The Norms of El Puig (Valencian: Normes d'El Puig), also known as Norms of the RACV (Valencian: Normes de la RACV), are the linguistic rules developed by the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture (RACV) (Valencian: Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana) proposed for Valencian treated as an independent language, as opposed to a variety of Catalan. The Norms were presented in 1981 at the Monastery of Santa Maria in El Puig and were drafted with the intention of regulating the Valencian language in accordance with and encompassing both the linguistic reality of present-day Valencian as well as longstanding Valencian literary and orthographic tradition. The Norms of El Puig were the official Valencian standard in the early 80s, and have been promoted by the Valencian Governments at various times.Law 6/2015, 2 April, de Reconocimiento, Protección y Promoción de las Señas de Identidad del Pueblo Valenciano [for the Recognition, Protection and Promotion of the Identity features of the Valencian People], Article 21. Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) no. 101, 28 April 2015, pg. 36852-36866. (Reference: BOE-A-2015-4616) (in Spanish).Law 1/2016, 26 January. Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) no. 35, 10 February 2016, pg. 10393. (Reference: BOE-A-2016-1273) (in Spanish). Nowadays, they are used by some publishers, associations and taught by the cultural society Lo Rat Penat that issues its own qualifications in Valencian.
Use The Norms of El Puig were developed by the Section of Language and Literature of the RACV in 1979 and presented in a formal act in El Puig in 1982. The Norms were made the official standard of Valencian in 1980 by the Valencian President Enrique Monsonís (UCD), and they were particularly promoted by the Councilor of Education of the Valencian Community Amparo Cabanes.Bolletí Oficial del País Valencià, núm. 23, 2 de junio de 1980 [Official Valencian Bulletin], first official bulletin using the Norms of El Puig (notice the change from Butlletí to Bolletí). DOGV núm. 23 de 02.06.1980 (Ref. data base: 1980/801456) (in Valencian, and Spanish) That was the time when the Valencian Statue of Autonomy of 1982 was published using these norms for its version in Valencian.Estatut d'Autonomia de la Comunitat Valenciana. [Statute of autonomy of the Valencian Community]. Diario Oficial de la Generalitat Valenciana (DOGV) no. 74, 15 July 1982. (in Valencian). Retrieved 1 May 2022. The Valencian government enacted that language teachers of Valencian in the educational system had to have a linguistic qualification in these Norms, issued mainly by Lo Rat Penat.DECRETO de 19 de julio de 1982 por el que se establece qué profesores estarán facultados para la enseñanza del idioma valenciano. [DECREE of 19 July 1982 establishing which teachers are authorised to teach the Valencian language]. Diario Oficial de la Generalitat Valenciana (DOGV) no. 77, 30 August 1982. pp. 4-5. (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 May 2022. Nevertheless, just with the arrival of the Socialist Party in December 1982, the Norms of Castelló, that use the Catalan unitarian linguistic forms, were reintroduced, the Valencian teachers with the qualifications in the normative of the RACV were fired, and its qualifications invalidated.Diario Oficial de la Generalitat Valenciana, 18 de diciembre de 1982, [Official Journal of the Valencian Gouvernment, 18 December 1982] modifying the criteria to teach Valencian. DOGV num. 86 of 18.12.1982
In 2015, the Valencian government of the PPCV passed a law to protect Valencian identity features that protected and promoted the Valencian traditions and language. In this law the Norms of El Puig and the RACV were given public protection, promotion and teaching recognition. The opposition accused the Valencian government of being biased and electioneering, and a new Valencian coalition government abrogated the law in 2016.
The Norms of El Puig have been less used than the official normative. Some cultural organisations have used the Norms, like the Junta Central Fallera from 1992 to 1998, although its use has declined since its substitution by the Normes de Castelló, and the subsequent creation of the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL) in 1998 which follows them. In 2004, the production in the Norms of El Puig was two times the production of other minority languages like Aranese and Aragonese, although it was doubled by the production in Asturian.
The Norms of El Puig are still used in different publications related to the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture, association with the patronage of several cultural and political personalities. The cultural association Lo Rat Penat, and some publishing houses use these norms in its publications. Besides, the rules are defended by the Valencian regionalism in favour of language secessionism. The Internet has also given new opportunities of diffusion to the Norms of El Puig. There is also an encyclopedia on the Internet created by volunteers using the MediaWiki software, called L'Enciclopèdia in Valencian, which was created in December 2007 and is written using these Norms.
In 2020, Walter de Gruyter published the Manual of Standardization in the Romance Languages, in which devoted a subsection inside the Valencian normative grammars called Other attempts at standardization, where they analysed these rules as "an independent standard based on the secessionist orthography of Normes d'El Puig (1981)". In their conclusion they showed the different codification attempts of Catalan and Valencian linguistics including the New Valencian Grammar (NGLV) (2015) of the RACV.
Orthography There is significant overlap between the Normes d'El Puig and the AVL's orthographic standards. This section calls out various key differences.
In respect to the alphabet and units of writing (such as digraphs), the main differences come about in terms of: the names of the letters how the consonants and the glide are written representation of word-final originating from voiced consonants treatment of various older digraphs and consonant groups
Alphabet The table below summarizes the main differences between the two norms as far as the letter names go. Where multiple forms are given in a single cell, the value listed first is the form deemed most preferable in the pertinent standard. The forms given in the "Non-preferred" column are deemed by the RACV as "admissible" but also Castilianisms.
Letter Name(s) per the Normes d'El Puig Name(s) per the AVL Preferred Non-preferred Ç ç F f , H h K k L l , M m , N n , R r , S s , X x ,
In respect to the letters F, L, M, N, R and S: The forms , , , , , are preferred by the RACV, as they are deemed the traditional Valencian forms in addition to being the Classical Latin names for the letters. The forms , , , , , , being present in the spoken language, are also admissible in the RACV's standard but are deemed Castilianisms, originating from Castilian as adaptations of the Latin names to Castilian phonology. The forms , , , , , , are inadmissible in the RACV's standard, being deemed influence from Catalan and themselves deemed Eastern Catalan adaptations of the Castilian forms.
Palatals
One prominent aspect of the Normes d'El Puig as compared to the Normes de Castelló is the differences in writing the glide and the palato-alveolar consonants and .
Palatal glide
The glide is generally written in the Norms of El Puig with the letter Y, as opposed to I. Word-final instances of are generally written with I in both the Normes d'El Puig and the Normes de Castelló, except in certain toponyms and surnames to keep tradition.
The Normes d'El Puig also use y to write the of those certain words that instead start with or in Catalan (such as 'I' and 'yet, already'), rather than with j as in the Normes de Castelló. In a similar vein, the initial consonant in and appearing in intervocalic contexts (such as in 'trajection' and 'project', but not 'object' or 'abjection') is written with y rather than j, reflecting the RACV's norm of this being pronounced with rather than with as in the AVL's norm.
The table below compares the two norms in this regard.
Valencian sound Context/Property Normes d'El Puig Normes de Castelló Gloss (Catalan ~ ) word-initial 'I' word-initial 'yet, already' () word-internal, intervocalic 'project' word-initial 'grandpa' word-internal, pre-consonant 'periodic acid' word-internal, intervocalic 'joy' word-internal, intervocalic; in contact with from derivational suffixes 'stagehand (masc.)' 'onomatopoeic' word-final 'king' stem-final, derivations of words ending in 'queen' word-finaltoponyms, surnames 'Alcoi' stem-final, derivations of words ending in that maintain traditional y 'Alcoian,of or pertaining to Alcoi'
Word ending The Norms of El Puig write at the end of the words simply t, c, p. They do not make the written distinction at the end of the word between t-d, c-g, p-b of the Norms of Castelló, which is not kept in the oral language (pronounced as /t/, /k/, /p/ respectively in all Valencian phonetics standards).
Norms of El Puig: pot, fret (both /t/); llop, aljup (both /p/); amic, fanc (both /k/).
Normes de Castelló: pot, fred (both /t/); llop, aljub (both /p/); amic, fang (both /k/).
Digraphs
Digraph Name(s) ch che ce hac gu ge u ig i ge ll ell, elledoble el ny eny, enye en i grega qu cu u rr doble er, doble erre ss doble es, doble esse
Most notably, the digraph ch is regularly employed in the RACV's norm to represent (in addition to its occasional use to represent in fossilizations, such as in the traditional spellings of certain last names): ('belly'), ('chocolate'), ('child'). Unlike in the AVL's standard where is normally represented by x and tx.
Simplification of the digraphs ŀl, tl, tll, tm, tn, tg, tj, tz, and the group -mpt- using only the simple letter that already represents its sound, like being .
Keeping the use of s in the suffix like: organisar, normalisat; instead of the digraph tz.
Apostrophe In general (within both the AVL's standard as well as the RACV's), the singular definite articles , and , the personal articles and , and the preposition ('of') elide to and respectively when used before nominals that begin with a vowel sound or a silent h preceding a vowel sound. This elision does not occur before instances of vowels pronounced as a glide, such as in the phrase ('the ', a certain Valencian religious celebration) or ('today, the day of today').
Unlike in the AVL's standard, however, the feminine definite article exhibits the aforementioned elision before nominals that begin with unstressed i or u.
Accent marks In the function of using accent marks to distinguish homophones or senses, the Norms of El Puig can differ from the AVL's standard in terms of which words are to be accentuated or what senses call for accentuation. Consider the following examples:
GlossNormes d'El Puig AVL Standard woman gives, give! fire lightbulb
Examples of other differences are as follows: Words ending in stressed bear no accent mark, unlike in the AVL's standard.
The word ('what') is spelled with an acute accent instead of a grave accent mark, reflecting the Valencian pronunciation with instead of
The interrogatives , , and are accentuated when used to form questions or exclamations (whether direct or indirect) whereas the AVL's standard leaves them unaccented.
Grammar Articles Some key differences present in the RACV's norms compared to the AVL's norms around the articles are as follows:
Acceptance of the masculine article , a classic form that is widely used only the northernmost parts of the Valencian Community. In general, the Valencian article lo is recommended occasionally after the prepositions en, per and some adverbs: en lo coche, tot lo món ('in the car', 'everybody').