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| Middle Ages: origin | |
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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.
[edit] Tags:Ec,Balearic Islands,Aragon,Italy,Romance,Gallo-romance,Catalan,Valencian,Latin,Catalonia,Valencian Community,National,Italian,Vulgar Latin,Pyrenees,Rosselló,Empúries,Besalú,Cerdanya,Urgell,Pallars,Ribagorça,Ibero-romance,Gallo-italian,Occitan,Dialect Continuum,Conquests Of Al-andalus,Valencian Golden Age,La Renaixença,Renaixença,Ara, | |
| 18th century to the present: France | |
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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
[edit] Tags:France,Northern Catalonia,Official Language,Département,Pyrénées-orientales,La Vergonha,Treaty Of The Pyrenees,Royal Decree,Louis Xiv Of France,French Revolution,French First Republic,Patois,Vernaculars,Abbé Grégoire,National Convention,Linguistically,Bastille Day,General Council Of The Pyrénées-orientales, | |
| 18th century to the present: Spain | |
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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.
[edit] Tags:Andorra,/,Spanish,Language Politics In Spain Under Franco,Nueva Planta Decrees,Kingdom Of Spain,Francoist Spain,Mass Media,Franco,Democracy,Constitutional Monarchy,Avui,El Punt,La Vanguardia,El Periódico De Catalunya,El Periòdic D'andorra,Tv3,Canal 33,Super3,3xl,3/24,Esport 3,Canal 9,24/9,Punt 2,Ib3, | |
| Classification | |
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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 Romance languages
Gallo-Iberian languages
Gallo-Romance languages (alternatively classified as an Ibero-Romance language)
Occitano-Romance languages (alternatively classified as an East Iberian language)
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] Tags:Indo-european,Italic,Western,Gallo-iberian,Occitano-romance,Romance Language, | |
| Geographic distribution | |
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The Catalan/Valencian cultural domain
Language
History · Grammar · Phonology · Orthography
Institut d'Estudis Catalans
Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
Institut & Fundació Ramon Llull
History
History of Andorra · History of Catalonia
Crown of Aragon (Kingdom of Valencia · Kingdom of Majorca · Principality of Catalonia)
Catalan Constitutions · Furs of Valencia
Treaty of the Pyrenees · Nueva Planta decrees
Geo-political divisions
Andorra · Balearic Islands · Catalonia
Northern Catalonia · Valencian Community
Alghero · El Carxe · La Franja
See Geographic distribution of Catalan
Government and Politics
Generalitat de Catalunya · Generalitat Valenciana
Govern de les Illes Balears
General Council of the Valleys (Andorra)
General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales
Politics of Andorra · Politics of Catalonia
Catalanism · Valencialism
Traditions and Symbols
Castells · Correfoc · Gegants i capgrossos · Falles
Nit de Sant Joan · Moros i cristians · St George's Day
Caganer · Tió de Nadal · Muixeranga · Sardana
Coca · Pa amb tomàquet · Paella · Ensaïmada
Symbols · Myths and legends
Arts
Decadència · Renaixença · Modernisme · Noucentisme
Ramon Llull · Ausiàs March · Jacint Verdaguer
Antoni Gaudí · Salvador Dalí · Joan Miró
Joaquim Sorolla · Antoni Tàpies · Lluís Llach
Rumba catalana · Rock català · Nova cançó
Literature · Music
v
d
e
[edit] Tags:La Franja,Alghero,Institut D'estudis Catalans,Ipa, | |
| Catalan-speaking territories | |
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Main article: Països Catalans
Catalan is spoken in:
Andorra (Principat d'Andorra), a sovereign state where Catalan is the national and only official language.
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.
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 of Murcia, Spain, known as Carche (El Carxe).
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.
[edit] Tags:Carche,Sardinia,Murcia, | |
| Number of Catalan speakers | |
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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
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.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Dialects | |
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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
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 Sardinian city of Alghero/L'Alguer)
[edit] Tags:Roussillon, | |
| Standards | |
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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 e) and i (short i) 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 Tags:Regulated By, | |
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