Catalan (language) - Definition and Overview

Catalan (Català, Valencià) is a Romance language spoken by as many as approximately 12 million people in portions of Spain, France, Andorra and Italy, although the majority of Catalan speakers are in Spain.

Classification

Catalan is a Romance language. According to the Ethnologue, its specific classification is a member of the East Iberian branch of the Ibero-Romance branch of the Gallo-Iberian branch of the Western branch of the Italo-Western branch of the Romance branch of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language famiily.

Geographic distribution

Main article: Catalan countries

Estimates of the number of Catalan speakers vary from four to twelve million. [1] (http://www.caib.es/conselleries/educacio/dgpoling/user/catalaeuropa/reduides/tripticangles.pdf) (pdf), [2] (http://www.brazilbrazil.com/roman.html), [3] (http://193.2.100.60/SALTMIL/history/review.htm), [4] (http://www.scbwi.org/pubs/bulletin/bull_archives/jan_feb_2003/intl_news.htm), [5] (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=CLN).

Catalan is spoken in:

• Catalonia in Spain.
• An adjacent strip of Aragon, Spain, in particular the comarques of Baixa Ribagorça, Llitera, Baix Cinca, and Matarranya, .
• Balearic Islands in Spain.
• Andorra.
• Part of Valencia in Spain, where the language is officially named Valencian. Classifying Valencian as Catalan with a different name is a heavily politicized notion.
• Roussillon in France.
• The Sardinian city of Alghero (l'Alguer).
• A small region in Murcia, known as el Carxe. Generally speaking it is understood that what these Murcians speak is Valencian, which, to the North, is interpreted as Catalan.

All these areas are informally called Catalan countries (Catalan Països catalans), a denomination based originally on cultural affinity and common heritage, that some have subsequently interpreted politically. It finds most of its supporters in Catalonia and in foreign academics who are seduced by this concept. It is fervently rejected in Valencia.

Official status

Catalan is the official language of Andorra. It is co-official in the Spanish regions of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, where internal divisions between Majorcan and Minorcan have led to the acceptance of "Catalan" as the official name, and in the Sardinian city of Alghero, in Italy. It has no official status in the parts of Aragon where it is spoken, but has gained some recognition by Aragonese laws since 1990. It has no official status in the other places where it is spoken. In the Valencian Community, Valencian, a distinct dialect but undeniably of the same linguistic branch as Catalan, is spoken, and is recognized as Valencian by the Government. However, there is raging debate, mostly for political purposes, as to whether or not Valencian is merely a downgraded version of Catalan, or if it deserves to exist by itself. Officially speaking, Catalan is not spoken in Valencia.

Dialects

In 1861, Manuel Milà i Fontanals proposed a dialectal division of Catalan in two major blocks: Eastern Catalan and Western Catalan, which has been accepted by most Catalonians and the foreign academics who study this linguistic system. Unbeknownst to these foreign academics, this classification is heavily rejected by most of the Valencian Community.

There is no precise linguistic border between one dialect and another because there is nearly always a dialect transition zone of some size between pairs of geographically identified dialects, (except for dialects specific to an island). In addition, each dialect isn't completely homogenous: any dialect can be subdivided into several subdialects. Catalan can be subdivided in two major dialectal blocks and those blocks into individual dialects:

The significant differences between Balearic and Catalonian dialects does indeed raise questions as to whether they can so easily be disregarded and plopped within the same basket.

See Catalan dialect examples for examples of each dialect.

The status of Valencian

The issue, as with Serbian and Croatian, of whether Catalan and Valencian constitute different languages or merely dialects has been the subject of political agitation several times after the Franco era. The latest political controversy regarding Valencian occurred on the occasion of the approval of the European Constitution in 2004. The Spanish government supplied the EU with translations of the text into Basque, Catalan, Galician, and Valencian, but the Catalan and Valencian versions, initially disparate, were found to be identical after Pasquall Margall, President of the Catalonian Generalitat, submitted a copy of the Valencian text as representative of Catalan. While professing the unity of the Catalan language, the Spanish government claimed to be constitutionally bound to produce distinct Catalan and Valencian versions because the Statute of the Autonomous Community of Valencia calls the regional language "Valencian", while that of Catalonia calls its regional language "Catalan". This is a rushed oversimplification resulting from internal political squabbles, namely involving the influential Carod-Rovira (strong voice within the Catalonian tripartite system) claiming that he would only support the Government budgets if Zapatero professed the unity of not only "the language", but the "Catalan language":

Most current (21st century) Valencian speakers and writers use spelling conventions (Normes de Castelló, 1932) that allow for several diverse idiosyncrasies of Valencian, Balearic, North-Western Catalan, and Eastern Catalan--that is to say, Barcelona grammar with spruces of local lexicons from elsewhere. The rival notation is presented by the Normes del Puig, which is more representative of traditional Valencian.

All universities teaching Romance languages, and virtually all linguists, consider these all to be linguistic variants of the same language (similarly to Canadian French vs. Metropolitan French). The criterion used by most linguists to decide whether two language varieties are a separate language is the criterion of mutual intelligibility; by this criterion Valencian and other varieties of Catalan are dialects of the same language. It is interesting, though, to consider Swedish and Norwegian, which have the same intelligibility as Valencian and Catalan, yet are granted separate literature. Consider also the web sites of the Valencian universities: Universitat Jaume I de Castelló or Universitat de València.

Nevertheless, differences do exist: the accent of a Valencian is recognisable, there are differences in subjunctive terminations, and there are a large number of words unique to Valencian; but those differences are not any wider than among North-Western Catalan and Eastern Catalan--suggesting that this is far from a homogenous linguistic system. 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). There are two differing views on the dialectal varieties of this system: one maintains that there are two main divisions, Eastern and Western. The other suggests that this same system, present in three Autonomous Communities, actually present four major divisions: Barcelona and Girona; Southern Lleida, Tarragona and Northern Castellò; Valencia and Alicante, and the Balearic system. Each, naturally, has its own subdialects. However, with the normalization of the Barcelona subdialect, these natural lines are rapidly being blurred.

Sounds

Main article: Catalan phonology and orthography

Grammar

Main article: Catalan grammar

Writing system

Main article: Catalan phonology and orthography

History

Catalan developed by the 9th century from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the the eastern part of Pyrenees mountains (counties of Rosselló (Roussillon), Empuries, Besalú, Cerdanya, Urgell, Pallars and Ribagorça). It shares features with Gallo-romance and Ibero-romance, and it could be said to be in its beginnings no more than an eccentric dialect of Occitan (or of Western Romance). The language was spread to the south by the Reconquista in several phases: Barcelona and Tarragona, Lleida and Tortosa, the ancient Kingdom of Valencia (which spoke its own primitive Romance language), and transplanted to the Balearic Islands and l'Alguer (Alghero).

Catalan was exported in the 13th century to Balearic Islands and the newly created Valencian Kingdom (where it mixed with and influenced the local Romance language) by the Catalan and Aragonese invaders (note that the area of Catalan language still extends to part of what is now the region of Aragon). During this period, almost all of the Muslim population of the Balearic Islands were expelled, but many Muslim peasants remained in many rural areas of the Valencian Kingdom, as had happened before in the lower Ebro basin (or Catalunya Nova).

During the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries the Catalan language was important in the Mediterranean region. Barcelona was the pre-eminent city and port of the so-called Aragonese Empire or the Crown of Aragon (a term now resented by Catalonians, for in the present day Catalonia is much more powerful than Aragon and for self-esteem purposes there is a desire to rename it as the "Catalo-Aragonese Confederation"), a confederation nominally ruled by the King of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, Roussillon, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Sicily, and — later — Sardinia and Naples). All prose writers of this era used the name 'Catalan' for their common language (e.g. the Catalan Ramon Muntaner, the Majorcan Ramon Llull, etc.), though if one includes Valencian writers in this group (as is the tendency), then it becomes very difficult to truthfully maintain this claim, since Valencian writers almost inequivocally saw themselves as writing in Valencian. The matter is more complicated among the poets, as they wrote in a sort of artificial Langue d'Oc in the tradition of the troubadors. Italian resentment of this Catalan dominance appears to have been one of the wellsprings of the so-called "Black Legend".

During the 15th and 16th centuries the city of Valencia gains pre-eminence in the confederation, due to several factors, including demographic changes and the fact that the royal court moved there. Presumably as a result of this shift in the balance of power within the confederation, in the 15th century the name 'Valencian' starts to be used by writers from Valencia to refer to their language--often a headache for most Catalonians.

In the 16th century the name 'Llemosí' (that is to say, "the Occitan dialect of Limoges") is first documented as being used to refer to this language. This attribution has no philological base, but it is explicable by the complex sociolinguistic frame of Catalan poetry of this era (Catalan versus troubadoresque Occitan). Ausias March himself, a notable Valencian writers, was not sure what to call the language he was writing in (it is clearly closer to his contemporary Catalan or Valencian than to the archaic Occitan). He is most often known as citing Valencian as his language.

Then, during the 16th century, most of the Valencian elites switched languages to Castilian Spanish, as can be seen in the balance of languages of printed books in Valencia city: at the beginning of century Latin and Catalan (or Valencian) were the main languages of the press, but by the end of the century Spanish was the main language of the press. Still, rural areas and urban working classes continued to speak their vernacular language.

During the first half of the 19th century Catalan and Valencian esperienced a major revival among urban élites due to the Renaixença, a romantic cultural movement. The effects of this revival persist to this day.

During the Franco regime (1939-1975), the use of Catalan was banned, along with other regional languages in Spain such as Basque and Galician and Valencian. Following the death of Franco in 1975 and the restoration of democracy, the ban was lifted and the Catalan language is now used in politics, education and the media, including the newspapers Avui ('Today') and El Periódico de Catalunya (sharing content with its Spanish release and with El Periòdic d'Andorra, printed in Andorra; El Periódico de Catalunya has Spanish-language and Catalan-language editions, with identical content) and the television channel Televisi&oacute de Catalunya (TVC).

Examples

Some common Catalan phrases:

• Catalan: Català /kətəˈlɑ/
• hello: hola /ˈɔlə/; Déu vos guard /ˈdew βus ˈgwar/
• good-bye: adéu /əˈðɛw/ (sing.); adéu siau /əˈðɛw siˈaw/ (pl.)
• please: si us plau /sisˈplɑw/
• thank you: gràcies /ˈgrɑsiəs/; mercès /mərˈsɛs/
• sorry: perdó /pərˈðo/
• that one: aquest /əˈkɛt/ (masc.); aquesta /əˈkɛstə/ (fem.)
• how much?: quant val? /ˈkwɑmˈbɑl/; quant és? /ˈkwɑnˈtes/
• yes: sí /ˈsi/
• no: no /ˈno/
• I don't understand: No ho entenc /ˈno wənˈteŋ/
• where's the bathroom?: on és el bany? /ˈonˈezəlˈβaɲ/; on és el lavabo? {{IPA/ˈonˈezəlˈləˈβɑβu/}}
• generic toast: salut! /səˈlut/;
• Do you speak English?: Que parla l'anglès? /kə ˈparlə lənˈglɛs/
• Do you speak Catalan?: Que parla el català? /kə ˈparləl kətəˈlɑ/

There is a Catalan Wikipedia (http://ca.wikipedia.org).

Learning Catalan

• Digui, digui... Curs de català per a estrangers. A catalan Handbook. — Alan Yates and Toni Ibarz. — Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura, 1993. -- ISBN 84-393-2579-7.
• Teach Yourself Catalan. — McGraw-Hill, 1993. — ISBN 0844237558.

Catalan courses are given at many universities in the EU and USA.

See also

• Common phrases in different languages
• Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Catalan Studies Institute)
• Pompeu Fabra
• Catalan literature
• Languages of France
• Languages of Italy
• Languages of Spain
• Catalan names

External links

Wikipedia articles written in this language are located at the

Catalan language Wikipedia

• Institut d'Estudis Catalans (http://www.iec.es/)
• Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (http://www.avl.gva.es/)
• Ethnologue report for Catalan (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=CLN)
• Catalan resources in the Web (http://catalunya-lliure.com/recursos.html)
• Catalan - English Dictionary (http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Catalan-english/).
• Wikitravel Catalan phrasebook (http://wikitravel.org/en/article/Catalan_phrasebook)
• Televisi&oacute de Catalunya (http://www.tvcatalunya.com/)
• Diari Avui (http://www.avui.com/) - Catalan-language daily newspaper
• Diari El Punt (http://www.elpunt.com/) - Catalan-language daily newspaper
• Catalan Wikibooks (http://wikibooks.org/wiki/P%C3%A0gina_principal)
• Diccionari Català del IEC (http://pdl.iec.es/entrada/diec.asp)
• Diccionari Català-Valencià-Balear (http://dcvb.iecat.net/). In Catalan, published by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans and Editorial Moll.