At the heart of languages: the speakers

Languages are the lenses that allow speakers to understand and talk about the world. Languages are treasures that encapsulate past, present and current knowledge, but more importantly, they are the way human beings think, feel and live in their daily lives. When we look for information about languages, what we usually find are descriptions that tell us what sounds, structures or words they have. Sometimes we also have information about how they have changed over time. What we do not usually find is information about how the speakers themselves feel about their languages. This is precisely what ‘At the heart of languages: the speakers’ does. This documentary gives a voice to the real protagonists of languages: their speakers.
At the heart of languages showcases the speakers of minoritised languages in Aragón (Spain). This region is a linguistically interesting area in Europe. Surrounded by several languages such as Basque and Occitan, Aragón has three Romance languages that have coexisted in varying degrees of diglossia since the Middle Ages: Aragonese (10.000 speakers) in the north, Catalan (55.000 speakers) in a narrow strip from north to south), and, throughout the territory, Castilian Spanish. In this documentary, speakers of Aragonese and Catalan tell us what their languages mean to them, how they feel when they speak them and why they are important in their lives.

This documentary is part of the activities organized by the ICON action group, an international consortium of language scientists, audiovisual media experts and social agents that aims at providing quality scientific-informed materials to disseminate knowledge about languages, promote their immaterial value, and empower their speakers.