Multilingual courts in Barcelona from the perspective of the sociology of language: Dominant, minoritized and invisible languages

Catalonia is well known for being a bilingual region with linguistic policies that support and promote the use of Catalan. During the past few years, though, the number of languages spoken in Catalonia has increased considerably due to migratory flows and tourism. In this context, court interpreting has become an essential element when persons with limited (or null) competency in the official languages are involved in a court proceeding, either as defendants or witnesses. This article sheds light onto the study of the multilingual court based on data extracted from a corpus of transcriptions of 55 authentic trials celebrated in Barcelona where interpreting was requested. Diglossia in court proceedings is analysed at two levels: the languages used by the judiciary staff and by the allophone defendants or witnesses. The results reflect the uneven use of the two co-official languages in Catalan court settings, where Spanish is more widely used than Catalan, but also the problems that may arise from the use of a lingua franca (such as English or French) for defendants with other mother tongues. The results show that Spanish is clearly the dominant language during the court hearings. English and French are actually used as lingua franca in court hearing with interpreting, even though users of these languages might have different levels of competency.