Effects of Linguistic Prescriptivism in the Valencian Language: The Case of the Preposition “ en ”

Aims and Objectives: This study examines the effects of language prescriptivism on Valencian speech, specifically focusing on the use of the prepositions en and amb . The primary aim is to understand how prescriptive language norms impact speakers’ linguistic choices. Design/Method/Approach: An oral production task was used to elicit vernacular speech from Valencian–Spanish bilinguals in a context where prescriptive grammar explicitly discourages the use of en in favor of amb . Data and Analysis: Data were collected from 53 participants, yielding 266 analyzable tokens in contexts where en and amb were functionally interchangeable. Analyses included group-based comparisons and a mixed-effects logistic regression predicting en use with fixed effects for native language, years of Valencian education, age, sex, and an age–education interaction. Findings/Conclusion: Native language emerged as the only statistically reliable predictor. Valencian-dominant participants showed significantly higher odds of producing en than Spanish-speaking participants. Originality: The study provides rare experimental evidence on prescriptivism in a minoritized bilingual setting, showing that entrenched vernacular patterns can persist despite decades of institutional norm enforcement. Significance/Implications: The findings suggest that prescriptive norms may be adopted unevenly across speaker groups and may have limited impact on oral vernacular usage, particularly when they conflict with long-standing forms acquired through early linguistic socialization and when the targeted variant is not strongly stigmatized.