Aproximación al futuro de las lenguas de España

Abstract

Not all languages are equally fortunate. Some are more prosperous than others. But that does not seem to matter if the speakers have what they need. What steps do they follow in their trajectory? What extends them and what con!nes them? Although they are all endowed with resources to cover any communicative need, they do not all cover them at a given moment in their trajectories. Considering their historical behaviour, we can venture the future of the languages of Spain on the basis of the state they are in. It is well known that the languages best prepared to endure are those with monolingual speakers, with students who ask to learn them, with families who pass them on, with a growing number of speakers, with a natural and unforced use in teaching and with a wide development in writing. Any of these shortcomings weakens them. The efforts of the autonomous governments to extend and enhance the use of regional languages do not seem to have the expected effect because the natural channels of evolution remain faithful to customs.