Catalan language
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| Catalan, Valencian català, valencià |
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| Spoken in: | Spain, France, Italy, Andorra. |
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| Region: | In Spain: Catalonia, Valencia, Balearic Islands, Aragon (in La Franja), Murcia (in El Carxe). In France: Northern Catalonia. In Italy: The city of L'Alguer. In Andorra. |
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| Total speakers: | More than 7.5 million | |
| Ranking: | 84 | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Gallo-Iberian Ibero-Romance East Iberian Catalan, Valencian |
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| Official status | ||
| Official language of: | In Spain: Catalonia, Valencia, Balearic Islands. In Italy: L'Alguer. In Andorra. |
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| Regulated by: | Institut d'Estudis Catalans Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | ca | |
| ISO 639-2: | cat | |
| ISO 639-3: | cat — Catalan | |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
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Catalan IPA: [ˈkʰæ.təˌlæn] (català IPA: [kə.tə'la] or [ka.ta'la]) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Land of Valencia (under the name of Valencian) and the Balearic Islands in Spain, and in the city of L'Alguer in the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, although with no official recognition, in the autonomous communities of Aragon (in La Franja) and Murcia (in El Carxe) in Spain, and in Northern Catalonia, a historical region in southern France, which is more or less equivalent to the département of the Pyrénées-Orientales.
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[edit] Classification
According to the Ethnologue, its specific classification is as follows:[1]
Catalan is very similar to Occitan. Although Catalan is often thought of as a transitional language between the Iberian Romance languages (such as Spanish) and Gallo-Romance languages (such as French), this characterization is not accurate. For instance, phonologically, Catalan is more similar to Italian than Spanish or French.
The adscription of Catalan to the Ibero-Romance languages group is not shared by all linguists, since others prefer to group Occitan and Catalan in the Occitano-Romance branch of Gallo-Iberian languages.
See also Occitan language: Differences between Occitan and Catalan and Gallo-Romance languages.
Some Catalan words do not arise from Latin, but from other languages: Germanic (Ramon[1]: Raymond, espia: spy[2], ganivet: knife, guerra: war... and the place-names finished with -reny, as Gliscareny), French (brioix: brioche, garatge: garage, fitxa: card...), Italian (piano: piano, macarró: macaroni, pantà: marsh, finestra: window, porta: gate...), Occitan (espasa: sword, beutat: beauty, daurar: to gild, suffixal -aire...), Arabic and Mossarabic (alcohol: spirit, sucre: sugar, alcova: bedroom... and most of toponymy like Benicàssim, Albocàsser...), from Castilian (senzill: easy, xoriço: kind of salami, amo: owner, burro: donkey...), from Euskera (esquerra: left, isard: surly, estalviar: to save money... and toponymy as Aran, Benavarri or Algerri...) and from English (bar, web, revòlver...)
[edit] Geographic distribution
Catalan is spoken in:
- Catalonia (Catalunya), in Spain.
- Land of Valencia (Comunitat Valenciana), in Spain.
- An adjacent strip (Franja de Ponent) of Aragon, Spain, in particular the comarques of Baixa Ribagorça, Llitera, Baix Cinca, and Matarranya, and parts of the comarques of Alta Ribagorça, Terra Alta and Ribera d'Ebre.
- Balearic Islands (Illes Balears i Pitiüsses), in Spain.
- Andorra (Principat d'Andorra).
- Northern Catalonia (Catalunya Nord) (unofficial names), in France.
- The city of Alghero (l'Alguer) on Sardinia (an island in Italy).
- A small region in Murcia, Spain, known as el Carche in Castilian and el Carxe in Catalan.
All these areas are informally called Catalan Countries (Catalan Països Catalans), a denomination based on cultural affinity and common heritage, that some have subsequently interpreted politically.
[edit] Number of Catalan speakers
[edit] Territories where Catalan is official
| Region | Understands | Can speak |
| Catalonia (Spain) | 5,837,874 | 4,602,611 |
| Balearic Islands (Spain) | 733,466 | 504,349 |
| Land of Valencia (called valencian) (Spain) | 3,512,236 | 1,972,922 |
| Andorra | 62,381 | 49,519 |
| TOTAL | 10,145,957 | 7,129,401 |
[edit] Other territories
| Region | Understands | Can speak |
| Alghero (Sardinia, Italy) | 20,000 | 17,625 |
| Northern Catalonia (France) | 203,121 | 125,622 |
| Franja de Ponent (Aragonese Fringe)(Spain) | 47,250 | 45,000 |
| Carxe (Murcia, Spain) | No data | No data |
| Rest of World | No data | 350,000 |
| TOTAL | 270,371 | 538,247 |
[edit] World
| Region | Understands | Can speak |
| Catalan-speaking territories (Europe) | 10,416,328 | 7,317,648 |
| Rest of World | No data | 350,000 |
| TOTAL | 10,416,328 | 7,667,648 |
Notes: The number of people who understand Catalan includes those who can speak it.
Sources: Catalonia: Statistic data of 2001 census, from Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya, Generalitat de Catalunya [2]. Land of Valencia: Statistical data from 2001 census, from Institut Valencià d'Estadística, Generalitat Valenciana [3]. Balearic Islands: Statistical data from 2001 census, from Institut Balear d'Estadística, Govern de les Illes Balears [4]. Northern Catalonia: Media Pluriel Survey commissioned by Prefecture of Languedoc-Roussillon Region done in October 1997 and published in January 1998 [5]. Andorra: Sociolinguistic data from Andorran Government, 1999. Aragon: Sociolinguistic data from Euromosaic [6]. Alguer: Sociolinguistic data from Euromosaic [7]. Rest of World: Estimate for 1999 by the Federació d'Entitats Catalanes outside the Catalan Countries.
[edit] Dialects
In 1861, Manuel Milà i Fontanals proposed a division of Catalan into two major dialect blocks: Eastern Catalan and Western Catalan.
There is no precise linguistic border between one dialect and another because there is nearly always a transition zone of some size between pairs of geographically separated dialects, (except for dialects specific to an island). The main differences between the two blocks are:
- Western Catalan (Bloc o Branca del Català Occidental):
- Unstressed vowels: [a] [e] [i] [o] [u]. Distinctions between e and a and o and u.
- Initial or post-consonantal x is affricate /tʃ/. Between vowels or when final and preceded by i, it is /jʃ/.
- 1st person present indicative is -e or -o.
- Inchoative in -ix, -ixen, -isca
- Maintenance of medieval nasal plural in proparoxiton words: hòmens, jóvens
- Specific Vocabulary: espill, xiquet, granera, melic...
- Eastern Catalan (Bloc o Branca del Català Oriental):
- Unstressed vowels [ə] [i] [u]. The unstressed vowels e and a become /ə/ and o and u become /u/.
- Initial or post-consonantal x is the fricative /ʃ/. Between vowels or final preceded by i it is also /ʃ/.
- 1st person present indicative is -o, -i or ø.
- Inchoative in -eix, -eixen, -eixi.
- The -n- of medieval nasal plural is dropped in proparoxiton words: homes, joves.
- Specific Vocabulary: mirall, noi, escombra, llombrígol...
In addition, neither dialect is completely homogeneous: any dialect can be subdivided into several sub-dialects. Catalan can be subdivided in two major dialect blocks and those blocks into individual dialects:
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See Catalan dialect examples for examples of each dialect.
Standard Catalan, as regulated by the IEC, centres on the speech of the educated classes of Barcelona, and so is closest to Central Catalan; however, not all of the features of Barcelonese speech can be considered standard, as there are lots of traditional dialectal traits and a Castillian influence in that area. Additionally, most important dialectal traits of other dialects are also considered standard. The orthography used to write Standard Catalan (and basically any Catalan text) is closest to Valencian pronunciation, although some instances of grave accented <è> correspond to Central Catalan. There is also a second standard form of the language, Valencian (valencià), regulated by the AVL. The Valencian standard is very close to IEC's but adds features characteristic of Western Catalan.
[edit] The status of Valencian
The official language academy of the Land of Valencia (the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua) considers Catalan and Valencian simply to be two names for the same language. There is a roughly continuous set of idiolects covering the various regional forms of Catalan/ Valencian, with no break at the border between Catalonia and Valencia (i.e. villages contiguous to both sides of the border speak exactly the same), and the various forms of Catalan and Valencian are mutually intelligible. All universities teaching Romance languages, and virtually all linguists, consider these all to be linguistic variants of the same language (similar to Canadian French versus Metropolitan French).
Nevertheless, differences do exist: the accent of a Valencian is recognisable, there are differences in subjunctive terminations, and there are a large number of words unique to Valencian; but those differences are not any wider than among North-Western Catalan and Eastern Catalan. In fact, Northern Valencian (spoken in the Castelló province and Matarranya valley, a strip of Aragon) is more similar to the Catalan of the lower Ebro basin (spoken in southern half of Tarragona province and another strip of Aragon) than to apitxat Valencian (spoken in the area of L'Horta, in the province of Valencia).
The Valencian language has often been seen as a dialect of Catalan due to their mutual intelligibility. However, the issue of language versus dialect is as much a matter of politics as of linguistics. By the criterion of mutual intelligibility, Valencian and other varieties of Catalan are dialects of a single language; but according to this criterion, Galician and Portuguese are also dialects of a single language, as are Norwegian and Swedish, a contentious conclusion in either case. A language is defined by several factors, political ones among others.
What gets called a language is defined in part by mutual comprehensibility, but also by political and cultural factors. Historically, the perceived status of Valencian as a "dialect of Catalan" has had important political implications including Catalan nationalism and the idea of the Països Catalans or "Catalan countries." Conversely, some Valencians who advocate distinguishing the languages do so to resist a perceived Catalan nationalist agenda aimed at absorbing Valencian language and identity, and incorporating Valencians into a constructed nationality centered on Catalonia. However, this idea is mostly supported by extreme right-wing organisations who usually don't support actual use of Valencian, but rather fear a possible union between Catalonia and Valencia towards their independence. It should be noted as well that it is common consensus amongst linguists to consider Valencian and Catalan to be the same language.
Similarly to Serbian and Croatian, the issue of whether Catalan and Valencian constitute different languages or merely dialects has been the subject of political agitation several times since the end of the Franco era. The latest political controversy regarding Valencian occurred on the occasion of 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 Catalan and Valencian versions were identical. While professing the unity of the Catalan language, the Spanish government claimed to be constitutionally bound to produce distinct Catalan and Valencian versions because the Statute of the Autonomous Land of Valencia refers to the language as Valencian. In practice, the Catalan, Valencian, and Balearic versions of the EU constitution are almost identical, although some compromises over spelling may have been involved in making them so.
Valencian and Catalan have fewer differences from one another than do American English and English English (that is, the English of England), although this is partially because the English phonetical system is much more complex than that of Catalan. The differences between English English and American English are very similar to those between Valencian and Catalan. For example, English English and American English have a different vowel system, as do Valencian and Catalan. In Valencia, as in America, the language is generally rhotic (that is, final "r" is pronounced); in Catalonia, as in England, it generally is not. There are pairs of words similar to "truck"/"lorry" or "cookie"/"biscuit", for example "mirall"/"espill" (meaning "mirror") or "rentar"/"llavar" ("to wash"). There are different spellings for the same word à la "color"/"colour", for example "seva"/"seua" ("his"); although in this case the pronunciation is not the same, it is a common feature in dialectal and not-so-old Catalan to turn intervocalic "u" into "v", so "seva" and "seua" are phonologically identical (/'seua/), although phonetically different (['sevɘ] vs. ['sewa].) There are differences in conjugation just like "lit"/"lighted", for example, "acomplix"/"acompleix" ("accomplishes"). There are verbal forms which are not frequently used in either dialect - "aní"/"vaig anar", just like "I advise that he come"/"I advise him to come". In short, much like English, Catalan is a multi-centric language - there exist two standards, one for Oriental Catalan, regulated by the IEC, which is centered around Barcelonese Catalan (with slight variations to include Balearic verb flexion) and one for Occidental, regulated by the AVL, centered around Valencian.
Most current (21st century) Valencian speakers and writers use spelling conventions (Normes de Castelló, 1932) that allow for several diverse idiosyncrasies of Valencian, Balearic, North-Western Catalan, and Eastern Catalan.
[edit] Sounds and writing system
[edit] Grammar
An interesting feature of Catalan, as compared to most other modern Romance languages, is its complex and extremely conservative system of pronoun clitics.
[edit] History
Catalan developed by the 9th century from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the eastern part of Pyrenees mountains (counties of Roussillon, Empuries, Besalú, Cerdanya, Urgell, Pallars and Ribagorça). It shares features with Gallo-romance and Ibero-romance, and it could be said to be in its beginnings no more than an eccentric dialect of Occitan (or of Western Romance).
In Francoist Spain (1939-1975), the use of Castilian over Catalan was promoted, and public use of Catalan was repressed and in fact forbidden. In spite of this, some few thousands of books were published in Catalan. Franco's effort to portray Catalan as an archaic dialect still allowed the publication of, for example, older poetry. Some modern works were sneaked under censorship by pretending that they were older.
Following the death of Franco in 1975 and the restoration of democracy, the use of Catalan increased and the Catalan language is now used in politics, education and the Catalan media, including the newspapers Avui ("Today"), El Punt ("The Point") and El Periódico de Catalunya (sharing content with its Spanish release and with El Periòdic d'Andorra, printed in Andorra; and the television channels of Televisió de Catalunya (TVC): TV3, the main channel, and Canal 33/K3 (culture and cartoons channel) as well as a 24-hour news channel 3/24 and the TV series channel 300; there are also many local channels available in region in Catalan, such as BTV and Td8 (in the metropolitan area of Barcelona), Canal L'Hospitalet (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat), Canal Terrassa (Terrassa), Televisió de Sant Cugat TDSC (Sant Cugat del Vallès).
[edit] Examples
Some common Catalan phrases (pronounced as in the Central dialect -Barcelona and outskirts-):
- Catalan: Català /kətəˈlɑ/
- Hello: hola /ˈɔlə/
- Good-bye: adéu /əˈðɛw/ (sing.); adéu siau /əˈðɛw siˈaw/ (pl.)
- Please: si us plau /sisˈplaw/
- Thank you: gràcies /ˈgrɑsiəs/; mercès /mərˈsɛs/
- Sorry: perdó /pərˈðo/, ho sento /u ˈsentu/
- This one: aquest /əˈkɛt/ (masc.); aquesta /əˈkɛstə/ (fem.)
- How much?: quant val? /ˈkwɑmˈbɑl/; quant és? /ˈkwɑnˈes/
- Yes: sí /ˈsi/
- No: no /ˈno/
- I don't understand: No ho entenc /ˈno wənˈteŋ/
- where's the bathroom?: on és el bany? /ˈonˈezəlˈβaɲ/; on és el lavabo? /ˈonˈezəlˈləˈβɑβu/
- Generic toast: salut! /səˈlut/;
- Do you speak English?: Que parla (l')anglès? /kə ˈparlə lənˈglɛs/
- Do you speak Catalan?: Que parla (el) català? /kə ˈparləl kətəˈlɑ/
[edit] Learning Catalan
- Digui, digui... Curs de català per a estrangers. A Catalan Handbook. — Alan Yates and Toni Ibarz. — Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura, 1993. -- ISBN 84-393-2579-7.
- Teach Yourself Catalan. — McGraw-Hill, 1993. — ISBN 0-8442-3755-8.
- Colloquial Catalan. — Toni Ibarz and Alexander Ibarz. — Routledge, 2005. — ISBN 0-415-23412-3.
Catalan courses are given at many universities both in Europe and in North America.
A free online Catalan course will be available from autumn 2007 at www.parlar.cat.
[edit] English words of Catalan origin
- Barracks, from barraca, used for several kinds of buildings. It passed to French barraque/baraque and, during the The Thirty Years War, passed to the European languages (English in 1678)[3].
- Mayonnaise, from maionesa via Spanish mahonesa and French mayonnaise, a sauce made with oil and raw eggs typical of Maó, capital of the island of Menorca.[4]
- Allioli, from all i oli, a typical sauce made by mixing olive oil and garlic with a mortar and pestle.
[edit] Pop Culture
In the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, the character of the naval surgeon Stephen Maturin speaks Catalan natively, being of Irish-Catalan heritage.
[edit] See also
- Common phrases in different languages
- Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Catalan Studies Institute)
- Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (Valencian Academy of the Language)
- Pompeu Fabra
- Catalan literature
- Languages of France
- Languages of Italy
- Languages of Spain
- Catalan names
- New Catalan top-level domain .cat
- Balearic
[edit] References
- ^ Ramon in Diccionari Català Anglès, Salvador Oliva i Angela Buxton, et al., Enciclopèdia Catalana, Barcelona, 2001, ISBN 84-85194-39-X.
- ^ Ramon in Diccionari Anglès Català, Salvador Oliva i Angela Buxton, et al., Enciclopèdia Catalana, Barcelona, 2001, ISBN 84-85194-78-0.
- ^ barraca in Diccionario Crítico Etimológico Castellano e Hispánico, volume I, J. Corominas, J.A. Pascual, Editorial Gredos, Madrid, 1987, ISBN 84-249-1361-2.
- ^ Dictionary of word origins, John Ayto, Bloomsbury, 2001, ISBN 0 7475 5448
[edit] External links
[edit] Institutions
- Institut d'Estudis Catalans
- Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
- Secretaria de Política Lingüística de la Generalitat de Catalunya
[edit] About the Catalan language
- Ethnologue report for Catalan
- Catalan resources in the Web
- GRAMÀTICA CATALANA A Catalan grammar
[edit] Dictionaries and phrasebooks
- Catalan English Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition
- Diccionari Català de l'IEC
- Diccionari Català-Valencià-Balear d'Alcover i Moll
- Online Catalan dictionary from Enciclopèdia Catalana
- Diccionari Invers de la Llengua Catalana
- DACCO. Open source English-Catalan / Catalan-English dictionary project.
- Catalan phrasebook on Wikitravel
- Learn Catalan!. An introduction for the Catalonia-bound traveler.
- Interc@t. Set of electronic resources for learning the Catalan language and culture.
- SisHiTra Online Spanish-Catalan / Catalan-Spanish text and web translator.
[edit] Catalan-language media
- Televisió de Catalunya
- Radiotelevisió valenciana
- Catalunya Ràdio
- RNE Ràdio 4 Catalunya
- El Periódico
- Diari El Punt — Catalan-language daily newspaper
- VilaWeb The main Catalan online newspaper
- Catalan Wikibooks
[edit] Catalan-language web searching
- Yahoo! Català Searching in Catalan
- Nosaltres.com
- Google (Catalan language)
[edit] Catalan-language online encyclopedia
- (Catalan) Enciclopèdia Catalana
- Viquipèdia (Wikipedia in Catalan)
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