Catalan language

Catalan language
Catalan, Valencian
català, valencià
Pronunciation [kətəˈɫa] (EC) ~ [kataˈla] (WC)
[valensiˈa] (V)
Spoken in

 Andorra
 Spain

 France

 Italy

See geographic distribution of Catalan
Native speakers 11.5 million  (2006)[1]
Language family
Indo-European
Standard forms
Valencian
Writing system Catalan alphabet (Latin script)
Official status
Official language in Andorra
Spain: Catalonia, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands.
Italy: Alghero (Sardinia)
Latin Union
Regulated by Institut d'Estudis Catalans
Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
Language codes
ISO 639-1 ca
ISO 639-2 cat
ISO 639-3 cat
Linguasphere 51-AAA-e
Global Catalan Countries.svg
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Catalan (English pronunciation: /kætəˈlæn/, /ˈkætəlæn/, /ˈkætələn/;[3] autonym: català, IPA: [kətəˈɫa] or [kataˈla]) is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian (valencià, IPA: [valensiˈa]), as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, with no official recognition, in the autonomous communities of Aragon (in La Franja) and Murcia (in Carche) in Spain, and in the historic Roussillon region of southern France, roughly equivalent to the current département of the Pyrénées-Orientales (Northern Catalonia).

Although recognized as a regional language of the department Pyrénées-Orientales[4] since 2007, Catalan has no official recognition in France, as French is the only official language of that country, according to the French Constitution of 1958.[5]

Contents

History

Middle Ages: origin

The Catalan language was developed from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the eastern end of the Pyrenees mountains (counties of Rosselló, Empúries, Besalú, Cerdanya, Urgell, Pallars and Ribagorça). It shares origin and characteristics with Gallo-Romance, Ibero-Romance, and the Gallo-Italian speech types of Northern Italy. Though some hypothesize a historical split from languages of Occitan typology, the area covered from Liguria (on the present Italian coast) to Alicante (in Spain) can be seen as a classic dialect continuum, with some perturbation as a result of political divisions and overlay of standard national languages.

As a consequence of the Aragonese and Catalan conquests of Al-Andalus to the south and to the west, the language spread to present-day Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and most of the Valencian Community.

In the 15th century, during the Valencian Golden Age, Catalan literature reached its apex, which was not matched again until La Renaixença, four centuries later.

18th century to the present: France

See also: Language policy in France and La Vergonha

After the Treaty of the Pyrenees, a royal decree by Louis XIV of France on 2 April 1700 prohibited the use of Catalan language in present-day Northern Catalonia in all official documents under the threat of being invalidated.[6]

Shortly after the French Revolution, the French First Republic prohibited official use of, and enacted discriminating policies against, the nonstandard languages of France (patois); such as Catalan, Breton, Occitan and Basque.

The deliberate process of eradicating non-French vernaculars in modern France and disparaging them as mere local and often strictly oral dialects was formalized with Abbé Grégoire's Report on the necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language,[7] which he presented on June 4, 1794 to the National Convention; thereafter, all languages other than French were officially banned in the administration and schools for the sake of linguistically uniting post-Bastille Day France.

To date, the French government continues its policy of recognizing only French as an official languages in France. Nevertheless, on 10 December 2007, the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales officially recognized Catalan as one of the languages of the department in the Article 1 (a) of its Charte en faveur du Catalan[4] and seek to further promote it in public life and education.

Article 1: "The General Council of Pyrénées-Orientales officially recognizes, along with the French language, Catalan as a language of the department.
(Le Conseil Général des Pyrénées-Orientales reconnaît officiellement, au côté de la langue française, le catalan comme langue du département)."
Homilies d'Organyà: First manuscript in Catalan

18th century to the present: Spain

See also: Language politics in Spain under Franco

After the Nueva Planta Decrees, administrative use of Catalan, and Catalan language education, were also banned in the territories of the Kingdom of Spain. It was not until the Renaixença that that use of the Catalan language started to recover.

In Francoist Spain (1939–1975), the use of Spanish in place of Catalan was promoted, and public use of Catalan was initially repressed and discouraged by official propaganda campaigns. The use of Catalan in government-run institutions and in public events was banned. During later stages of the Francoist regime, certain folkloric or religious celebrations in Catalan were resumed and tolerated. Use of Catalan in the mass media was initially forbidden, but was permitted from the early 1950s[8] in the theatre. Publishing in Catalan continued throughout the dictatorship.[9] There was no official prohibition of speaking Catalan in public or in commerce, but all advertising and signage had to be in Spanish alone, as did all written communication in business.[10]

Following the death of Franco in 1975 and the restoration of democracy under a constitutional monarchy, the use of Catalan increased significantly because of new affirmative action and subsidy policies and the Catalan language is now used in politics, education and the media, including the newspapers Avui ("Today"), El Punt ("The Point"), Ara ("Now"), La Vanguardia and El Periódico de Catalunya (sharing content with El Periòdic d'Andorra, printed in Andorra); and the television channels of Televisió de Catalunya (TVC): TV3, the main channel, and Canal 33 (culture channel), Super3/3XL (cartoons channel) as well as a 24-hour news channel 3/24 and the sports channel Esport 3; in Valencia Canal 9, 24/9 and Punt 2; in the Balearic islands IB3; in Catalonia there are also some private channels such as 8TV, Barça TV, Estil9 or Canal Català, in others. Furthermore, everywhere in the Catalan-speaking territories, there are local channels available in Catalan.

Classification

The ascription of Catalan to the Occitano-Romance branch of Gallo-Romance languages is not shared by all linguists, particularly those from Spanish-speaking areas; furthermore, many modern linguists consider any internal classification of the Romance languages a pointless task.

According to Pierre Bec, its specific classification is as follows:

Catalan bears varying degrees of similarity to the linguistic varieties subsumed under the cover term Occitan language (see also differences between Occitan and Catalan and Gallo-Romance languages). Thus, as it should be expected from closely related languages, Catalan today shares many traits with other Romance languages.

Geographic distribution

The Catalan/Valencian cultural domain
v · d · e

Catalan-speaking territories

Main article: Països Catalans

Catalan is spoken in:

These territories are sometimes referred to as the Països Catalans (Catalan Countries), a denomination based on cultural affinity and common heritage, that has also had a subsequent political interpretation but no official status. Various interpretations of the term may include some or all of these regions.

Number of Catalan speakers

The number of persons fluent in Catalan varies depending on the sources used. The 2004 language study cited below in this article does not indicate the total number of speakers, but an estimate of 9–9.5 million can be made, by matching the percentage of speakers to the population of each area where Catalan is spoken ("Sociolinguistic Situation in Catalan-speaking Areas." cited in the Section, External Links, of this article). The web site of the Generalitat de Catalunya gives the number, as of June 2007, as 9,118,882 speakers of Catalan. And according to Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Catalan has a total of 11,530,160 speakers.[1]

Territory State Understand 1[11] Can speak 2[11]
 Catalonia Spain 6,502,880 5,698,400
 Valencian Community Spain 3,448,780 2,407,951
 Balearic Islands Spain 852,780 706,065
Catalonia Northern Catalonia France 203,121 125,621
 Andorra Andorra 75,407 61,975
Aragon La Franja (Aragon) Spain 47,250 45,000
Sardinia Alghero (Sardinia) Italy 20,000 17,625
Region of Murcia Carche (Murcia) Spain No data No data
Total Catalan-speaking territories 11,150,218 9,062,637
Rest of World No data 350,000
Total 11,150,218 9,412,637
Notes:
1.^ The number of people who understand Catalan includes those who can speak it.
2.^ Figures relate to all self-declared capable speakers, not just native speakers.

Dialects

In 1861, Manuel Milà i Fontanals proposed a division of Catalan into two major dialect blocks: Eastern Catalan and Western Catalan. The different Catalan dialects show deep differences in lexicon, grammar, morphology and pronunciation due to historical isolation. Each dialect also encompasses several regional varieties.

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).[citation needed] The main difference between the two blocks is their treatment of unstressed vowels, in addition to a few other features:

  • Eastern Catalan (bloc or branca del català oriental):
    • Latin long ē /eː/ and short i /ɪ/ have become /ɛ/; e.g. sec /ˈsɛk/ 'dry' (though in most of Balearic Catalan it has become a stressed /ə/; e.g. sec /ˈsək/, while /e/ in Alguerese; sec /ˈsek/).
    • The vowels /e/, /ɛ/ and /a/ reduce to [ə] when unstressed, and /o/, /ɔ/ and /u/ reduce to [u], while /i/ stays unchanged (in most of Majorcan, [o] also appears in unstressed position).
    • Initial or post-consonantal ⟨x⟩ is the fricative /ʃ/. Between vowels or when final and preceded by ⟨i⟩ it is also /ʃ/; e.g. caixa /ˈkaʃə/ ('box').
    • 1st person present indicative is -o, -i or there is no marker: parlo, temo, sento (Central Catalan); parl, tem, sent (Balearic) and parli, temi, senti (Northern Catalan).
    • Inchoative verbs in -eixo, -eix, -eixen, -eixi.
    • The syllable beginning /n/ of medieval nasal plural is lost in words that were historically proparoxytonic: homes 'men', joves 'youth'.
    • Specific lexicon: mirall 'mirror', noi 'boy', escombra 'broom', llombrígol 'navel', sortir 'to exit', etc.
  • Western Catalan (bloc or branca del català occidental):
    • Latin long ē /eː/ and short i /ɪ/ have become /e/; e.g. sec /ˈsek/ ('dry').
    • The vowels /e/ and /ɛ/ reduce to [e] when unstressed, and /o/ and /ɔ/ reduce to [o], while /a/, /i/ and /u/ stay unchanged. Distinction between unstressed ⟨e⟩ / ⟨a⟩ and ⟨o⟩ / ⟨u⟩ (though, in some subvarieties unstressed vowels may merge into different realizations in some instances).
    • Initial or post-consonantal ⟨x⟩ is affricated /tʃ/ (however there are many unpredictable exceptions; e.g. Xàtiva 'Xàtiva', xarxa –also spelled xàrcia– 'net', xilòfon 'xilophone', etc. where it is a fricative /ʃ/). Between vowels or when final and preceded by ⟨i⟩, it is /i̯ʃ/; e.g. caixa /ˈkai̯ʃa/ ('box').
    • 1st person present indicative is -e (elided in verbs of the 2nd and 3rd conjugation) or -o: parle, tem, sent (Valencian); parlo, temo, sento (North-Western Catalan).
    • Inchoative verbs in -isc/-ixo, -ix, -ixen, -isca.
    • Maintenance of medieval nasal plural in historical proparoxytone words: hòmens 'men', jóvens 'youth'.
    • Specific lexicon: espill 'mirror', xiquet 'boy', granera 'broom', melic 'navel', eixir 'to exit', etc.

In addition, neither dialect is completely homogeneous: any dialect can be subdivided into several subdialects. Catalan can be subdivided into two major dialect blocks and those blocks into individual dialects:

Western Catalan

  • North-Western Catalan
    • Ribagorçan -ribagorçà- (from Ribagorça)
    • Pallarès (from Pallars)
    • Lleidatà (from Lleida)
    • Transitional Valencian -tortosí- (from Tortosa)
  • South-Western Catalan (Valencian)
    • Northern Valencian -castellonenc- (from region of Plana)
    • Central Valencian -apitxat-
    • Southern Valencian
    • Alacantí (from the Alicante/Alacant's metropolitan area and most of Vinalopó valley)
    • Majorcan Valencian (from Tàrbena and La Vall de Gallinera)

Eastern Catalan

Dialectes català 2.svg

Standards

Main articles: Institut d'Estudis Catalans and Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
Written varieties
Catalan (IEC) Valencian (AVL) gloss
anglès anglés English
conèixer conéixer to know
treure traure take out
néixer nàixer to be born
veure vore to see
càntir cànter pitcher
rodó redó round
meva meua my, mine
ametlla ametla almond
estrella (estel) estrela (estel) star
milió milló million
cop colp hit
llagosta llangosta lobster
homes hòmens men
servei servici service

Catalan is a pluricentric language with two main standards; one regulated by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC), general standard, with Pompeu Fabra's orthography as axis, keeping features from Central Catalan, and the other regulated by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL), restricted scale standard, focused on Valencian standardization on the basis of Normes de Castelló, that is, Pompeu Fabra's orthography but more adapted to Western Catalan pronunciation and features of Valencian dialects.

IEC's standard, apart from the basis of Central Catalan features, takes also other dialects' features in consideration as standard. Despite this, the most notable difference between both standards is some tonic ⟨e⟩ accentuation, for instance: francès, anglès (IEC) – francés, anglés (AVL) ('French, English'), cafè (IEC) – café (AVL) ('coffee'), conèixer (IEC) – conéixer ('to know'), comprèn (IEC) – comprén (AVL) ('he understands'). This is because of the different pronunciation of some stressed ⟨e⟩, especially tonic ē (long ⟨ē⟩) and i (short ⟨ĭ⟩) from Latin, in both Catalan blocks (/ɛ/ in Eastern Catalan and /e/ in Western Catalan). Nevertheless, AVL's standard keeps the grave accent ⟨è⟩, without pronouncing this ⟨e⟩ as /ɛ/, in some words like: què ('what'), València, èter ('ether'), sèsam ('sesame'), sèrie ('series') and època ('age').

There are also some other divergences like the digraph ⟨tl⟩ used by AVL in some words instead of ⟨tll⟩ like in ametla/ametlla ('almond'), espatla/espatlla ('back' an.) or butla/butlla ('bull'), the use of elided demonstratives (este 'this', eixe 'that' -near-) in the same level as reinforced ones (aquest, aqueix) or the use of many verbal forms common in Valencian, and some of these common in the rest of Western Catalan too, like subjunctive mood or inchoative conjugation in -ix- at the same level as -eix- or the priority use of -e morpheme in 1st person singular in present indicative (-ar verbs): jo compre instead of jo compro ('I buy').

In the Balearic Islands, IEC's standard is used but adapted for the Balearic dialect by the University of the Balearic Islands's philological section, Govern de les Illes Balears's consultative organ. In this way, for instance, IEC says it is correct writing cantam as much as cantem ('we sing') but the University says that the priority form in the Balearic Islands must be "cantam" in all fields. Another feature of the Balearic standard is the non-ending in the 1st person singular present indicative: jo compr ('I buy'), jo tem ('I fear'), jo dorm ('I sleep').

In Alghero, the IEC has adapted its standard to the Alguerese dialect. In this standard one can find, among other features: the definite article lo instead of el, special possessive pronouns and determinants la mia ('mine'), lo sou/la sua ('his/her'), lo tou/la tua ('yours'), and so on, the use of -v- /v/ in the imperfect tense in all conjugations: cantava, creixiva, llegiva; the use of many archaic words, usual words in Alguerese: manco instead of menys ('less'), calqui u instead of algú ('someone'), qual/quala instead of quin/quina ('which'), and so on; and the adaptation of weak pronouns.

In 2011, the Aragonese government passed a decree for the establishment of a new language regulator of Catalan in La Franja (the so-called Catalan-speaking areas of Aragon). The new entity, designated as Acadèmia Aragonesa del Català, shall allow a facultative education in Catalan and a standardization of the Catalan language in La Franja.

Status of Valencian
Main article: Valencian
Sub-varieties of Valencian

The official language academy of the Valencian Community (the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua) considers Catalan and Valencian simply to be two names for the same language.[12] All universities teaching Romance languages, and virtually all linguists, consider these two to be linguistic variants of the same language (similar to Canadian French versus Metropolitan French, and European versus Brazilian Portuguese).

There is a roughly continuous set of dialects covering the regional forms of Catalan/Valencian, with no break at the border between Catalonia and the Valencian Community,[citation needed] and the various forms of Catalan and Valencian are mutually intelligible[13] This is not to say that there are no differences between them; the speech of Valencians is recognizable both in pronunciation as well as in morphological and lexical peculiarities. However, these 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).

What gets called a language (as opposed to a dialect) is defined partly by mutual comprehensibility as well as political and cultural factors. In this case, the perceived status of Valencian as a dialect of Catalan has historically had important political implications including Catalan nationalism and the idea of the Catalan Countries. Arguing that Valencian is a separate language may sometimes be part of an effort by Valencians to resist a perceived Catalan nationalist agenda aimed at incorporating Valencians into what they feel is a "constructed" nationality centered on Barcelona.[citation needed] As such, the issue of whether Catalan and Valencian constitute different languages or merely dialects has been the subject of adversarial discussions for over a century and political agitation several times since the end of the Franco era.[citation needed] 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.[14] 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 Autonomy of the Valencian Community refers to the language as Valencian. In practice, the Catalan, Valencian, and Balearic versions of the EU constitution are identical: the government of Catalonia accepted the Valencian translation without any changes under the premise that the Valencian standard is accepted by the norms set forth by the IEC.[citation needed]

Catalan may be seen instead as a multi-centric language (much like English); there exist two standards, one regulated by the IEC, which is centered on Central Catalan (with slight variations to include Balearic verb inflection) and one regulated by the AVL, centered on Valencian.

The AVL accepts the conventions set forth in the Normes de Castelló as the normative spelling, shared with the IEC that allows for the diverse idiosyncrasies of the different language dialects and varieties. As the normative spelling, these conventions are used in education, and most contemporary Valencian writers make use of them. Nonetheless, a small minority mainly of those who advocate for the recognition of Valencian as a separate language, use in a non-normative manner an alternative spelling convention known as the Normes del Puig.

Vocabulary

The basic vocabulary shows more affinities with the Gallo-Romance group than with Ibero-Romance.[15][16] These similarities are most notable with Occitan (examples below are from Languedocien).

  • fenestra > finestra 'window' (Oc. fenèstra/finèstra/hinèstra, Fr. fenêtre, It. finestra) vs ventvs > ventana (Sp.) vs ianva > janela (Pt.)
  • mandvcāre > menjar 'to eat' (Oc. manjar, Fr. manger, It. mangiare) vs comedere > comer (Sp. and Pt.)
  • matvtīnvs > matí 'morning' (Oc. matin, Fr. matin, It. mattino/mattina) vs hora maneāna > mañana (Sp.), manhã (Pt.)
  • parabolāre > parlar 'to speak' (Oc. parlar, Fr. parler, It. parlare) vs fābvlāre > hablar (Sp.), falar Pt.)
  • tabvla > taula 'table' (Oc. taula, Fr. table, It. tavola) vs mensa > mesa (Sp. and Pt.)

Writing system

Main article: Catalan alphabet

The Catalan alphabet consists of the twenty-six letters of the basic Modern Latin alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z. The letters K, W and Y are only used in loanwords, and in the case of Y also in the palatal digraph ny. Modified letters with diacritics include À, É, È, Í, Ï, Ó, Ò, Ú, Ü and Ç.

The Catalan spelling has a number of distinctive features. The graph l·l (named ela geminada 'geminate-l') is composed of an interpunct (or middot) between two ⟨l⟩ (e.g. intel·ligent 'intelligent', novel·la 'novel') and is used to distinguish phonetically /lː/ from /ʎ/ (written ll as in Spanish). Another special grapheme is the digraph ny /ɲ/, found in Hungarian, Malay and in some African languages (e.g. banys 'baths'). Also of note is the final digraph ig, pronounced /tʃ/ after a vowel (e.g. raig 'ray', veig 'I see') and /itʃ/ after a consonant (e.g. mig 'half', desig 'desire'). The combination of t + nasal or lateral consonant is pronounced as a geminate of the second consonant: tm /mː/, tn /nː/, tl /lː/ and tll /ʎː/ (e.g. setmana 'week', cotna 'pork rind', Betlem 'Betlehem', bitllet 'bank note'), whereas t + sibilant consonant indicates affrication: tx /tʃ/, ts /ts/, tz /dz/, tg and tj /dʒ/ (e.g. fletxa 'arrow', potser 'maybe', dotze 'twelve', jutge 'judge', platja 'beach'). Similarly, the less common graphemes dj /dʒ/ and ds /ts/ also stand for affricates. Other digraphs are rr /r/, ss /s/, ix /ʃ/, gu /g/ and qu /k/.

Catalan spelling utilizes ç (called ce trencada, literally 'broken cee') when ⟨c⟩ takes the soft sound /s/ before ⟨a, o, u⟩ (e.g. caça 'hunt') or in final position (e.g. dolç 'sweet'). The letter x is normally pronounced as a voiceless postalveolar /ʃ/ (usually affricated to /tʃ/ in many Western Catalan dialects); e.g. xic /ˈʃik/~/ˈtʃik/ ('little'). In Latin and Greek learned words it represents /ks/ (e.g. fixar 'fix') and /ɡz/ (e.g. exacte 'exact'), as in other closely related languages. The digraph ix instead, always represents /ʃ/ (/i̯ʃ/ in Western Catalan dialects); e.g. calaixos ('drawers').

Phonology

Main article: Catalan phonology

Vowels

Vowels of Standard Eastern Catalan, from Carbonell & Llisterri (1999:62)

Standard Catalan and Valencian has the typical seven-vowel system from Vulgar Latin (/a/, /ɛ/, /e/, /i/, /ɔ/, /o/, and /u/). Notable features:

  • While Central Catalan has both /e/ and /ɛ/, the relation of these two sounds to the corresponding Proto-Romance sounds is quite complex. In most cases, in fact, original Proto-Romance /e/ and /ɛ/ actually swapped places, with an intermediary step being a separate phoneme /ǝ/ that still exists in the Balearic Islands (in Western Catalan, most original /ɛ/ turned into /e/).
  • Catalan is notable for vowel reduction in unstressed syllables: Eastern Catalan vowels reduce to three (/a/, /ɛ/ and /e/ → [ə]; /ɔ/, /o/, and /u/ → [u]; and /i/ → [i], except for most of Majorcan where a fourth unstressed vowel may appear, that is, unstressed /ɔ/ and /o/ normally merge with [o]), while Western Catalan vowels reduce to five (/a/ → [a]; /ɛ/ and /e/ → [e]; /ɔ/ and /o/ → [o]; /u/ → [u]; and /i/ → [i]).

Consonants

Catalan consonants[17]
Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Dental/
Alveolar		 Palatal Velar
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t (c) ~ k
voiced b d (ɟ) ~ ɡ
Affricate voiceless ts tʃ
voiced dz dʒ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ
voiced (v) z ʒ
Trill r
Tap ɾ
Approximant j w
Lateral l ʎ

The consonant system of Catalan is rather conservative, shared with most modern Western Romance languages. Notable features:

  • Most occurrences of /l/ are heavily velarized: [ɫ] (feature shared with European Portuguese).
  • Voiced obstruents are devoiced word-finally (feature shared with Occitan).
  • Voiced plosives /b d g/ are lenited [β ð ɣ] after a continuant. Exceptions include /d/ after lateral consonants and /b/ after /f/ (feature shared with Ibero-Romance languages, such as Spanish, Galician or European Portuguese).
  • Phonetic work done by Daniel Recasens shows the postalveolar sibilants /ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ/ to be alveolo-palatal (palatalized postalveolars): [ɕ], [ʑ], [tɕ] and [dʑ], respectively (however, since ⟨ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ⟩ are overwhelmingly used in the linguistic literature on Catalan and Valencian, those characters are also used at Wikipedia).
  • In standard Catalan, original /dʒ/ remains as /tʃ/ word-finally, and elsewhere splits lexically into /ʒ/ and /dʒ/ (cf. French and Portuguese, where /dʒ/ never occurred word-finally and with uniform reduction to /ʒ/ elsewhere). In standard Valencian instead, the presence of /dʒ/ for /ʒ/ reflects the historical change /ʒ/ > /dʒ/ and the failure for /dʒ/ to become /ʒ/ (feature shared with Occitan and standard Italian).
  • Unlike elsewhere, no native /tʃ/ ever arose in the medieval period. Current /tʃ/ are largely due to late strengthening of /ʃ/ in certain Catalan dialects (and in words borrowed from them into standard Catalan), or in foreign borrowings.
  • Unlike most other Western Romance languages, Catalan has phonemic geminate consonants. These are restricted to nasals, laterals and the voiced plosives /b/ and /g/.

Phonological evolution

Main article: Latin-to-Catalan sound changes

Catalan is one of the Western Romance languages, which forms a dialect chain running across Iberia from Portuguese through Astur-Leonese, Spanish and Aragonese. From there, the chain runs across the Pyrenees to various Occitan dialects: either northwest to Gascon and Limousin, or north to Languedocien; then from Languedocien, either north to Auvergnat and eventually French, northeast to Franco-Provençal and the Rhaeto-Romance languages, or east through Provençal and across to Ligurian and the other Gallo-Italian languages.

As a result, Catalan shares many of the basic features of the Western Romance languages, and more specifically evinces linguistic features similar to those of its closest neighbors (Occitan, Aragonese, Sardinian, Spanish and Italian). Catalan is most closely related to Occitan, only diverging from it towards the end of the first millennium AD. Since then, the Ibero-Romance languages have exerted a large conservatizing force over Catalan, preventing it from taking part in many later Occitan changes.

The following sections list:

  1. The most important features grouping Catalan with the Western Romance languages against the Italo-Romance languages.
  2. The main features shared with Occitan, usually considered the closest relative to Catalan.
  3. Features not shared with Occitan, but shared with one or more Ibero-Romance language (often due to preservation where Occitan later innovated).
  4. Features unique to Catalan.

Common features with Western Romance

Common features with Western Romance languages, but not Italo-Romance:

  • Palatalization of all coronal and velar consonants followed by yod /j/ (Latin -e- or -i- in hiatus with a following vowel): caelvm 'sky, heaven' → Old Catalan cel /ˈtsɛl/ → modern /ˈsɛl/ (cf. Italian cielo /ˈtʃɛlo/).
  • Voicing and lenition of intervocalic obstruents -p-, t- and -k-: capra 'goat' → cabra, catēna 'chain' → cadena, secūris 'safe' → segur (cf. Italian capra, catena, sicuro).
  • Degemination of stop consonants: bvcca 'mouth' → boca, qvattvordecim 'fourteen' → catorze (cf. Italian bocca, quattordici).
  • Development of c in -ct-, -cs- into palatal /j/ (vs. /tː/, /sː/ and /ʃː/ in Italian).
  • Apico-alveolar pronunciation of /s/ and /z/, except for Valencian where they may be either apico-alveolar or lamino-alveolar (such minimal distinction was once common to all Western Romance languages, but has since disappeared from most).

Common features with Occitan

Common features with Occitan, but not French and Spanish:

  • Development of late final /v/ into /w/: nāvis 'ship' → nau (cf. French nef, Spanish non-final nave).
  • Loss of word-final (originally intervocalic) -n: pānis 'bread' → pa, vīnvm 'wine' → vi (cf. French pain, vin; Spanish pan, vino; some Occitan dialects –e.g. Provençal– also keep the -n).

Common features with Southern Occitan but not Northern Occitan:

  • Reduction of consonant cluster -nd- to -n-: mandāre 'to send' → manar, vnda 'wave' → ona (cf. Gascon and Southern Languedocien manar, ona; standard Occitan mandar, onda).[18]

Common features with Occitan and French, but not Spanish and Portuguese:

  • Loss of final unstressed vowels except -a, and devoicing of newly final obstruents: mūrvm 'wall' → mur, capvt 'head' → cap, frīgidvs 'cold' → fred /ˈfɾɛd/~/ˈfɾed/ → [ˈfɾɛt]~[ˈfɾet] (cf. Spanish muro, cabeza, frío; Portuguese muro, cabeça, frio).
  • Conditioned diphthongization of Latin stressed -e- and -o- (short ⟨ĕ⟩ /ɛ/ and ⟨ŏ⟩ /ɔ/) before palatal consonants: coxa 'thigh' → cuixa, octō 'eight' → vuit/huit, but factvm 'done' → *feit → fet (cf. Spanish cojo 'lame', ocho, hecho; Portuguese coxa –earlier coixa, but oito, feito).
  • Epenthesis of /ə/~/e/ in syllable-final position after clusters: templvm 'temple' → temple, qvattvor 'four' → quatre (cf. Spanish templo, cuatro; Portuguese templo, quatro).
  • Preservation of initial pl-, cl-, fl-: plicāre 'fold' → aplegar 'to reach', clāvis 'key' → clau, flamma 'flame' → flama (cf. Spanish llegar, llave, llama; Portuguese chegar, chave, chama).

Common features with Occitan, French, Galician and Portuguese, but not Spanish:

  • Initial Vulgar Latin /j/ and palatalized /d/, /g/ → */dʒ/ → /ʒ/~/dʒ/, rather than Spanish /j/, and preserved in all cases, rather than lost in unstressed syllables: gelvm 'ice' → gel, iectāre 'to throw' → gitar 'to throw (out/up), lay down' (cf. Spanish hielo, echar).
  • Initial /f/ remains as such, whereas in Spanish it became /h/ then silent before a vowel (i.e. unless preceding /ɾ/, /l/, /w/, /j/): filivs 'son' → fill; fāmes 'hunger' → fam (cf. Spanish hijo, hambre; Gascon actually develops /f/ into /h/ in all circumstances, even before consonants or semivowels).
  • Western Romance /ʎ/ (from Latin -cvl-, -tvl-, -le- and -li-) remains rather than becoming Old Spanish */(d)ʒ/ (modern /x/): mvlier 'wife' → muller, avricvla 'ear' → orella, vetvlvs 'old' → vell (cf. Spanish mujer, oreja, viejo).
  • Development of -ct- to /jt/ (then into /t/ in most cases), rather than further development to /tʃ/ (many Occitan dialects, in fact, also have /tʃ/): lac(te) → *lleit → llet, lvcta → lluita (cf. Spanish leche, lucha; Gascon lèit, luta; standard Occitan lach, lucha).

Common features with Occitan, French and Portuguese, but not Spanish and Galician:

  • Old intervocalic /dʒ/ remains as modern /ʒ/ (Eastern and North-Western Catalan) or /dʒ/ in (Valencian).
  • Medieval voiced sibilants remain as such (e.g. casa /ˈkazə/~/ˈkaza/ 'house'), whereas in Spanish and Galician they merge into voiceless sibilants (cf. Spanish and Galician casa /ˈkasa/).

Common features with Occitan, Galician and Portuguese, but not French and Spanish:

  • Preservation (non-diphthongization) of Vulgar Latin stressed -e- and -o- (short ⟨ĕ⟩ /ɛ/ and ⟨ŏ⟩ /ɔ/): mel 'honey' → mel, fortis 'strong' → fort (cf. Spanish miel, fuerte; French miel, but fort).

Features not common with Occitan

Common with Spanish:

  • Development of -av- to /ɔ/ (/o/ in Spanish) and -ai- to /e/: cavla 'cabbage' → col, lāicvs 'laity' → llec –also laic– (cf. Spanish col, lego –also laico–, Occitan caulet, laic).
  • Reduction of consonant cluster -mb- to -m-: camba 'leg' → cama, plvmbvs 'lead' (metal) → plom, colvmbvs 'dove' → colom (cf. Spanish cama 'bed', lomo, paloma; Portuguese cama 'bed', but lombo, pombo. In standard Occitan /mb/ is kept in intervocalic position: camba /ˈkambɔ/, while it is reduced to /n/ word-finally: colomb /kuˈlun/, plomb /plun/. In Southern Occitan dialects, such as Gascon or Southern Languedocien, intervocalic /mb/ is simplified to /m/ as in Catalan or Spanish).
  • Palatalization of intervocalic -ll- and -nn- to -ll- /ʎ/ and -ny- /ɲ/: caballvs 'horse' → cavall, annvs 'year' → any (cf. Spanish caballo, año; Portuguese cavalo, ano; Occitan caval, annada). In a few cases, /l/ appears as a result of early simplification of -ll- after a long vowel: vīlla 'town' → vila, st(r)ēlla 'star' → Western Catalan estrela, Eastern estrella –also estel– (cf. Spanish villa, estrella; Portuguese vila, estrela; Occitan vila, estela).

Common with Astur-Leonese, but not Portuguese or Spanish:

  • Palatalization of initial l-: lūna 'moon' → lluna, lvpvs 'wolf' → llop (cf. Asturian lluna, llobu; Occitan luna, lop).

Common with Astur-Leonese, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish, but not French

  • Preservation of Western Romance long ū /uː/ and short u /ʊ/ as /u/ and /o/, rather than Gallo-Romance /u/ and /y/: lūna 'moon' → lluna /ˈʎunə/~/ˈʎuna/, dvplvm 'double' → doble /ˈdobːlə/~/ˈdoble/ (cf. Spanish luna /ˈluna/, doble /ˈdoble/; Portuguese lua /ˈluɐ/, dobro –also duplo– /ˈdobɾu/; Occitan luna /ˈlynɔ/, doble /ˈduble/).

Common with Astur-Leonese, Galician, Portuguese and Italian, but not Spanish or French:

  • Palatalization of -sc- and -ss- before -e- and -i-, and -x- to /(j)ʃ/: piscis 'fish' → peix, laxare 'to loosen' (later 'to let') → deixar (cf. Astur-Leonese pexe, dexar; Portuguese peixe, deixar; Gascon peish, deishar; standard Occitan peis, daissar/laissar). Especially visible in verbs of the third conjugation (-īre) that took what was originally an inchoative infix (-ēsc-/-īsc-): Vulgar Latin patēscit (Classical Latin patitvr) 'suffers' (present tense, 3rd person singular indicative) → pateix/patix (cf. Italian patisce, Occitan patís).

Unique features not found elsewhere

  • Unusual development of early /(d)z/, resulting from merger of Proto-Western-Romance /ð/ (from intervocalic -d-) and /dz/ (from intervocalic -ty-, -c(e)-, -c(i)-); see note above about a similar merger in Occitan. In early Old Catalan, became /w/ finally or before a consonant, remained as /(d)z/ between vowels. In later Old Catalan, /(d)z/ lost between vowels:
    • pēs 'foot' → *petz → peu
    • crvx 'cross' → *crotz → (*crou) → creu and crēdit 'he believes' → *creu → (ell) creu
    • Verbs in second-person plural ending in -tis: mirātis 'you (pl.) look' → *miratz → mirau → mireu/mirau
    • ratiō 'reason' → *razó → raó
    • vīcīnvs 'neighbor' → *vezí → veí
    • recipere 'to receive' → *rezebre → rebre
  • Nevertheless, /dz/ has been retained in intervocalic position in some fewer cases (from Latin -dec-, d'c, followed by yod):
    • dvodecim 'twelve' → dotze
    • tredecim 'thirteen' → tretze
    • sēdecim 'sixteen' → setze
  • Partial reversal of Proto-Western-Romance /e/ and /ɛ/, according to the following stages:
    • (1) Stressed /e/ → /ǝ/ in most circumstances
    • (2) Stressed /ɛ/ → /e/ in most circumstances
    • (3) Stressed /ǝ/ maintained as such (in Balearic Catalan); /ǝ/ → /ɛ/ (in Central Catalan); /ǝ/ → /e/ (in Western Catalan).
  • Secondary development of doubled resonant consonants (/mː/, /nː/, /lː/ and /ʎː/): septimāna 'week' → setmana /səmˈmanə/, cvtina from cvtis 'skin' → cotna /ˈkonːə/ 'pork rind', atleta /əlˈlɛtə/, modvlvm 'mold' → motlle /ˈmɔʎːə/ 'mold, a spring' (however, /ʎː/ does not occur in Valencian and Balearic Catalan: motle /ˈmɔlːe/~/ˈmɔlːə/, instead of motlle).

Grammar

Main article: Catalan grammar

The first descriptive and normative grammar book of modern Catalan was written by Pompeu Fabra in 1918. In 1995, a new grammar by Antoni Maria Badia i Margarit was published, which also documents the Valencian and Balearic varieties.

The grammar of Catalan follows the general pattern of Western Romance languages. The primary word order is SVO (subject–verb–object).[19]

Substantives and adjectives are not declined by case, as in Classical Latin. There are two grammatical genders—masculine and feminine.

Grammatical articles developed from Latin demonstratives. The form of the article depends on the gender and the number of the subject and the first sounds of the word and can be combined with prepositions that precede them. A unique feature of Catalan is a definite article that may precede personal names in certain contexts. Its basic form is en and it can change according to its environment (note clitic en has also other lexical meanings). One of the common usages of this article is in the word can, a combination of la casa shortened to ca ('house', as French chez) and en, which here means 'the'. For example la casa d'en Sergi becomes Can Sergi meaning 'the house of Sergi', 'Sergi's house'. Note here, other articles (el, la, els, les) can also be used with personal names like in Portuguese, as la Maria (or na Maria).

Verbs are conjugated according to tense and mood similarly to other Western Romance languages—present and simple preterite are based on classical Latin, future is formed from infinitive followed by the present form of the auxiliary verb haver (written together and not considered periphrastic), and periphrastic tenses are formed from the conjugated auxiliary verbs haver ('to have') and ésser ('to be') followed by the past participle. A unique tense in Catalan is the "periphrastic simple preterite," which is formed of vaig, vas (or vares), va, vam (or vàrem), vau (or vàreu) and van (there is the usual wrong idea these forms are the conjugated forms of anar, which means 'to go'), which is followed by the infinitive of the verb. Thus, jo vaig parlar (or more simply vaig parlar) means 'I spoke'.

Nominative pronouns are often omitted, as the subject can be usually derived from the conjugated verb. The Catalan rules for combination of the object pronoun clitics with verbs, articles and other pronouns are significantly more complex than in most other Romance languages; see Weak pronouns in Catalan.

Morphology

  • The definite articles el, la, els, les derive from Latin demonstratives ille, illa. The older forms lo (m. s.) and los (m. pl.) are still common nowadays in some western dialects and in Algherese. Several varieties of the Catalan language (Balearic Islands, Costa Brava, and Tàrbena) have maintained an article called salat (< Latin ipse, ipsa → es, sa), probably formed before the variants of ille developed. Singular articles are elided before vowel-initial words, in speech and writing: el + home > l'home 'the man', la + hora > l'hora 'the time'.
  • Possessive adjectives are formed with the definite article (el meu gos 'my dog') like in Italian (il mio cane), Portuguese (o meu cão) and in many Occitan dialects (Languedocien and Pyrenean Gascon). Weak forms of possessive adjectives (mon, ma, mos, mes, etc.) are fossilized for certain usages, as close familiar relatives or in order to express a high degree of affection (for instance: mon pare 'my dad', ma mare 'my mum'; in Valencian ma casa 'my home', ma vida 'my life'). Also note the postposition of the possessive to express particular nuances, e.g. casa meva ('my home', literally 'a house of mine') as different from la meva casa ('my house').
  • Plurals are formed in a number of ways:
    • -a becomes -es (e.g. casa 'house' > cases).
    • Most consonant- and vowel-final words (except -a) add -s: noi 'boy' > nois, detall 'detail' > detalls
    • Words ending in sibilants (-s, -ç, -x, -ig) form plurals with -os: gos 'dog' > gossos, peix 'fish' > peixos. Some plural words with -ig may alternate forming plural by adding -os or a silent -s: raig 'ray' > rajos/raigs.
    • Words ending in sibilant clusters (-sc, -st, -xt) may form plurals by adding -os or -s: bosc 'forest' > boscos/boscs, aquest 'this' > aquestos/aquests.
    • Words ending in a stressed vowel often take -ns: pi 'pine' > pins, cinturó 'belt' > cinturons (but esquí 'ski' > esquís, tabú 'taboo' > tabús). In Western Catalan dialects, some particular words ending in unstressed vowels may also form plural by adding -ns: home 'man' > hòmens (from Latin homo > homines).
  • Partitive: While Catalan patterns with Ibero-Romance in the lack of a partitive article (e.g. vull pa 'I want some bread', cf. Spanish quiero pan but French je veux du pain), it does have a partitive pronoun, like in Gallo-Romance languages: jo en tinc tres 'I have three of them' (Spanish tengo tres but French j'en ai trois).
  • The construction used to express punctual/perfective aspect in the past tense is one of the most distinctive features of Catalan. It is a periphrasis formed with a special conjugation of anar ('to go'), that comes from the Latin verb vadere, plus the infinitive form of the main verb. For example: jo vaig dir ('I said'). This construction has almost completely replaced the historical simple past form (jo diguí), which corresponds to the Spanish preterit or French passé simple.

Catalan names

Main article: Catalan names

Catalan naming customs are similar to those of Spain and Portugal; people take two surnames–their father's and their mother's–which are separated by the particle i, meaning 'and' (in Spanish the equivalent particle is written y, but often omitted altogether).

For example, the full name of the architect Antoni Gaudí is Antoni Gaudí i Cornet after his parents: Francesc Gaudí i Serra and Antònia Cornet i Bertran, meaning he was son of Gaudí and Cornet.

Examples

English Catalan / Valencian IPA pronunciation (Catalan) IPA pronunciation (Valencian)
Catalan / Valencian català / valencià [kətəˈɫa] [valensiˈa]
English anglès / anglés [əŋˈgɫɛs] [aŋˈgles]
Hello! hola! [ˈɔɫə] [ˈɔla]
Yes sí [ˈsi] [ˈsi]
No no [ˈno] [ˈno]
Good morning! bon dia! [ˈbɔn ˈdi.ə] [ˈbɔn ˈdi.a]
Good afternoon! bona tarda! / bona vesprada! [ˈbɔnə ˈtarðə] [ˈbɔna vesˈpɾaː]
Good evening! bon vespre!, bon capvespre! (frm.)
bona tarda! / bona vesprada! (coll.)		 [ˈbɔm ˈbespɾə]
[ˈbɔnə ˈtarðə]		 [ˈbɔm ˈvespɾe]
[ˈbɔna vesˈpɾaː]
Good night! bona nit! [ˈbɔnə ˈnit] [ˈbɔna ˈnit]
Goodbye! adéu!, adéu-siau!
déu! (coll.)		 [əˈðew]
[əˈðew siˈaw]		 [aˈðew]
[aˈðew siˈaw]
See you (later/soon) a reveure, fins després, fins aviat / fins prompte [ə rəˈβɛwɾə]
[finz ðəsˈpɾes]
[finz əβiˈat]		 [finz ðesˈpɾes]
[fins ˈpɾonte]
Please/if you please si us plau, per favor [sis ˈpɫaw]
[pər fəˈβo]		 [peɾ faˈvoɾ]
Thank you gràcies, mercès
merci (coll.)		 [ˈgɾasiəs]
[mərˈsɛs]
[ˈmɛrsi]		 [ˈgɾasies]
You are welcome de res [də ˈrɛs] [de ˈres]
I am sorry perdó, em sap greu, ho sento / ho sent [pərˈðo]
[əm ˈsab ˈgɾew]
[u ˈsentu]		 [peɾˈðo]
[u ˈseŋk]
Who? qui? [ˈki] [ˈki]
What? què? [ˈkɛ] [ˈke]
When? quan? [ˈkwan] [ˈkwan]
Where? on? [ˈon] [ˈon]
Why? per què? [pər ˈkɛ] [peɾ ˈke]
Which? quin(a)? [ˈkin(ə)] [ˈkin(a)]
How? com? [ˈkɔm] [ˈkɔm]
How much? quant? [ˈkwan] [ˈkwant]
What is your name? com et dius/diuen? (inf. with tu)
com es diu? (frm. with vostè / vosté)
com us / vos dieu/diuen? (inf. with vosaltres)
com es diuen? (frm. with vostès / vostès)		 [ˈkɔm əd ˈdiws]
[ˈkɔm əz ˈðiw]
[ˈkɔm uz ðiˈɛw]
[ˈkɔm əz ˈðiwən]		 [ˈkɔm ed ˈdiws]
[ˈkɔm ez ˈðiw]
[ˈkɔm voz ðiˈɛw]
[ˈkɔm ez ˈðiwen]
Because perquè [pərˈkɛ] [peɾˈke]
Because of a causa de [ə ˈkawzə ðə] [a ˈkawza ðe]
I do not understand (it) no ho entenc [ˈno w ənˈteŋ] [ˈno w anˈteŋk]
I agree estic d’acord [əsˈtig dəˈkɔrt] [esˈtig daˈkɔɾt]
Generic toast salut! [səˈɫut] [saˈlut]
Bless you! (after sneezing) Jesús!, salut! [ʒəˈzus]
[səˈɫut]		 [dʒeˈzus]
[saˈlut]
Where are the toilets? on és el bany?, on és el lavabo?, on és el servei / servici? [ˈon ˈez əɫ ˈβaɲ]
[ˈon ˈez əɫ ɫəˈβaβu]
[ˈon ˈez əɫ sərˈβɛj]		 [ˈon ˈez eɫ ˈβaɲ]
[ˈon ˈez eɫ laˈvaβo]
[ˈon ˈez eɫ seɾˈvisi]
Do you speak Catalan/Valencian? que parles català / valencià? (inf. with tu)
que parla català / valencià? (frm. with vostè / vosté)
que parleu català / valencià? (inf. with vosaltres)
que parlen català / valencià? (frm. with vostès / vostés)		 [kə ˈparɫəs kətəˈɫa]
[kə ˈparɫə kətəˈɫa]
[kə pərˈɫɛw kətəˈɫa]
[kə ˈparɫəŋ kətəˈɫa]		 [ke ˈpaɾlez valensiˈa]
[ke ˈpaɾla valensiˈa]
[ke paɾˈlɛw valensiˈa]
[ke ˈpaɾlem valensiˈa]
I do not speak Catalan/Valencian no parlo català / no parle valencià [ˈno ˈparɫu kətəˈɫa] [ˈno ˈpaɾle valensiˈa]
Yes, I speak Catalan/Valencian sí, parlo català [ˈsi ˈparɫu kətəˈɫa] [ˈsi ˈpaɾle valensiˈa]
How are you (doing)? com va (això)?, com anem?, com estàs (inf.) / està (frm.)?, què hi ha? [ˈkɔm ˈba (əˈʃɔ)]
[ˈkɔm əˈnɛm]
[ˈkɔm əsˈta(s)]
[ˈkɛ ˈja]		 [ˈkɔm ˈva (ajˈʃɔ)]
[ˈkɔm aˈnɛm]
[ˈkɔm esˈta(s)]
[ˈke ˈja]
I am fine, thanks (molt) bé, gràcies [ˈmoɫ ˈbe ˈgɾasiəs] [ˈmoɫd ˈbe ˈgɾasies]

English words of Catalan origin

  • Aubergine, from Catalan albergínia or albergina[20] through French.
  • Barracks, from Old Catalan barraca ('hut') through French baraque.[21] Another term barracoon, from Catalan barraca ('hut') through Spanish barracón.[21]
  • Surge, from Middle French, which took it from Old Catalan surgir.[20]
  • Paella, Valencian Catalan, via Old French paele, ultimately from Latin patella (small dish).[20]

See also

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References

  1. ^ a b Catalan language at Ethnologue.
  2. ^ a b Some Iberian scholars may alternatively classify Catalan as an Ibero-Romance language/East Iberian.
  3. ^ Catalan Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. (accessed: March 20, 2010).
  4. ^ a b "Charte en faveur du Catalan". http://www.cg66.fr/202-charte-en-faveur-du-catalan.htm.  "La catalanitat a la Catalunya Nord". http://www.cg66.fr/199-la-catalanitat-a-catalunya-nord.htm.  "Catalanité". cg66.fr. 2004-07-28. http://www.cg66.fr/culture/patrimoine_catalanite/catalanite/charte.html. Retrieved 2010-05-16. [dead link]
  5. ^ French Constitution, 1958: Article 2. The language of the Republic shall be French.
  6. ^ "L'interdiction de la langue catalane en Roussillon par Louis XIV". "CRDP, Académie de Montpellier. http://www.crdp-montpellier.fr/cd66/artscult/fichesVauban/cdvauban/PERIODES/moyenagetempsmodernes/chateaucollioureinterdictioncatalan.pdf. 
  7. ^ Abbé Grégoire. "Report on the necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". languefrancaise.net. http://www.languefrancaise.net/dossiers/dossiers.php?id_dossier=66. 
  8. ^ Marc Howard Ross, Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict, page 139. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  9. ^ Thomas, Earl W. (1962), "The Resurgence of Catalan", Hispania (vol. 45, March No. 1): 43–8, doi:10.2307/337523 .
  10. ^ Order from the Excmo. Sr. Gobernador Civil of Barcelona. EL USO DEL IDIOMA NACIONAL EN TODOS LOS SERVICIOS PÚBLICOS. 1940.
  11. ^ a b Sources:
    • Catalonia: Statistic data of 2001 census, from Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya, Generalitat de Catalunya [1].
    • Land of Valencia: Statistical data from 2001 census, from Institut Valencià d'Estadística, Generalitat Valenciana [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.
  12. ^ "Dictamen de l'Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua sobre els principis i criteris per a la defensa de la denominació i l'entitat del valencià". Report from Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua about denomination and identity of Valencian.
  13. ^ Central Catalan has 90% to 95% inherent intelligibility for speakers of Valencian (1989 R. Hall, Jr.), cited on Ethnologue.
  14. ^ Isabel I Vilar, Ferran. "Traducció única de la Constitució europea". I-Zefir. 30 Oct. 2004. 29 Apr. 2009.
  15. ^ Wheeler, Max H. (2006), Catalan, in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics .
  16. ^ Colón, Germà (1993), El lèxic català dins la Romània, Valencia: Universitat de València, ISBN 84-370-1327-5 .
  17. ^ Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1999), "Catalan", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 61–65, ISBN 0-521-63751-1 .
  18. ^ Notice the Catalan and Occitan verb anar (from Classical Latin ambvlāre 'to walk' → Vulgar Latin amlāre ~ amnāre → Old Occitan and Catalan anar 'to go') never changed to -nd- as in other Romance languages (Vulgar Latin amlāre ~ amnāre → Italian andare 'to go', Spanish and Portuguese andar 'to walk') (Corominas DECast, i, 203).
  19. ^ The World Atlas of Language Structures. wals.info.
  20. ^ a b c Philip Babcock Gove, ed (1993). Webster's Third New International Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, inc.. ISBN 3-8290-5292-8. 
  21. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins Publishers. 1991. ISBN 0-00-433286-5. 
  • Wheeler, Max; Yates, Alan; Dols, Nicolau (1999), Catalan: A Comprehensive Grammar, London: Routledge. 

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  • translate.google.com online translations catalan <> English & several languages

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