COUNTERING LINGUISTIC RIGHTS IN SPAIN THROUGH LANGUAGE MAKING: THE DISCURSIVE DELEGITIMIZATION OF BASQUE IN ONLINE DEBATES

ABSTRACT

This article investigates discourses on the Basque language in Spain with a particular focus on delegitimizing positions towards the regional language. It identifies the most prominent patterns of the discourse in order to gain a better understanding of the argumentative strategies which are used to reject an intensified promotion of Basque. The analysis is empirically based on a sample of comments from online debates on news websites reporting on recent legislation for the use of Basque in local administration and on the position of Basque in regional education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the concepts of delegitimization and language making, the paper shows how the rejection of enhanced linguistic rights for speakers of the minoritized language is interlinked with the co-construction of both Basque and Castilian regional language policy is portrayed as the imposition of a supposedly irrelevant language against the indisputable national language as part of an alleged nationalist agenda serving the interests of elite profiteers.