When I studied Philology at the University of Barcelona (UB) in the early eighties, I had a Valencian professor, whose name I don't remember, who taught the subject of Vulgar Latin. The man had political pretensions and was attached to Alianza Popular, the founding formation of Fraga Iribarne, a predecessor of the Popular Party. Already then, this party said that the Valencian language was not the same as the Catalan language. Asked in one of the classes about this question, the professor said that, within the walls of the university, this statement could not be made. That is to say, one thing is science (Valencian and Catalan are the same language) and another is politics (the kingdom of lies or biased opinions).
Since then it has rained a lot, although not as much as it should, and at the UB there has been everything. Among other absurdities, she has maintained for quite some time a style book that was inappropriate for an alma mater. Now, finally, she has rectified and restored the generic masculine as an unmarked gender.
The beloved Carme Junyent said that in the program of one of her subjects she had stated that the works could be presented in any of the languages that she understood, but when the text went through correction, applying the style book to the last consequences, she They had changed teacher for teacher. In good law, with that modification, her students could present their work in any of the languages understood by any member of the faculty of the faculty. And since it was Philology, the number of languages was quite high. Luckily, the UB has rectified and, although perhaps unconsciously, has paid tribute to one of its most distinguished teachers.
By chance, or not, this decision of the UB has coincided in time with a document from the Philological Section of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans that analyzes the normative limits of inclusive language. The institution that develops the regulations for the Catalan language limits itself to saying which inclusive language solutions are consistent with the grammar of the Catalan language and which are not.
The IEC has nothing against people using the feminine as a generic or inventing imaginative devices such as totis. As its president, Nicolau Dols, says, “all these initiatives are very laudable.” Now, politics and civic and social movements are one thing, and what linguistic science says is another. And having a pronoun like tothom in Catalan, it seems quite unnecessary to invent a totis or split it into “tots i totes”. But there is everything in the Lord's vineyard.
