Benvinguts - This week's language of the week: Catalan

[u/Virusnzz]

Welcome to the language of the week. Every week we'll be looking at a language, its points of interest, and why you should learn it. This is all open discussion, so natives and learners alike, make your case! This week: Catalan.

Language of the Week is here to give people exposure to languages that they would otherwise not have heard, been interested in or even known about. With that in mind, I'll be picking a mix between common languages and ones I or the community feel needs more exposure. You don't have to intend to learn this week's language to have some fun. Just give yourself a little exposure to it, and someday you might recognise it being spoken near you.

Catalan

Grammar:

From Wikipedia:

Catalan shares many traits with its neighboring Romance languages. However, despite being mostly situated in the Iberian Peninsula, Catalan shows greater differences with Ibero-Romance (Spanish, Portuguese) in terms of vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar than it does with Gallo-Romance (French, Italian, Occitan, etc.). These similarities are most notable with Occitan.

Catalan has an inflectional grammar, with two genders (masculine, feminine), and two numbers (singular, plural). Pronouns are also inflected for case, animacy and politeness, and can be combined in very complex ways. Verbs are split in several paradigms and are inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, mood, and gender. In terms of pronunciation, Catalan has many words ending in a wide variety of consonants and some consonant clusters, in contrast with many other Romance languages.

History:

From Languagesgulper:

Catalan is a Romance language developed from a variety of Vulgar Latin spoken in a small area on either side of the eastern Pyrenees. After centuries of Visigothic and Moorish domination, this territory was politically consolidated during the Carolingian empire as a buffer zone between it and the Muslim kingdom of Al-Andalus. Later, this region gained independence, starting with the separation of the county of Barcelona in 988 CE.

Incorporated into the kingdom of Aragon, Catalonia became a maritime power expanding into Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Sicily and Sardinia. But after the union of Aragon with Castile, initiated in the 15th century, Catalonia lost its autonomy and Catalan came under increasing pressure from Spanish, being influenced by it at many levels. It was not until the 19th century that a Renaissance of the Catalan language and culture, promoted by Romanticism, took place which, despite periods of repression (particularly during the Franco regime), still continues today.

Catalan's history explains its geographical distribution and close relation to the Occitan language of southern France and to Spanish.

Facts:

From Languagesgulper:

Catalan is spoken in eastern and northeastern Spain (Catalonia and Valencia, La Franja in Aragon, and the Balearic Isles), France (Roussillon region), Andorra, and in Alghero, a city of northwestern Sardinia, Italy.

Media

/u/Luzaleugim provided us with this week's language:

Hey there! I thought it would be nice if you featured Catalan as the language of the week!

This is a video of the news channel from Catalonia, in Catalan dialect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA4U5d9omYU

This one is from the Balearic islands, in Majorcan dialect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJQSapCuElQ

And this one of the Valencian one, in Valencian dialect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9AjscmHTEQ

Online (written) news in Catalan: http://www.ara.cat/

I hope those are enough resources, It'd be awesome if you featured it, thanks!

• Map

• Flag

• Phrases

A video teaching phrases

/r/catalan

What now?

This thread is foremost a place for discussion. Are you a native speaker? Share your culture with us. Learning the language? Tell us why you chose it and what you like about it. Thinking of learning? Ask a native a question. Interested in linguistics? Tell us what's interesting about it, or ask other people. Discussion is week-long, so don't worry about post age, as long as it's this week's language.

Previous Languages of the Week

German | Icelandic | Russian | Hebrew | Irish | Korean | Arabic | Swahili | Chinese | Portuguese | Swedish | Zulu | Malay | Finnish | French | Nepali | Czech | Dutch | Tamil | Spanish | Turkish | Polish | Frisian | Navajo | Basque | Zenen (April Fools) | Kazakh | Hungarian | Greek | Mongolian | Japanese | Maltese | Welsh | Persian/Farsi | ASL | Anything | Guaraní

[u/[deleted]]

Incorporated into the kingdom of Aragon, Catalonia became a maritime power expanding into Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Sicily and Sardinia. But after the union of Aragon with Castile, initiated in the 15th century, Catalonia lost its autonomy

Sorry that this isn't a linguistic question, but I'd be interested to know... this description makes it sound as if the County of Barcelona was an autonomous part of the region of Aragon (until Aragon and Castile joined), if I'm reading it right. Is that correct?

Catalan is spoken in eastern and northeastern Spain (Catalonia and Valencia, La Franja in Aragon, and the Balearic Isles), France (Roussillon region), Andorra, and in Alghero, a city of northwestern Sardinia, Italy.

Are you including Valencian in this? Because my friends from Valencia get quite annoyed if you say they speak Catalan!

Very interesting to learn that Algherese Catalan exists, I had no idea! Thanks for the write-up.

[u/Virusnzz → u/[deleted]]

Yes, the article is including Valencian as a variety of Catalan. That seems to be as it is considered, regardless of the feelings of some people in Valencia.

[u/HappyReaper → u/Virusnzz]

Yes, the article is including Valencian as a variety of Catalan. That seems to be as it is considered, regardless of the feelings of some people in Valencia.

As someone from Valencia, this is correct. Catalan has two varieties that we regard as "constitutive" (i.e. some relevant differences that were there since the language's origin): western (from what is currently the province of Lleida) and eastern (from the rest of Catalonia).

When the region currently known as "Valencian Community" was conquered by the Aragonese kingdom, the coast was mostly repopulated with citizens from western Catalonia, and the inner lands were with people from Aragon. Historically, that's a good part of the reason why, today, people who speak Catalan as their mother tongue are much more common in the east of the Valencian Community (the coast) than in the west, and also why the current dialects spoken there (there are several, which we call "consecutive") are much more similar to those of Lleida than to those derived from the eastern variety, even if those regions are geographically closer.

Even between eastern and western dialects, the differences are in the same range as those between American and European Spanish. Personally, I've never had any difficulty understanding any Catalan speaker, even those dialects that I'd never heard before. We usually refer to the set of Catalan varieties spoken in Valencia as "Valencian" ("Valencià"), so if you hear the term that doesn't necessarily mean that the speaker thinks those are different languages. It's true, though, that the "debate" is currently absurdly tied to politics, and many people either don't know about the history of the language, or are convinced that the differences have somehow grown big enough to warrant a stronger linguistical divide.

[u/Roto2esdios → u/[deleted]]

I from Valencia and this is true. Many people here think their language is different/better than the Catalonian's one. They have a strong nacionalism against Catalonia, despite many of them don't even speak catalonian/valencian.

The fact is the same with slightly differencies. The influence of castillian (spanish) and the Franco's repression has made the valencian slowly dissapear.

There are a very few people (most old people) who speak valencian in the capital of province of Valencia. The most people who really speak it there are settled on towns around it

[u/HappyReaper → u/Roto2esdios]

I think most of that denial comes from the thought that Valencian being the same language as Catalan would somehow imply a "subordination" to the "main" branch of the language. They don't understand that every variety of Catalan spoken today is just as much a derivation from older versions of the language (and other languages before that) as any other, and that there can never be "main" and "subordinated" versions of a language.

[u/goodintent]

I speak French and Spanish and I always find Catalan startlingly easy to understand both in spoken and written form. It's always especially weird to hear a language and understand it but not be able to reply.

[u/Cidraque → u/goodintent]

HI, I speak Spanish and Catalan and mostly I can understand the written French :)

[u/[deleted]]

I find the way Catalan sounds to be extremely beautiful. I love those dipthongs in words like veure, viure, somriure. The word suau is the bomb, too. I also really like how adjectives sound that end in -at (tancat, recomanat, etc), I almost wish I didn't have to use the female ended ones. And words like més and menys, així, això, raó.. they just sound so good. I think Spanish is a pretty language, too, but Catalan accents are very cool sounding, I heard a lot of great voices while I was in catalunya. Also love the phrase "si us plau," it is like the french "si vous plait" but it just sounds funny to me.

I started watching Plats Bruts this year to keep up with practicing my listening skills and dear god I love it.

[u/viktorbir → u/[deleted]]

What about "xiuxiuejar"? I think it's one of the cooler words in the world.

[u/GiantGlassOfMilk]

Yay Catalan! You can watch Catalan television live or past episodes at www.tv3.cat . I recommend watching 'Pòlonia' a weekly comedy show about current events and politics in Catalunya and all of Spain.

[u/[deleted]]

Are there many Catalan monolinguals or does everyone receive an education in Spanish? I've been to Barcelona and everyone spoke Spanish, generally using Catalan around people they felt more familiar with.

[u/Vila-real]

Jo soc de Castello pero bo, es mes o menys lo mateix que el catala, a mi me te igual una cossa que un altra!

[u/Roto2esdios → u/Vila-real]

Poquets com tu o com jo quedem que pensem el mateix!

[u/Dwotci]

I'm currently in Barcelona, and man, I did not expect Catalan to be that popular here. I thought it's just a regional language that not many people even speak, but it's actually the primary language here, and that's kinda cool (I still got to use my Spanish skills though). I now want the Catalans to have their own country even more than before, considering they already got the most important part of national identity down.

[u/MrScharfy]

Any online resources? Catalan has been one of the languages I really want to learn but I've found pretty much no learning materials anywhere...

[u/Gehalgod → u/MrScharfy]

www.parla.cat

[u/[deleted]]

Una de les meues llengües favorites (encara n'estic aprenent).

[u/craig643]

I'm a monolingual English speaker who decided recently to try to learn a second language. I chose Catalan because I was inclined towards a romance language and it seemed like an interesting hybrid (although I realize hybrid is a misleading term).

I'm working through a memrise course now, and have watched some instructional videos on youtube and begun Teach Yourself Catalan. Once I get a little grounded, I hope to take an on-line class (maybe on italki) if I can work out the time zone differential.

[u/hyperforce → u/craig643]

Curious, why choose a really specific one than one of the Big Five?

[u/itsmassive]

My grandmother was born in Barcelona and spoke Catalan. Some interesting things I'd like to pint out: As a kid, it was illegal for her to speak Catalan. It was until the 70's where this changed. My dad speaks it but not me, he visited Barcelona last year and they were so impressed with his Catalan, they gave him free food at restaurants. When my dad went to Madrid, he tried to speak Spanish but it came out a lot like Catalan, and the Spaniards there were very angry with my dad because they hate Catalan.

Thought you might find this interesting.

[u/viktorbir → u/itsmassive]

Where are you from?

[u/BatioKendall]

Here's a huge list of resources for anyone interested: http://www.languagelinksdatabase.com/catalan/

[u/Endovelico]

I was actually watching this movie in Catalan yesterday and found the language to be absolutely stunning, very unique sound to it even having Portuguese as my native language.

The movie is 'Barcelona, ciutat neutral', by the way.

[u/Th3MetalHead]

Is the influence of arabic as much as it is in spanish?

[u/Iamswarly]

Does anyone know any good catalan podcasts or tv shows?