Catalan language
Catalan (/ˈkætələn, -æn/ KAT-ə-lən, -lan or /ˌkætəˈlæn/ KAT-ə-LAN;[4][5] autonym: català, Eastern Catalan: [kətəˈla]), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as Valencian (autonym: valencià), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra,[6] and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian. It has semi-official status in the Italian comune of Alghero,[7] and it is spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France and in two further areas in eastern Spain: the eastern strip of Aragon and the Carche area in the Region of Murcia. The Catalan-speaking territories are often called the Països Catalans or "Catalan Countries".[8]
"Catala" redirects here. For the ship, see SS Catala. For the surname, see Catalá.Catalan
- Valencian
- Balaeric (including Menorcan)
- Central
- Roussillonese
- Algherese
- Northwestern
- Ribagorçan
- Judaeo-Catalan †
- Patuet
51-AAA-e
The language evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees. Nineteenth-century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival,[9][10] culminating in the early 1900s.
Vocabulary[edit]
Word choices[edit]
Despite its relative lexical unity, the two dialectal blocks of Catalan (Eastern and Western) show some differences in word choices.[59] Any lexical divergence within any of the two groups can be explained as an archaism. Also, usually Central Catalan acts as an innovative element.[59]
Literary Catalan allows the use of words from different dialects, except those of very restricted use.[59] However, from the 19th century onwards, there has been a tendency towards favoring words of Northern dialects to the detriment of others, even though nowadays there is a greater freedom of choice.[59]
Latin and Greek loanwords[edit]
Like other languages, Catalan has a large list of loanwords from Greek and Latin. This process started very early, and one can find such examples in Ramon Llull's work.[59] In the 14th and 15th centuries Catalan had a far greater number of Greco-Latin loanwords than other Romance languages, as is attested for example in Roís de Corella's writings.[59] The incorporation of learned, or "bookish" words from its own ancestor language, Latin, into Catalan is arguably another form of lexical borrowing through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, most literate Catalan speakers were also literate in Latin; and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing—and eventually speech—in Catalan.
Word formation[edit]
The process of morphological derivation in Catalan follows the same principles as the other Romance languages,[133] where agglutination is common. Many times, several affixes are appended to a preexisting lexeme, and some sound alternations can occur, for example elèctric [əˈlɛktrik] ("electrical") vs. electricitat [ələktrisiˈtat]. Prefixes are usually appended to verbs, as in preveure ("foresee").[133]
There is greater regularity in the process of word-compounding, where one can find compounded words formed much like those in English.[133]
Institutions
About the Catalan language
Monolingual dictionaries
Bilingual and multilingual dictionaries
Automated translation systems
Phrasebooks
Learning resources
Catalan-language online encyclopedia