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 PREAMBLE The high regard that Valencians have for their own language, considered to be one of the main identifying characteristics of the Valencian people, can be clearly seen throughout history. This regard has been especially strong amongst those persons who, throughout the centuries, have used the language as their normal means of communication.

United in their regard for their «own language» («the highest manifestation of a people's personality»), the signatories of the Normes de Castelló (the Castelló Regulation) in 1932 were able to join forces and unify the «various cultural and political tendencies» of the time in order to reach a historical agreement, convinced that the language's future (which they hoped would be prosperous) depended upon cementing the bases «for the unification of Valencian orthography». They were able to overcome all kinds of differing approaches, with the conviction that the system agreed upon would be «rectified and improved» in the future «based on wide-ranging agreements» that would go beyond individual points of view. It was an agreement reached «without defeated parties», considered to be a necessary starting point in addressing the concerns of a people who, they said, «begin to feel the dignity of their own language».

Since that time, research on Valencian has increased, as have works on refining and modernising the language, while remarkable advances have been gained in reviving the language and in fostering greater social use. Nonetheless, the issue of the language's identity and of the denotative implications it raises are far from resolved from the sociolinguistic point of view, despite the fact that the matter would seem to be clear if looked at from a purely philological perspective or from the legal status described in the Valencian Statute of Autonomy. Therefore, a reasoned, mutually-supportive, convergent effort must still be made to avoid controversy that only harms the use and promotion of Valencian and, consequently, Valencian interests outside our region.

As is well known, part of Valencian society considers the Valencian people's own language to be the same one which is spoken in other regions of the former Crown of Aragon, while another part of society considers it to be a different language. This debate has been often linked to the issue of Valencian national identity. That is why some groups in society support the thesis whereby equating the Valencian people's own language with a language spoken in other regions (especially Catalonia), contributing to a loss of the unique identifying characteristics of the Valencian people and to a hypothetical submission to outsiders.

Likewise, other sectors of society believe that the model of the formal language has not incorporated enough Valencian linguistic characteristics which are still in common use and supported by classical tradition, and that the only way to rectify this problem is by advocating total independence 4