The imminent demise of a language is never announced with an official statement. There’s no press conference where a solemn-faced government official declares: “We regret to inform you that Catalan has been placed in palliative care. Family and friends are advised to visit while they still can.” No, linguistic death is a far more subtle affair. First, there’s a bit of erosion – shop signs quietly swapping Obert for Abierto or Open, restaurants offering menus solo en castellano y inglés because “everyone speaks Spanish and English,” and that awkward pause when a young Catalan-speaker automatically switches to Spanish upon hearing the slightest hint of an accent that isn’t local.

As highlighted by various experts in this month’s issue, the signs have been there for a while. There’s been an alarming drop in the number of children who speak Catalan at home. Schools, once a fortress of linguistic preservation, are........

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