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. 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. That was the time when the Valencian Statue of Autonomy of 1982 was published using these norms for its version in Valencian. The Valencian government enacted that language teachers of Valencian in the educational system had to had a linguistic qualification in these Norms, issued mainly by Lo Rat Penat. 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. 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 /tʃ, dʒ/ and the glide /j/ are written representation of word-final /p, t, k/ 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.
In respect to the letters F, L, M, N, R and S: The forms ef, el, em, en, er, es 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 efe, ele, eme, ene, erre, esse, 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 efa, ela, ema, ena, essa, erra, essa 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 [j] and the palato-alveolar consonants /dʒ/ and /tʃ/.
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