Today’s return – if, that is, it had ever actually left us – of the eternal linguistic debate in the Catalan-speaking territories, and especially in Catalonia with the affair of language immersion in the schools, has made me even more convinced about something: I believe that we are right to place Catalan at the heart of our national existence, but we lack better arguments to help us defend the language from those who attack it or, quite simply, are lukewarm or indifferent about it. It is true that strong words have been used to keep those who try to attack the language from crossing an invisible red line, one that should never be crossed, regardless of the circumstances. But the arguments people have used are weak and somewhat antiquated. We have defined the subject of language as something “sacred” and “untouchable.” We have resorted to citing our language’s thousand-year origins. We have given this subject all the mythical virtues that we like to attribute to Catalans: seny (common sense) and resistence, tradition and modernity, cohesion and industriousness… And, above all, identity: the Catalan language, the core of our identity – don’t even let them think about touching that