Editing Catalan language (section)

=== Phonological evolution ===
{{Main|Phonological history of Catalan}}
[[File:Linguistic map Southwestern Europe-en.gif|thumb|Linguistic map of Southwestern Europe]]

Catalan shares features with neighboring Romance languages ([[Occitan language|Occitan]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Sardinian language|Sardinian]], [[French language|French]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]]).{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=1}}

* Marked contrast of the vowel pairs {{IPA|/ɛ/ ~ /e/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ/ ~ /o/}}, as in other [[Western Romance]] languages, except Spanish and Sardinian.{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}}
* Lenition of voiced stops {{IPA|[b] → [β], [d] → [ð], [ɡ] → [ɣ]}} as in Galician and Spanish.{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}}
* Lack of [[diphthongization]] of [[Latin]] short {{lang|la|ĕ}}, {{lang|la|ŏ}}, as in [[Galician language|Galician]], Sardinian and Portuguese, and unlike French, Spanish and Italian.{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}}
* Abundance of diphthongs containing {{IPA|/w/}}, as in Galician and Portuguese.{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}}
* Abundance of {{IPA|/ʎ/}} and {{IPA|/ɲ/}} occurring at the end of words, as for instance {{wikt-lang|ca|moll}} ("wet") and {{wikt-lang|ca|any}} ("year"), unlike Spanish,{{sfn|Hall|2001|p=19}} Portuguese or Italian.

In contrast with other Romance languages, Catalan has many [[monosyllabic]] words; and those ending in a wide variety of consonants and some [[consonant cluster]]s.{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}} Also, Catalan has [[final obstruent devoicing]], thus featuring many couplets like {{lang|ca|amic}} ('male friend') vs. {{lang|ca|amiga}} ('female friend').{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}}