Balearic ( ca, balear) is the collective name for the dialects of
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 ...
spoken in the
Balearic Islands: in
Mallorca, in
Ibiza and in
Menorca
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 capi ...
.
At the last census, 746,792 people in the Balearic Islands claimed to be able to speak
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 ...
, though some of these may be speakers of mainland variants.
Dialects
The dialects spoken in the
Balearic Islands are , spoken on Mallorca, on
Menorca
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 capi ...
and on
Ibiza and
Formentera.
Features
Distinctive features of Catalan in the Balearic Islands differ according to the specific variant being spoken (Mallorcan, Menorcan, or Ibizan).
Phonetic features
;Vowels
* Most variants preserve a vocalic system of eight stressed vowels; , , , , , , , :
** The Majorcan system has eight stressed vowels , reduced to four in unstressed position.
** The Western Minorcan system has eight stressed vowels , reduced to three in unstressed position.
** The Eastern Minorcan and partly the Ibizan system have seven stressed vowels reduced to three in unstressed position (as in
Central Catalan). There are differences between the dialect spoken in
Ibiza Town
Ibiza (; officially in Catalan: Eivissa ) is a city and municipality located on the southeast coast of the island of Ibiza in the Balearic Islands autonomous community.
Overview
Although called Ibiza in English and Spanish, the official name ...
(''eivissenc de vila'') and those of the rest of the island (''eivissenc pagès'') and
Formentera (''formenterer'').
** The vowel is central in Ibizan (as most Catalan dialects), while it is front in Majorcan and Minorcan. The variant is found in
Felanitx
Felanitx or Felanich is a municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands, located in the southeast of Majorca, 48 kilometres (30 miles) from the capital Palma de Mallorca.
The town, dating back to the 13th century, l ...
.
**The so-called "
open vowels
An open vowel is a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels (in U.S. terminology ) in reference to the low position of the tongue.
In the con ...
" (''vocals obertes''), and , are generally as low as in most Balearic subvarieties. The phonetic realizations of approaches (as in American English lad) and is as open as (as in traditional
RP ''dog'') (feature shared with
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 ...
). In many Majorcan dialects can be unrounded to .
** In most of parts of Majorca, words with ante-penultimate stress ending in ''-ia'' lose the ; e.g. ''glòria'' ('glory') is pronounced as ''glòri'' .
;Consonants
Notes:
* In Majorcan and some Minorcan subvarieties and become
palatal
The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.
A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...
, and , before front vowels and word-finally; e.g. ''figuera'' ('fig tree').
* A phonemic distinction between and is preserved, as in
Algherese and standard Valencian.
* As Central Catalan is velarized, , in all instances; e.g. ''tela'' ('fabric').
* The palatal lateral approximant is preserved, with absence of
yeísmo
''Yeísmo'' (; literally "Y-ism") is a distinctive feature of certain dialects of the Spanish language, characterized by the loss of the traditional palatal lateral approximant phoneme (written ) and its merger into the phoneme (written ), ...
except for the most Castilianized speakers. Nevertheless, in most of Majorcan occurs ''
iodització'', that is, a parallel
process
A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic.
Things called a process include:
Business and management
*Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...
to yeísmo ( merges with only in Latin-derived words with intervocalic L-palatalization: + yod (--, --), --, --, and --; e.g. ''palla'' 'straw'). Notice, this phenomenon is more restricted than yeísmo as initial L-palatalization always remains lateral in Majorcan; e.g. ''lluna'' ('moon').
* Depalatalization of syllable-final and with compensatory diphthongization in Majorcan: ''troncs'' ('logs'), ''anys'' ('years').
* Most Balearic variants preserve final stops in clusters; e.g. , , , and : ''camp'' 'field' (feature shared with modern Valencian).
* Assimilation of intervocalic clusters in some Majorcan and Minorcan subvarieties:
**;
**;
**;
**;
**;
**;
**, etc.
:Notice some of these assimilations may also occur in continental Catalan, such as : ''capmoix'' 'crestfallen'.
* Balearic variants of Catalan have the strongest tendency not to pronounce historical final in any context; e.g. ''amor'' 'love', ''cor'' 'heart'.
;Prosody
* Except in Ibiza, in combinations of
verb
A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
and weak
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not c ...
(
clitics), the
accent moves to the final element; e.g. ''comprar-ne'' or (Standard Central Catalan ).
Morphosyntactic features
* Balearic preserves the ''salat'' definite article (derived from Latin ''ipse/ipsa'' instead of ''ille/illa''), a feature shared only with
Sardinian among extant Romance languages, but which was more common in other
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 ...
and
Gascon areas in ancient times. However, the ''salat'' definite article is also preserved along the
Costa Brava (
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 nort ...
) and in the
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 ...
municipalities of Tàrbena and
La Vall de Gallinera.
*The personal article ''en''/''na'', ''n is used before personal names.
*The first person singular present indicative has a zero exponent, i.e. no visible ending. For example, what in Central Catalan would be ''jo parlo'' ('I speak') is realized as ''jo parl''.
*In verbs of the first conjugation (in ''-ar''), the first and second person plural forms end in -''am'' and -''au'' respectively. For example, ''cantam'' ('we sing'), ''cantau'' ('you
pl. sing').
*Also in verbs of the first conjugation, the imperfect subjunctive is formed with -''a''-, e.g. ''cantàs'', ''cantassis''. However, the Standard Catalan forms in are nowadays also common in many places.
*In combinations of two unstressed pronouns preceding a verb, one direct with the form ''el'', ''la'', etc. and the other indirect with the form ''me'', ''te'', etc., the direct pronoun appears first. For example, ''la me dóna'' ('s/he gives it to me'), Standard Catalan ''me la dóna''.
Lexical features
*Balearic has a large quantity of characteristic vocabulary, especially archaisms preserved by the isolation of the islands and the variety of linguistic influences which surround them. The lexicon differs considerably depending on the subdialect. For example: ''al·lot'' for standard "''noi''" ('boy'), ''moix'' for "''gat''" ('cat'), ''besada'' for "''petó''" ('kiss'), ''ca'' for "''gos''" ('dog'), ''doblers'' for "''diners''" ('money'), ''horabaixa'' for "''tarda''" ('evening') and ''rata-pinyada'' for "''rat-penat''" ('
bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...
').
*Minorcan has a few English loanwords dating back to the British occupation, such as ''grevi'' ('gravy'), ''xumaquer'' ('shoemaker'), ''boínder'' ('bow window'), ''xoc'' ('chalk') or ''ull blec'' ('black eye').
Political questions
Some in the Balearic Islands, such as the ''
Partido Popular'' party member and former regional president,
José Ramón Bauzà, argue that the dialects of Balearic Islands are actually separate languages and not dialects of Catalan. During the election of 2011, Bauzà campaigned against having centralized or standardized standards of Catalan in public education.
[http://riowang.blogspot.com/2011/10/mallorcan.html ]
See also
*
Catalan language
Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as ''Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern ...
*
Catalan dialects
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 ...
*
Alguerese
*
Central Catalan
*
Northern Catalan
*
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 ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
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