Social Use
According to official polls (2008), in everyday use, 45.9% of the population usually speaks Spanish to 35.6% who usually employs Catalan, while 12% of the population uses either language habitually.
Over 45% of respondents use Spanish to address their parents (versus 36% who choose Catalan). This is attributed to extensive migration from other areas in Spain during the second half of the 20th century, as a consequence of which many Catalans have one or both parents born outside Catalonia. However, a majority (52.6%) use Catalan with their children (compared to 42.3% for Spanish). This can be attributed to some Spanish-speaking citizens shifting from their native language to Catalan at home.
Outside the family, 48.6% of the population indicate that they address strangers exclusively or preferentially in Catalan, while the proportion of those who use Spanish is 41.7%, and 8.6% claim to use both equally.
Read more about this topic: Languages Of Catalonia
Famous quotes containing the word social:
“Smitten as we are with the vision of social righteousness, a God indifferent to everything but adulation, and full of partiality for his individual favorites, lacks an essential element of largeness.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“There is a social respect necessary in company: you may start your own subject of conversation with modesty, taking care, however, de ne jamais parler de cordes dans la maison d’un pendu.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)