Catalan, Valencian
català, valencià
Pronunciation	[kətəˈɫa] or [kataˈla] [valensiˈa]
Spoken in	Andorra  Spain  Catalonia  Valencian Community  Balearic Islands La Franja (Aragon) Carche (Murcia)  France Northern Catalonia (Pyrénées-Orientales)  Italy Alghero (Sardinia) See geographic distribution of Catalan
Total speakers	11.5 million (2006) [1]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Occitano-Romance Catalan, Valencian
Writing system	Latin (Catalan variant)
Official status
Official language in	Andorra Spain: Catalonia, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands. Italy: Alghero Latin Union
Regulated by	Institut d'Estudis Catalans Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua Acadèmia Aragonesa del Català
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ca
ISO 639-2	cat
ISO 639-3	cat
Linguasphere	51-AAA-e
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Catalan-Valencian cultural domain Language Grammar Phonology and orthography Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua Institut d'Estudis Catalans History History of Catalonia · Counts of Barcelona Kingdom of Majorca · Kingdom of Valencia Crown of Aragon · Military history of Catalonia Catalan constitutions · Furs of Valencia Treaty of the Pyrenees · Nueva Planta decrees Catalan symbols Geo-political divisions Catalonia · Valencian Community · Balearic Islands Northern Catalonia · Franja de Ponent Andorra · L'Alguer · Carxe All the above territories together: Països Catalans Government and Politics Generalitat de Catalunya Generalitat Valenciana Govern de les Illes Balears Consell General de les Valls (Andorra) General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales Politics of Catalonia Catalan nationalism Traditions Castells · Correfoc · Falles · Sardana ·  Moros i cristians · Caganer · Tió de Nadal Muixeranga · Nit de Sant Joan Botifarra · Barça · Paella · Rumba Myths and legends Arts Catalan literature · Antoni Gaudí · Modernisme La Renaixença · Noucentisme · Joaquim Sorolla Salvador Dalí · Joan Miró · Antoni Tàpies Santiago Calatrava This box: view · talk · edit

Catalan (English pronunciation: /kætəˈlæn/, /ˈkætəlæn/, /ˈkætələn/;^[2] Catalan: català [kətəˈɫa] or [kataˈla]) is a Romance language, the national and the 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 [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^[3] 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.^[4]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Middle Ages: origin 1.2 18th century to the present: France 1.3 18th century to the present: Spain 2 Classification 3 Features 3.1 Vowel system 3.2 Consonant system 3.3 Morphology 3.4 Lexicon 3.5 Writing system 4 Geographic distribution 4.1 Països Catalans 4.2 Number of Catalan speakers 5 Dialects 6 Standards 7 Status of Valencian 8 Phonology 9 Grammar 10 Catalan names 11 Examples 12 English words of Catalan origin 13 See also 14 References 15 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Middle Ages: origin

The Catalan language 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 features 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 from Liguria on the present Italian coast to Alicante in Spain can be viewed 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 from Al-Andalus to the south and to the west, it 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, 4 centuries later.

[edit] 18th century to the present: France

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.^[5] Since then, the Catalan language has lacked official status in the Catalan-speaking region in France.

On 10 December 2007, the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales officially recognized the Catalan language as one of the languages of the department in the Article 1 (a) of its Charte en faveur du Catalan^[3] 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)».

[edit] 18th century to the present: Spain

After the Nueva Planta Decrees, administrative use of and education in Catalan was also banned in the territories of the Kingdom of Spain. It was not until the Renaixença 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 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^[6] in the theatre. Publishing in Catalan continued throughout the dictatorship.^[7] 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.^[8]

Following the death of Franco in 1975 and the restoration of democracy, the use of Catalan increased partly 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") 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 (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 and Barça TV. There are also many local channels available in region in Catalan.

[edit] 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:

• Indo-European languages
  • Italic languages
    • Romance languages
      • Italo-Western languages
        • Western Italo-Western languages
          • Gallo-Romance
            • Occitano-Romance
              • Catalan language

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.

[edit] Features

As a member of the dialect continuum of Romance languages, Catalan evinces linguistic features similar to those of its closest neighbors (Occitan, Aragonese). The following features represent in some cases unique changes in the evolution of Catalan from Vulgar Latin; other features are common in other Romance-speaking areas.

[edit] Vowel system

• Common features with Gallo-Romance:
  • Loss of final unstressed vowels except -a (mūrvs 'wall' → mur, flos/flōris 'flower' → flor); cf. the maintenance of all final vowels except -is and -e in Ibero-Romance (Spanish/Portuguese muro but flor); Italo-Romance maintains all final vowels (Italian muro, fiore).
• Common features with Occitan:
  • Richness of diphthongs and monosyllabic words: [aj] mai ('never'), [ej] rei ('king'), [aw] cau ('s/he falls'), [ew] beu ('s/he drinks'), [ow] pou ('a well'), etc.

• Distinguishing features from Gallo-Romance:
  • Preservation of Latin -ū- as [u] (lūna 'moon' → lluna [ˈʎunə] or [ˈʎuna/ɛ], Occitan luna [ˈlynɔ], French lune [lyn]).
• Features that distinguish Catalan from Spanish:
  • Maintenance of Vulgar Latin stressed -e- and -o- (short ‹ĕ› and ‹ŏ›), [ɛ] and [ɔ] respectively (terra 'land' → terra [ˈtɛrə] or [ˈtɛra/ɛ], focvs 'fire'→ foc [ˈfɔk]); cf. Spanish diphthongs in tierra [ˈtjera], fuego [ˈfweɣo].
• Distinguishing features from Occitan (generally):
  • Diphthong -av- reduced to open [ɔ] (cavlis 'cabbage' → col, pavcvs 'not much' → poc).
• Features shared with other Western Romance (Southern Lengadocian, Ibero-Romance):
  • The group -act- becomes -et- (lactis 'milk' → lleyt* or lleit* → llet, factvs 'done, fact' → feyt* → fet).

[edit] Consonant system

• Feature shared with Western Romance (particularly Ibero-Romance):
  • Voicing (and lenition) of intervocalic -p-, -t-, -c- into -b-, -d-, -g- (capra 'goat' → cabra, catēna 'chain' → cadena, secūrvs 'safe' → segur).
• Features shared with Gallo-Romance:
  • Preservation of initial pl-, cl-, fl- (plicāre 'fold' → aplegar 'to reach', clavis 'key' → clau, flamma 'flame' → flama); cf. palatalization of these initial clusters in Spanish llegar, llave, llama Portuguese chegar, chave, chama. In the Italo-Romance group this slenderisation generally replaces the second consonant with -i- [j]; hence Italian piegare, chiave, fiamma.
• Features shared with Occitan (specifically Languedocien):
  • Loss of word-final (originally intervocalic) -n: panis ('bread') → pa, vinvm ('wine') → vi. Unlike in Languedoc and Northern Catalan, plural forms conserve this [n]: pans, vins.
  • Voiced obstruents undergo final obstruent devoicing: frigidvs ('cold') → fred [ˈfɾɛt] or [ˈfɾet]. However, final voiceless consonants are voiced before vowels and voiced consonants (progressive voicing assimilation): els homes 'the men' [əɫs] + [ˈɔməs] → [əɫˈzɔməs]; peix bo 'good fish' [ˈpe(j)ʃ] + [ˈbɔ] → [ˈpe(j)ʒˈβɔ].
• Catalan shows a rare evolution of an early [ts] (from Latin -d-, and -c- when followed by a front vowel e or i, or from the second-person plural verb ending -tis) to -u [w]:
  • pes/pedis ('foot') → peu
  • crux/crvcis ('cross') → creu, credit ('he believes') → (ell) creu
  • Verbs in second-person plural ending in -tis: mirātis → miratz* → mirau → mireu/mirau ('you look' pl.).
• Consonantal palatalisations common to many modern Romance languages, resulting from the combination of a consonant plus yod (palatal approximant) from a variety of sources:
  • /k/ + yod → [ts]* → [s]: caelvm ('sky, heaven') → cel [ˈsɛɫ].
  • /ɡ/ + yod → [dʒ]* → [ʒ] or [dʒ]: gelvm ('ice') → gel [ˈʒɛɫ] or [ˈdʒɛɫ].
  • /j/ → [dʒ]* → [ʒ] or [dʒ]: iactāre ('lay down') → gitar [ʒiˈta] or [dʒiˈta(ɾ)].
  • Intervocalic /l/ + yod (-li-, -le-), -ll-, -cvl-, and -tvl- → ll [ʎ]: mvliēris ('wife') → muller, caballvs ('horse') → cavall, avricvla ('ear') → oric'la* → orella, vetvlvs ('old') → vec'lus* → vell. In other cases like villa ('villa') gemination has been simplified: vila ('town').
  • Intervocalic n + yod (-ni-, -ne-), -gn-, and -nn- → ny [ɲ]: ligna ('firewood') → llenya, ānnvs ('year') → any (cf. Spanish año).
• Less common among Romance languages, but attested elsewhere:
  • Palatalization of initial l- (lūna 'moon' → lluna, lvpvs 'wolf' → llop). This feature can be found as well in the Foix dialect of Occitan and in Astur-Leonese.
  • Palatalization of -x- /ks/ and -sc- /sk/ to [(j)ʃ] (coxa 'thigh' → cuixa, piscis 'fish' → peix). Verbs of the third conjugation (-īre) that took what was originally an inchoative infix (-ēsc-/-īsc-) show this palatalization: servēscit 'serves' (present tense, 3rd person singular indicative) → serveix/servix.
• Other innovations can also be found in other Romance languages:
  • Reduction of consonant clusters -mb-, -nd- to -m-, -n- respectively (camba 'leg' → cama, mandāre 'to send, to lead' → manar). Also found in Gascon and southern Languedoc.
  • Presence of double consonants: septimāna ('week') → setmana [səmˈmanə], cvtina from cvtis ('skin') → cotna [ˈkonːə] ('pork rind'), modvlvs ('mold') → motlle/motle [ˈmɔʎːə]/[ˈmɔlːe] ('mold, a spring'), athlēta ('athlete') → atleta [əɫˈɫɛtə], intelligens ('intelligent') → intel·ligent [intəɫːiˈʒen(t)]. Also found in Italian.

[edit] 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 (Roergas, 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 > homini).
• 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.

[edit] Lexicon

The basic vocabulary shows more affinities with the Gallo-Romance group than with Ibero-Romance.^[9][10] These similarities are most notable with Occitan (examples below are from Languedocian).

• fenestra > finestra 'window' (Oc. fenèstra/finèstra, Fr. fenêtre, It. finestra) vs ventvs > ventana (Sp.), 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.), amanhã (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.)

[edit] Writing system

The Catalan writing system has a number of distinctive features. The graph ‹l·l› (named ela geminada 'geminated-l') is composed of an interpunct (or middot) between two ‹l› (e.g. intel·ligent 'intelligent' or novel·la 'novel') and is used to distinguish phonetically [ɫɫ] from [ʎ] (written ‹ll› like in Spanish). Another special digraph is ‹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. faig 'I do', maig 'May', raig 'ray', roig 'red', veig 'I see', puig 'hill') 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› [mm], ‹tn› [nn], ‹tl› [ɫɫ] and ‹tll› [ʎʎ] (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. potser 'maybe', dotze 'twelve', jutge 'judge', platja 'beach'). In addition, Catalan spelling utilizes ‹ç› (called ce trencada, literally 'broken-c') when ‹c› takes the soft sound [s] before ‹a›, ‹o› and ‹u› (e.g. caça 'hunt'). Furthermore, the letter ‹x› can represent different sibilant sounds; [ks] (e.g. fixar 'fix'), [gz] (e.g. exacte 'exact'), [ʃ] (e.g. xarxa 'net') and dialectally [tʃ] (e.g. xiquet 'boy'), while the digraph ‹ix› always represents [(j)ʃ] (e.g. calaixos 'drawers') or [(j)ʒ] (e.g. peix al forn 'oven fish').

[edit] Geographic distribution

[edit] Països Catalans

Catalan is spoken in:

• Catalonia (Catalunya), in Spain.
• Most of the Valencian Community (Comunitat Valenciana, also known as País Valencià), in Spain, where it is called Valencian (valencià).
• La Franja, an adjacent strip of Aragon, in Spain (in particular the comarques of Ribagorça, Llitera, Baix Cinca, and Matarranya).
• Balearic Islands (Illes Balears), in Spain.
• Andorra (Principat d'Andorra).
• Northern Catalonia (Catalunya Nord: name used officially for the first time on 10 December 2007 by the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales), in France.
• The city of Alghero (l'Alguer) in Sardinia, Italy.
• A small region in Murcia, Spain, known as Carche (El Carxe).

These areas are referred to by some as Catalan Countries (Països Catalans), a denomination based on cultural affinity and common heritage, that has also had a subsequent political interpretation but no official status.

[edit] Number of Catalan speakers

Territory	State	Understand[11]	Can speak[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
Northern Catalonia	France	203,121	125,621
Andorra	Andorra	75,407	61,975
La Franja (Aragon)	Spain	47,250	45,000
Alghero (Sardinia)	Italy	20,000	17,625
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.

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]

[edit] 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 o branca del català oriental):
  • The vowels /e/, /ɛ/ and /a/ reduce to [ə] when unstressed, and /o/, /ɔ/ and /u/ reduce to [u] (though in most of Majorcan, [o] also appears in unstressed position).
  • Latin long /eː/ and short /i/ 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/).
  • 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 /n/ of medieval nasal plural is loss in proparoxytone words: homes 'men', joves 'youth'.
  • Specific lexicon: mirall 'mirror', noi 'boy', escombra 'broom', llombrígol 'navel/belly bottom', etc.

• Western Catalan (bloc o branca del català occidental):
  • Unstressed vowels: [a e i o u]. Distinction between unstressed ‹e› and ‹a›, and ‹o› and ‹u› (though unstressed [e] may merge with [a] before nasal and sibilant consonants: encara [aŋˈkaɾa] 'still', and /o/ may reduce to [u] before a bilabial consonants, or before a stressed syllable with /i/; conill [kuˈniʎ] 'rabbit').
  • Latin long /eː/ and short /i/ have become /e/; e.g. sec /ˈsek/ ('dry').
  • Initial or post-consonantal ‹x› is affricated [tʃ] (however there are many exceptions, e.g. Xàtiva, Xavier, xarxa 'net', xilòfon 'xilophone', etc. where it is a fricative /ʃ/). Between vowels or when final and preceded by ‹i›, it is /jʃ/; e.g. caixa /ˈkajʃa/ ('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 proparoxytone words: hòmens 'men', jóvens 'youth'.
  • Specific lexicon: espill 'mirror', xiquet 'boy', granera 'broom', melic 'navel/belly bottom', etc.

In addition, neither dialect is completely homogeneous: any dialect can be subdivided into several sub-dialects. 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 Northern Catalan -rossellonès- (from Roussillon) Central Catalan Salat (from some coastal areas of Girona) Barceloní (from Barcelona) Tarragoní (from Tarragona) Xipella (transitional Western–Eastern Catalan) Balearic Majorcan -mallorquí- (from Majorca) Minorcan -menorquí- (from Minorca) Ibizan -eivissenc- (from Ibiza/Eivissa and Formentera) Alguerese -alguerès/alguerés- (from the Italian city of Alghero/L'Alguer)

[edit] Standards

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 considering 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 tonic ‹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). Despite this, AVL's standard keeps grave accent ‹è›, without pronouncing this ‹e› [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› use 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.

[edit] Status 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 Països Catalans or 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 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.^[13] 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 for Oriental Catalan, regulated by the IEC, which is centered on Central Catalan (with slight variations to include Balearic verb inflection) and one for Occidental, 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.

[edit] Phonology

Catalan consonants^[14]

		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

[edit] 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).^[15]

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.

[edit] Catalan names

Catalan naming customs are similar to those of Spain and Portugal; people receive two last names – 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.

[edit] Examples

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Some phrases in the Central dialect (Barcelona and outskirts):

• Catalan: català [kətəˈɫa]
• Hello: hola [ˈɔɫə]
• Good-bye: adéu [əˈðew]; adéu-siau [əˈðew siˈaw]; siau [siˈaw]; 'déu [ˈdew] (colloquial use)
• Please: si us plau or sisplau [sisˈpɫaw]; per favor [ˈpəɾ fəˈβo]
• Thank you: gràcies [ˈɡɾasiəs]; mercès [məɾˈsɛs]; merci [ˈmɛɾsi] (colloquial use)
• Sorry: perdó [pəɾˈðo], em sap greu [əmsabˈɡɾew]; ho sento [uˈsentu]
• This one: aquest [əˈkɛt] (masc.); aquesta [əˈkɛstə] (fem.)
• How much?: quant val? [ˈkwamˈbaɫ]; quant és? [ˈkwanˈtes]
• Yes: sí [ˈsi]
• No: no [ˈno]
• I don't understand (it): no ho entenc [ˈnowənˈteŋ]
• Where's the bathroom?: On és el bany? [ˈoˈnezəɫˈβaɲ]; On és el lavabo? [ˈoˈnezəɫɫəˈβaβu]; On és el servei? [ˈoˈnezəɫsəɾˈβɛj]
• Generic toast: salut! [səˈɫut];
• Bless you! (after sneezing): Jesús [ʒəˈzus]; salut! [səˈɫut]
• Do you speak Catalan? (informal singular, addressing as tu using 2nd person singular): Que parles català? [kəˈpaɾɫəz kətəˈɫa]
• Do you speak Catalan? (formal singular, addressing as vostè using 3rd person singular): Que parla català? [kəˈpaɾɫə kətəˈɫa]
• Do you speak Catalan? (informal plural, addressing as vosaltres using 2nd person plural): Que parleu català? [kəpəɾˈɫɛw kətəˈɫa]
• Do you speak Catalan? (formal plural, addressing as vostès using 3rd person plural): Que parlen català? [kəˈpaɾɫən kətəˈɫa]

The same phrases pronounced as in the standard Valencian:

• Valencian: valencià [valensiˈa]
• Hello: hola [ˈɔla]
• Good-bye: adéu [aˈðew]
• Please: per favor [peɾ faˈvoɾ]
• Thank you: gràcies [ˈɡɾasies]
• Sorry: perdó [peɾˈðo]; ; ho sent [uˈsent] or [uˈseŋk]
• This one: este [ˈeste] (masc.); esta [ˈesta] (fem.)
• How much?: quant val? [ˈkwaɱˈvaɫ]; quant és? [ˈkwanˈtes]
• Yes: sí [ˈsi]
• No: no [ˈno]
• I don't understand: no ho entenc [ˈnowanˈteŋ]
• Where's the bathroom?: on és el bany? [oˈnezeɫˈβaɲ]
• Generic toast: salut! [saˈlut]
• Bless you! (after sneezing): Jesús! [dʒeˈzus]; salut! [saˈlut]
• Do you speak Valencian?: parles valencià? [ˈpaɾlez valensiˈa]

[edit] English words of Catalan origin

• Aioli, from all i oli, a typical sauce made by mixing olive oil and garlic with a mortar and pestle.^{[citation needed]}
• Aubergine, from Catalan albergínia or albergina.^[16] through French
• Barracks, from Old Catalan barraca (hut) through French baraque.^[17] Another term Barracoon, from Catalan barraca (hut) through Spanish barracón.^[17]
• Surge, from Middle French, which took it from Old Catalan surgir^[16]
• Paella, Valencian Catalan, via Old French paele, ultimately from Latin patella (small dish)^[16]

[edit] See also

• Catalan orthography
• Catalan phonology
• Catalan conjugation
• 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
• Names of Catalan language
• Catalan names
• .cat - The first top-level domain based on language and culture
• Alguerese
• Balearic
• Valencian
• Spanish (Spain) keyboard layout, used to type Catalan
• Òmnium Cultural
• Plataforma per la Llengua

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sociolinguistic situation in Catalan-speaking areas. Tables. Official data about sociolinguistic situation in Catalan-speaking areas: Catalonia (2003), Andorra (2004), the Balearic Islands (2004), Aragonese Border (2004), Northern Catalonia (2004), Alghero (2004) and Valencia (2004).

Institutions

• Institut d'Estudis Catalans
• Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
• Secretaria de Política Lingüística de la Generalitat de Catalunya

About the Catalan language

• Ethnologue report for Catalan
• GRAMÀTICA CATALANA A Catalan grammar

Monolingual dictionaries

• Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana from the Institut d'Estudis Catalans
• Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana from Enciclopèdia Catalana
• Diccionari Català-Valencià-Balear d'Alcover i Moll
• Diccionari valencià online
• Diccionari Invers de la Llengua Catalana Dictionary of Catalan words spelled backwards

Bilingual and multilingual dictionaries

• Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana Multilingüe from Enciclopèdia Catalana (Catalan < > Spanish, English, French and German)
• DACCO. Open source, collaborative dictionary (Catalan < > English)
• Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary - The Rosetta Edition (Catalan < > English)
• Catalan-English-Catalan dictionary

Automated translation systems

• Traductor Automated, on-line translations of text and web pages (Catalan < > English, French and Spanish)
• SisHiTra Automated, on-line translations of text and web pages (Catalan < > Spanish)
• apertium.org – Apertium (free software) translates text, documents or web pages, on-line or off-line, between Catalan and English, Aranese, Spanish, French, Occitan, Portuguese and Esperanto

Phrasebooks

• Catalan phrasebook on Wikitravel
• Basic Catalan Phrases (with audio)

Learning resources

• Catalan Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh list appendix)
• Learn Catalan Online with Volunteers
• Interc@t, set of electronic resources for learning the Catalan language and culture
• Learn Catalan!, an introduction for the Catalonia-bound traveler
• On-line Catalan resources
• parla.cat

Catalan-language online encyclopedia

• Enciclopèdia Catalana

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