Catalan belongs to the Occitano-Romance subgroup of the Indo-European family. It is a state in the Principality of Andorra. The total number of people who speak 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 (Oriental Pyrenees).
General information and brief description
In the 18th century, the Catalan speech had many names due to the fact that it was used in different territories. To this day, two more terms denoting this language have survived - Catalan-Valencian-Balearic (used mainly in scientific literature) and Valencian. 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 "Mallorquin", which is used on informal occasions.(Balearic Islands, Kingdom of Mallorca).
Catalan takes an honorable sixth place in the Romance group in terms of the number of speakers (at least 11.6 million people). It is ahead of Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and Romanian. Catalan is ranked 14th in the European Union in terms of purity of use in everyday speech.
Adapted Latin is used for writing: for example, letter combinations -ny-, -l∙l-, -ig, which are not found anywhere else. Characteristic features of the language regarding phonetics and grammar are the number of vowels (there are seven in the Romance group, eight in Catalan) and the use of special articles before names.
In January 2009, the record was set for the longest monologue in the world (124 hours of continuous speech). Most were spoken in Catalan. Perpignan Lewis Kulet became the author of the record.
History of emergence and development
It is generally accepted that the Catalan language began to take shape in the distant 10th century, since the earliest monuments using the Sermons of Organia dialect that were found earlier date from this century. It originated on the basis of folk Latin in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. During 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 13th century, the dialect gradually strengthens its position in order to become an independent language. At that time, Ramon Lullusing Catalan, he created essays on theological, philosophical and artistic topics. A truly golden age for the language was the 15th century. The most unsurpassed and brilliant master, who was one of the first to use this language in poetry, was Ausias Mark. The primacy in prose, of course, belongs to the novels "The White Tyrant" and "Curial and Guelfa", the author of which was Joanot Martorel.
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 1936-1939 and the victory of Franco, the use of the dialect in spoken and written speech was prohibited. In Spain at that time, there was even a law according to which a person using Catalan was subject to criminal punishment. The emergence of democracy in the country led to the autonomization of some areas, as a result of which the language again received the status of the state language.
Spelling
Catalan writing uses the Latin alphabet with diacritical marks. Among the features of this spelling, the following stands out:
- use of interpunct between double letter l: intel•ligent – smart;
- using the combination -ig-, which denotes the sound [ʧ] in words such as maig, faig, etc.;
- usethe letter t, which stands for the following extended consonant tl, tll, tn and tm: setmana - week, bitllet - ticket;
- combinations tz, ts, tj, tg are used to denote affricates.
Characteristic features of vowels
One of the features of this type of sounds 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 final vowels. Catalan and Occitan share a number of monosyllabic words and numerous diphthongs. The difference between the above two languages lies in the reduction of the diphthong AU to the open sound O.
Catalan differs from Spanish in maintaining the open pronunciation of the short stressed vowels of Latin origin Ŏ and Ĕ. The combination of letters -ACT in the middle of words undergoes reduction and turns into -ET. This feature is common to Catalan and the languages of the Western Romance group (Occitan and Languedoc).
Features of consonants
This type of sounds is characterized by the transition of voiceless -T, -C, -P to voiced -d-, -g-, -b. This trait unites Catalan with the Western Romance subfamily. With the Gallo-Romance group, this language is related to the preservation of the initial sounds FL, PL, CL, the change of voiceless consonants to the corresponding voiced ones if the subsequent word begins with a voiced consonant or vowel. The process of dropping the intervocalic -N, which resembles the vulgarLatin and stunning the final consonant unites Catalan with Occitan and Languedoc.
- Let's consider original features that are not found in Romance languages:
- Latin -D becomes -u;
- ending -TIS becomes -u (exclusively for the second person plural);
- combination of Latin final sounds -C + e, i → -u (approx. CRUCEM → creu).
Varieties
At different times, in the territories of those areas 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;
- Patouet dialect, which was spoken by immigrants until the second half of the last century, and later by their descendants from the South of Valencia, Menorca. As for the vocabulary, it was based on a part of Arabic and French words;
- It was the Catalan language that influenced the formation of the panotcho dialect (the 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.
