The story of the tallat

Abstract

Barcelona, in which participants describe their first and early encotinters with Catalan. One theme that recurred in interviews was that of bar workers not understanding orders for a tallat, an espresso coffee with a shot of warm milk, known as a 'cortado' in Spanish. I also bring in data from a government media campaign promoting Catalan use with immigrants and a comedie sketch that parodies the same campaign using the ordering of a tallat as an example. Together, the data illustrate the multilayered, discursive construction of the story of the tallat.

Language Policies, Ideologies, and Attitudes, Part 2: International Immigration, Globalization and the Future of Catalan

“…Spain came late to globalization and post‐industrial prosperity, but once there, the arrival of international immigrants – often unaware of local sociopolitical issues (Marshall ) – was substantial and rapid (Alarcón and Garzón , Fernández‐Huertas Moraga and Ferrer i Carbonell,forthcoming : 4). Whereas it took Europe around 45 years to arrive at a 10% immigration level, Catalonia's immigrant population went from 2.8% in 1995 to 14.7% in 2007, 17% of the adult population according to (Alarcón and Garzón ).…”

“…First, immigrants tend to settle in mainly Spanish‐dominant neighborhoods (Huguet and Janés ), which limits their exposure to Catalan. Second, Catalans tend to accommodate to Spanish whenever speaking with those sometimes mistakenly perceived – based on presence of L2 features or even physical appearance such as visible minorities as non‐proficient Catalan‐speaking (Woolard , Galindo i Solé , Boix , Codó , Boix‐Fuster , Marshall , Pujolar and Gonzalez , Alarcón and Garzón ). This use of Catalan as ‘we code’ (Codó : 189) can suggest to immigrants that the language is not needed or even desired for them.…”

“…For adults, education infrastructure aiming at immigrants' social and linguistic integration has also been built on prior framework of Catalan classes for Spanish speakers from elsewhere in Spain (Arnau and Vila‐i‐Moreno ). These classes are part of a community‐wide infrastructure promoting language socialization including the following: Voluntary activities such as Parelles Lingüístiques ‘Language Partners’, (more than 10,000 in 2014). Plans d ' entorn – literally, community plans – projects that link schools with their neighborhoods. The Voluntariat per la Llengua , ‘Language Volunteer Corps’, which aims to improve the language skills of immigrants and reduce text locals' tendency to use predominantly Spanish with them. Institutional campaigns as Dóna corda al català (‘Wind [your] Catalan up’) in 2005 or Encomana el català (‘Pass Catalan on’) in 2009, which encourage the use of Catalan in interpersonal exchanges (Marshall ). …”