speakers (think: lobbying, EU official languages), the new Idescat figures - Catalan speakers the 15th most productive Wikipedists
Congratulations on Catalan users for hitting 50,000 articles on Wikipedia. Although quantity isn’t everything–articles in English are almost invariably far better - Franco/Catalan
Dinosaurs are out of their tombs once again over here, with someone calling himself Adam repeating one particularly hoary myth. The - How to commit a political crime in Catalonia
Amid Catalan witches in Murcian pantomime and calls in Catalan tabloid Avui for the killing of anti-Catalanists, here at Nihil Obstat
I’m afraid you’ll have to pop by a good library for hard facts, Trevor, there’s very little reliable stuff on-line.
Why don’t you try some of Gregorio Salvador’s books on demolinguistics? As you know, he’s the vice-supremo of Spain’s Royal Language Academy and pretty unlikely to pump up Catalan native speaker figures for the hell of it, he’ll put up a fierce fight over every single one, rather.
Anyway, he had a breakdown of speakers by regions in a mid-eighties book (1985?) where he came up with an overall estimate of 5-5,5 million..you’ll want to check that one out.
Beware of the 4 million figure, though. Quite a few trashy Spanish Nationalist sites I’ve been hitting come up with it like some kind of totally unsubstantiated manic mantra
Like I say, I’m not on a crusade and will chase any bones thrown to me. If you give me specific offline sources I’ll read them. I’ll check Salvador tomorrow if security at Casa del Llibre don’t start getting itchy.