The
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
dialects feature a relative uniformity, especially when compared to other Romance languages; both in terms of
vocabulary
A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
,
semantics
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy
Philosophy (f ...
,
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
,
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
, and
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
. Mutual intelligibility between its dialects is very high, estimates ranging from 90% to 95%.
[Central Catalan has 90% to 95% inherent intelligibility for speakers of Valencian (1989 R. Hall, Jr.), cited o]
Ethnologue
The only exception is the isolated idiosyncratic
Alguerese dialect.
Overview
In 1861, linguist
Manuel Milà i Fontanals
Manuel Milà i Fontanals (; May 4, 1818 – July 16, 1884) was a Spanish scholar. He was born at Vilafranca del Penedès, near Barcelona, and was educated first in Barcelona, and afterwards at the University of Cervera.
In 1845, he became pro ...
split Catalan into two main dialects: Western and Eastern. The most obvious phonetic difference lies in the treatment of unstressed a and e, which have merged to in Eastern dialects, but remain distinct as and in Western dialects. There are a few other differences in pronunciation, verbal morphology, and vocabulary.
Western Catalan comprises the two dialects of
Northwestern Catalan and
Valencian
Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance language also known as Catal ...
; the Eastern block comprises three to four dialects (depending on their classification):
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
,
Roussillonese (Northern Catalan), and Insular (
Balearic and
Alguerese). Each dialect can be further subdivided into several subdialects.
There are two spoken standards for the language based on the Eastern and Western dialects respectively:
* In
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
, the
Institut d'Estudis Catalans
The Institute for Catalan Studies ( ca, Institut d'Estudis Catalans, ), also known by the acronym IEC, is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture". It is based in Barcelona, Catalon ...
(IEC) regulates the spoken standard based on
Central Catalan
Central Catalan ( ca, català central) is an Eastern Catalan dialect spoken in the whole province of Barcelona, the eastern half of the province of Tarragona and most of the province of Girona, except for its northern part, where a transition to ...
, which has the highest number of speakers and is spoken in the densely populated regions of the
Barcelona province, the eastern half of the
province of Tarragona
Tarragona (, ) is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is bordered by the provinces of Castellón, Teruel, Zaragoza, Lérida and Barcelona and by the Mediterranean Sea.
The province's p ...
, and most of the
province of Girona
Girona (; es, Gerona ; french: Gérone) is a province of Spain, in the northeastern part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is bordered on the northwest by the province of Lleida, on the southwest by the province of Barcelona, on the ...
.
* In the
Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...
, the
Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua ("Valencian Academy of the Language"), also known by the acronym AVL, is an institution created on September 16, 1998, by the Valencian Parliament, which belongs to the set of official institutions that com ...
adapts the
Fabran guidelines to the Valencian variety, and regulates an alternative spoken standard based on the Southern Valencian subdialect. Despite having fewer speakers than the Central Valencian subdialect,
[Xarxa Cruscat de l'Institut d'Estudis Catalans] Southern Valencian has been less influenced by Spanish. It is spoken in the South and North of the
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
and
Alicante
Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...
provinces respectively, in cities such as
Gandia
Gandia ( es, Gandía) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, eastern Spain on the Mediterranean. Gandia is located on the Costa del Azahar (or ''Costa dels Tarongers''), south of Valencia and north of Alicante. Vehicles can acce ...
,
Alcoi
Alcoy ( ca-valencia, Alcoi) is an industrial and university city, region and municipality located in the Valencian Community, Spain. The Serpis river crosses the municipal boundary of Alcoy. The local authority reported a population of 61,135 res ...
and
Xàtiva
Xàtiva (, es, Játiva ) is a town in eastern Spain, in the province of Valencia, on the right (western) bank of the river Albaida and at the junction of the Valencia–Murcia and Valencia Albacete railways. It is located 25 km west ...
.
Valencians are only surpassed in number of Catalan-speakers by Catalans themselves, representing approximately a third of the whole Catalan-speaking population.
Therefore, in the context of
linguistic conflict, recognition and respect towards the dual standard, as well as the dual Catalan–Valencian denomination, pacifies the tense central–periphery relations between Catalonia and the Valencian community.
Pronunciation
Vowels
Catalan has inherited the typical vowel system of
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve ...
, with seven stressed phonemes: , a common feature in
Western Romance
Western Romance languages are one of the two subdivisions of a proposed subdivision of the Romance languages based on the La Spezia–Rimini Line. They include the Gallo-Romance and Iberian Romance branches. Gallo-Italic may also be included. ...
, except Spanish,
Asturian, and
Aragonese.
Balearic has also instances of stressed . Dialects differ in the different degrees of
vowel reduction
In phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic ''quality'' of vowels as a result of changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word (e.g. for the Creek language
The Muscogee lang ...
, and the incidence of the pair .
In
Eastern Catalan
The Catalan dialects feature a relative uniformity, especially when compared to other Romance languages; both in terms of vocabulary, semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology. Mutual intelligibility between its dialects is very high, estim ...
(except Majorcan), unstressed vowels reduce to three: ; ; remains distinct. There are a few instances of unreduced , in some words.
Alguerese has lowered to , similar to Eastern dialects spoken in the
Barcelona metropolitan area
The Barcelona urban area is an urban area in Catalonia (Spain) centered on the city of Barcelona and located less than 100 km south of the border with France. With a population of over 5 million, it is the most populous urban area on the Me ...
(however, in the latter dialects the vowels are distinct as vs. ).
In Majorcan, unstressed vowels reduce to four: follow the Eastern Catalan reduction pattern; however reduce to , with remaining distinct, as in Western Catalan.
In
Western Catalan
The Catalan dialects feature a relative uniformity, especially when compared to other Romance languages; both in terms of vocabulary, semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology. Mutual intelligibility between its dialects is very high, estima ...
, unstressed vowels reduce to five: ; ; remain distinct. This reduction pattern, inherited from
Proto-Romance
Proto-Romance is the comparatively reconstructed ancestor of all Romance languages. It reflects a late variety of spoken Latin prior to regional fragmentation.
Phonology
Vowels
Monophthongs
Diphthong
The only phonemic diphthong was ...
, is also found in Italian and
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
. Some Western dialects present further reduction or vowel harmony in some cases.
Central, Western, and Balearic differ in the lexical incidence of stressed and . Usually, words with in central Catalan correspond to in Balearic and in Western Catalan. Words with in Balearic almost always have in central and western Catalan as well. As a result, Western Catalan has a much higher incidence of .
Morphology
In verbs, the 1st person present indicative ending is ( in verbs of the 2nd and 3rd conjugation), or .
For , , (Valencian); , , (North-Western). In verbs, the 1st person present indicative ending is , or in all conjugations.
For example, (Central), (Balearic), (Northern), ('I speak').
In verbs, the inchoative desinences are /, , , .
In verbs, the inchoative desinences are , , , .
In nouns and adjectives, maintenance of of medieval plurals in proparoxytone words.
E.g., 'men', 'youth'.
In nouns and adjectives, loss of of medieval plurals in proparoxytone words.
E.g., 'men', 'youth'.
Vocabulary
Despite its relative lexical unity, the two dialectal blocks of Catalan (Eastern and Western) show some differences in word choices. Any lexical divergence within any of the two groups can be explained as an archaism. Also, usually
Central Catalan
Central Catalan ( ca, català central) is an Eastern Catalan dialect spoken in the whole province of Barcelona, the eastern half of the province of Tarragona and most of the province of Girona, except for its northern part, where a transition to ...
acts as an innovative element.
Insular Catalan
Insular Catalan may refer to:
*the
Balearic subdialects, mainly spoken on the islands of
Ibiza
Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...
,
Majorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...
and
Minorca
Menorca or Minorca (from la, Insula Minor, , smaller island, later ''Minorica'') is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Majorca. Its capita ...
.
*
Algherese
Algherese or Alguerese (Algherese: ) is the variant of Catalan spoken in the city of Alghero ( in Catalan), in the northwest of Sardinia, Italy.
The dialect has its roots in 1372, when Catalan-speaking colonists were allowed to repopulate Al ...
, the Catalan variety spoken in the
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
n city of
Alghero
Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...
.
Continental Catalan
Continental Catalan
''El català continental distingeix els fonemes vocàlics accentuats è oberta de mots com "mel", i é tancada de mots com "vent"''
Diccionari català-valencià-balear. may refer to:
* Northern–Eastern Catalan, Central–Eastern Catalan and Northwestern Catalan, all spoken in mainland Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
, as opposed to Insular Catalan
The Catalan dialects feature a relative uniformity, especially when compared to other Romance languages; both in terms of vocabulary, semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology. Mutual intelligibility between its dialects is very high, estima ...
(mainly Balearic Catalan
Balearic ( ca, balear) is the collective name for the dialects of Catalan spoken in the Balearic Islands: in Mallorca, in Ibiza and in Menorca.
At the last census, 746,792 people in the Balearic Islands claimed to be able to speak Catalan, th ...
)
References
Bibliography
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{{Language varieties
Catalan language