català, or ) is a Romance
language, the national and
official language of Andorra, and a
co-official language in the
communities of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià (Valencian), as well as in the city of Alghero on the
Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, although with no
official recognition, in the autonomous communities of
Aragon (in La Franja) and
Murcia (in Carche) in Spain, and,
officially recognised to some extent, in the historic Roussillon region of southern France, roughly
equivalent to the current département of the Pyrénées-Orientales (Northern Catalonia).
Catalan language developed from Vulgar
Latin on both sides of the eastern part of the Pyrenees mountains (counties of Rosselló, Empúries, Besalú, Cerdanya, Urgell, Pallars and Ribagorça).
It shares features with Gallo-Romance
, and the Gallo-Italian
speech types of Northern Italy.
Though some hypothesize a historical split from languages of
typology, the entire area
running from Liguria on the present Italian coast to at least
Alicante in Spain is more scientifically viewed as a classic
, with some
eventual perturbation as a result of political divisions and
overlay of standard national languages.
consequence of the Aragonese and Catalan conquests from Al-Andalus to the south and to
the west, it spread to all present-day Catalonia, Balearic
Islands and most of Valencian Community.
During the 15th century, during the Valencian Golden
, the Catalan language reached its highest cultural
splendor, which was not matched again until La Renaixença
, 4 centuries later.
- See also History of
After the Treaty of the
, a royal decree
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. 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
seek to further promote it in public life and education.
(a) <<ARTICLE 1="" :="" The="" General="" Council="" of=""
the="" Pyrénées-Orientales="" officially="" recognizes,=""
beside="" French="" language,="" Catalan="" as="" language=""
department.="" (="" ')="">></<ARTICLE>
(b) Carta a favor del Català
- See also Language
policy in France
After the Nueva Planta Decrees
administrative use and education in Catalan was also banned in the
territories of the Spanish Kingdom. It was not until the Renaixença
that use of the Catalan language
started to recover.
Spain (1939–1975), the use of Spanish over Catalan was promoted, and
public use of Catalan was discouraged by official propaganda
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 forbidden, but was permitted from
the early 1950s in the theatre. Publishing in Catalan continued
throughout the dictatorship. 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.
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 Catalan media, including the newspapers
Avui ("Today"), El Punt ("The
Point") and El
Periódico de Catalunya (sharing content with its Spanish
release and with El
Periòdic d'Andorra, printed in Andorra); and the
television channels of Televisió de
Catalunya (TVC): TV3, the main
channel, and Canal 33/K3 (culture and cartoons channel) as well as
a 24-hour news channel 3/24 and the TV series
channel 300; in València canal 9 and Punt
2; in the Balearic islands IB3; there are also many local channels
available in region in Catalan, such as BTV and 8TV (in the metropolitan area of Barcelona), Barça TV,
Canal L'Hospitalet (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat), Canal Terrassa
(Terrassa), Televisió de Sant Cugat TDSC (Sant Cugat del Vallès),
Televisió de Mataró TVM (Mataró) and Catalan-dubbed television
- See also Language politics in
Spain under Franco
The ascription of Catalan to the Occitano-Romance
not shared by all linguists. According to the Ethnologue
, its specific classification is as
Catalan bears varying degrees of similarity to languages subsumed
under the cover term Occitan
language: Differences between Occitan and Catalan
and Gallo-Romance languages
.) As would
be expected of closely cognate languages, Catalan also shares
numerous features with other Romance languages, with similarities
generally decreasing with physical distance.
Catalan is spoken in:
- Catalonia (Catalunya), in Spain.
of the Valencian
Community (Comunitat Valenciana), in Spain, where it
is called Valencian.
- An adjacent strip
(La Franja) of Aragon, Spain, in
particular the comarques
of Ribagorça, Llitera, Baix Cinca, and Matarranya.
- Balearic Islands (Illes Balears i Pitiüses), in
Catalonia (Catalunya Nord : name used officially for
the first time on 10 December 2007 by the General Council of the
Pyrénées-Orientales), in France.
city of Alghero
(l'Alguer) on Sardinia,
small region in Murcia, Spain, known as Carche
(El Carxe in Catalan).
All these areas are referred to by some as Catalan
(Catalan: Països Catalans
), a denomination
based on cultural affinity and common heritage, that has also had a
subsequent political interpretation but no official status.
Number of Catalan speakers
Territories where Catalan is official (or co-official)
|Balearic Islands (Spain)
|Valencian Community (as Valencian)
Figures relate to all self-declared capable speakers, not just
Figures relate to all self-declared capable speakers, not just
Notes: The number of people who
understand Catalan includes those who can speak it.
[[Image:Mapa dialectal del
català-valencià.png|thumb|right|250px|Dialectal Map of Catalan
█ North-Western Catalan
]]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
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). The main difference between the
two blocks is their treatment of unstressed vowels, in addition to
a few other features:
- Western Catalan (Bloc o Branca del Català
- Unstressed vowels: . Distinctions between e and
a and o and u.
- Initial or post-consonantal x is an affricate (there
are exceptions in Xàtiva, xarxa, Xavier, xenofòbia... these are
pronounced with ). Between vowels or when final and preceded by
i, it is .
- 1st person present indicative is -e or -o.
- Latin long and short have become .
- Inchoative in -ix, -ixen, -isca
- Maintenance of medieval nasal plural in proparoxytone words:
- Specific vocabulary: espill, xiquet, granera, melic...
- Eastern Catalan (Bloc o Branca del Català
- The vowels , and become /ə/ when unstressed and , and become
- Initial or post-consonantal x is the fricative .
Between vowels or when final and preceded by i it is also
- 1st person present indicative is -o, -i or there is no
- Latin long and short have become (In most of Balearic Catalan
they are pronounced and in Alguerese ).
- Inchoative in -eix, -eixen, -eixi.
- The -n- of medieval nasal plural is dropped in proparoxytone
words: homes, joves.
- Specific Vocabulary: mirall, noi, escombra, llombrígol...
In addition, neither dialect
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:
Standards of Catalan language
There are two main standards for Catalan language, one regulated by
the Institut d'Estudis
(IEC), general standard, with Pompeu Fabra
's orthography as axis, keeping
features from Central Catalan, and the other regulated by the
Valenciana de la Llengua
(AVL), restricted scale standard,
focused on Valencian standardization on the basis of Normes de Castelló
, that is,
'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
" accentuation, for instance: francès,
(IEC) - francés, anglés
(IEC) - café
(IEC) - conéixer
(IEC) - comprén
(AVL) (he understands).
This is because of the different pronunciation of some tonic "e",
especially tonic Ē (long "e") and Ǐ (breves "i") from Latin, in
both Catalan blocks ( in Eastern Catalan and [e] in Western
Catalan). Despite this, AVL's standard keeps grave accent "è",
without pronouncing this "e" , in some words like: què
(series) and època
There are also some other divergences like the tl use
by AVL in some words instead of tll like in
espatla/espatlla (back) 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" (I buy)
instead of "jo compro".
Islands, IEC's standard is used but adapted into 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
" (we sing) and University says that priority
form in Balearic Islands must be "cantam
" in all fields.
Another feature of Balearic standard is the non-ending in 1st
person singular in present indicative: "jo cant
" (I sing),
" (I fear), "jo dorm
" (I sleep).
Alghero, the IEC has
adapted its standard to the Alguerese
In this standard one can find, among other
features: the article lo
instead of el
possessive pronouns and determinants la mia
(his/her), lo tou/la tua
(yours), and so
on, the use of -v-
in the imperfect tense in all
; the use of many archaic words, usual words in
instead of menys
instead of algú
instead of quin/quina
(which), and so
on; and the adaptation of weak
The status of Valencian
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.
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,
versus Brazilian Portuguese
There is a roughly continuous set of
covering the various regional forms of
Catalan/Valencian, with no break at the border between Catalonia
and the Valencian Community, and the various forms of Catalan and
Valencian are mutually intelligible even between the most eastern
and western varieties. This is not to say that there are no
differences between the two and 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
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 around Barcelona. 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. 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 Isabel I
Vilar, Ferran. “Traducció única de la Constitució europea.”
I-Zefir. 30 Oct. 2004. 29 Apr. 2009
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
. 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.
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 around Central Catalan
(with slight variations to include Balearic verb inflection) and
one for Occidental, regulated by the AVL, centered around
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
Sounds and writing system
The first descriptive and normative grammar book of modern Catalan
was written by Pompeu Fabra
in 1918. In
1995 a new grammar by Antoni M. Badía i Margarit was published,
which also documents the Valencian and Balearic varieties.
The grammar of Catalan mostly follows the general pattern of
Western Romance languages.
Substantives and adjectives are not declined by case, as in
Classical Latin. There are two grammatical genders
developed from Latin demonstratives
The actual form of the article depends on the gender and the number
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
(the word "en
" has also other lexical meanings). One of
the common usages of this article is in the word can
combination of "la casa
" shortened to ca
, which here means "the". For example "la casa
" becomes "Can Sergi
" meaning "the house of
Sergi", "Sergi's house".
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
and not considered periphrastic), and periphrastic tenses are
formed from the conjugated auxiliary verbs haver
(to be) followed by the past participle. A
unique tense in Catalan is the periphrastic simple
which is formed of "vaig", "vares", "va", "vàrem",
"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
" (or more simply "Vaig parlar
") means "I
Nominative pronouns are often omitted, as the person can be usually
derived from the conjugated verb. The Catalan rules for combination
of the object pronoun clitics
articles and other pronouns are significantly more complex than in
most other Romance languages; see Weak pronouns in Catalan
are similar to those of Spain; a person receives
two last names—his father's and his mother's. The two last names
are usually separated by the particle "i", meaning "and". (In
Spanish the equivalent particle is written y
, but often
For example, the full name of the architect Antoni Gaudí
is Antoni Gaudí i
after his parents: Francesc Gaudí
i Serra and
Some phrases in the Central dialect
-Barcelona and outskirts-:
- Catalan: català
- Hello: hola
- Good-bye: adéu ; adéu siau ; siau ;
deu (colloquial use)
- Please: si us plau or sisplau ; per
- Thank you: gràcies ; mercès ; merci
- Sorry: perdó , em sap greu ; ho
- This one: aquest (masc.); aquesta (fem.)
- How much?: quant val? ; quant és?
- Yes: sí
- No: no
- I don't understand (it): no (ho) entenc
- Where's the bathroom?: On és el bany? ; On és el
- Generic toast: salut! ;
- Bless you! (after sneezing): Jesús ;
- Do you (2nd person singular) speak Catalan?: (Tu) Parles
- Do you (3rd person singular) speak Catalan?: (Vostè) Parla
- Do you (2nd person plural) speak Catalan?: (Vosaltres)
- Do you (3nd person plural) speak Catalan?: (Vostès) Parlen
The same phrases pronounced as in the standard
- Valencian: valencià
- Hello: hola
- Good-bye: adéu
- Please: per favor
- Thank you: gràcies
- Sorry: perdó ; ; ho sent or ho
- This one: este (masc.); esta (fem.)
- How much?: quant val? ; quant és?
- Yes: sí
- No: no
- I don't understand: no ho entenc
- Where's the bathroom?: on és el bany?
- Generic toast: salut!
- Bless you! (after sneezing): Jesús! ;
- Do you speak Valencian?: parles valencià?
- Digui, digui... Curs de català per a
estrangers. A Catalan Handbook. — Alan Yates and Toni Ibarz. —
Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura, 1993. -- ISBN
- Teach Yourself Catalan. — Alan Yates. — McGraw-Hill,
1993. — ISBN 0340194995.
- Colloquial Catalan. — Toni Ibarz and Alexander Ibarz.
— Routledge, 2005. — ISBN 0-415-23412-3.
- speakcat On-line basic course
- Parla.Cat The Official free on-line complete course
Catalan courses are offered at a number of universities in Europe
and North America.
Voluntaris per la Llengua
is a Catalan language learning programme.
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.
- Aubergine, from Catalan
- Barracks, from old Catalan
barraca (hut) through French baraque. Another term
Barracoon, from Catalan barraca
(hut) through Spanish barracón.
- Surge, from Catalan surgir,
via Middle French
- Paella, Valencian Catalan, via Old French paele, ultimately from Latin
patella (small dish)
- L'interdiction de la langue catalane en Roussillon
par Louis XIV; taken from the website "CRDP de l'académie de
- Charte en faveur du Catalan
- Carta a favor de la llengua i la cultura
- Marc Howard Ross, "Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict",
page 139. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- The Resurgence of Catalan Earl W. Thomas Hispania, Vol. 45, No.
1 (Mar., 1962), pp. 43–48 doi:10.2307/337523
- Orden del Excmo. Sr. Gobernador Civil de Barcelona. EL USO DEL
IDIOMA NACIONAL EN TODOS LOS SERVICIOS PÚBLICOS. 1940.
- Ethnologue Report
- Sources: *Catalonia: Statistic data of 2001 census, from
Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya, Generalitat de
Catalunya . * Land of Valencia: Statistical data from
2001 census, from Institut Valencià d'Estadística, Generalitat
Valenciana . * Land of Valencia: Statistical data from
2001 census, from Institut Valencià d'Estadística, Generalitat
Valenciana . * Balearic Islands: Statistical data from 2001
census, from Institut Balear d'Estadística, Govern de les Illes
Balears . * Northern Catalonia: Media
Pluriel Survey commissioned by Prefecture of Languedoc-Roussillon Region done
in October 1997 and published in January 1998 . * Andorra: Sociolinguistic data from Andorran
Government, 1999. * Aragon: Sociolinguistic data from Euromosaic
. * Alguer: Sociolinguistic data from
Euromosaic . * Rest of World: Estimate for 1999 by the
Federació d'Entitats Catalanes outside the Catalan
- 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.
About the Catalan language
Bilingual and multilingual dictionaries
Automated translation systems
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web pages (Catalan > English, French and Spanish)
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Catalan-language online encyclopedia