Pepetps

There are two main standards for Catalan language, one regulated by Institut d'Estudis Catalans, general standard, with Pompeu Fabra's orthography as axis keeping features from Central Catalan, and other regulated by Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, restricted scale standard, focused on valencian standardization on the basis of Normes de Castelló, that is, Pompeu Fabra's orthography but more adapted to Western Catalan pronunciation and features of Valencian dialects.

IEC's Standard, apart from the basis of Central Catalan features, takes also other dialects features considering as standard. Despite this, the most notable difference between both standards is some tonical "e" accentuation, for instance: francès or anglès (IEC) - francés (French) or anglés(English) (AVL), cafè (IEC) - café (AVL) (coffee), conèixer (IEC) - conéixer (to know), comprèn (IEC) - comprén (AVL) (he understands). This is because of the different pronunciation of some tonical "e", specially tonical Ē (long "e") and Ǐ (breves "i") from latin, in both Catalan blocks ([ɛ] in Eastern Catalan and [e] in Western Catalan). Despite this, AVL's standard keeps grave accent "è", without pronouncing this "e" [ɛ], in some words like: què (what), València, èter (ether), sèsam (sesame), sèrie (series) i època (age).

There are also some other divergences like the tl use by AVL in some words instead of tll like in ametla/ametlla (almond), espatla/espatlla (back) or butla/butlla (bull), the use of elided demonstratives (este this , eixe that (near)) in the same level as reinforced ones (aquest, aqueix) or the use of lots of verbal forms common in valencian, and some of these common in the rest of Western Catalan too, like subjunctive mood or inchoative conjugation in -ix- at the same level as -eix- or the priority use of -e morpheme in 1st singular person in indicative present (-ar verbs): "jo compre" (I buy) instead of "jo compro".

In Balearic Islands, IEC's standard is used but adapted into Balearic dialect by University of the Balearic Islands's philological section, Govern de les Illes Balears's consultant organ. In this way, for instance, IEC says it is correct writing "cantam" as much as "cantem" (we sing) and University says that priority form in Balearic Islands must be "cantam" in all fields. Another feature of Balearic standard is the non-ending in 1st singular person in indicative present: "jo cant" (I sing), "jo tem" (I fear), jo "dorm" (I sleep).

In l'Alguer, IEC has adapted his standard into Alguerese dialect. In this standard one can find, among all features: the lo article instead of el, special possessive pronouns and determinants la mia (my), lo sou/la sua (his/her), lo tou/la tua (your), and so on, the use of -v- at imperfect tense in all conjugations: cantava, creixiva, llegiva; the use of lots of archaic words, usual words in Alguerese: manco instead of menys (less), calqui u instead of algú (someone), qual/quala instead of quin/quina (which), and so on; and the adaptation of weak pronouns.

Features of Catalan language edit

Homilies of Organyà: First manuscript in Catalan

Catalan language has some features that make it different from other surrounding Romance languages and these ones became typical of Catalan owing to the evolution of Vulgar Latin. The following features are some of the mutations of Latin language done during the Catalan language consolidation, although there are some general features.

Vowel system edit

Common features with Gallo-Romance:
- Loss of unstressed vowels at the end of vowels except -A (MURU -wall-, FLORE -flower-→ mur, flor) opposed to Ibero Romance maintaining all final vowels except -E (muro but flor/chor) or Italo Romance maintaining all (muro, fiore).

Common features with Occitan:
- Richness of diphthongs and monosyllabic words: ([aj] mai -never-, [ej] rei -king-, [aw] cau -he falls-, [ew] beu -he drinks-, [ow] pou -a well-...)

Opposing features to Gallo Romance:
- Preservation of latin -u- (moon: Oriental Catalan lluna ['ʎunə], Occidental Catalan lluna ['ʎuna/ɛ], Occitan luna ['lyno], French lune ['lyn]).

Opposing features to Spanish:
- Maintenance of opened pronunciation of Vulgar Latin stressed Ĕ and Ŏ ("e" i "o" breve) [ɛ] and [ɔ] respectively (TERRA -land-→ terra ['tɛra]/['tɛrə]; FOCUS -fire-→ foc [fɔk])

Opposing features to Occitan (generally):
- Diphthong reduction AU to opened O (CAULIS, PAUCU → col -cabbage-, poc -not much-).

Features of Western Romance (Southern Lengadocian, Ibero-Romance):
- The -ACT- group becomes -ET (LACTE, FACTU → *lleit, *feit → llet -milk-, fet -done, fact-)

Consonant system edit

General feature of Western Romance:
- Voicing of -P-, -T-, -C- between two vowels into -b-, -d-, -g- (CAPRA -goat-, CATENA -chain-, SECURU -safe- → cabra, cadena, segur)

Common features in Gallo Romance:
- Maintenance of initials PL, CL, FL- (PLICARE, CLAVE, FLORE → aplegar -to reach-, clau -key-, flor -flower-). This feature oppose Catalan to Ibero Romance (in Spanish llegar, llave, in Portuguese chegar, chave).
- As in French and in Occitan, there is a voicing of final voiceless phonemes when the first phoneme of the next word is a vowel or a voiced consonant. This voicing affects phonemes [s], [t], [p], [ʃ], [k] and [tʃ] becoming [z], [d], [b], [ʒ], [ɡ] and [ʤ]. Examples (in Valencian pronunciation): "els homes" -the men- [els] and [ɔmes] -> [elzɔmes]; "peix bo" -good fish- [pejʃ] and [bɔ] -> [pejʒbɔ]; "blat bord" -bread wheat- [blat] and [boɾ(t)] -> [blad'boɾ(t)].

Common features with Occitan (Languedocian exactly)
- Loss of "-N-" between vowels that becomes final at words (PANE, VINU → pa, vi). Unlike Languedocian and Northern Catalan, plural forms conserves this [n] (ex: pans, vins).
- Coversion of final voiced consonants to voiceless ones: verd [t], àrab [p]...

Specific features:
- The most particular features of Catalan are the following ones, these are difficult to see in other Romanic languages:
  - -D- between vowels and afterwards -D final becomes -u (PEDE, CREDIT →peu -foot-, (ell) creu -he believes-)
  - -C + e, i, final →-u (CRUCEM →creu -cross-)
  - -TIS endings in verbs (2nd person in plural) have become -u (MIRATIS → *miratz → mirau → mirau/mireu -they look-.

Consonantal palatalizations (scattered around Latin Europe):
- Palatalization of inital L- (LUNA, LEGE → lluna, llei -moon, law-). This feature can be found in Occitan of Foix and in Astur-Leonese.
- Palatalization of -is- group to [jʃ]/[ʃ] from -X-, SC- (COXA, PISCE → cuixa, peix -thigh, fish-)
- /k/ + [e], [i], [j] → *[ʦ] → [s]; CAELU → cel [sɛl] -sky or heaven-.
- /g/ + [e], [i], [j] → *[ʤ] → [ʤ]/[ʒ]; GELU → gel [ʤɛl]/[ʒɛl] -ice-.
- /j/ → *[ʤ] → [ʤ]/[ʒ]; IACTARE → gitar [ʤi'tar]/[ʤi'ta]/[ʒi'ta] -lay down-
- -ly-, -ll-, -c'l-, -t'l- → ll [ʎ]; MULIERE → muller -wife-; CABALLU → cavall -horse-, també hi ha altres casos com villa → vila -town-, where the gemination has been simplified; AURICULA → *oric'la → orella -ear-; UETULUS → *vet'lu → vell -old-.
- -ni-, -gn-, -nn- → ny [ɲ]; LIGNA → llenya -firewood-; ANNUS → any -year- (a feature shared with Spanish).

Other features, also originals, have a bigger extension in other Romance languages.
- Reduction of consonantal groups -MB-, -ND-> -m-, -n- (CAMBA, MANDARE, BINDA> cama -leg-, manar -to send, to lead-, bena -bandage-), feature shared with Gascon and southern Languedocian.
- Presence of double consonants: setmana [mm] -week-, cotna [nn] -pok rind-, bitllet [ʎʎ] -note, ticket-, guatla [ll] -quail-, intel·ligent [ll]>[l] -intelligent-. This is only common in Occitan and Italic languages; but [ʎʎ].

Morphology edit

A piece of Catalan language (Balearic Islands, Costa Brava and Tàrbena) has maintained an article called "salat" (< Latin IPSE, IPSA > es, sa), probably formed before of ILLE derived forms. These articles are in danger, if they aren't disappeared, in places of Provenza and Sicilia and they're only preserved in Sard.
Commnon articles (and normative) are el, la, els, les (old forms lo and los are common nowadays in some occidental dialects and in Algherese)
Despite of Ibero-Romance languages, Catalan language makes some phonetical elisions. Some elisions are written like el + home > l'home -the man- and some other are only pronounced like quinze anys [kin'zaɲs] -fifteen years-.
Possessive adjectives are formed with the Article (ex : el meu gos -my dog-) like in Italian (il mio cane), in Portugese (o meu cão) and in many Occitan dialects (Roergas, Languedocian and Pyrenean Gascon...). Also another possessive adjectives construction exist, but its presence depends on dialects, and it's used basically in familiar relatives and in order to express a high degree of affection (for instance: mon pare -my dad-; in Valencian ma casa -my home-, ma vida -my life-).
Feminine plural is formed with "-es" ending (casa -house- > cases).
Catalan language has sensitive plurals (French doesn't have them; Ex: un pas > des pas) and they are formed with -os ending. Ex: gos -dog- > gossos, peix -fish- > peixos. This fact is opposed to Spanish and Occitan language because they use -es (ex: mes -month- > meses).
Minimal presence of Partitive article like in Ibero-Romance languages (ex: vull pa -I want some bread-, Span. quiero pan but Fren.: je veux du pain.
There is a special construction for past tense. It is a periphrasis formed with a special conjugation of anar -to go-, that comes from latin verb VADERE, plus infinitive form. For example: jo vaig dir -I said- (this construction has almost token the place of simple construction jo diguí).

Vocabulary edit

Basic vocabulary denotes more affinities with Gallo-Romance group than Ibero-Romance. These similar facts are more notable with Occitan (Below there are examples in Languedocian).

FENESTRA > finestra -window- (Oc. fenèstra/finèstra, Fr. fenêtre, It. finestra) i VENTUS > ventana (Spa.), janela (Port.)
MANDUCARE > menjar -to eat- (Oc. manjar, Fr. manger, It. mangiare) i COMEDERE > comer (Spa. and Port.)
MATUTINU > matí -morning- (Oc. matin, Fr. matin, It. mattino/mattina) i HORA MANEANA > mañana (Spa.), amanhã (port.),
PARABOLARE > parlar -to speak- (Oc. parlar, Fr. parler, It. parlare) i FAVOLARE > hablar (Spa.), falar (Port.).
TABULA > taula -table- (Oc. taula, Fr. table, It. tavola) i MENSA > mesa (Spa. and Port.).

Writing System edit

Catalan writing system has some special features too. Catalan language has a unique feature, the geminated L -l·l-, written with an interpunct between two "l" (used for instance in: intel·ligent -intelligent- or novel·la -novel-). This special kind of digraph is used to distinguish phonetically [ll] with [ʎ] (written "ll" like in Spanish). Another special digraph is "-ny-" [ɲ], only found in Hungarian language and in many African languages. It is also good to know -ig end digraph, pronounced [ʧ] behind vowel (faig -I do-, maig -May-, puig -hill-, raig -thunder-, roig -red-, vaig -I go-, veig -I see-) and [iʧ] behind consonant (mig -half-, desig -desire-) or the representation with t+consonant of doppel consonants digraphs: "tm" [mm], "tn" [nn], "tl" [ll] and "tll" [ʎʎ] and the affrication: "ts" [ts], "tz" [dz], "tg" and "tj" [dʒ] (setmana -week-, cotna -pork rind-, Betlem -Betlehem-, bitllet -bank note-, potser -maybe-, dotze -twelve-, jutge -judge-, platja -beach-).