Catalan IPA: [ˈkʰæ.təˌlæn] (català IPA: [kə.tə'la] or [ka.ta'la]) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia (in the latter with the name of Valencian), and in the city of L'Alguer in the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, although with no official recognition, in the autonomous communities of Aragon (in La Franja) and Murcia (in El Carxe) in Spain, and in Northern Catalonia, a historical region of Catalonia in southern France, which is more or less equivalent to the département of the Pyrénées-Orientales.

Classification

Main article: Catalan countries Geographic distribution

Number of Catalan speakers

Territories where Catalan is official

Other territories
Notes: The number of people who understand Catalan includes those who can speak it.
Sources: Catalonia: Statistic data of 2001 census, from Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya, Generalitat de Catalunya [1]. Land of Valencia: Statistical data from 2001 census, from Institut Valencià d'Estadística, Generalitat Valenciana [2]. Balearic Islands: Statistical data from 2001 census, from Institut Balear d'Estadística, Govern de les Illes Balears [3]. Northern Catalonia: Media Pluriel Survey commissioned by Prefecture of Languedoc-Roussillon Region done in October 1997 and published in January 1998 [4]. Andorra: Sociolinguistic data from Andorran Government, 1999. Aragon: Sociolinguistic data from Euromosaic [5]. Alguer: Sociolinguistic data from Euromosaic [6]. Rest of World: Estimate for 1999 by the Federació d'Entitats Catalanes outside the Catalan Countries.

World
In 1861, Manuel Milà i Fontanals proposed a division of Catalan into two major dialect blocks: Eastern Catalan and Western Catalan.
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). The main differences between the two blocks are:
In addition, neither dialect is completely homogeneous: any dialect can be subdivided into several sub-dialects. Catalan can be subdivided in two major dialect blocks and those blocks into individual dialects:
Western Catalan
Eastern Catalan
See Catalan dialect examples for examples of each dialect.
Standard Catalan, as regulated by the IEC, centres on the speech of the educated classes of Barcelona, and so is closest to Central Catalan; however, not all of the features of Barcelonese speech can be considered standard, as there are lots of traditional dialectal traits and a Spanish influence in that area. Additionally, most important dialectal traits of other dialects are also considered standard. The orthography used to write Standard Catalan (and basically any Catalan text) is closest to Valencian pronunciation, although some instances of grave accented <è> correspond to Central Catalan. There is also a second standard form of the language, Valencian (valencià), regulated by the AVL. The Valencian standard is very close to IEC's but adds features characteristic of Western Catalan.

Western Catalan (Bloc o Branca del Català Occidental):

• Unstressed vowels: [a] [e] [i] [o] [u]. Distinctions between e and a and o and u.
  Initial or post-consonantal x is affricate /tʃ/. Between vowels or when final and preceded by i, it is /jʃ/.
  1st person present indicative is -e or -o.
  Latin tonical vowels Ē (long "e") and Ǐ (short "i") are pronounced [e].
  Inchoative in -ix, -ixen, -isca
  Maintenance of medieval nasal plural in proparoxiton words: hòmens, jóvens
  Specific Vocabulary: espill, xiquet, granera, melic...
  Eastern Catalan (Bloc o Branca del Català Oriental):
  
  
  
  • Unstressed vowels [ə] [i] [u]. The unstressed vowels e and a become /ə/ and o and u become /u/.
    Initial or post-consonantal x is the fricative /ʃ/. Between vowels or final preceded by i it is also /ʃ/.
    1st person present indicative is -o, -i or ø.
    Latin tonical vowels Ē (long "e") and Ǐ (short "i") are pronounced [ɛ] (parts of Eivissenc dialect and in Alguerese, these are pronounced [e]).
    Inchoative in -eix, -eixen, -eixi.
    The -n- of medieval nasal plural is dropped in proparoxiton words: homes, joves.
    Specific Vocabulary: mirall, noi, escombra, llombrígol...
    North-Western Catalan (colour: light blue)
    
    
    
    • Ribagorçà (from Ribagorça, a region of Catalonia)
      Pallarès (from Pallars)
      Lleidatà (from Lleida province)
      Transitional Valencian or Ebrenc (colour: blue)
      
      
      
      • Tortosí (from Tortosa)
        Catalan from Matarranya
        Vinarossenc (from Vinaròs)
        Valencian from Maestrat (a region of Valencia)
        Valencian (colour: dark blue)
        
        
        
        • Castellonenc (from region of Plana)
          Apitxat, or Central Valencian
          Southern Valencian
          Alacantí (from the Alicante's metropolitan area and most of Vinalopó valley)
          Majorcan from Tàrbena and la Vall de Gallinera Valencian municipalities
          Northern Catalan, or rossellonès (from Roussillon) (colour: pink)
          Central Catalan (colour: light red)
          
          
          
          • Salat (from the Costa Brava)
            Barceloní (from Barcelona)
            Tarragoní (from Tarragona)
            Xipella
            Balearic (colour: dark red)
            
            
            
            • Mallorquí (from Majorca, Mallorca in Catalan)
              Menorquí (from Minorca, Menorca in Catalan)
              Eivissenc (from Ibiza, Eivissa in Catalan)
              Alguerese (from the Italian city of Alghero) Dialects
              
              
              Main article: Valencian The status of Valencian
              
              

              Main articles: Catalan alphabet and Catalan phonology and orthography Grammar
              Catalan language developed by the 9th century from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the eastern part of Pyrenees mountains (counties of 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).
              As a consequence of the Catalan conquests from Al-Andalus to the south and to the west, it spread to all present-day Catalonia, Balearic Islands and most of Valencia.
              On the 15th century, during Valencian Golden Age, Catalan language reached its highest cultural splendor, which could not be comparable again until La Renaixença, 4 centuries later.
              See also History of Catalonia
              After the Treaty of the Pyrenees, a royal decree by Louis XIV of France on April 2, 1700 prohibited the usage of Catalan language in present-day Northern Catalonia in all official documents under the threat of being invalidated. Since then, Catalan language has lacked official status in that Catalan-speaking region in France.
              See also Language policy in France
              After Nueva Planta Decrees, administrative usage and education in Catalan was also banned in the territories of the Spanish Kingdom. It was not until Renaixença period, that Catalan language started to recover.
              In Francoist Spain (1939-1975), the usage of Castilian over Catalan was promoted, and public use of Catalan was discouraged and repressed. In spite of this, several thousand books were published in Catalan. Franco's effort to portray Catalan as an archaic dialect still allowed the publication of, for example, older poetry. Some modern works were sneaked under censorship by pretending that they were older.
              See also Language politics in Spain under Franco
              Following the death of Franco in 1975 and the restoration of democracy, the usage of Catalan increased and the Catalan language is now used in politics, education and the Catalan media, including the newspapers Avui ("Today"), El Punt ("The Point") and El Periódico de Catalunya (sharing content with its Spanish release and with El Periòdic d'Andorra, printed in Andorra; and the television channels of Televisió de Catalunya (TVC): TV3, the main channel, and Canal 33/K3 (culture and cartoons channel) as well as a 24-hour news channel 3/24 and the TV series channel 300; there are also many local channels available in region in Catalan, such as BTV and Td8 (in the metropolitan area of Barcelona), Canal L'Hospitalet (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat), Canal Terrassa (Terrassa), Televisió de Sant Cugat TDSC (enSant Cugat del Vallès).
              
              History
              Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See International Phonetic Alphabet for a pronunciation key.
              Some common Catalan phrases (pronounced as in the Central dialect -Barcelona and outskirts-):
              Some useful Valencian phrases (pronounced as in the standard Valencian):
              
              Catalan: Català /kətəˈlɑ/
              Hello: hola /ˈɔlə/
              Good-bye: adéu /əˈðew/; adéu siau /əˈðew siˈaw/
              Please: si us plau /sisˈplaw/
              Thank you: gràcies /ˈgɾɑsiəs/; mercès /məɾˈsɛs/
              Sorry: perdó /pəɾˈðo/, ho sento /u ˈsentu/
              This one: aquest /əˈkɛt/ (masc.); aquesta /əˈkɛstə/ (fem.)
              How much?: quant val? /ˈkwɑmˈbɑl/; quant és? /ˈkwɑnˈes/
              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? /ˈonˈezəlˈləˈβɑβu/
              Generic toast: salut! /səˈlut/;
              Do you speak English?: Que parla (l')anglès? /kə ˈpaɾlə lənˈglɛs/
              Do you speak Catalan?: Que parla (el) català? /kə ˈpaɾləl kətəˈlɑ/
              Valencian: valencià /valensi'a/
              Hello: hola /'ɔla/
              Good-bye: adéu /a'ðew/
              Please: per favor /peɾ fa'voɾ/
              Thank you: gràcies /'gɾasies/
              Sorry: perdó /peɾ'ðo/; ho sent /u'sent/ or /u'senk/; ho lamente /'u la'mente/
              This one: este /'este/ (masc.); esta /'esta/ (fem.)
              That one (near): eixe /'ejʃe/ (masc.); eixa /'ejʃa/ (fem.)
              That one (far): aquell /a'keʎ/ (masc.); aquella /a'keʎa/ (fem.)
              How much?: quant val? /'kwan'val/; quant és? /'kwan'tes/; quant costa? /'kuant 'kɔstɔ/
              Yes: sí /'si/
              No: no /'no/
              I don't understand: no ho entenc /'nowan'teŋ/; no ho comprenc /'now kom'preŋ/
              Where's the bathroom?: on està el bany? /'on es'tal'βaɲ/; on està el servici? /'on es'tal ser'visi/
              Generic toast: Jesús /dʒe'zus/; salut /sa'lut/
              Do you speak English?: parla anglés? /'parlan'gles/; ¿sap parlar en anglés? /'sap paɾ'laɾ'enan'gles/
              Do you speak Valencian?: parla valencià? /'paɾla valensi'a/; sap parlar en valencià? /'sap paɾ'laɾ'envalensi'a/ Examples
              Catalan courses are given at many universities both in Europe and in North America.
              A free online Catalan course will be available from autumn 2007 at www.parlar.cat.
              
              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 0-8442-3755-8.
              Colloquial Catalan. — Toni Ibarz and Alexander Ibarz. — Routledge, 2005. — ISBN 0-415-23412-3. Learning Catalan
              
              Barracks, from barraca, used for several kinds of buildings. It passed to French barraque/baraque and, during the The Thirty Years War, passed to the European languages (English in 1678).
              Allioli, from all i oli, a typical sauce made by mixing olive oil and garlic with a mortar and pestle.
              Cul-de-sac, from cul de sac (bottom of a sack), a typical catalan expression. English words of Catalan origin
              In the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, the character of the naval surgeon Stephen Maturin speaks Catalan natively, being of Irish-Catalan heritage. O'Brian himself was also fluent in Catalan.
              In the 2002 film L'Auberge espagnole by Cédric Klapisch the character of Isabelle asks a Professor if he can speak in Spanish instead of Catalan to help accommodate the ERASMUS_programme students (who don't understand Catalan).
              In one notorious episode (The Girl Who Breaks Down) in the seventh cycle of America's Next Top Model, the models had to learn the Catalan language for commercial for Secret deodorant .
              
              Pop Culture
              
              Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Catalan Studies Institute)
              Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (Valencian Academy of the Language)
              Pompeu Fabra
              Catalan literature
              Languages of France
              Languages of Italy
              Languages of Spain
              Catalan names
              New Catalan top-level domain .cat
              Balearic See also
              
              Institutions
              
              Ethnologue report for Catalan
              Catalan resources in the Web
              GRAMÀTICA CATALANA A Catalan grammar About the Catalan language
              
              Catalan English Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition
              Diccionari Català de l'IEC
              Diccionari Català-Valencià-Balear d'Alcover i Moll
              Online Catalan dictionary from Enciclopèdia Catalana
              Diccionari Invers de la Llengua Catalana
              DACCO. Open source English-Catalan / Catalan-English dictionary project.
              Catalan phrasebook on Wikitravel
              Learn Catalan!. An introduction for the Catalonia-bound traveler.
              Interc@t. Set of electronic resources for learning the Catalan language and culture.
              SisHiTra Online Spanish-Catalan / Catalan-Spanish text and web translator.
              Traductor Online Catalan to English, French and Spanish and back translator. Catalan-language media
              
              Yahoo! Català Searching in Catalan
              Nosaltres.com
              Google (Catalan language)