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AGREEMENT OF THE ACADÈMIA VALENCIANA DE LA LLENGUA (AVL), ADOPTED DURING THE PLENARY MEETING HELD ON 9 FEBRUARY 2005, APPROVING THE RESOLUTION CONCERNING PRINCIPLES AND CRITERIA FOR PROTECTING THE NAME AND IDENTITY OF VALENCIAN

BACKGROUND

One of the responsibilities of the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (Valencian Academy of the Language), the normative body for the Valencian language, is «to watch over the normal use of Valencian and defend its name and identity» as set down in Law 7/1998 of September 16, of the Generalitat Valenciana (art. 7. d).

In keeping with article 4 of that same Law, in its actions the AVL shall base itself on the «principles and criteria ... which emerge from the resolution approved by the Valencia Council of Culture ... which appear in the preamble to the law», which establish the following regarding the name and the nature of Valencian:

a)

«Our Statute of Autonomy uses the term 'Valencian' to refer to the autochthonous language of the Valencian people; this term should therefore be used on an institutional level, without excluding other possibilities.»

b)

«The term 'Valencian' which has already been mentioned, as well as the terms 'the autochthonous language of the Valencian people', 'the Valencian language' or any others which are supported by Valencian historical tradition, by popular use or by current legislation, are not, nor should they be, a point of argument or controversy. All of them can be properly used to refer to our language.»

c)

«Valencian, the historical and autochthonous language of the Valencian Community, forms part of that same linguistic system which is recognised to be the autochthonous language in the Statutes of Autonomy of the Hispanic regions of the former Crown of Aragon.»

Starting from these principles, in a meeting held on 19 December 2003, the plenary session of the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (Valencian Academy of the Language) approved an Institutional Declaration on the Name and Identity of Valencian and on Current, Official Regulations, in which the following postulates, among others, were set down:

1.

«The term 'Valencian' is traditional, historical, legal, and statutory and is therefore the most appropriate term in institutional settings.»

2.

«This name is not incompatible with, nor should it be felt to contradict any other similarly traditional, historical or legal names that might be given to the language which is autochthonous to the Valencian people.»

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