The Catalan language dialects (and restrictively also, Valencian dialects) feature a relative uniformity, especially when compared to other Romance languages; both in terms of vocabulary, semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology. Mutual intelligibility between its dialects is very high, estimates ranging from 90% to 95%.[R. A. Hall, Jr. (1989), cited on Ethnologue (archived)] The only exception is the isolated idiosyncratic Alguerese dialect.
Geographic classifications
Overview of main varieties and areas
Western vs. Eastern
In 1861, linguist Manuel Milà i Fontanals split Catalan into two main dialectal blocks:
Western and
Eastern. The most obvious phonetic difference lies in the treatment of unstressed a and e, which have merged to in Eastern dialects, but remain distinct as and in Western dialects. There are a few other differences in pronunciation, verbal morphology, and vocabulary.
Western Catalan comprises the two varieties of North-Western Catalan and Valencian; the Eastern block comprises three to four varieties (depending on their classification):
Central Catalan,
Northern Catalan (Northern Catalan), and Insular (
Balearic dialect and Alguerese). Each variety can be further subdivided into several subdialects.
There are two spoken standards for the language based on the Eastern and Western dialects respectively:
-
In Catalonia, the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC) regulates the spoken standard based on Central Catalan, which has the highest number of speakers and is spoken in the densely populated regions of the Barcelona province, the eastern half of the province of Tarragona, and most of the province of Girona.
-
In the Valencian Community ( Valencian Country), the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL) adapts the Pompeu Fabra to the Valencian variety, and regulates an alternative spoken standard based on the Southern Valencian dialect (especially Upper Southern Valencian). Despite having fewer speakers than the Central Valencian dialect, Southern Valencian (except the southernmost subdialects) has been less influenced by Spanish. It is spoken in the South and North of the Valencia and Alicante provinces respectively, in cities such as Alcoi, Dénia, Gandia and Xàtiva.
Valencians are only surpassed in number of Catalan-speakers by Catalans themselves, representing approximately a third of the whole Catalan-speaking population. Therefore, in the context of linguistic conflict, recognition and respect towards the dual standard, as well as the dual Catalan–Valencian denomination, pacifies the tense central–periphery relations between Catalonia and the Valencian Community.
Continental vs. Insular
The
Continental varieties of Catalan and Valencian may refer to:
-
Northern Catalan, Central Catalan and North-Western Catalan, all spoken in mainland Catalonia (and Roussillon), and Valencian, spoken in the Valencian Community. Exceptions may include the Majorcan spoken by certain communities in the Valencian towns of Tàrbena and La Vall de Gallinera in the region of la Marina.
Insular Catalan may refer to:
Valencian dialects
Classifications of the different varieties of Valencian:
| + Dialects of Valencian |
|
Southern Catalonia
and
Northern Valencian Community
(including a small part of Aragon) |
Castellonenc
(Castellon's Valencian) |
Central Valencian Community
(especially Valencia Metro Area) |
Southern Valencian Community
(including a small part of Murcia) |
| Lower Southern Valencian |
Comarcal extension of the dialects of Model C (within the Valencian Community only):
Northern: els Ports, l'Alt Maestrat and el Baix Maestrat.
- Subdivisions:
-
Northern Zone or Tortosan: the bordering towns with Catalonia from Herbers (els Ports) to Vinaròs (el Baix Maestrat).
-
Southern Zone: els Ports, l'Alt Maestrat and most el Baix Maestrat.
Castellonenc: l'Alcalatén, el Pla de l'Arc, la Plana Alta and Plana Baixa.
- Subdivisions:
-
Northern Zone: l'Alcalatén, el Pla de l'Arc and la Plana Alta (except Almassora).
-
Southern Zone: la Plana Baixa with the inclusion of Almassora (la Plana Alta).
Central: South of la Plana Baixa (Almenara and la Llosa), el Camp de Morvedre, l'Horta de València, el Camp de Túria, most of la Ribera Alta and the Western zone of la Ribera Baixa.
- Subdivisions:
-
Northern Zone: el Camp de Morvedre, l'Horta Nord.
-
Southern Zone: l'Horta Sud, apitxat area of la Ribera Alta and Baixa.
Upper Southern: non-apitxat zones of la Ribera Alta and Baixa, la Safor, Costera, la Vall d'Albaida, l'Alcoià, la Marina Alta and Marina Baixa, Northern zone of l'Alacantí.
- Subdivisions:
-
Inland Zone: non-apitxat area of la Ribera Alta, la Costera, la Vall d'Albaida and l'Alcoià.
-
Coastal Zone: non-apitxat area of la Ribera Baixa, la Safor, la Marina Alta and Baixa.
Lower Southern: the towns on the South of the line that connects the localities of Biar and Busot.
- Subdivisions:
-
Inland Zone: les Valls del Vinalopó.
-
Coastal Zone: el Baix Vinalopó and l'Alacantí.
Pronunciation
Vowels
Catalan has inherited the typical vowel system of
Vulgar Latin, with seven stressed phonemes: , a common feature in Western Romance, except Spanish, Asturian, and Aragonese.
Balearic dialect has also instances of stressed . Dialects differ in the different degrees of
vowel reduction, and the incidence of the pair .
In Eastern Catalan (except most of Majorcan), unstressed vowels reduce to three: → ; → ; remains distinct. There are a few instances of unreduced , in some words. Alguerese has lowered to , similar to Eastern dialects spoken in the Barcelona metropolitan area (however, in the latter dialects the vowels are distinct as vs. ).
In Majorcan (except in some parts of in the northern of the island), unstressed vowels reduce to four: follow the Eastern Catalan reduction pattern; however reduce to , with remaining distinct, as in Western Catalan.
In Western Catalan, unstressed vowels reduce to five: → ; → ; remain distinct. This reduction pattern, inherited from Proto-Romance, is also found in Italian and Portuguese. Some Western dialects present further reduction or vowel harmony in some cases.
Central, Western, and Balearic differ in the lexical incidence of stressed and . Usually, words with in central Catalan correspond to in Balearic and in Western Catalan. Words with in Balearic almost always have in central and western Catalan as well. As a result, Western Catalan has a much higher incidence of .
| { class="wikitable"
| + Different incidence of stressed , , |
|
|
set
("thirst") | |
ven
("he sells") | |
| + General differences in the pronunciation of unstressed vowels in different dialects |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
|}
| + Detailed examples of vowel reduction processes in different dialects |
|
|
|
pera ("pear")
perera ("pear tree") |
|
pedra ("stone")
pedrera ("quarry") |
|
banya ("he bathes")
banyem/ banyam ("we bathe") |
|
|
tot ("everything")
total ("total") |
|
Note, the quality of vowels also varies across dialects, and they may present a wide range of contextual . For further information see Catalan phonology#Vowels.
-
Vowel mergers (between dialects) include:
-
('bird') vs. ('egg') - Southern Valencian (as ).
-
('my') vs. ('hand') - General Valencian, North-Western, Alguerese (as ).
-
('sheep') vs. ('good') - Northern Catalan, Alguerese (as ).
-
('that') vs. ('what') - General Valencian (as ).
-
('dry, I sit') vs. ('fold') - General Valencian, North-Western, Northern Catalan, Alguerese (as ).
-
('thirst') vs. ('seven') - General Catalan, Central Catalan (as ). Northern Catalan, Alguerese (as )
-
('sleep') vs. ('they are') - Alguerese (as ).
-
('his') vs. ('they are') - Northern Catalan (as ).
-
('sun, alone') vs. ('floor, ground') - Northern Catalan, Alguerese (as ).
-
('salary') vs. ('you are') - Northern Catalan, Alguerese, Northern Valencian (as ).
-
('spice') vs. ('type') - Central Catalan, Northern Catalan, Balearic; incl. General Catalan (as ). Alguerese (as ).
-
('January') vs. ('Giner' surname) - colloquial Western Catalan, especially Valencian (as ).
-
('but') vs. ('pro') - some Eastern Catalan speakers (as ∅).
-
('brochure') vs. ('goblin') - Central Catalan, Northern Catalan, Balearic (except most of Majorcan), Alguerese; incl. General Catalan (as ).
Consonants
Catalan and Valencian dialects are characterised by final-obstruent devoicing,
lenition and voicing assimilation. Additionally, many dialects contrast two
rhotic consonant () and two laterals ().
Most Catalan and Valencian dialects are also renowned by the usage of dark l (i.e. velarisation of → ), which is especially noticeable in syllable syllabic coda position, in comparison to neighbouring languages, such as Spanish, Italian and French (that lack this pronunciation).
There is dialectal variation in regard to:
-
The pronunciation and distribution of (with different results according to voicing and affrication vs. lenition).
-
While, arguably there are seven to eight sibilants in Standard Catalan and Standard Valencian, dialects like Central Valencian and Ribagorçan only have three or four.
-
The usage of the voiced labiodental fricative phoneme .
-
The pronunciation or not of yod () in the digraph .
-
The elision and pronunciation of final rhotic consonant (either or ).
-
The delateralisation of the palatal lateral approximant ().
-
The alternation of lenition vs. fortition (such as in po ble 'village, people' → vs. vs. vs. vs. ).
Consonant mergers (between dialects) include:
-
General consonant mergers in both General Catalan and Valencian:
-
('cube') vs. ('winepress') - as .
-
('song thrush') vs. ('crooked') - as .
-
('magician') vs. ('pebble') - as .
-
General consonant mergers in General Catalan and dialectally in Valencian:
-
('tome') vs. ('turn') - as .
-
('rum') vs. ('he or she breaks') - as .
-
('acorns') vs. ('glands') - as .
-
('when') vs. ('how much') - as .
-
Other consonant mergers include:
-
('ball') vs. ('he or she flies') - General Catalan, North-Western Catalan, Northern Catalan, Central Catalan, Central Valencian and partly in Northern Valencian (as ).
-
('life') vs. ('to turn, to tack') - Alguerese (both as ).
-
('town') vs. ('to turn, to tack') - Alguerese (both as ).
-
('costs') vs. ('valleys') - Alguerese and parts of Eastern Aragon (as ).
-
('bands') vs. ('baths') - Alguerese and parts of Eastern Aragon (as ).
-
('hunting') and ('ladle') vs. ('house') - Central Valencian (as ) and parts of Eastern Aragon (as and ).
-
('crazy') vs. ('shrub') - General Valencian (as ). Northern Valencian (as ).
-
('crazy') vs. ('shrub') vs. ('bocce') - Central Valencian (as ).
-
('siege') vs. ('sixteen') - Northern Valencian (as ).
-
('shock') vs. ('game') - Central Valencian (as ).
-
('check') vs. ('Czech') - General Valencian (as ).
-
('garlic') vs. ('ouch' interj.) - Majorcan, young speakers of Catalan and Valencian (as ).
-
('ray') vs. ('raft, interj.') - some Catalan and Valencian speakers (as ).
-
('ray') vs. ('rays') - General Catalan and Valencian (as ). Some Catalan and Valencian speakers (as and , respectively).
-
('joy') vs. ('glass' drinking) - Northern Valencian (as ). Partially in Central Valencian (as ).
-
('kings') vs. ('resh') - partially in Northern Valencian (as ). Note that in some dialects, reis in the context of Reis Mags ('Biblical Magi') has merged with the plural of reix, i.e. ('Magi' and 'reshes') favouring over (except Northern Valencian where it may be pronounced with ).
-
('stew') vs. ('gypsum') - partially in Northern Valencian (as ).
-
('test') vs. ('text') - some Catalan and Valencian speakers (as ).
-
('dark browns') vs. ('he or she buzzes') - General Catalan and Valencian (as ).
-
('chamois, wild') vs. ('-ize/-ise' suffix) - General Valencian and partly in Balearic and Alguerese (as ).
-
('chamois, wild') vs. ('-ize/-ise' suffix) vs. ('to hoist') - Central Valencian (as ).
-
('tsarina') vs. ('Sarina' given) - most Catalan and Valencian dialects (as ).
-
('zinc') vs. ('five') - Central Valencian (as ) and Eastern Aragon (as or ).
-
('stiffs') vs. ('hertz') - General Catalan and Valencian (as ).
Morphology
In Western Catalan, the 1st person present indicative ending for verbs is -e (∅ in verbs of the 2nd and 3rd conjugation), or -o. For example, parle, tem, sent (Valencian); parlo, temo, sento (North-Western). In Eastern Catalan, the 1st person present indicative ending for verbs is -o, -i or ∅ in all conjugations. For example, parlo (Central), parl (Balearic), parli (Northern); all meaning "I speak".
| + First person singular present indicative endings in different dialects |
|
|
|
|
|
In Western Catalan, the inchoative desinences for verbs are -isc/-ixo, -ix, -ixen, -isca. In Eastern Catalan, the inchoative desinences for verbs are -eixo, -eix, -eixen, -eixi.
In Western Catalan, the of medieval plurals in proparoxytone nouns and adjectives is maintained. For example, hòmens 'men', jóvens 'youth'. In Eastern Catalan, the of medieval plurals in proparoxytone nouns and adjectives is lost. For example, homes 'men', joves 'youth'.
Vocabulary
Despite its relative lexical unity, the two dialectal blocks of Catalan (Eastern and Western) show some differences in word choices. Any lexical divergence within any of the two groups can be explained as an archaism. Also, usually
Central Catalan acts as an innovative element.
| + Selection of different words between Western and Eastern Catalan |
|
|
|
Bibliography
- Books
- Web sites
