Valencian

Valencian
valencià
Pronunciation	[valensiˈa]
Spoken in	Spain  Valencian Community Region of Murcia (Carche) See also geographic distribution of Catalan
Native speakers	2.4 million[1]  (2004) (Out of a Catalan population of 11.5 million)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Occitano-Romance Catalan Western Catalan[2] Valencian
Writing system	Catalan alphabet (Latin script)
Official status
Official language in	In Spain: Valencian Community
Regulated by	Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ca
ISO 639-2	cat
ISO 639-3	cat
Linguasphere	51-AAA-e
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Valencian (English pronunciation: /vəˈlɛnsiən/, /vəˈlɛnʃən/; autonym: valencià, IPA: [valensiˈa]) is the traditional and official name of the Catalan language in the Valencian Community.^[3] There are dialectical differences from standard Catalan, and under the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua has been established as its regulator. It is frequently spoken of as a separate language,^[4] though opposition to the use of standard Catalan occurs primarily among those who do not regularly use the language.^[5]

Valencian, like the closely related Occitan, has a long literary tradition, especially Late Medieval and Renaissance. One of the most outstanding works of all Catalan and Valencian literature is the romance Tirant lo Blanch, written by the Valencian knight and poet Joanot Martorell.

Contents 1 Official status 2 Authors and Literature 2.1 Middle Age 2.2 Renaissance 2.3 XVII Century 3 Distribution and usage 3.1 Distribution 3.2 Knowledge and usage 4 Valencian subdialects 5 Features of Valencian 5.1 Phonology 5.2 Morphology 5.3 Vocabulary 6 Linguistic controversy 6.1 The position of the Valencian Academy 7 See also 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 External links

Official status

The official status of Valencian is regulated by the Spanish Constitution and the Valencian Statute of Autonomy,^[6] together with the Law of Use and Education of Valencian.

The Valencian Statute of Autonomy^[6] sets the legal status of Valencian, providing that:

• Valencian is the Valencian Community's own language (article 6 section 1).
• Valencian is official within the Valencian Community, along with Spanish, which is the official language nationwide. Everyone shall have the right to know it and use it, and receive education in Valencian (article 6 section 2).
• No one can be discriminated by reason of his language (article 6 section 4).
• Special protection and respect shall be given to the recuperation of Valencian (article 6 section 5).
• The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua shall be the normative institution of the Valencian language (article 6 section 8).

The Law of Use and Education of Valencian develops this frame work, providing for implementation of a bilingual educational system, and regulating the use of Valencian in the public administration and judiciary system, where citizens can freely use it when acting before both.

Valencian is not one of the recognized languages of the European Union (23 official and 26 minority languages).

Authors and Literature

Middle Age

Misteri d'Elx (c. 1350). Liturgical drama. Listed as Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Renaissance

Ausiàs March (Gandia, 1400 – Valencia, March 3, 1459). Poet, widely read in the renaissance Europe.

Joanot Martorell (Gandia, 1413 – 1468). Knight and the author of the novel Tirant lo Blanch.

Isabel de Villena (Valencia, 1430 - 1490). Religious poetess.

Joan Roís de Corella (Gandia or Valencia, 1435 - Valencia, 1497). Knight and poet.

Obres e trobes en lahors de la Verge María (1474) First book printed in Spain. It is the compendium of a religious poesy contest held that year in the town of Valencia.

XVII Century

Trobes de Jaume Febrer (c. 1670). A fake XIII century composition. Atributed to Onofre Esquerdo

Distribution and usage

Distribution

Valencian is not spoken all over the Valencian Community. Roughly a quarter of its territory, equivalent to 10% of the population (its inland part and areas in the extreme south as well), is traditionally Spanish-speaking only, whereas Valencian is spoken to varying degrees elsewhere.

Additionally, it is also spoken by a reduced number of people in Carche, a rural area in the Region of Murcia adjoining the Valencian Community; nevertheless Valencian does not have any official recognition in this area.

Knowledge and usage

In 2010 the Generalitat Valenciana (Servei d’Investigació i Estudis Sociolingüístics) published a study titled Knowledge and Social use of Valencian.^[7] According to the study, which sampled more than 6,600 people in the provinces of Castellón, Valencia, and Alicante:

Opinion poll

• 48.5% of the sample answered that they were able to speak in Valencian "perfectly" or "quite well" (54.3% in the Valencian-speaking areas and 10% in the Spanish-speaking areas);
• 26.2% of the sample answered that they were able to write in Valencian "perfectly" or "quite well" (29.5% in the Valencian-speaking areas and 5.8% in the Spanish-speaking areas);
• 31.6% of the sample in the Valencian-speaking areas answered that Valencian was the language always, generally, or most commonly used at their homes.
• 28.0% of the sample in the Valencian-speaking areas answered that Valencian was the language always, generally, or most commonly used with their friends.
• 24.7% of the sample in the Valencian-speaking areas answered that Valencian was the language always, generally, or most commonly used in their business internal relationships.

The survey shows that, although Valencian is still the common language in many areas in the Land of Valencia, where slightly more than half of the Valencian population are able to speak it, most Valencians do not usually speak in Valencian in their social relations. The statistics hide the fact that in the areas where the language is still strong, most people use Valencian in preference to Castilian in all everyday situations.

Moreover, according to a survey in 2008, there is a downward trend in everyday Valencian users. The lowest numbers are in the major cities of Valencia and Alicante, where the percentage of everyday speakers is in single figures. All in all, in the 1993-2006 period, the number of speakers fell by 10 per cent.^[8] One of the factors cited is the increase in the numbers of immigrants from other countries, who tend to favour using Spanish over local languages; accordingly, the number of residents who claim no understanding of Valencian sharply increased. One curiosity in the heartlands mentioned above, is that most of the children of immigrants go to public school and are therefore taught in Valencian and are far more comfortable speaking this with their friends. However, some children of Valencian speakers go to private schools run by the church where the curriculum is in Castilian and consequently this becomes their preferred language.

Valencian subdialects

• Transitional Valencian (valencià de transició or tortosí): spoken only in the northernmost areas of the province of Castellón in towns like Benicarló or Vinaròs, the area of Matarranya in Aragon (province of Teruel), and a southern border area of Catalonia surrounding Tortosa, in the province of Tarragona.
  • Word-initial and postconsonantal /dʒ/ (Catalan /ʒ/ and /dʒ/~/ʒ/) alternates with [(j)ʒ] intervocalically; e.g. joc [ˈdʒɔk] 'game', but pitjor [piˈʒo] 'worse', boja [ˈbɔjʒa] 'crazy' (Standard Valencian /ˈdʒɔk/, /piˈdʒoɾ/; /ˈbɔdʒa/; Standard Catalan /ˈʒɔk/, /piˈdʒo/ and /ˈbɔʒə/).
  • Final ⟨r⟩ [ɾ] isn't pronounced in infinitives; e.g. cantar [kanˈta] (instead of /kanˈtaɾ/) 'to sing'.
  • Archaic articles lo, los ('the') are used instead of el, els; e.g. lo xic 'the boy', los hòmens 'the men'.
• Northern Valencian (valencià septentrional or castellonenc): spoken in an area surrounding the city of Castellón de la Plana.
  • Use of [e] sound instead of standard ⟨a⟩ /a/ in the third person singular of most verbs; e.g. (ell) cantava [ˈkantave] (instead of /kanˈtava/) 'he sang'. Thus, Northern Valencian dialects contrast forms like (jo) cantava [kanˈtava] 'I sang' with (ell) cantava [kanˈtave] 'he sang', but merges (jo) cante [ˈkante] 'I sing' with (ell) canta [ˈkante] 'he sings'.
  • Palatalization of ⟨ts⟩ /ts/ → [tʃ] and ⟨tz⟩ /dz/ → [dʒ]; e.g. pots /ˈpots/ → [ˈpotʃ] 'cans, jars, you can', dotze /ˈdodze/ → [ˈdodʒe] 'twelve'.
  • Depalatalization of /ʃ/ to [sʲ]; e.g. caixa [ˈkajʃa] → [ˈkajsʲa] 'box'.
• Central Valencian (valencià central or apitxat), spoken in Valencia city and its area, but not used as standard by the Valencian media.
  • Sibilant merger: all voiced sibilants get unvoiced (/dʒ/ → [tʃ], /dz/ → [ts], /z/ → [s]); that is, apitxat pronounces casa [ˈkasa] ('house') and joc [ˈtʃɔk] ('game'), where other Valencians would pronounce /ˈkaza/ and /ˈdʒɔk/ (feature shared with Ribagorçan).
  • Betacism, that is the merge of /v/ into /b/; e.g. viu [ˈbiw] (instead of /ˈviw/) 'he lives'.
  • It preserves the strong simple past, which has been substituted by an analytic past (periphrastic past) with vadere + infinitive in the rest of modern Catalan and Valencian variants. For example, aní instead of vaig anar 'I went'.
• Southern Valencian (valencià meridional): spoken in the contiguous comarques located in the southernmost part of the Valencia province and the northernmost part in the province of Alicante. This subdialect is considered as Standard Valencian.
  • Vowel harmony: the final syllable of a disyllabic word adopts a preceding open ⟨e⟩ [ɛ] or ⟨o⟩ [ɔ] if the final vowel is an unstressed -⟨a⟩ or -⟨e⟩; e.g. terra [ˈtɛrɛ] ('earth, land'), dona [ˈdɔnɔ] ('woman').
  • This subdialect retain geminate consonants (⟨tl⟩ /lː/ and ⟨tn⟩ /nː/); e.g. guatla [ˈgwalːa] 'quail', cotna [ˈkonːa] 'rind'.
  • Weak pronouns are "reinforced" in front of the verb (em, en, et, es, etc.) contrary to other subdialects which maintains "full form" (me, ne, te, se, etc.).
• Alicante Valencian (valencià alacantí): spoken in the southern half of the province of Alicante, and the area of Carche in Murcia.
  • Intervocalic /d/ elision in all instances; e.g. roda [ˈrɔa] 'wheel', nadal [naˈaɫ] 'Christmas'.
  • Yod is not pronounced in ⟨ix⟩ /jʃ/ → [ʃ]; e.g. caixa [ˈkaʃa] 'box'.
  • Final ⟨r⟩ isn't pronounced in infinitives; e.g. cantar [kanˈta] 'to sing'.
  • There are some archaisms like: ans instead of abans 'before', manco instead of menys 'less', dintre instead of dins 'into' or devers instead of cap a 'towards'.
  • There are more interferences with Spanish than other dialects: assul (from azul) instead of blau (or atzur) 'blue', llimpiar (from limpiar) instead of netejar 'to clean' or sacar (from sacar) instead of traure 'take out'.

Features of Valencian

Note that this is a list of features of the main forms of Valencian as a group of dialectal varieties that differ from those of other Catalan dialects, particularly from the Central variety of the language. For more general information on the features of Valencian, see Catalan language. Note also that there is a great deal of variety within the Valencian Community, and by no means do the features below apply to every local version.

Phonology

Vowels

• Valencian has a system of seven stressed vowels /a/, /e/, /ɛ/, /i/, /o/, /ɔ/, and /u/; reduced to five in unstressed position (/a/ → [a]; /e/, /ɛ/ → [e]; /o/, /ɔ/ → [o]; /i/ → [i]; and /u/ → [u]) (feature shared with North-Western Catalan and Ribagorçan).
  • In some Valencian subvarieties, unstressed /o/, /u/ and /ɔ/ merge with [u] before labial consonants (e.g. obert [kuˈβɛɾt] 'open'), before a stressed syllable with a high vowel (e.g. conill [kuˈniʎ] 'rabbit'), in contact with palatal consonants (e.g. Josep [dʒuˈzɛp] 'Joseph') and in monosyllabic clitics; unstressed /a/, /e/, and /ɛ/ merge with [a] before nasals and sibilants (e.g. enclusa [aŋˈkluza] 'anvil', eixam [ajˈʃam] 'swarm'), and in some exceptional cases when preceding any consonant (e.g. clevill [klaˈviʎ] 'crevice'). Likewise, unstressed /e/ merges into [i] when in contact with palatal consonants (e.g. genoll [dʒiˈnoʎ] 'knee'), and especially in lexical derivation with -eixement/-aixement (e.g. coneixement [konejʃiˈment] 'knowledge').
  • Many Valencian subdialects, especially Southern Valencian, feature some sort of vowel harmony (harmonia vocàlica). In Valencian this process is normally progressive (i.e. preceding vowels affect those pronounced afterwards) over the last unstressed vowel of a word; e.g. hora /ˈɔɾa/ → [ˈɔɾɔ] 'time'. However, there are cases where regressive metaphony occurs over pretonic vowels; e.g. tovallola /tovaˈʎɔla/ → [tɔvɔˈʎɔlɔ] 'towel', afecta /aˈfɛkta/ → [ɛˈfɛktɛ] 'affects'. Vowel harmony differs greatly from dialect to dialect, while many subvarities would alternate [ɛ] and [ɔ], according to the previous stressed vowel (e.g. terra [ˈtɛrɛ] 'Earth, land' and dona [ˈdɔnɔ] 'woman'); others will favor just one realization (either [ɛ] in all, or some, instances; or [ɔ]), thus, terra and dona can be pronounced [ˈtɛrɛ] and [ˈdɔnɛ] (by those who favor [ɛ]) or [ˈtɛrɔ] and [ˈdɔnɔ] (by those who favor [ɔ]).
• The so-called "open vowels" (vocals obertes), /ɛ/ and /ɔ/, are generally as low as /a/ in traditional Valencian. The phonetic realizations of /ɛ/ approaches [æ] (as in English land) and /ɔ/ is as open as [ɒ] (as in English dog) (feature shared with Balearic Catalan).
• The vowel /a/ is slightly fronted and closed than in Central Catalan (but less fronted and closed than in Majorcan).

Consonants

Valencian consonants^[9][10]

	Bilabial	Labio-  dental	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	p   b		t   d		k   ɡ
Affricate			ts   dz	tʃ   dʒ
Fricative		f   v	s   z	ʃ   (ʒ)
Trill			r
Flap			ɾ
Approximant				j	w
Lateral			l	ʎ

• Voiced plosives /b d g/ are lenited [β ð ɣ] after a continuant (exceptions include /d/ after lateral consonants and /b/ after /f/). In the coda position, these sounds are always realized as plosives except in some Valencian subvarieties, where they are lenited.
  • Progressive lenition of /d/ in intervocalic posttonic position (especially in feminine participles); e.g. fideuà [fiðeˈwaː] (< fideuada).
  • Unlike other Catalan dialects, /b/ and /g/ are lenited in all instances (e.g. poble [ˈpɔβle] 'village').
• The historical labiodental phoneme /v/ survives in most traditional subdialects, including the standard, but merger with /b/ is now dominant in Central and some Northern Valencian subvarieties.
• Valencian has preserved in most of its subvarieties the mediaeval voiced prepalatal affricate /dʒ/ in contexts where other modern dialects have developed fricatives /ʒ/ (feature shared with modern Ribagorçan). The presence of /dʒ/ for /ʒ/ in Valencian reflects the historical change /ʒ/ > /dʒ/ and the failure for /dʒ/ to become /ʒ/ (feature shared with Occitan and standard Italian). Nonetheless, the fricative [ʒ] may appear as a voiced allophone of /ʃ/ before vowels and voiced consonants; e.g. peix espasa [ˈpejʒ asˈpaza] 'swordfish'.
• Deaffrication of /dz/ in verbs ending in -itzar; e.g. analitzar [analiˈzaɾ] 'to analize'.
• Most Valencian subdialects preserve final stops in clusters; e.g. [mp], [nt], [ŋk], and [ɫt]: camp [ˈkamp] (feature shared with modern Balearic). The subdialect spoken in Benifaió and Almussafes, some 20 km south of Valencia, remarks these final consonants.
• Contrary to Eastern Catalan dialects where all instances of /l/ are velarized, Valencian alternates more often a clear l [l] in intervocalic position with a dark l [ɫ] in the coda. The same also occurs in English accents, such as Received Pronunciation or South African English, as opposed to Scottish or American English where /l/ is always dark.
• Valencian is the only modern variant that articulates etymological final [ɾ] in all contexts, although this cannot be generalized since there are Valencian subvarieties which do not articulate the final [ɾ] or only articulate it in some contexts.

Morphology

• The present first-person singular of verbs differs from Central Catalan; e.g. -ar infinitive: parlar 'to speak' gives parle 'I speak' as opposed to parlo, -re infinitive: batre 'to beat' gives bat 'I beat' as opposed to bato, -er infinitive: témer 'to fear' give tem 'I fear' as opposed to temo, and -ir infinitive: sentir 'to feel' gives sent (pronounced [ˈseŋk]) 'I feel' as opposed to sento (all those forms without final -o are more akin to mediaeval Catalan and contemporary Balearic Catalan), and inchoative -ir verbs: patir 'to suffer' gives patisc or patesc ('I suffer') as opposed to pateixo.
• Present subjunctive is more akin to mediaeval Catalan and Spanish; -ar infinitives end ⟨e⟩, -re, -er and -ir verbs end in ⟨a⟩ (in contemporary Central Catalan present subjunctive ends in ⟨i⟩).
• An exclusive feature of Valencian is the subjunctive imperfect morpheme -ra: que ell vinguera ('that he might come').
• Valencian has -i- as theme vowel for inchoative verbs of the third conjugation; e.g. servix ('s/he serves'), like North-Western Catalan. Although, again, this cannot be generalized since there are Valencian subdialects that utilize -ei-, e.g. serveix.
• In Valencian the simple past tense (e.g. cantà 'he sang') is more frequently used in speech than in Central Catalan, where the periphrastic past (e.g. va cantar 'he sang') is prevailing and the simple past mostly appears in written language. The same, however, may be said of the Balearic dialects.^[11]
• The second-person singular of the present tense of the verb ser ('to be'), ets ('you are'), has been replaced by eres in colloquial speech.

Clitics

• In general, use of modern forms of the determinate article (el, els 'the') and the third-person unstressed object pronouns (el, els 'him, them'), though some subdialects (for instance the one spoken in Vinaròs area) preserve etymological forms lo, los as in Lleida. For the other unstressed object pronouns, etymological old forms (me, te, se, ne, mos, vos...) can be found, depending on places, in conjunction with the more modern reinforced ones (em, et, es, en, ens, us...).
  • Several variations for nosaltres, vosaltres ('we, you'): mosatros, moatros, natros; vosatros, voatros, valtros; also for the weak form mos/-mos instead of standard ens/-nos ('us').
• The adverbial pronoun hi ('there') is almost never used in speech and is replaced by other pronouns. The adverbial pronoun en ('him/her/them/it') is used less than in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.^[11]
• Combined weak clitics with li ('him/her/it') preserve the li, whereas in Central Catalan it is replaced by hi. For example, the combination li + el gives li'l in Valencian (l'hi in Central Catalan).
• The weak pronoun ho ('it') is pronounced as [ew] more often than in other dialects, especially when coming after another pronoun (e.g. m'ho dóna [mew ˈðona], dóna-m'ho [ˈdonamew] 's/he gives it to me'). However, when preceding a verb on its own it is pronounced as [u]: ho dóna [u ˈðona] 's/he gives it'. Moreover, after a verb ending in a vowel it is pronounced as [w] (e.g. dóna-ho [ˈdonaw] 'you give it'); while, when following a verb ending with a consonant it is pronounced as [o]: donar-ho [doˈnaɾo] 'to give it'.
• The personal pronoun jo ('I') and the adverb ja ('already') are not pronounced according to the spelling, but to the etymology ([ˈjɔ] and [ˈja], instead of /ˈ(d)ʒɔ/ and /ˈ(d)ʒa/). Similar pronunciations can be heard in North-Western Catalan and Ibizan.
• The preposition amb ('with') merges with en ('in') in most Valencian subdialects.
• Valencian preserves the mediaeval system of demonstratives with three different levels of demonstrative precision (este or aquest/açò/ací, eixe or aqueix/això/aquí, aquell/allò/allí or allà) (feature shared with modern Ribagorçan and Tortosí).

Vocabulary

Different spelling of words with the same etymology

• Cardinal numbers (8, 19, 68, 200, 1000000): Huit, dèneu, seixanta-huit (pronounced 'xixanta-huit'), dos-cents, milió (pronounced 'milló') for vuit, dinou, seixanta-vuit, dues-centes, milió, although dos-centes is also found outside Valencian and in many regions of Catalonia seixanta is pronounced [ʃi'ʃanta], as in Valencian.
• Meua, teua, seua for meva, teva, seva, a feature shared with North-Western Catalan.
• Hui for avui.
• Ordinal numbers (5th, 6th, 20th): quint, sext, vigèsim for cinquè, sisè, vintè, although the former are also found outside Valencian: la quinta columna, el vigèsim regiment.

Different choice of words

• For example, "please" in Catalonia is usually si us plau or sisplau, which is close to the French s'il vous plaît; In Valencian per favor is more common, which is closer to the Spanish por favor, although per favor is used in all the Catalan-speaking areas.^[11]

Some other features, such as the use of molt de or the lack of hom or geminate l, are often given as examples of differences between Valencian varieties and other forms of the language. However, these are actually differences between colloquial and literary language, and, again, may not apply to specific sub-dialects. Northern and southern variants of Valencian share more features with western Catalan (Lower Ebro river area for instance) than with central Valencian. For this reason some of the features listed previously do not apply to them.

Linguistic controversy

The position of the Valencian Academy

The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL) is the institution (language regulator) whose primary function is to determine and elaborate an official standard for the Valencian language as used in Valencia and to foster its use.

In 2005 the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua passed a declaration asserting that Valencian,

"the endemic and historical language of the Valencians, from a linguistic point of view, is also shared with the autonomous communities of Catalonia, Balearic Islands and the Principality of Andorra. In the same manner, it is the historical and endemic language of other territories of the former Crown of Aragon (the eastern Aragonese fringe, the Sardinian city of Alghero, and the French department of the Eastern Pyrenees). The different idioms of all these territories constitute a language, that is, the same "linguistic system", according to the terminology of first structuralism (Annex 1) in the opinion of the Valencian Council of Culture, as contained in the preamble of the Act Creation of the AVL. As part of this group of idioms, Valencian has the same status and dignity as any other local variant of the language system, and shows some characteristics of its own that the ALV will preserve and strengthen following lexicographical and literary tradition, the reality of Valencian language, and the standardization based upon the Normes de Castelló".^[12]

See also

• Catalan language
• Alguerese
• Balearic
• Valencian Sign Language
• Xe (interjection)
• Similar linguistic controversies
  • Spanish and Castilian
  • Macedonian and Bulgarian
  • Moldovan and Romanian
  • Occitan, Gascon and Provençal
  • Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin
  • UK English and US English
  • Dutch and Afrikaans

References

Bibliography

• Colomina i Castanyer, Jordi, (1995). Els valencians i la llengua normativa. Textos universitaris. Alicante: Institut de Cultura "Juan Gil-Albert". ISBN 84-7784-178-0.
• Garcia Moya, Ricart (1942), Diccionari Històric del Idioma Valencià Modern, Valencia 2006, ISBN 84-934687-5-4
• Guinot, Enric (1999). Els fundadors del Regne de València. Edicions 3i4, Valencia 1999. ISBN 84-7502-592-7
• Salvador i Gimeno, Carles (1951). Gramàtica valenciana. Associació Cultural Lo Rat Penat. Valencia 1995. ISBN 84-85211-71-5 .
• Salvador i Gimeno, Carles (1963). Valencians i la llengua autòctona durant els segles XVI, XVII i XVIII. Institució Alfons el Magnànim. Valencia. ISBN 84-370-5334-X.
• Sanchis i Guarner, Manuel (1934, 1967). La llengua dels valencians. Edicions 3i4, Valencia 2005. ISBN 84-7502-082-8 .
• Ubieto Arteta, Antonio (1923, 1990), Orígenes del Reino de Valencia. Zaragoza 1979, ISBN 84-7013-154-0.
• Valor i Vives, Enric (1973). Curs mitjà de gramàtica catalana, referida especialment al País Valencià. Grog Editions, Valencia 1999. ISBN 84-85211-45-6 .
• Puerto Ferre, Teresa y Culla Hernandez, Joan Ignaci. Cronología Histórica de la Lengua Valenciana. Diputación de Valencia. Valencia. 2007. ISBN 978-84-7795-470-5.
• Puerto Ferre, Teresa. Lengua Valenciana una lengua suplantada. Diputación de Valencia. Valencia. 2006. ISBN 84-7795-406-2.
• Wheeler, Max; Yates, Alan; Dols, Nicolau (1999), Catalan: A Comprehensive Grammar, London: Routledge 

External links

• Official references
  • Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
  • Valencian dictionary
  • Ethnologue report for Catalan/Valencian/Balear
  • Institut Joan Lluís Vives
  • Royal Academy of Valencian Culture
• Documents and references
  • Disputing theories about Valencian origin (Spanish)
  • The origins and evolution of language secessionism in Valencia. An analysis from the transition period until today
  • Article from El País (25 October 2005) regarding report on use of Valencian published by Servei d’Investicació i Estudis Sociolinguístics (Spanish)

Romance languages   Western and Italo-Dalmatian   Western Gallo-Italic Ligurian Brigasc · Genoese · Intemelio · Monégasque Lombard Eastern · Gallo-Italic of Sicily · Western Others Emiliano-Romagnolo · Piedmontese · Judaeo-Piedmontese · Venetian Gallo-Rhaetian Langues d'oïl Burgundian · Champenois · Franc-Comtois · French (Standard · African · Canadian · Old French · Middle French · Judaeo-French · French-based creoles) · Gallo · Lorrain · Norman · Picard · Poitevin · Saintongeais · Walloon Rhaeto-Romance Friulian · Ladin · Romansh Others Franco-Provençal Occitano- Romance Catalan Eastern Catalan (Alguerese · Balearic · Central · Northern) · Western Catalan (North-Western · Valencian) · Judaeo-Catalan · Catalan Caló Occitan Auvergnat · Gascon (Aranese) · Languedocien · Limousin · Provençal (Niçard · Mentonasc) · Vivaro-Alpine · Old Provençal · Judaeo-Provençal Ibero-Romance Astur-Leonese Asturian · Cantabrian · Extremaduran · Leonese · Mirandese Galician-Portuguese Portuguese (European · Brazilian · African · Asian & Oceanian) · Galician (Eonavian) · Fala · Judaeo-Portuguese · Portuguese Calão · Portuguese-based creoles Spanish (Castilian) African (Equatoguinean) · American · Asian · Peninsular · Old Spanish · Judaeo-Spanish · Spanish Caló · Spanish-based creoles Pyrenean Navarro-Aragonese (Aragonese · Judaeo-Aragonese) · Mozarabic Italo-Dalmatian Italian Central · Corsican (Gallurese) · Sassarese · Tuscan · Judaeo-Italian Southern Italian Abruzzese · Apulian · Campanian (Neapolitan) · Lucanian (Northern Calabrese) · Molisan Others Dalmatian · Istriot · Sicilian (Southern Calabrese)   Eastern and Sardinian Eastern Romanian Moldovan · Vlach Others Aromanian · Istro-Romanian · Megleno-Romanian Sardinian — Campidanese · Logudorese Italics indicate extinct languages; bold indicates languages with more than 5 million speakers; languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.

Catalan dialects Western Catalan North-Western Catalan (Ribagorçan · Lleidan · Pallarese) · Valencian (Transitional Valencian · Northern Valencian · Central Valencian · Southern Valencian · Alacantí) Eastern Catalan Northern Catalan · Central Catalan (Barcelonian · Tarragonian · Xipella · Salat) · Balearic (Majorcan · Minorcan · Ibizan) · Alguerese Other Catalan varieties Judaeo-Catalan† · Catalan Caló See also Geographic distribution of Catalan · Catalan phonology