Central Catalan ( ca, català central) is an

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, esti ...

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

spoken in the whole province of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, the eastern half of the province of

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; Phoenician: ''Tarqon''; la, Tarraco) is a port city located in northeast Spain on the Costa Daurada by the Mediterranean Sea. Founded before the fifth century BC, it is the capital of the Province of Tarragona, and part of Tarr ...

and most of the province of

Girona Girona (officially and in Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in 2020. Girona is the capital ...

, except for its northern part, where a transition to Northern Catalan begins. This variety (when free of localisms from Barcelona, Tarragona or Girona) is perceived by most Catalans as the

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

form 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 nort ...

. As such, it is the variety used in most written and audiovisual media, as well as in learning materials.

Empordanese Catalan

In the

Empordà Emporda (from the official name in ca, Empordà, , name in es, Ampurdán, ) is a natural and historical region of Catalonia, Spain, divided since 1936 into two ''comarques'', Alt Empordà and Baix Empordà. The city of Figueres, an important ...

region of Catalonia there is a distinctive Empordanese subdialect. As evidenced in writings from the turn of the 19th century by authors such as Joaquim Ruyra, differences between Empordanese and Barcelonese were formerly more pronounced in such areas of usage as the ''salat'' definite article (which is still common in

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 ...

). In the books of Ruyra there are signs of a clear state of

diglossia In linguistics, diglossia () is a situation in which two dialects or languages are used (in fairly strict compartmentalization) by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled ...

: the more cultured figures, including the narrator, use the standard Barcelona dialect, whilst the local fishermen employ their own dialect. Some of the chief differences are: *''hai'', ''fai'', ''vai'', etc. for ''haig'', ''faig'', ''vaig'' ('I have', 'I make', 'I go', etc.) *''mon'', ''ton'', ''son'', etc. for ''el meu'', ''el teu'', ''el seu'', etc. ('mine', 'yours', 'his', etc.) - these variations are not only restricted to the Empordanese Catalan, but are also in use, albeit not often, in Central Catalan and are generally understood by all Central Catalan speakers. *''con'' and ''contes'' for ''quan''/''quant'' and ''quantes'' ('when', 'which (m. sing., f. pl.)) *An inversion of the weak forms of the personal pronouns: ''me'', ''te'', ''se'' instead of ''em'', ''et'', ''es'' ('me', 'you', 'him'). *The use of a 3rd person subjunctive ending in ''u'' instead of ''i'': ''llamp me matu'' for ''llamp em mati'' ('strike me down', lit. "lightning kill me"). *''sebre'' for ''saber'' ('to know') with an irregular past participle (''sapigut'' for ''sabut'', 'known'). The Christian colonization of the

Balearics The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...

was primarily done with settlers from this region and so both dialects share several similarities, most obviously the use of the ''salat'' definite article (practically extinct in Empordanese but still common in Balearic varieties). In addition, some synonyms are more preferred to their Standard Catalan equivalents, for example ''capir'', ''capieixo'', for ''entendre'', ''entenc'' ('to understand', 'I understand') and ''testa'' for ''cap'' ('head') which share a closer similarity to modern Italian (''capire'', ''capisco'' / ''testa'') than Standard Catalan.

Text example

Excerpt from the Parable of the Prodigal Son extracted from the works of 19th-century 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 ...

, who wrote extensively about Catalan dialectal differences:

Notes

References

Upper Empordanese Dictionary

Empordanese Catalan

Text example

Notes

References

See also