Catalan language
Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Pp-pc Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox language
Catalan (Template:Lang) is a Western Romance language and is the official language of Andorra,Template:Sfn and the official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian (Template:Lang). It has semi-official status in the Italian comune of Alghero,<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> and it is spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France and in two further areas in eastern Spain: the eastern strip of Aragon and the Carche area in the Region of Murcia. The Catalan-speaking territories are often called the Template:Lang or "Catalan Countries".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The language evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees. Nineteenth-century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn culminating in the early 1900s.
Etymology and pronunciation Template:Anchor
[edit]The word Catalan is derived from the territorial name of Catalonia, itself of disputed etymology. The main theory suggests that Template:Lang (Template:Langx) derives from the name Template:Lang or Template:Lang ('Land of the Goths'), since the origins of the Catalan counts, lords and people were found in the March of Gothia, whence Gothland > Gothlandia > Gothalania > Catalonia theoretically derived.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
In English, the term referring to a person first appears in the mid 14th century as Catelaner, followed in the 15th century as Template:Lang (from Middle French). It is attested a language name since at least 1652. The word Catalan can be pronounced in English as Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell or Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="dictionary.reference.com">Template:Cite dictionary</ref>
The endonym is pronounced Template:IPA in the Eastern Catalan dialects, and Template:IPA in the Western dialects. In the Valencian Community and Carche, the term Template:Lang Template:IPA is frequently used instead. Thus, the name "Valencian", although often employed for referring to the varieties specific to the Valencian Community and Carche, is also used by Valencians as a name for the language as a whole,<ref name="AVL-9_feb_2005">Template:Cite web</ref> synonymous with "Catalan".Template:Sfn<ref name="AVL-9_feb_2005" /> Both uses of the term have their respective entries in the dictionaries by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL)<ref group="note" name="DNV_AVL_1">The Valencian Normative Dictionary of the Valencian Academy of the Language states that Valencian is a "Romance language spoken in the Valencian Community, as well as in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the French department of the Template:Lang, the Principality of Andorra, the eastern flank of Aragon and the Sardinian town of Alghero (unique in Italy), where it receives the name of 'Catalan'".</ref> and the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC).<ref group="note" name="IEC">The Catalan Language Dictionary of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans states in the sixth definition of "Valencian" that, in the Valencian Community, it is equivalent to Catalan language.</ref> (See also status of Valencian below).
History
[edit]Middle Ages
[edit]By the 9th century, Catalan had evolved from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the eastern end of the Pyrenees, as well as the territories of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis to the south.Template:Sfn From the 8th century onwards the Catalan counts extended their territory southwards and westwards at the expense of the Muslims, bringing their language with them.Template:Sfn This process was given definitive impetus with the separation of the County of Barcelona from the Carolingian Empire in 988.Template:Sfn
In the 11th century, documents written in macaronic Latin begin to show Catalan elements,Template:Sfn with texts written almost completely in Romance appearing by 1080.Template:Sfn Old Catalan shared many features with Gallo-Romance, diverging from Old Occitan between the 11th and 14th centuries.Template:Sfn
During the 11th and 12th centuries the Catalan rulers expanded southward to the Ebro river,Template:Sfn and in the 13th century they conquered the lands that would become the Kingdoms of Valencia and the Majorca.Template:Sfn The city of Alghero in Sardinia was repopulated with Catalan speakers in the 14th century. The language also reached Murcia, which became Spanish-speaking in the 15th century.Template:Sfn
In the Low Middle Ages, Catalan went through a golden age, reaching a peak of maturity and cultural richness.Template:Sfn Examples include the work of Majorcan polymath Ramon Llull (1232–1315), the Four Great Chronicles (13th–14th centuries), and the Valencian school of poetry culminating in Ausiàs March (1397–1459).Template:Sfn By the 15th century, the city of Valencia had become the sociocultural center of the Crown of Aragon, and Catalan was present all over the Mediterranean world.Template:Sfn During this period, the Royal Chancery propagated a highly standardized language.Template:Sfn Catalan was widely used as an official language in Sicily until the 15th century, and in Sardinia until the 17th.Template:Sfn During this period, the language was what Costa Carreras terms "one of the 'great languages' of medieval Europe".Template:Sfn
Martorell's novel of chivalry Tirant lo Blanc (1490) shows a transition from Medieval to Renaissance values, something that can also be seen in Metge's work.Template:Sfn The first book produced with movable type in the Iberian Peninsula was printed in Catalan.<ref>Trobes en llaors de la Verge Maria ("Poems of praise of the Virgin Mary") 1474.</ref>Template:Sfn
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Homilies d'Organyà (12th century).
-
Fragment of the Greuges de Guitard Isarn (Template:Circa–1095), one of the earliest texts written almost completely in Catalan,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn predating the famous Homilies d'Organyà by a century.
Start of the modern era
[edit]Spain
[edit]
With the union of the crowns of Castille and Aragon in 1479, the Spanish kings ruled over different kingdoms, each with its own cultural, linguistic and political particularities, and they had to swear by the laws of each territory before the respective parliaments. But after the War of the Spanish Succession, Spain became an absolute monarchy under Philip V, which led to the assimilation of the Crown of Aragon by the Crown of Castile through the Nueva Planta decrees, as a first step in the creation of the Spanish nation-state; as in other contemporary European states, this meant the imposition of the political and cultural characteristics of the dominant groups.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Antoni Simon, Els orígens històrics de l'anticatalanisme Template:Webarchive, páginas 45-46, L'Espill, nº 24, Universitat de València</ref> Since the political unification of 1714, Spanish assimilation policies towards national minorities have been a constant.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Recopilació d'accions genocides con">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":6">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="galeusca2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:POV statement
The process of assimilation began with secret instructions to the corregidores of the Catalan territory: they "will take the utmost care to introduce the Castilian language, for which purpose he will give the most temperate and disguised measures so that the effect is achieved, without the care being noticed".<ref name="Historia general de España: Llegada2">Template:Cite book</ref> From there, actions in the service of assimilation, discreet or aggressive, were continued, and reached to the last detail, such as, in 1799, the Royal Certificate forbidding anyone to "represent, sing and dance pieces that were not in Spanish".<ref name="Historia general de España: Llegada2" /> The use of Spanish gradually became more prestigiousTemplate:Sfn and marked the start of the decline of Catalan.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Starting in the 16th century, Catalan literature came under the influence of Spanish, and the nobles, part of the urban and literary classes became bilingual.Template:Sfn Template:Clear
France
[edit]With the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), Spain ceded the northern part of Catalonia to France, and soon thereafter the local Catalan varieties came under the influence of French, which in 1700 became the sole official language of the region.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Shortly after the French Revolution (1789), the French First Republic prohibited official use of, and enacted discriminating policies against, the regional languages of France, such as Catalan, Alsatian, Breton, Occitan, Flemish, and Basque.
France: 19th to 20th century
[edit]After the French colony of Algeria was established in 1830, many Catalan-speaking settlers moved there. People from the Spanish province of Alicante settled around Oran, while those from French Catalonia and Menorca migrated to Algiers.
By 1911, there were around 100,000 speakers of Patuet,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as their speech was called.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After the Algerian declaration of independence in 1962, almost all the Pied-Noir Catalan speakers fled to Northern Catalonia<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> or Alicante.Template:Sfn
The French government only recognizes French as an official language. Nevertheless, on 10 December 2007, the then General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales officially recognized Catalan as one of the départment's languages<ref name="Charte en faveur du Catalan">Template:Cite web Template:Cite web</ref> and seeks to further promote it in public life and education.
Spain: 18th to 20th century
[edit]In 1807, the Statistics Office of the French Ministry of the Interior asked the prefects for an official survey on the limits of the French language. The survey found that in Roussillon, almost only Catalan was spoken, and since Napoleon wanted to incorporate Catalonia into France, as happened in 1812, the consul in Barcelona was also asked. He declared that Catalan "is taught in schools, it is printed and spoken, not only among the lower class, but also among people of first quality, also in social gatherings, as in visits and congresses", indicating that it was spoken everywhere "with the exception of the royal courts". He also indicated that Catalan was spoken "in the Kingdom of Valencia, in the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Sardinia, Corsica and much of Sicily, in the Vall d "Aran and Cerdaña".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The defeat of the pro-Habsburg coalition in the War of Spanish Succession (1714) initiated a series of laws which, among other centralizing measures, imposed the use of Spanish in legal documentation all over Spain. Because of this, use of the Catalan language declined into the 18th century.
However, the 19th century saw a Catalan literary revival (Template:Lang), which has continued up to the present day.Template:Sfn This period starts with Aribau's Ode to the Homeland (1833); followed in the second half of the 19th century, and the early 20th by the work of Verdaguer (poetry), Oller (realist novel), and Guimerà (drama).Template:Sfn In the 19th century, the region of Carche, in the province of Murcia was repopulated with Valencian speakers.Template:Sfn Catalan spelling was standardized in 1913 and the language became official during the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939). The Second Spanish Republic saw a brief period of tolerance, with most restrictions against Catalan lifted.Template:Sfn The Generalitat (the autonomous government of Catalonia, established during the Republic in 1931) made a normal use of Catalan in its administration and put efforts to promote it at the social level, including in schools and the University of Barcelona.
The Catalan language and culture were still vibrant during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), but were crushed at an unprecedented level throughout the subsequent decades due to Francoist dictatorship (1939–1975), which abolished the official status of Catalan and imposed the use of Spanish in schools and in public administration in all of Spain, while banning the use of Catalan in them.<ref name="Guardian1">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn Between 1939 and 1943 newspapers and book printing in Catalan almost disappeared.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Francisco Franco's desire for a homogeneous Spanish population resonated with some Catalans in favor of his regime, primarily members of the upper class, who began to reject the use of Catalan. Despite all of these hardships, Catalan continued to be used privately within households, and it was able to survive Franco's dictatorship. At the end of World War II, however, some of the harsh measures began to be lifted and, while Spanish language remained the sole promoted one, limited number of Catalan literature began to be tolerated. Several prominent Catalan authors resisted the suppression through literature.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Private initiative contests were created to reward works in Catalan, among them Joan Martorell prize (1947), Víctor Català prize (1953) Carles Riba award (1950), or the Honor Award of Catalan Letters (1969).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The first Catalan-language TV show was broadcast in 1964.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At the same time, oppression of the Catalan language and identity was carried out in schools, through governmental bodies, and in religious centers.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In addition to the loss of prestige for Catalan and its prohibition in schools, migration during the 1950s into Catalonia from other parts of Spain also contributed to the diminished use of the language. These migrants were often unaware of the existence of Catalan, and thus felt no need to learn or use it. Catalonia was the economic powerhouse of Spain, so these migrations continued to occur from all corners of the country. Employment opportunities were reduced for those who were not bilingual.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Daily newspapers remained exclusively in Spanish until after Franco's death, when the first one in Catalan since the end of the Civil War, Avui, began to be published in 1976.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Present day
[edit]Since the Spanish transition to democracy (1975–1982), Catalan has been institutionalized as an official language, language of education, and language of mass media; all of which have contributed to its increased prestige.Template:Sfn In Catalonia, there is an unparalleled large bilingual European non-state linguistic community.Template:Sfn The teaching of Catalan is mandatory in all schools,Template:Sfn but it is possible to use Spanish for studying in the public education system of Catalonia in two situations—if the teacher assigned to a class chooses to use Spanish, or during the learning process of one or more recently arrived immigrant students.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> There is also some intergenerational shift towards Catalan.Template:Sfn
More recently, several Spanish political forces have tried to increase the use of Spanish in the Catalan educational system.<ref name=":52">Template:Cite news</ref> As a result, in May 2022 the Spanish Supreme Court urged the Catalan regional government to enforce a measure by which 25% of all lessons must be taught in Spanish.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
According to the Statistical Institute of Catalonia, in 2013 the Catalan language is the second most commonly used in Catalonia, after Spanish, as a native or self-defining language: 7% of the population self-identifies with both Catalan and Spanish equally, 36.4% with Catalan and 47.5% only Spanish.<ref name="idescat.cat">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2003 the same studies concluded no language preference for self-identification within the population above 15 years old: 5% self-identified with both languages, 44.3% with Catalan and 47.5% with Spanish.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> To promote use of Catalan, the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalonia's official Autonomous government) spends part of its annual budget on the promotion of the use of Catalan in Catalonia and in other territories, with entities such as Template:Ill (Consortium for Linguistic Normalization).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In Andorra, Catalan has always been the sole official language.Template:Sfn Since the promulgation of the 1993 constitution, several policies favoring Catalan have been enforced, such as Catalan medium education.Template:Sfn
On the other hand, there are several language shift processes currently taking place. In the Northern Catalonia area of France, Catalan has followed the same trend as the other minority languages of France, with most of its native speakers being 60 or older (as of 2004).Template:Sfn Catalan is studied as a foreign language by 30% of the primary education students, and by 15% of the secondary.Template:Sfn The cultural association Template:Lang promotes a network of community-run schools engaged in Catalan language immersion programs.
In Alicante province, Catalan is being replaced by Spanish and in Alghero by Italian.Template:Sfn There is also well ingrained diglossia in the Valencian Community, Ibiza, and to a lesser extent, in the rest of the Balearic islands.Template:Sfn
During the 20th century many Catalans emigrated or went into exile to Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, and other South American countries. They formed a large number of Catalan colonies that today continue to maintain the Catalan language.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They also founded many Catalan casals (associations).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Classification and relationship with other Romance languages
[edit]
One classification of Catalan is given by Pèire Bèc:
However, the ascription of Catalan to the Occitano-Romance branch of Gallo-Romance languages is not shared by all linguists and philologists, particularly among Spanish ones, such as Ramón Menéndez Pidal.
Catalan bears varying degrees of similarity to the linguistic varieties subsumed under the cover term Occitan language (see also differences between Occitan and Catalan and Gallo-Romance languages). Thus, as it should be expected from closely related languages, Catalan today shares many traits with other Romance languages.
Relationship with other Romance languages
[edit]Some include Catalan in Occitan, as the linguistic distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as the Gascon dialect) is similar to the distance among different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century<ref>Template:Cite bookTemplate:Dead link</ref> and still today remains its closest relative.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Catalan shares many traits with the other neighboring Romance languages (Occitan, French, Italian, Sardinian as well as Spanish and Portuguese among others).Template:Sfn However, despite being spoken mostly on the Iberian Peninsula, Catalan has marked differences with the Iberian Romance group (Spanish and Portuguese) in terms of pronunciation, grammar, and especially vocabulary; it shows instead its closest affinity with languages native to France and northern Italy, particularly OccitanTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and to a lesser extent Gallo-Romance (Franco-Provençal, French, Gallo-Italian).<ref name="Ross 2007">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
According to Ethnologue, the lexical similarity between Catalan and other Romance languages is: 87% with Italian; 85% with Portuguese and Spanish; 76% with Ladin and Romansh; 75% with Sardinian; and 73% with Romanian.<ref name="e25" />
During much of its history, and especially during the Francoist dictatorship (1939–1975), the Catalan language was ridiculed as a mere dialect of Spanish.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This view, based on political and ideological considerations, has no linguistic validity.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Spanish and Catalan have important differences in their sound systems, lexicon, and grammatical features, placing the language in features closer to Occitan (and French).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
There is evidence that, at least from the 2nd century AD, the vocabulary and phonology of Roman Tarraconensis was different from the rest of Roman Hispania.Template:Sfn Differentiation arose generally because Spanish, Asturian, and Galician-Portuguese share certain peripheral archaisms (Spanish Template:Lang, Asturian and Portuguese Template:Lang vs. Catalan Template:Lang, Occitan Template:Lang "to boil") and innovatory regionalisms (Spanish Template:Lang, Asturian Template:Lang vs. Catalan Template:Lang, Occitan Template:Lang "bullock"), while Catalan has a shared history with the Western Romance innovative core, especially Occitan.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
| Latin | Catalan | Spanish |
|---|---|---|
| Template:Wikt-lang | Template:Wikt-lang "to bring closer" | Template:Wikt-lang "to put to bed" |
| Template:Wikt-lang | Template:Wikt-lang "to remove; wake up" |
Template:Wikt-lang "to take" |
| Template:Wikt-lang | Template:Wikt-lang "to remove" | Template:Wikt-lang "to bring" |
| Template:Wikt-lang | Template:Wikt-lang "to search" | Template:Wikt-lang "to fence" |
| Template:Wikt-lang | Template:Wikt-lang "to bury" | Template:Wikt-lang "to hang" |
| Template:Wikt-lang | Template:Wikt-lang "wife" | Template:Wikt-lang "woman or wife" |
Like all Romance languages, Catalan has a handful of native words which are unique to it, or rare elsewhere. These include:
- verbs: Template:Sm 'to fasten; transfix' > Template:Lang 'to compose, write up', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'to combine, conjugate', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'to wake; awaken', Template:Sm 'to thicken; crowd together' > Template:Lang 'to save, keep', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'to miss, yearn, pine for', Template:Sm 'to investigate, track' > Old Catalan enagar 'to incite, induce', Template:Sm > Old Catalan ujar 'to exhaust, fatigue', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'to appease, mollify', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'to reject, refuse';
- nouns: Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'pomace', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'reedmace', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'catarrh', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'snowdrift', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'ardor, passion', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'brake', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'avalanche', Template:Sm > Template:Lang 'edge, border', Template:Sm 'sawfish' > pestriu > Template:Lang 'thresher shark, smooth hound; ray', Template:Sm 'live coal' > Template:Lang 'spark', Template:Sm > tardaó > Template:Lang 'autumn'.Template:SfnTemplate:Clarify
The Gothic superstrate produced different outcomes in Spanish and Catalan. For example, Catalan Template:Wikt-lang "mud" and Template:Wikt-lang "to roast", of Germanic origin, contrast with Spanish Template:Wikt-lang and Template:Wikt-lang, of Latin origin; whereas Catalan Template:Wikt-lang "spinning wheel" and Template:Wikt-lang "temple", of Latin origin, contrast with Spanish Template:Wikt-lang and Template:Wikt-lang, of Germanic origin.Template:Sfn
The same happens with Arabic loanwords. Thus, Catalan Template:Lang "large earthenware jar" and Template:Wikt-lang "tile", of Arabic origin, contrast with Spanish Template:Wikt-lang and Template:Wikt-lang, of Latin origin; whereas Catalan Template:Wikt-lang "oil" and Template:Wikt-lang "olive", of Latin origin, contrast with Spanish Template:Wikt-lang and Template:Wikt-lang.Template:Sfn However, the Arabic element is generally much more prevalent in Spanish.Template:Sfn
Situated between two large linguistic blocks (Iberian Romance and Gallo-Romance), Catalan has many unique lexical choices, such as Template:Wikt-lang "to miss somebody", Template:Wikt-lang "to calm somebody down", and Template:Wikt-lang "reject".Template:Sfn
Geographic distribution
[edit]Catalan-speaking territories
[edit]| Template:Image label begin
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Traditionally Catalan-speaking territories are sometimes called the Template:Lang (Catalan Countries), a denomination based on cultural affinity and common heritage, that has also had a subsequent political interpretation but no official status. Various interpretations of the term may include some or all of these regions.
| State | Territory | Catalan name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andorra | Template:Lang | A sovereign state where Catalan is the national and the sole official language. The Andorrans speak a Western Catalan variety.Template:Efn | |
| France | Northern Catalonia | Template:Lang | Roughly corresponding to the Template:Lang of Pyrénées-Orientales, with the exception of the traditionally Occitan-speaking comarca of Fenouillèdes.Template:Sfn |
| Spain | Catalonia | Template:Lang | In the Aran Valley (northwest corner of Catalonia), in addition to Occitan, which is the local language, Catalan, Spanish and French are also spoken.Template:Sfn |
| Valencian Community (Template:Abbr Valencian Country) |
Template:Lang (País Valencià) |
Excepting some regions in the west and south which have been Aragonese/Spanish-speaking since at least the 18th century.Template:Sfn The Western Catalan variety spoken there is known as "Valencian". | |
| La Franja | Template:Lang | A part of the Autonomous Community of Aragon, specifically a strip bordering Western Catalonia. It comprises the Template:Lang of Ribagorça, Llitera, Baix Cinca, and Matarranya. | |
| Balearic Islands | Template:Lang | Comprising the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. | |
| Carche | Template:Lang | A small area of the Autonomous Community of Murcia, settled in the 19th century.Template:Sfn | |
| Italy | Alghero | Template:Lang | A city in the Province of Sassari, on the island of Sardinia, where the Algherese dialect is spoken. |
Number of speakers
[edit]The number of people known to be fluent in Catalan varies depending on the sources used. A 2004 study did not count the total number of speakers, but estimated a total of 9–9.5 million by matching the percentage of speakers to the population of each area where Catalan is spoken.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The web site of the Generalitat de Catalunya estimated that as of 2004 there were 9,118,882 speakers of Catalan.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> These figures only reflect potential speakers; today it is the native language of only 35.6% of the Catalan population.<ref name="habitual">Población según lengua habitual. Datos comparados 2003–2008. Cataluña. Año 2008 Template:Webarchive, Encuesta de Usos Lingüísticos de la población (2003 y 2008), Instituto de Estadística de Cataluña</ref> According to Ethnologue, Catalan had 4.1 million native speakers and 5.1 million second-language speakers in 2021.<ref name="e25" />
According to a 2011 study the total number of Catalan speakers was over 9.8 million, with 5.9 million residing in Catalonia. More than half of them spoke Catalan as a second language, with native speakers being about 4.4 million of those (more than 2.8 in Catalonia).<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Very few Catalan monoglots exist; virtually all of the Catalan speakers in Spain are bilingual speakers of Catalan and Spanish, with 99.7% of Catalan speakers in Catalonia able to speak Spanish and 99.9% able to understand it.<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref>
In Roussillon, only a minority of French Catalans speak Catalan nowadays, with French being the majority language for the inhabitants after a continued process of language shift. According to a 2019 survey by the Catalan government, 31.5% of the inhabitants of Catalonia predominantly spoke Catalan at home whereas 52.7% spoke Spanish, 2.8% both Catalan and Spanish and 10.8% other languages.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Spanish was the most spoken language in Barcelona (according to the linguistic census held by the Government of Catalonia in 2013) and it is understood almost universally. According to 2013 census, Catalan was also very commonly spoken in the city of 1,501,262: it was understood by 95% of the population, while 72.3% over the age of two could speak it (1,137,816), 79% could read it (1,246.555), and 53% could write it (835,080).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The share of Barcelona residents who could speak it (72.3%)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was lower than that of the overall Catalan population, of whom 81.2% over the age of 15 spoke the language. Knowledge of Catalan has increased significantly in recent decades thanks to a language immersion educational system. An important social characteristic of the Catalan language is that all the areas where it is spoken are bilingual in practice: together with French in Roussillon, with Italian in Alghero, with Spanish and French in Andorra, and with Spanish in the rest of the territories.
| Territory | State | Understand Template:Ref<ref name="speakers">Sources:
|
Can speak Template:Ref<ref name=speakers /> |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catalonia | Spain | 6,502,880 | 5,698,400 |
| Valencian Community | Spain | 3,448,780 | 2,407,951 |
| Balearic Islands | Spain | 852,780 | 706,065 |
| Roussillon | France | 203,121 | 125,621 |
| Andorra | Andorra | 75,407 | 61,975 |
| La Franja (Aragon) | Spain | 47,250 | 45,000 |
| Alghero (Sardinia) | Italy | 20,000 | 17,625 |
| Carche (Murcia) | Spain | ~600 | 600<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> |
| Total Catalan-speaking territories | 11,150,218 | 9,062,637 | |
| Rest of World | No data | 350,000 | |
| Total | 11,150,218 | 9,412,637 | |
- 1.Template:Note The number of people who understand Catalan includes those who can speak it.
- 2.Template:Note Figures relate to all self-declared capable speakers, not just native speakers.
Level of knowledge
[edit]| Area | Speak | Understand | Read | Write |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catalonia<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | 81.2 | 94.4 | 85.5 | 65.3 |
| Valencian Community | 57.5 | 78.1 | 54.9 | 32.5 |
| Balearic Islands | 74.6 | 93.1 | 79.6 | 46.9 |
| Roussillon | 37.1 | 65.3 | 31.4 | 10.6 |
| Andorra | 78.9 | 96.0 | 89.7 | 61.1 |
| Franja Oriental of Aragón | 88.8 | 98.5 | 72.9 | 30.3 |
| Alghero | 67.6 | 89.9 | 50.9 | 28.4 |
(% of the population 15 years old and older).
Social use
[edit]| Area | At home | Outside home |
|---|---|---|
| Catalonia | 45 | 51 |
| Valencian Community | 37 | 32 |
| Balearic Islands | 44 | 41 |
| Roussillon | 1 | 1 |
| Andorra | 38 | 51 |
| Franja Oriental of Aragón | 70 | 61 |
| Alghero | 8 | 4 |
(% of the population 15 years old and older).
<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Native language
[edit]To calculate the absolute number the figures have been proportioned to the whole population regardless of the age, rounded to the nearest 500.
| Area | People | Percentage | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catalonia | 3,101,500 | 40.6% | 2021 | <ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> |
| Valencian Community | 1,271,000 | 25.4% | 2021 | <ref name=":0" /> |
| Balearic Islands | 401,500 | 33.2% | 2021 | <ref name=":0" /> |
| Aragon | 29,500 | 2.5% | 2021 | <ref name=":0" /> |
| Rest of Spain | 80,500 | 0.3% | 2021 | <ref name=":0" /> |
| Andorra | 35,000 | 44.1% | 2022 | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| Roussillon | 60,000 | 12.7% | 2015 | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| Alghero | 10,500 | 24.1% | 2015 | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| TOTAL | 4,989,500 |
Phonology
[edit]Catalan phonology varies by dialect. Notable features include:Template:Sfn
- Marked contrast of the vowel pairs Template:IPA and Template:IPA, as in other Western Romance languages, other than Spanish.Template:Sfn
- Lack of diphthongization of Latin short Template:Lang, Template:Lang, as in Galician and Portuguese, but unlike French, Spanish, or Italian.Template:Sfn
- Abundance of diphthongs containing Template:IPA, as in Galician and Portuguese.Template:Sfn
In contrast to other Romance languages, Catalan has many monosyllabic words, and these may end in a wide variety of consonants, including some consonant clusters.Template:Sfn Additionally, Catalan has final obstruent devoicing, which gives rise to an abundance of such couplets as Template:Lang ("male friend") vs. Template:Lang ("female friend").Template:Sfn
Central Catalan pronunciation is considered to be standard for the language.Template:Sfn The descriptions below are mostly representative of this variety.<ref>Wheeler 2005 takes the same approach</ref> For the differences in pronunciation between the different dialects, see the section on pronunciation of dialects in this article.
Vowels
[edit]
Catalan has inherited the typical vowel system of Vulgar Latin, with seven stressed phonemes: Template:IPA, a common feature in Western Romance, with the exception of Spanish.Template:Sfn Balearic also has instances of stressed Template:IPA.Template:Sfn Dialects differ in the different degrees of vowel reduction,Template:Sfn and the incidence of the pair Template:IPA.Template:Sfn
In Central Catalan, unstressed vowels reduce to three: Template:IPA; Template:IPA; Template:IPA remains distinct.Template:Sfn The other dialects have different vowel reduction processes (see the section pronunciation of dialects in this article).
| Front vowels | Back vowels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word pair |
Template:Lang ("ice") Template:Lang ("ice cream") |
Template:Lang ("stone") Template:Lang ("quarry") |
Template:Lang ("he bathes") Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("we bathe") |
Template:Lang ("thing") Template:Lang ("little thing") |
Template:Lang ("everything") Template:Lang ("total") |
| IPA transcription |
Template:IPA Template:IPA |
Template:IPA Template:IPA |
Template:IPA Template:IPA |
Template:IPA Template:IPA |
Template:IPA Template:IPA |
Consonants
[edit]The consonant system of Catalan is rather conservative.
- Template:IPA has a velarized allophone in syllable coda position in most dialects.Template:Sfn However, Template:IPA is velarized irrespective of position in Eastern dialects such as MajorcanTemplate:Sfn and standard Eastern Catalan.
- Template:IPA occurs in Balearic,Template:Sfn Algherese, standard Valencian and some areas in southern Catalonia.Template:Sfn It has merged with Template:IPA elsewhere.Template:Sfn
- The velar nasal /ŋ/ is an allophone of /n/ before /g/ or /k/. However, it has become phonemic in Central dialects that delete the final element of word-final consonant clusters, resulting in minimal pairs such as fan [ˈfan] (“they do”) and fang [ˈfaŋ] (“mud”, pronounced [ˈfaŋk] in other dialects).
- In Valencian, the fricative [ʒ] (and [jʒ]) appears only as a voiced allophone of /ʃ/ (and /jʃ/) before vowels and voiced consonants; e.g. peix al forn [ˈpejʒ al ˈfoɾn] ('oven fish'). The /ʒ/ phoneme in other Catalan dialects is pronounced /dʒ/ in standard Valencian.
- Voiced obstruents undergo final-obstruent devoicing: Template:IPA.Template:Sfn
- Voiced stops become lenited to approximants in syllable onsets, after continuants: Template:IPA > Template:IPAblink, Template:IPA > Template:IPAblink, Template:IPA > Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfn Exceptions include Template:IPA after lateral consonants, and Template:IPA after Template:IPA. In coda position, these sounds are realized as stops,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> except in some Valencian dialects where they are lenited.Template:Sfn
- There is some confusion in the literature about the precise phonetic characteristics of Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA. Some sourcesTemplate:Sfn describe them as "postalveolar". OthersTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn as "back alveolo-palatal", implying that the characters Template:Angbr IPA would be more accurate. However, in all literature only the characters for palato-alveolar affricates and fricatives are used, even when the same sources use Template:Angbr IPA for other languages such as Polish and Chinese.<ref>Template:Harvnb. Here Recasens labels these Catalan sounds as "laminoalveolars palatalitzades".</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb. Here the authors label these Catalan sounds as "laminal postalveolar".</ref>Template:Sfn
- The distribution of the two rhotics Template:IPA and Template:IPA closely parallels that of Spanish. Between vowels, the two contrast, but they are otherwise in complementary distribution: in the onset of the first syllable in a word, Template:IPAblink appears unless preceded by a consonant. Dialects vary in regards to rhotics in the coda with Western Catalan generally featuring Template:IPAblink and Central Catalan dialects featuring a weakly trilled Template:IPAblink unless it precedes a vowel-initial word in the same prosodic unit, in which case Template:IPAblink appears.Template:Sfn
- In careful speech, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA may be geminated. Geminated Template:IPA may also occur.Template:Sfn Some analyze intervocalic Template:IPA as the result of gemination of a single rhotic phoneme.Template:Sfn This is similar to the common analysis of Spanish and Portuguese rhotics.<ref>See Template:Cite book for more information.</ref>
Phonological evolution
[edit]
Catalan shares features with neighboring Romance languages (Occitan, Italian, Sardinian, French, Spanish).Template:Sfn
- Marked contrast of the vowel pairs Template:IPA and Template:IPA, as in other Western Romance languages, except Spanish and Sardinian.Template:Sfn
- Lenition of voiced stops Template:IPA as in Galician and Spanish.Template:Sfn
- Lack of diphthongization of Latin short Template:Lang, Template:Lang, as in Galician, Sardinian and Portuguese, and unlike French, Spanish and Italian.Template:Sfn
- Abundance of diphthongs containing Template:IPA, as in Galician and Portuguese.Template:Sfn
- Abundance of Template:IPA and Template:IPA occurring at the end of words, as for instance Template:Wikt-lang ("wet") and Template:Wikt-lang ("year"), unlike Spanish,Template:Sfn 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 clusters.Template:Sfn Also, Catalan has final obstruent devoicing, thus featuring many couplets like Template:Lang ('male friend') vs. Template:Lang ('female friend').Template:Sfn
Sociolinguistics
[edit]Catalan sociolinguistics studies the situation of Catalan in the world and the different varieties that this language presents. It is a subdiscipline of Catalan philology and other affine studies and has as an objective to analyze the relation between the Catalan language, the speakers and the close reality (including the one of other languages in contact).
Preferential subjects of study
[edit]- Dialects of Catalan
- Variations of Catalan by class, gender, profession, age and level of studies
- Process of linguistic normalization
- Relations between Catalan and Spanish or French
- Perception on the language of Catalan speakers and non-speakers
- Presence of Catalan in several fields: tagging, public function, media, professional sectors
Dialects
[edit]Overview
[edit]
The dialects of the Catalan language feature a relative uniformity, especially when compared to other Romance languages;Template:Sfn both in terms of vocabulary, semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology.Template:Sfn Mutual intelligibility between dialects is very high,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn estimates ranging from 90% to 95%.<ref name="e25" /> The only exception is the isolated idiosyncratic Algherese dialect.Template:Sfn
Catalan is split in two major dialectal blocks: Eastern and Western.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The main difference lies in the treatment of unstressed Template:Lang and Template:Lang; which have merged to Template:IPA in Eastern dialects, but which remain distinct as Template:IPA and Template:IPA in Western dialects.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn There are a few other differences in pronunciation, verbal morphology, and vocabulary.Template:Sfn
Western Catalan comprises the two dialects of North-Western Catalan and Valencian; the Eastern block comprises four dialects: Central Catalan, Balearic, Roussillonese, and Algherese.Template:Sfn Each dialect can be further subdivided in several subdialects. The terms "Catalan" and "Valencian" (respectively used in Catalonia and the Valencian Community) refer to two varieties of the same language.<ref name="Dictamen de l'Acadèmia">Template:Citation</ref> There are two institutions regulating the two standard varieties, the Institute of Catalan Studies in Catalonia and the Valencian Academy of the Language in the Valencian Community.
Central Catalan is considered the standard pronunciation of the language and has the largest number of speakers.Template:Sfn It is spoken in the densely populated regions of the Barcelona province, the eastern half of the province of Tarragona, and most of the province of Girona.Template:Sfn
Catalan has an inflectional grammar. Nouns have two genders (masculine, feminine), and two numbers (singular, plural). Pronouns additionally can have a neuter gender, and some are also inflected for case and politeness, and can be combined in very complex ways. Verbs are split in several paradigms and are inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, mood, and gender. In terms of pronunciation, Catalan has many words ending in a wide variety of consonants and some consonant clusters, in contrast with many other Romance languages.Template:Sfn
| Block | Western Catalan | Eastern Catalan | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variety | North-Western | Valencian | Central | Balearic | Northern (Roussillonese) | Alguerese (Algherese) |
| Area | Spain, Andorra | Spain | France | Italy | ||
| Andorra, provinces of Lleida, western half of Tarragona, La Franja (Aragon) | Valencian Community, Carche (Murcia) | Provinces of Barcelona, eastern half of Tarragona, most of Girona | Balearic Islands | Roussillon (Northern Catalonia) | City of Alghero in Sardinia | |
Pronunciation Template:Anchor
[edit]Vowels
[edit]Catalan has inherited the typical vowel system of Vulgar Latin, with seven stressed phonemes: Template:IPA, a common feature in Western Romance, except Spanish.Template:Sfn Balearic has also instances of stressed Template:IPA.Template:Sfn Dialects differ in the different degrees of vowel reduction,Template:Sfn and the incidence of the pair Template:IPA.Template:Sfn
In Eastern Catalan (except Majorcan), unstressed vowels reduce to three: Template:IPA; Template:IPA; Template:IPA remains distinct.Template:Sfn There are a few instances of unreduced Template:IPA, Template:IPA in some words.Template:Sfn Algherese has lowered Template:IPA to Template:IPA.
In Majorcan, unstressed vowels reduce to four: Template:IPA follow the Eastern Catalan reduction pattern; however Template:IPA reduce to Template:IPA, with Template:IPA remaining distinct, as in Western Catalan.Template:Sfn
In Western Catalan, unstressed vowels reduce to five: Template:IPA; Template:IPA; Template:IPA remain distinct.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This reduction pattern, inherited from Proto-Romance, is also found in Italian and Portuguese.Template:Sfn Some Western dialects present further reduction or vowel harmony in some cases.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Central, Western, and Balearic differ in the lexical incidence of stressed Template:IPA and Template:IPA.Template:Sfn Usually, words with Template:IPA in Central Catalan correspond to Template:IPA in Balearic and Template:IPA in Western Catalan.Template:Sfn Words with Template:IPA in Balearic almost always have Template:IPA in Central and Western Catalan as well.Template:VagueTemplate:Sfn As a result, Central Catalan has a much higher incidence of Template:IPA.Template:Sfn
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Consonants
[edit]Catalan dialects are characterized by final-obstruent devoicing, lenition and voicing assimilation. Additionally, many dialects contrast two rhotics (Template:IPA) and two laterals (Template:IPA).
Most Catalan dialects are also renowned by the usage of dark l (i.e. velarization of Template:IPA → Template:IPAblink), which is especially noticeable in syllable final position, in comparison to neighbouring languages, such as Spanish, Italian and French (that lack this pronunciation).
There is dialectal variation in regard to:
- The pronunciation and distribution of sibilants (with different results according to voicing and affrication vs. deaffrication).
- While, arguably there are seven to eight sibilants in Standard Catalan and Standard Valencian, dialects like Central Valencian and Ribagorçan only have three or four.
- The usage of the voiced labiodental fricative phoneme Template:IPAslink.
- The pronunciation or not of yod (Template:IPAslink) in the digraph Template:Angbr.
- The elision and pronunciation of final rhotics (either Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink).
- The delateralization of the palatal lateral approximant (Template:IPAslink).
- The alternation of lenition vs. fortition (such as Template:IPA in Template:Lang 'village, people' → Template:IPA vs. Template:IPA vs. Template:IPA vs. Template:IPA vs. Template:IPA).
Morphology
[edit]Western Catalan: In verbs, the ending for 1st-person present indicative is Template:Lang in verbs of the 1st conjugation and -∅ in verbs of the 2nd and 3rd conjugations in most of the Valencian Community, or Template:Lang in all verb conjugations in the Northern Valencian Community and Western Catalonia.
E.g. Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang (Valencian); Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang (North-Western Catalan).
Eastern Catalan: In verbs, the ending for 1st-person present indicative is Template:Lang, Template:Lang, or -∅ in all conjugations.
E.g. Template:Lang (Central), Template:Lang (Balearic), and Template:Lang (Northern), all meaning ('I speak').
| Conjugation | Eastern Catalan | Western Catalan | Gloss | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | Northern | Balearic | Valencian | North-Western | ||||
| 1st | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | 'I speak' | ||
| 2nd | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | 'I fear' | ||
| 3rd | Template:Small | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | 'I feel', 'I hear' | |
| Template:Small | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang or Template:Lang | Template:Lang or Template:Lang | Template:Lang | 'I polish' | ||
Western Catalan: In verbs, the inchoative endings are Template:Lang/Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang/Template:Lang.
Eastern Catalan: In verbs, the inchoative endings are Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang.
Western Catalan: In nouns and adjectives, maintenance of Template:IPA of medieval plurals in proparoxytone words.
E.g. Template:Lang 'men', Template:Lang 'youth'.
Eastern Catalan: In nouns and adjectives, loss of Template:IPA of medieval plurals in proparoxytone words.
E.g. Template:Lang 'men', Template:Lang 'youth' (Ibicencan, however, follows the model of Western Catalan in this case<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>).
Vocabulary
[edit]Despite its relative lexical unity, the two dialectal blocks of Catalan (Eastern and Western) show some differences in word choices.Template:Sfn Any lexical divergence within any of the two groups can be explained as an archaism. Also, usually Central Catalan acts as an innovative element.Template:Sfn
| Gloss | "mirror" | "boy" | "broom" | "navel" | "to exit" |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Catalan | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang |
| Western Catalan | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | Template:Lang |
Standards
[edit]
| Catalan (IEC) | Valencian (AVL) | gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | English |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | to know |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | take out |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | to be born |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | pitcher |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | round |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | my, mine |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | almond |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | star |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | hit |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | lobster |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | men |
| Template:Lang | Template:Lang | service |
Standard Catalan, virtually accepted by all speakers,Template:Sfn is mostly based on Eastern Catalan,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which is the most widely used dialect. Nevertheless, the standards of the Valencian Community and the Balearics admit alternative forms, mostly traditional ones, which are not current in eastern Catalonia.Template:Sfn
The most notable difference between both standards is some tonic Template:Angbr accentuation, for instance: Template:Lang (IEC) – Template:Lang (AVL). Nevertheless, AVL's standard keeps the grave accent Template:Angbr, while pronouncing it as Template:IPA rather than Template:IPA, in some words such as: Template:Lang ('what'), or Template:Lang. Other divergences include the use of Template:Angbr (AVL) in some words instead of Template:Angbr like in Template:Lang/Template:Lang ('almond'), Template:Lang/Template:Lang ('back'), the use of elided demonstratives (Template:Lang 'this', Template:Lang 'that') in the same level as reinforced ones (Template:Lang) or the use of many verbal forms common in Valencian, and some of these common in the rest of Western Catalan too, such as subjunctive mood or inchoative conjugation in Template:Lang at the same level as Template:Lang or the priority use of Template:Lang morpheme in 1st person singular in present indicative (Template:Lang verbs): Template:Lang instead of Template:Lang ('I buy').
In the Balearic Islands, IEC's standard is used but adapted for the Balearic dialect by the University of the Balearic Islands's philological section. In this way, for instance, IEC says it is correct writing Template:Lang as much as Template:Lang ('we sing'), but the university says that the priority form in the Balearic Islands must be Template:Lang in all fields. Another feature of the Balearic standard is the non-ending in the 1st person singular present indicative: Template:Lang ('I buy'), Template:Lang ('I fear'), Template:Lang ('I sleep').
In Alghero, the IEC has adapted its standard to the Algherese dialect. In this standard one can find, among other features: the definite article Template:Lang instead of Template:Lang, special possessive pronouns and determinants Template:Lang ('mine'), Template:Lang ('his/her'), Template:Lang ('yours'), and so on, the use of Template:Lang Template:IPA in the imperfect tense in all conjugations: Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang; the use of many archaic words, usual words in Algherese: Template:Lang instead of Template:Lang ('less'), Template:Lang instead of Template:Lang ('someone'), Template:Lang instead of Template:Lang ('which'), and so on; and the adaptation of weak pronouns. In 1999, Catalan (Algherese dialect) was among the twelve minority languages officially recognized as Italy's "historical linguistic minorities" by the Italian State under Law No. 482/1999.<ref>Law No. 482 of 15 December 1999. "Rules on the protection of historical linguistic minorities". Article 2. Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 297. 20 December 1999</ref>
In 2011,<ref>Decreto 89/2011, de 5 de abril, del Gobierno de Aragón, por el que se aprueban los Estatutos de la Academia Aragonesa del Catalán. BOA núm. 77, de 18 de abril de 2011 Template:Webarchive</ref> the Aragonese government passed a decree approving the statutes of a new language regulator of Catalan in La Franja (the so-called Catalan-speaking areas of Aragon) as originally provided for by Law 10/2009.<ref>Ley 10/2009, de 22 de diciembre, de uso, protección y promoción de las lenguas propias de Aragón BOE núm. 30, de 4 de febrero de 2010. Template:Webarchive</ref> The new entity, designated as Template:Lang, shall allow a facultative education in Catalan and a standardization of the Catalan language in La Franja.
Status of Valencian Template:Anchor
[edit]Template:Wikisourcelang Template:Main
Valencian is classified as a Western dialect, along with the North-Western varieties spoken in Western Catalonia (provinces of Lleida and the western half of Tarragona).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Central Catalan has 90% to 95% inherent intelligibility for speakers of Valencian.<ref name="e25" />
Linguists, including Valencian scholars, deal with Catalan and Valencian as the same language. The official regulating body of the language of the Valencian Community, the Valencian Academy of Language (Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, AVL) declares the linguistic unity between Valencian and Catalan varieties.<ref name="AVL-9_feb_2005" />
The AVL, created by the Valencian parliament, is in charge of dictating the official rules governing the use of Valencian, and its standard is based on the Norms of Castelló (Normes de Castelló). Currently, everyone who writes in Valencian uses this standard, except the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture (Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana, RACV), which uses an independent standard for Valencian.
Despite the position of the official organizations, an opinion poll carried out between 2001 and 2004<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> showed that the majority of the Valencian people consider Valencian different from Catalan. This position is promoted by people who do not use Valencian regularly.Template:Sfn Furthermore, the data indicates that younger generations educated in Valencian are much less likely to hold these views. A minority of Valencian scholars active in fields other than linguistics defends the position of the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture (Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana, RACV), which uses for Valencian a standard independent from Catalan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
This clash of opinions has sparked much controversy. For example, during the drafting of the European Constitution in 2004, the Spanish government supplied the EU with translations of the text into Basque, Galician, Catalan, and Valencian, but the latter two were identical.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Vocabulary
[edit]Word choices
[edit]Despite its relative lexical unity, the two dialectal blocks of Catalan (Eastern and Western) show some differences in word choices.Template:Sfn Any lexical divergence within any of the two groups can be explained as an archaism. Also, usually Central Catalan acts as an innovative element.Template:Sfn
Literary Catalan allows the use of words from different dialects, except those of very restricted use.Template:Sfn However, from the 19th century onwards, there has been a tendency towards favoring words of Northern dialects to the detriment of others.Template:Sfn
Latin and Greek loanwords
[edit]Like other languages, Catalan has a large list of loanwords from Greek and Latin. This process started very early, and one can find such examples in Ramon Llull's work.Template:Sfn In the 14th and 15th centuries Catalan had a far greater number of Greco-Latin loanwords than other Romance languages, as is attested for example in Roís de Corella's writings.Template:Sfn The incorporation of learned, or "bookish" words from its own ancestor language, Latin, into Catalan is arguably another form of lexical borrowing through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, most literate Catalan speakers were also literate in Latin; and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing—and eventually speech—in Catalan.
Word formation
[edit]The process of morphological derivation in Catalan follows the same principles as the other Romance languages,Template:Sfn where inflection is common. Many times, several affixes are appended to a preexisting lexeme, and some sound alternations can occur, for example Template:Lang Template:IPA ("electrical") vs. Template:Lang Template:IPA. Prefixes are usually appended to verbs, as in Template:Lang ("foresee").Template:Sfn
There is greater regularity in the process of word-compounding, where one can find compounded words formed much like those in English.Template:Sfn
| Type | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| two nouns, the second assimilated to the first | Template:Lang | "banknote paper" |
| noun delimited by an adjective | Template:Lang | "military staff" |
| noun delimited by another noun and a preposition | Template:Lang | "typewriter" |
| verb radical with a nominal object | Template:Lang | "parachute" |
| noun delimited by an adjective, with adjectival value | Template:Lang | "robin" (bird) |
Writing system
[edit]
.png){kind=link}
Catalan uses the Latin script, with some added symbols and digraphs.Template:Sfn The Catalan orthography is systematic and largely phonologically based.Template:Sfn Standardization of Catalan was among the topics discussed during the First International Congress of the Catalan Language, held in Barcelona October 1906. Subsequently, the Philological Section of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC, founded in 1911) published the Normes ortogràfiques in 1913 under the direction of Antoni Maria Alcover and Pompeu Fabra. In 1932, Valencian writers and intellectuals gathered in Castelló de la Plana to make a formal adoption of the so-called Normes de Castelló, a set of guidelines following Pompeu Fabra's Catalan language norms.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Grammar
[edit]The grammar of Catalan is similar to other Romance languages. Features include:Template:Sfn
- Use of definite and indefinite articles.Template:Sfn
- Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles are inflected for gender (masculine and feminine), and number (singular and plural). There is no case inflexion, except in pronouns.Template:Sfn
- Verbs are highly inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, and mood (including a subjunctive).Template:Sfn
- There are no modal auxiliaries.Template:Sfn
- Word order is freer than in English.Template:Sfn
Gender and number inflection
[edit]
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|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In gender inflection, the most notable feature is (compared to Portuguese, Spanish or Italian), the loss of the typical masculine suffix Template:Lang. Thus, the alternance of Template:Lang/Template:Lang, has been replaced by ø/Template:Lang.Template:Sfn There are only a few exceptions, such as Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("scarce").Template:Sfn Many not completely predictable morphological alternations may occur, such as:Template:Sfn
- Affrication: Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("insane") vs. Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("ugly")
- Loss of Template:Lang: Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("flat") vs. Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("second")
- Final obstruent devoicing: Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("felt") vs. Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("said")
Catalan has few suppletive couplets, like Italian and Spanish, and unlike French. Thus, Catalan has Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("boy"/"girl") and Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("cock"/"hen"), whereas French has Template:Lang/Template:Lang and Template:Lang/Template:Lang.Template:Sfn
There is a tendency to abandon traditionally gender-invariable adjectives in favor of marked ones, something prevalent in Occitan and French. Thus, one can find Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("boiling") in contrast with traditional Template:Lang/Template:Lang.Template:Sfn
As in the other Western Romance languages, the main plural expression is the suffix Template:Lang, which may create morphological alternations similar to the ones found in gender inflection, albeit more rarely.Template:Sfn The most important one is the addition of Template:Lang before certain consonant groups, a phonetic phenomenon that does not affect feminine forms: Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("the pulse"/"the pulses") vs. Template:Lang/Template:Lang ("the dust"/"the dusts").Template:Sfn
Determiners
[edit]
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|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The inflection of determinatives is complex, specially because of the high number of elisions, but is similar to the neighboring languages.Template:Sfn Catalan has more contractions of preposition + article than Spanish, such as Template:Lang ("of + the [plural]"), but not as many as Italian (which has Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, etc.).Template:Sfn
Central Catalan has abandoned almost completely unstressed possessives (Template:Lang, etc.) in favor of constructions of article + stressed forms (Template:Lang, etc.), a feature shared with Italian.Template:Sfn
Personal pronouns
[edit]| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | Template:Lang, Template:Lang | Template:Lang | |
| 2nd person | informal | Template:Lang | Template:Lang |
| formal | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | |
| respectful | (Template:Lang)<ref>Archaic in most dialects.</ref> | ||
| 3rd person | masculine | Template:Lang | Template:Lang |
| feminine | Template:Lang | Template:Lang | |
The morphology of Catalan personal pronouns is complex, especially in unstressed forms, which are numerous (13 distinct forms, compared to 11 in Spanish or 9 in Italian).Template:Sfn Features include the gender-neutral Template:Lang and the great degree of freedom when combining different unstressed pronouns (65 combinations).Template:Sfn
Catalan pronouns exhibit T–V distinction, like all other Romance languages (and most European languages, but not Modern English). This feature implies the use of a different set of second person pronouns for formality.
This flexibility allows Catalan to use extraposition extensively, much more than French or Spanish. Thus, Catalan can have Template:Lang ("they recommended me to him"), whereas in French one must say Template:Lang, and Spanish Template:Lang.Template:Sfn This allows the placement of almost any nominal term as a sentence topic, without having to use so often the passive voice (as in French or English), or identifying the direct object with a preposition (as in Spanish).Template:Sfn Template:Clear
Verbs
[edit]Like all the Romance languages, Catalan verbal inflection is more complex than the nominal. Suffixation is omnipresent, whereas morphological alternations play a secondary role.Template:Sfn Vowel alternances are active, as well as infixation and suppletion. However, these are not as productive as in Spanish, and are mostly restricted to irregular verbs.Template:Sfn
The Catalan verbal system is basically common to all Western Romance, except that most dialects have replaced the synthetic indicative perfect with a periphrastic form of Template:Lang ("to go") + infinitive.Template:Sfn
Catalan verbs are traditionally divided into three conjugations, with vowel themes Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, the last two being split into two subtypes. However, this division is mostly theoretical.Template:Sfn Only the first conjugation is nowadays productive (with about 3500 common verbs), whereas the third (the subtype of Template:Lang, with about 700 common verbs) is semiproductive. The verbs of the second conjugation are fewer than 100, and it is not possible to create new ones, except by compounding.Template:Sfn Template:Clear
Syntax
[edit]The grammar of Catalan follows the general pattern of Western Romance languages. The primary word order is subject–verb–object.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, word order is very flexible. Commonly, verb-subject constructions are used to achieve a semantic effect. The sentence "The train has arrived" could be translated as Template:Lang or Template:Lang. Both sentences mean "the train has arrived", but the former puts a focus on the train, while the latter puts a focus on the arrival. This subtle distinction is described as "what you might say while waiting in the station" versus "what you might say on the train".Template:Sfn
Catalan names
[edit]In Spain, every person officially has two surnames, one of which is the father's first surname and the other is the mother's first surname.Template:Sfn The law contemplates the possibility of joining both surnames with the Catalan conjunction i ("and").Template:Sfn<ref>article 19.1 of Law 1/1998 stipulates that "the citizens of Catalonia have the right to use the proper regulation of their Catalan names and surnames and to introduce the conjunction between surnames"</ref>
Sample text
[edit]Selected textTemplate:Sfn from Manuel de Pedrolo's 1970 novel Template:Lang ("A love affair outside the city").
| Original | Word-for-word translationTemplate:Sfn | Free translation |
|---|---|---|
| Template:Lang | I was having close to eighteen years, when I go Template:IPA know (=I met) | I was about eighteen years old when I met |
| Template:Lang | the Raül, at the station of (=in) Manresa. | Raül, at Manresa railway station. |
| Template:Lang | The my father had died, unexpectedly and still young, | My father had died, unexpectedly and still young, |
| Template:Lang | a couple of years before, and of those times | a couple of years before; and from that time |
| Template:Lang | I keep a memory of acute loneliness | I still harbor memories of great loneliness. |
| Template:Lang | The my relations with the mother | My relationship with my mother |
| Template:Lang | not had at all improved, all the contrary, | had not improved; quite the contrary, |
| Template:Lang | perhaps even they were worsening | and arguably it was getting even worse |
| Template:Lang | at step that (=in proportion as) myself I was making big (=I was growing up). | as I grew up. |
| Template:Lang | Not it was existing, not it existed never between us, | There did not exist, at no point had there ever existed between us |
| Template:Lang | a community of interests, of affections. | shared interests or affection. |
| Template:Lang | It is necessary to believe that I was seeking... a person | I guess I was seeking... a person |
| Template:Lang | in whom to center the my life affective. | in whom I could center my emotional life. |
See also
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- Organizations
- Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Catalan Studies Institute)
- Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (Valencian Academy of the Language)
- Òmnium Cultural
- Plataforma per la Llengua
- Scholars
- Other
- Languages of Catalonia
- Languages of France
- Languages of Italy
- Languages of Spain
- Normes de Castelló
- Pompeu Fabra
Notes
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References
[edit]Works cited
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External links
[edit]Institutions
- Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística
- Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC)
- Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL)
About the Catalan/Valencian language
- Gramàtica de la Llengua Catalana (Catalan grammar), from the Institut d'Estudis Catalans
- Gramàtica Normativa Valenciana (Valencian grammar). Template:Webarchive, from the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
- Apunts de llengua, learning program by À Punt
- llengua.gencat.cat, by the Government of Catalonia
- verbs.cat (Catalan verb conjugations with online trainers)
- LEXDIALGRAM (online portal of 19th-century dialectal lexicographical and grammatical works of Catalan hosted by the University of Barcelona)
Monolingual dictionaries
- DIEC2, from the Institut d'Estudis Catalans
- Diccionari Normatiu Valencià (DNV), from the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
- Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana. Template:Webarchive, from Enciclopèdia Catalana
- Diccionari Català-Valencià-Balear d'Alcover i Moll. Template:Webarchive, from the Institut d'Estudis Catalans
- Diccionari Invers de la Llengua Catalana (Dictionary of Catalan words spelled backward)
- trobat.com (online Valencian dictionary)
Bilingual and multilingual dictionaries
- Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana Multilingüe. Template:Webarchive (Catalan ↔ English, French, German and Spanish), from Enciclopèdia Catalana
Automated translation systems
- Traductor automated, online translations of text and web pages (Catalan ↔ English, French and Spanish), from gencat.cat by the Government of Catalonia
Learning resources
- Catalan Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words, from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix
Catalan-language online encyclopedia
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