Catalan belongs to the Occitan-Romance subgroup of the Indo-European family. It is state in the Principality of Andorra. The total number of people speaking Catalan is approximately 11 million. Most often, this language can be heard on the territory of the autonomous communities of Spain (Balearic Islands and Valencia), Italy (the city of Alghero, which is located on the island of Sardinia) and France (Eastern Pyrenees).
General information and brief description
In the XVIII century, Catalan speech had many names due to the fact that it was used in different territories. To this day, two more terms that designate this language have survived - Catalan-Valencia-Balearic (used mainly in the scientific literature) and Valencia. The latter option is used exclusively by peoples who live in the autonomous community of Valencia (part of Spain). There is also a rare name "Mallorca", which is used in informal cases (Balearic Islands, Kingdom of Mallorca).
Catalan occupies an honorable sixth place in the Romanesque group in terms of the number of speakers (at least 11.6 million people). He is ahead of Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and Romanian. Catalan is at the 14th place in the European Union for the purity of use in everyday speech.
For writing, an adapted Latin is used: for example, the letter combinations -ny-, -l ∙ l-, -ig, which are not found anywhere else. The characteristic features of the language regarding phonetics and grammar are the number of vowels (there are seven in the Roman group, eight in the Catalan group) and the use of special articles in front of names.
In January 2009, a record was set for the longest monologue in the world (124 hours of continuous speech). Most were pronounced in Catalan. The author of the record was the Perpignan Lewis Kulet.
History of origin and development
It is generally accepted that the Catalan language began to form in the distant X century, since the earliest monuments using the dialect "Sermons of Organany", which were found earlier, date from this century. It arose on the basis of folk Latin in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. In the late Middle Ages, Catalan was considered prestigious and was often used in literature (poets preferred to write in Occitan), philosophy, and even science.
Starting from the XIII century, the dialect gradually strengthens its position in order to become an independent language. At that time, Ramon Lull, using Catalan, created works on theological, philosophical and artistic topics. Truly a golden age for language was the 15th century. Ausias Mark became the most unsurpassed and bright master who was one of the first to use this language in poetry. Superiority in prose, of course, belongs to the novels “Tyrant White” and “Curial and Guelfa”, authored by Juanot Martorell.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Catalan language lost its former greatness. The reason for this was the social and political elite, which began to actively use Castilian (the ancient name of Spanish). Thanks to the common people and the clergy, who continued to use Catalan in everyday life, the language did not become dead.
After the Civil War of 1936-1939 and Franco's victory was forbidden by the use of the dialect in colloquial and written language. In Spain at that time there was even a law according to which a person using Catalan was subjected to criminal punishment. The emergence of democracy in the country led to the autonomy of some areas, as a result of which the language again received the status of the state.
Spelling
Catalan writing uses the Latin alphabet using diacritics. Among the features of this spelling are the following:
- the use of the intermediate between the doubled letter l: intel • ligent - smart;
- use of the combination -ig-, which denotes the sound [] in words such as maig, faig, etc.
- use of the letter t, which indicates the following extended consonant, tl, tll, tn and tm: setmana - week, bitllet - ticket;
- the combinations tz, ts, tj, tg are used to indicate affricates.
Vowel Features
One of the features of this type of sound is the disappearance of vowels at the end of words of Latin origin except for the letter –a. This feature primarily distinguishes Catalan from the languages of the Italo-Romance and Western Iberian subgroups. The languages of these subfamilies retain all the final vowels. Catalan and Occitan have a number of common monosyllables and numerous diphthongs. The difference between the two aforementioned languages is the reduction of the diphthong AU to the open sound O.
Catalan differs from Spanish in maintaining the open pronunciation of short stressed vowels of Latin origin Ŏ and Ĕ. The combination of letters –ACT in the middle of words undergoes reduction and goes into –ET. This feature is common to the Catalan and languages of the Western Romanesque group (Occitan and Languedoc dialect).
Consonant Features
This type of sound is characterized by the transition of deaf -T, -C, -P to voiced -d-, -g-, -b. This trait combines Catalan with the West Romanesque subfamily. This language is related to the Gallo-Romance group by preserving the initial sounds FL, PL, CL, replacing the deaf consonants with the corresponding voiced ones in case the next word begins with a voiced consonant or vowel. The process of falling out of the intervocal –N, which is similar to vulgar Latin and stunning of the final consonant, combines Catalan with the Occitan and Languedoc dialect.
- Consider the original features that are not found in the languages of the romance group:
- Latin consonant –D becomes –u;
- ending –TIS goes into –u (exclusively for the second person plural);
- a combination of Latin final sounds -C + e, i → -u (approx. CRUCEM → creu).
Varieties
At different times in the territories of those regions where the Catalan language is spoken, various dialects appeared under its influence. Consider the most significant, as well as the places of their occurrence:
- Sicilian in southern Italy;
- dialect patuet, which until the second half of the last century, immigrants spoke, and later - their descendants from the South of Valencia, Menorca. As for vocabulary, its basis was part of the Arabic and French words;
- The Catalan language influenced the formation of the Panotcho dialect (autonomous community of Murcia). Country of Origin - Spain;
- Sicilian, Southern Italy;
- Churro dialect, territory of the Spanish-speaking regions of the autonomous community of Valencia;
- Neapolitan language, country - Italy.