:Catalan language

{{Main|Catalonia#Etymology and pronunciation}}

The word Catalan is derived from the territorial name of Catalonia, itself of disputed etymology. The main theory suggests that {{lang|ca|Catalunya}} ({{langx|la|Gathia Launia}}) derives from the name {{lang|la|Gothia}} or {{lang|la|Gauthia}} ('Land of the Goths'), since the origins of the Catalan counts, lords and people were found in the March of Gothia, whence Gothland > Gothlandia > Gothalania > Catalonia theoretically derived.{{sfn|García Venero|2006}}{{sfn|Burke|1900|p=154}}

In English, the term referring to a person first appears in the mid 14th century as Catelaner, followed in the 15th century as {{lang|frm|Catellain}} (from Middle French). It is attested a language name since at least 1652. The word Catalan can be pronounced in English as {{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|æ|t|ə|l|ə|n|,_|-|æ|n}} {{respell|KAT|ə|lən|,_|-|lan}} or {{IPAc-en|ˌ|k|æ|t|ə|ˈ|l|æ|n}} {{respell|KAT|ə|LAN}}.{{Cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Catalan |title=Definition of Catalan |date=16 August 2023 |access-date=29 September 2020 |archive-date=10 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510200230/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Catalan |url-status=live}}{{Cite dictionary |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/catalan |title=Catalan |dictionary=Dictionary.com |access-date=28 August 2022 |archive-date=28 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828073000/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/catalan |url-status=live}}

The endonym is pronounced {{IPA|ca|kətəˈla|}} in the Eastern Catalan dialects, and {{IPA|ca|kataˈla|}} in the Western dialects. In the Valencian Community and Carche, the term {{lang|ca|valencià}} {{IPA|ca-valencia|valensiˈa|}} is frequently used instead. Thus, the name "Valencian", although often employed for referring to the varieties specific to the Valencian Community and Carche, is also used by Valencians as a name for the language as a whole,{{cite web |author=Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua |date=9 February 2005 |title=Acord de l'Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL), adoptat en la reunió plenària del 9 de febrer del 2005, pel qual s'aprova el dictamen sobre els principis i criteris per a la defensa de la denominació i l'entitat del valencià |pages=52 |language=ca-valencia |url=http://www.avl.gva.es/va/acords-AVL/main/03/document/NOMENTITAT.pdf |access-date=16 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923181117/http://www.avl.gva.es/va/acords-AVL/main/03/document/NOMENTITAT.pdf |archive-date=23 September 2015}} synonymous with "Catalan".{{sfn|Lledó|2011|pp=334–337}} Both uses of the term have their respective entries in the dictionaries by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL)The Valencian Normative Dictionary of the Valencian Academy of the Language states that Valencian is a "Romance language spoken in the Valencian Community, as well as in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the French department of the {{lang|fr|Pyrénées-Orientales}}, the Principality of Andorra, the eastern flank of Aragon and the Sardinian town of Alghero (unique in Italy), where it receives the name of 'Catalan'". and the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC).The Catalan Language Dictionary of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans states in the sixth definition of "Valencian" that, in the Valencian Community, it is equivalent to Catalan language. (See also status of Valencian below).

{{Main|History of Catalan}}

{{Further|Old Catalan|Phonological history of Catalan}}

By the 9th century, Catalan had evolved from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the eastern end of the Pyrenees, as well as the territories of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis to the south.{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}} From the 8th century onwards the Catalan counts extended their territory southwards and westwards at the expense of the Muslims, bringing their language with them.{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}} This process was given definitive impetus with the separation of the County of Barcelona from the Carolingian Empire in 988.{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}}

In the 11th century, documents written in macaronic Latin begin to show Catalan elements,{{sfn|Moran|2004|pp=37–38}} with texts written almost completely in Romance appearing by 1080.{{sfn|Moran|2004|pp=37–38}} Old Catalan shared many features with Gallo-Romance, diverging from Old Occitan between the 11th and 14th centuries.{{sfn|Riquer|1964}}

During the 11th and 12th centuries the Catalan rulers expanded southward to the Ebro river,{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}} and in the 13th century they conquered the lands that would become the Kingdoms of Valencia and the Majorca.{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}} The city of Alghero in Sardinia was repopulated with Catalan speakers in the 14th century. The language also reached Murcia, which became Spanish-speaking in the 15th century.{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=190}}

In the Low Middle Ages, Catalan went through a golden age, reaching a peak of maturity and cultural richness.{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}} Examples include the work of Majorcan polymath Ramon Llull (1232–1315), the Four Great Chronicles (13th–14th centuries), and the Valencian school of poetry culminating in Ausiàs March (1397–1459).{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}} By the 15th century, the city of Valencia had become the sociocultural center of the Crown of Aragon, and Catalan was present all over the Mediterranean world.{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}} During this period, the Royal Chancery propagated a highly standardized language.{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}} Catalan was widely used as an official language in Sicily until the 15th century, and in Sardinia until the 17th.{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=190}} During this period, the language was what Costa Carreras terms "one of the 'great languages' of medieval Europe".{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}}

Martorell's novel of chivalry Tirant lo Blanc (1490) shows a transition from Medieval to Renaissance values, something that can also be seen in Metge's work.{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}} The first book produced with movable type in the Iberian Peninsula was printed in Catalan.Trobes en llaors de la Verge Maria ("Poems of praise of the Virgin Mary") 1474.{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=6–7}}

File:Map of the Crown of Aragon.svg [1208–1276] dictated his autobiographical chronicles entirely in Catalan. Some of this territory nowadays makes up the Catalan Countries.]]

{{See also|Nation state}}

File:Mapa político de España, 1850.jpg

With the union of the crowns of Castille and Aragon in 1479, the Spanish kings ruled over different kingdoms, each with its own cultural, linguistic and political particularities, and they had to swear by the laws of each territory before the respective parliaments. But after the War of the Spanish Succession, Spain became an absolute monarchy under Philip V, which led to the assimilation of the Crown of Aragon by the Crown of Castile through the Nueva Planta decrees, as a first step in the creation of the Spanish nation-state; as in other contemporary European states, this meant the imposition of the political and cultural characteristics of the dominant groups.{{cite book |last=Sales Vives |first=Pere |title=L'Espanyolització de Mallorca: 1808–1932 |date=22 September 2020 |publisher=El Gall editor |isbn=9788416416707 |pages=422 |language=ca}}Antoni Simon, [http://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/34591 Els orígens històrics de l'anticatalanisme] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605094401/https://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/34591 |date=5 June 2022 }}, páginas 45-46, L'Espill, nº 24, Universitat de València Since the political unification of 1714, Spanish assimilation policies towards national minorities have been a constant.{{cite book |last=Mayans Balcells |first=Pere |title=Cròniques Negres del Català A L'Escola |year=2019 |isbn=978-84-947201-4-7 |edition=del 1979 |pages=230 |publisher=Edicions del 1979 |language=ca}}{{cite book |last=Lluís |first=García Sevilla |title=Recopilació d'accions genocides contra la nació catalana |publisher=Base |year=2021 |isbn=9788418434983 |pages=300 |language=ca}}{{cite book |last=Bea Seguí |first=Ignaci |title=En cristiano! Policia i Guàrdia Civil contra la llengua catalana |publisher=Cossetània |year=2013 |isbn=9788490341339 |pages=216 |language=ca}}{{cite web |title=Enllaç al Manifest Galeusca on en l'article 3 es denuncia l'asimetria entre el castellà i les altres llengües de l'Estat Espanyol, inclosa el català. |url=http://www.escriptors.cat/pagina.php?id_text=1788 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719071429/http://www.escriptors.cat/pagina.php?id_text=1788 |archive-date=19 July 2008 |access-date=2 August 2008}}{{Cite web |last=Radatz |first=Hans-Ingo |date=8 October 2020 |title=Spain in the 19th century: Spanish Nation Building and Catalonia's attempt at becoming an Iberian Prussia |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344608600 |website=ResearchGate}}{{POV statement|date=October 2023|reason=One of the sources is titled "Recopilation of genocidal actions against the Catalan language". Seriously? Most of these sources are Catalan, foreign authors should be cited for controversial statements like these.}}

The process of assimilation began with secret instructions to the corregidores of the Catalan territory: they "will take the utmost care to introduce the Castilian language, for which purpose he will give the most temperate and disguised measures so that the effect is achieved, without the care being noticed".{{cite book |last=de la Cierva |first=Ricardo |title=Historia general de España: Llegada y apogeo de los Borbones |date=1981 |publisher=Planeta |isbn=8485753003 |pages=78 |language=ca}} From there, actions in the service of assimilation, discreet or aggressive, were continued, and reached to the last detail, such as, in 1799, the Royal Certificate forbidding anyone to "represent, sing and dance pieces that were not in Spanish". The use of Spanish gradually became more prestigious{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=190}} and marked the start of the decline of Catalan.{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|pp=6–7|2009}}{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|pp=190–191}} Starting in the 16th century, Catalan literature came under the influence of Spanish, and the nobles, part of the urban and literary classes became bilingual.{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=190}}

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{{See also|Language policy in France|Vergonha|Patuet}}

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With the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), Spain ceded the northern part of Catalonia to France, and soon thereafter the local Catalan varieties came under the influence of French, which in 1700 became the sole official language of the region.{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=191}}{{cite web |url=http://www.crdp-montpellier.fr/cd66/artscult/fichesVauban/cdvauban/PERIODES/moyenagetempsmodernes/chateaucollioureinterdictioncatalan.pdf |title=L'interdiction de la langue catalane en Roussillon par Louis XIV |publisher="CRDP, Académie de Montpellier |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214055235/http://crdp-montpellier.fr/cd66/artscult/fichesVauban/cdvauban/PERIODES/moyenagetempsmodernes/chateaucollioureinterdictioncatalan.pdf |archive-date=14 December 2010}}

Shortly after the French Revolution (1789), the French First Republic prohibited official use of, and enacted discriminating policies against, the regional languages of France, such as Catalan, Alsatian, Breton, Occitan, Flemish, and Basque.

After the French colony of Algeria was established in 1830, many Catalan-speaking settlers moved there. People from the Spanish province of Alicante settled around Oran, while those from French Catalonia and Menorca migrated to Algiers.

By 1911, there were around 100,000 speakers of Patuet,{{Cite web |last=Àngela-Rosa Menages, Joan-Lluís Monjo |title=El patuet valencià, un reflex lingüístic de la societat algeriana colonial (1830–1962) |url=https://www.upf.edu/diversia/_pdf/El_patuet_valencia.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054920/http://www.upf.edu/diversia/_pdf/El_patuet_valencia.pdf |archive-date=21 September 2013 |url-status=live}} as their speech was called.{{Cite web |last=Plataforma per la llengua |title=The Catalan Language |url=https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/the-catalan-language-en_294_11_2446.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307203232/https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/the-catalan-language-en_294_11_2446.pdf |archive-date=7 March 2022 |url-status=live}} After the Algerian declaration of independence in 1962, almost all the Pied-Noir Catalan speakers fled to Northern Catalonia{{Cite book |last1=Marfany |first1=Marta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dWGWMzJuXN8C |title=Els menorquins d'Algèria |last2=Simó |first2=Marta Marfany |date=2002 |publisher=L'Abadia de Montserrat |isbn=978-84-8415-366-5 |language=ca |access-date=14 December 2022 |archive-date=15 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415045602/https://books.google.com/books?id=dWGWMzJuXN8C |url-status=live}} or Alicante.{{sfn|Marfany|2002}}

The French government only recognizes French as an official language. Nevertheless, on 10 December 2007, the then General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales officially recognized Catalan as one of the départment's languages{{cite web |url=http://www.cg66.fr/202-charte-en-faveur-du-catalan.htm |title=Charte en faveur du Catalan |access-date=18 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222154353/http://www.cg66.fr/202-charte-en-faveur-du-catalan.htm |archive-date=22 December 2012 |url-status=dead}} {{cite web |url=http://www.cg66.fr/199-la-catalanitat-a-catalunya-nord.htm |title=La catalanitat a la Catalunya Nord |access-date=13 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110309142734/http://www.cg66.fr/199-la-catalanitat-a-catalunya-nord.htm |archive-date=9 March 2011 |url-status=dead}} and seeks to further promote it in public life and education.

{{See also|Nueva Planta decrees|Language politics in Spain under Franco|Anti-Catalanism}}

In 1807, the Statistics Office of the French Ministry of the Interior asked the prefects for an official survey on the limits of the French language. The survey found that in Roussillon, almost only Catalan was spoken, and since Napoleon wanted to incorporate Catalonia into France, as happened in 1812, the consul in Barcelona was also asked. He declared that Catalan "is taught in schools, it is printed and spoken, not only among the lower class, but also among people of first quality, also in social gatherings, as in visits and congresses", indicating that it was spoken everywhere "with the exception of the royal courts". He also indicated that Catalan was spoken "in the Kingdom of Valencia, in the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Sardinia, Corsica and much of Sicily, in the Vall d "Aran and Cerdaña".{{cite book |last=Merle |date=5 January 2010 |publisher=Editorial Trabucaire |isbn=978-2849741078 |language=French |location=Perpinyà |first=René |pages=223 |title=Visions de "l'idiome natal" à travers l'enquête impériale sur les patois 1807–1812}}

The defeat of the pro-Habsburg coalition in the War of Spanish Succession (1714) initiated a series of laws which, among other centralizing measures, imposed the use of Spanish in legal documentation all over Spain. Because of this, use of the Catalan language declined into the 18th century.

However, the 19th century saw a Catalan literary revival ({{lang|ca|Renaixença}}), which has continued up to the present day.{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=191}} This period starts with Aribau's Ode to the Homeland (1833); followed in the second half of the 19th century, and the early 20th by the work of Verdaguer (poetry), Oller (realist novel), and Guimerà (drama).{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|pp=10–11}} In the 19th century, the region of Carche, in the province of Murcia was repopulated with Valencian speakers.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=1}} Catalan spelling was standardized in 1913 and the language became official during the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939). The Second Spanish Republic saw a brief period of tolerance, with most restrictions against Catalan lifted.{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=191}} The Generalitat (the autonomous government of Catalonia, established during the Republic in 1931) made a normal use of Catalan in its administration and put efforts to promote it at the social level, including in schools and the University of Barcelona.

The Catalan language and culture were still vibrant during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), but were crushed at an unprecedented level throughout the subsequent decades due to Francoist dictatorship (1939–1975), which abolished the official status of Catalan and imposed the use of Spanish in schools and in public administration in all of Spain, while banning the use of Catalan in them.{{Cite news |last=Burgen |first=Stephen |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/22/catalan-language-survived |title=Catalan: a language that has survived against the odds |date=22 November 2012 |work=The Guardian |access-date=18 January 2017 |language=en-GB |archive-date=24 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224061600/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/22/catalan-language-survived |url-status=live}}{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|pp=190–191}} Between 1939 and 1943 newspapers and book printing in Catalan almost disappeared.{{cite book |last1=Manent |first1=Albert |last2=Crexell |first2=Joan |title=Bibliografia catalana dels anys més difícils (1939–1943) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l39t7WmeBG0C&pg=PA14 |date=1988 |publisher=Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat, S.A |location=Barcelona |isbn=8472029379 |page=14 |access-date=9 December 2023 |archive-date=31 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131130959/https://books.google.com/books?id=l39t7WmeBG0C&pg=PA14 |url-status=live}} Francisco Franco's desire for a homogeneous Spanish population resonated with some Catalans in favor of his regime, primarily members of the upper class, who began to reject the use of Catalan. Despite all of these hardships, Catalan continued to be used privately within households, and it was able to survive Franco's dictatorship. At the end of World War II, however, some of the harsh measures began to be lifted and, while Spanish language remained the sole promoted one, limited number of Catalan literature began to be tolerated. Several prominent Catalan authors resisted the suppression through literature.{{Cite book |last=CORNELLÀ-DETRELL |first=JORDI |jstor=10.7722/j.cttn346z |title=Literature as a Response to Cultural and Political Repression in Franco's Catalonia |date=2011 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-85566-201-8}} Private initiative contests were created to reward works in Catalan, among them Joan Martorell prize (1947), Víctor Català prize (1953) Carles Riba award (1950), or the Honor Award of Catalan Letters (1969).{{Cite web |title=Una polèmica literària sota el franquisme |url=https://palavracomum.com/cas-obert-una-polemica-literaria-sota-el-franquisme-ii-por-xesus-gonzalez-gomez/ |website=Palavracomum |date=20 July 2015 |language=ca-ES |access-date=25 May 2022 |archive-date=17 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817040501/https://palavracomum.com/cas-obert-una-polemica-literaria-sota-el-franquisme-ii-por-xesus-gonzalez-gomez/ |url-status=live}} The first Catalan-language TV show was broadcast in 1964.{{Cite web |title=Primera emisión de un programa en catalán |url=https://www.rtve.es/rtve/20180730/historia-tve-primera-emissio-dun-programa-catala/1772240.shtml |website=RTVE |date=30 July 2018 |language=es-ES |access-date=25 May 2022 |archive-date=25 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525000521/https://www.rtve.es/rtve/20180730/historia-tve-primera-emissio-dun-programa-catala/1772240.shtml |url-status=live}} At the same time, oppression of the Catalan language and identity was carried out in schools, through governmental bodies, and in religious centers.{{Cite journal |last=Casademont |first=Enric Pujol |date=2020 |title=Culture, language and politics. The Catalan cultural resistance during the Franco regime (1939–1977) |url=https://publicacions.iec.cat/repository/pdf/00000292/00000098.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://publicacions.iec.cat/repository/pdf/00000292/00000098.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |journal=Catalan Historical Review |volume=13 |pages=69–84}}

In addition to the loss of prestige for Catalan and its prohibition in schools, migration during the 1950s into Catalonia from other parts of Spain also contributed to the diminished use of the language. These migrants were often unaware of the existence of Catalan, and thus felt no need to learn or use it. Catalonia was the economic powerhouse of Spain, so these migrations continued to occur from all corners of the country. Employment opportunities were reduced for those who were not bilingual.{{Cite journal |last=Rendon |first=Sílvio |date=2007 |title=The Catalan premium: language and employment in Catalonia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20730773 |journal=Journal of Population Economics |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=669–686 |doi=10.1007/s00148-005-0048-5 |jstor=20730773 |hdl=10016/291 |s2cid=29009762 |issn=0933-1433 |hdl-access=free |access-date=4 December 2021 |archive-date=4 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204184857/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20730773 |url-status=live}} Daily newspapers remained exclusively in Spanish until after Franco's death, when the first one in Catalan since the end of the Civil War, Avui, began to be published in 1976.{{cite book |author=Katrin Voltmer |title=Mass Media and Political Communication in New Democracies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Snx9MYO1T7UC&pg=PA19 |year=2006 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-33779-3 |page=19 |access-date=18 September 2023 |archive-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205220526/https://books.google.com/books?id=Snx9MYO1T7UC&pg=PA19 |url-status=live}}

Since the Spanish transition to democracy (1975–1982), Catalan has been institutionalized as an official language, language of education, and language of mass media; all of which have contributed to its increased prestige.{{sfn|Wheeler|2003|p=207}} In Catalonia, there is an unparalleled large bilingual European non-state linguistic community.{{sfn|Wheeler|2003|p=207}} The teaching of Catalan is mandatory in all schools,{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=191}} but it is possible to use Spanish for studying in the public education system of Catalonia in two situations—if the teacher assigned to a class chooses to use Spanish, or during the learning process of one or more recently arrived immigrant students.{{Cite news |last=Armora |first=Esther |url=http://www.abc.es/sociedad/20130909/abci-cataluna-ordena-incumplir-sentencias-201309081829.html |title=Cataluña ordena incumplir las sentencias sobre el castellano en las escuelas |date=9 September 2013 |work=ABC |access-date=10 September 2013 |language=es |trans-title=Catalonia orders violate the judgments on the Castilian in schools |archive-date=11 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130911073217/http://www.abc.es/sociedad/20130909/abci-cataluna-ordena-incumplir-sentencias-201309081829.html |url-status=live}} There is also some intergenerational shift towards Catalan.{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=191}}

More recently, several Spanish political forces have tried to increase the use of Spanish in the Catalan educational system.{{Cite news |last=Wong |first=Alia |date=3 November 2017 |title=Is Catalonia Using Schools as a Political Weapon? |language=en-US |work=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/is-catalonia-using-schools-as-a-political-weapon/544898/ |access-date=11 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171103153605/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/is-catalonia-using-schools-as-a-political-weapon/544898/ |archive-date=3 November 2017}} As a result, in May 2022 the Spanish Supreme Court urged the Catalan regional government to enforce a measure by which 25% of all lessons must be taught in Spanish.{{Cite web |url=https://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/nations/spain/2022/01/21/catalonia-supreme-court-25-of-lessons-must-be-in-spanish_e4e09d3e-ea85-4b59-b3c6-d0f2cdbfc0aa.html |title=You are here: ANSAmed. Catalonia: Supreme Court, 25% of lessons must be in Spanish |date=21 January 2022 |language=en |access-date=21 January 2022 |archive-date=22 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122124224/https://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/nations/spain/2022/01/21/catalonia-supreme-court-25-of-lessons-must-be-in-spanish_e4e09d3e-ea85-4b59-b3c6-d0f2cdbfc0aa.html |url-status=dead}}

According to the Statistical Institute of Catalonia, in 2013 the Catalan language is the second most commonly used in Catalonia, after Spanish, as a native or self-defining language: 7% of the population self-identifies with both Catalan and Spanish equally, 36.4% with Catalan and 47.5% only Spanish.{{Cite web |url=http://www.idescat.cat/economia/inec?tc=3&id=da01&dt=2008&lang=en |title=Idescat. Annual indicators. Language uses. First language, language of identification and habitual language. Results |website=Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya |access-date=27 September 2016 |archive-date=20 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220072106/http://www.idescat.cat/economia/inec?tc=3&id=da01&dt=2008&lang=en |url-status=live}} In 2003 the same studies concluded no language preference for self-identification within the population above 15 years old: 5% self-identified with both languages, 44.3% with Catalan and 47.5% with Spanish.{{Cite web |url=http://www.idescat.cat/economia/inec?tc=3&id=DA01&lang=en&dt=200300&x=12&y=8 |title=Idescat. Demographics and quality of life. Language uses. First language, language of identification and habitual language. 2003. Results |website=Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya |language=en |access-date=21 January 2017 |archive-date=2 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202002849/http://www.idescat.cat/economia/inec?tc=3&id=DA01&lang=en&dt=200300&x=12&y=8 |url-status=live}} To promote use of Catalan, the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalonia's official Autonomous government) spends part of its annual budget on the promotion of the use of Catalan in Catalonia and in other territories, with entities such as {{ill|lt=Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística|Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística|ca||es|Consorcio para la normalización lingüística|vertical-align=sup}} (Consortium for Linguistic Normalization).{{Cite web |url=http://www20.gencat.cat/portal/site/Llengcat/menuitem.b318de7236aed0e7a129d410b0c0e1a0/?vgnextoid=69f4f9465ff61110VgnVCM1000000b0c1e0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=69f4f9465ff61110VgnVCM1000000b0c1e0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default |title=2010 Language Policy Report |website=Generalitat de Catalunya |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140415001016/http://www20.gencat.cat/portal/site/Llengcat/menuitem.b318de7236aed0e7a129d410b0c0e1a0/?vgnextoid=69f4f9465ff61110VgnVCM1000000b0c1e0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=69f4f9465ff61110VgnVCM1000000b0c1e0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default |archive-date=15 April 2014}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.cpnl.cat/ |title=Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística |first=Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística- |last=CPNL |website=Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística – CPNL |access-date=28 August 2022 |archive-date=28 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828073003/https://www.cpnl.cat/ |url-status=live}}

In Andorra, Catalan has always been the sole official language.{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=191}} Since the promulgation of the 1993 constitution, several policies favoring Catalan have been enforced, such as Catalan medium education.{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=191}}

On the other hand, there are several language shift processes currently taking place. In the Northern Catalonia area of France, Catalan has followed the same trend as the other minority languages of France, with most of its native speakers being 60 or older (as of 2004).{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=191}} Catalan is studied as a foreign language by 30% of the primary education students, and by 15% of the secondary.{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=191}} The cultural association {{lang|ca|La Bressola}} promotes a network of community-run schools engaged in Catalan language immersion programs.

In Alicante province, Catalan is being replaced by Spanish and in Alghero by Italian.{{sfn|Wheeler|2003|p=207}} There is also well ingrained diglossia in the Valencian Community, Ibiza, and to a lesser extent, in the rest of the Balearic islands.{{sfn|Wheeler|2010|p=191}}

During the 20th century many Catalans emigrated or went into exile to Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, and other South American countries. They formed a large number of Catalan colonies that today continue to maintain the Catalan language.{{Cite web |last=Philip D. Rasico |title=La llengua dels mallorquins de San Pedro (Argentina) |url=https://publicacions.iec.cat/repository/pdf/00000270/00000011.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116201349/https://publicacions.iec.cat/repository/pdf/00000270/00000011.pdf |archive-date=16 November 2020 |url-status=live}} They also founded many Catalan casals (associations).{{Cite web |title=COMUNITATS CATALANES A L'EXTERIOR – index |url=https://catalansalmon.com/comunitats_catalanes_exterior/ |access-date=3 November 2022 |website=catalansalmon.com |archive-date=3 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103064445/https://catalansalmon.com/comunitats_catalanes_exterior/ |url-status=live}}

File:Romance-lg-classification-en.svg

One classification of Catalan is given by Pèire Bèc:

• Romance languages
• Italo-Western languages
• Western Romance languages
• Gallo-Iberian languages
• Gallo-Romance languages
• Occitano-Romance languages
• Catalan language

However, the ascription of Catalan to the Occitano-Romance branch of Gallo-Romance languages is not shared by all linguists and philologists, particularly among Spanish ones, such as Ramón Menéndez Pidal.

Catalan bears varying degrees of similarity to the linguistic varieties subsumed under the cover term Occitan language (see also differences between Occitan and Catalan and Gallo-Romance languages). Thus, as it should be expected from closely related languages, Catalan today shares many traits with other Romance languages.

Some include Catalan in Occitan, as the linguistic distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as the Gascon dialect) is similar to the distance among different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century{{cite book |last1=Friend |first1=Julius W. |title=Stateless Nations: Western European Regional Nationalisms and the Old Nations |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-36179-9 |page=80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-SF4-ip95MoC&pg=PA80 |access-date=5 March 2016}}{{dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and still today remains its closest relative.{{Cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Nathaniel B. |last2=Bergin |first2=Thomas Goddard |title=An Old Provençal Primer |publisher=Garland |place=New York |year=1984 |isbn=0-8240-9030-6 |page=9}}

Catalan shares many traits with the other neighboring Romance languages (Occitan, French, Italian, Sardinian as well as Spanish and Portuguese among others).{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=1}} However, despite being spoken mostly on the Iberian Peninsula, Catalan has marked differences with the Iberian Romance group (Spanish and Portuguese) in terms of pronunciation, grammar, and especially vocabulary; it shows instead its closest affinity with languages native to France and northern Italy, particularly Occitan{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}}{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=4}}{{sfn|Schlösser|2005|p=60f}} and to a lesser extent Gallo-Romance (Franco-Provençal, French, Gallo-Italian).{{Cite book |last=Ross |first=Marc Howard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oe4popSDfW0C |title=Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=139 |isbn=978-1-139-46307-2}}{{sfn|Jud|1925}}{{sfn|Colón|1993|pp=33–35}}{{sfn|Moll|2006|p=47}}{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}}{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=4}}{{sfn|Schlösser|2005|p=60f}}

According to Ethnologue, the lexical similarity between Catalan and other Romance languages is: 87% with Italian; 85% with Portuguese and Spanish; 76% with Ladin and Romansh; 75% with Sardinian; and 73% with Romanian.

During much of its history, and especially during the Francoist dictatorship (1939–1975), the Catalan language was ridiculed as a mere dialect of Spanish.{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=4}}{{sfn|Schlösser|2005|p=60f}} This view, based on political and ideological considerations, has no linguistic validity.{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=4}}{{sfn|Schlösser|2005|p=60f}} Spanish and Catalan have important differences in their sound systems, lexicon, and grammatical features, placing the language in features closer to Occitan (and French).{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=4}}{{sfn|Schlösser|2005|p=60f}}

There is evidence that, at least from the 2nd century AD, the vocabulary and phonology of Roman Tarraconensis was different from the rest of Roman Hispania.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}} Differentiation arose generally because Spanish, Asturian, and Galician-Portuguese share certain peripheral archaisms (Spanish {{lang|es|hervir}}, Asturian and Portuguese {{lang|pt|ferver}} vs. Catalan {{lang|ca|bullir}}, Occitan {{lang|oc|bolir}} "to boil") and innovatory regionalisms (Spanish {{lang|es|novillo}}, Asturian {{lang|ast|nuviellu}} vs. Catalan {{lang|ca|torell}}, Occitan {{lang|oc|taurèl}} "bullock"), while Catalan has a shared history with the Western Romance innovative core, especially Occitan.{{sfn|Colón|1993|p=55}}{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}}

Like all Romance languages, Catalan has a handful of native words which are unique to it, or rare elsewhere. These include:

• verbs: {{sm|cōnfīgere}} 'to fasten; transfix' > {{lang|ca|confegir}} 'to compose, write up', {{sm|congemināre}} > {{lang|ca|conjuminar}} 'to combine, conjugate', {{sm|de-ex-somnitare}} > {{lang|ca|deixondar/-ir}} 'to wake; awaken', {{sm|dēnsāre}} 'to thicken; crowd together' > {{lang|ca|desar}} 'to save, keep', {{sm|īgnōrāre}} > {{lang|ca|enyorar}} 'to miss, yearn, pine for', {{sm|indāgāre}} 'to investigate, track' > Old Catalan enagar 'to incite, induce', {{sm|odiāre}} > Old Catalan ujar 'to exhaust, fatigue', {{sm|pācificāre}} > {{lang|ca|apaivagar}} 'to appease, mollify', {{sm|repudiāre}} > {{lang|ca|rebutjar}} 'to reject, refuse';
• nouns: {{sm|brīsa}} > {{lang|ca|brisa}} 'pomace', {{sm|buda}} > {{lang|ca|boga}} 'reedmace', {{sm|catarrhu}} > {{lang|ca|cadarn}} 'catarrh', {{sm|congesta}} > {{lang|ca|congesta}} 'snowdrift', {{sm|dēlīrium}} > {{lang|ca|deler}} 'ardor, passion', {{sm|fretu}} > {{lang|ca|freu}} 'brake', {{sm|lābem}} > {{lang|ca|(a)llau}} 'avalanche', {{sm|ōra}} > {{lang|ca|vora}} 'edge, border', {{sm|pistrīce}} 'sawfish' > pestriu > {{lang|ca|pestiu}} 'thresher shark, smooth hound; ray', {{sm|prūna}} 'live coal' > {{lang|ca|espurna}} 'spark', {{sm|tardātiōnem}} > tardaó > {{lang|ca|tardor}} 'autumn'.{{sfn|Bruguera|2008|p=3046}}{{Clarify|date=February 2023|reason=Significance of all caps vs. italic is unclear }}

The Gothic superstrate produced different outcomes in Spanish and Catalan. For example, Catalan {{wikt-lang|ca|fang}} "mud" and {{wikt-lang|ca|rostir}} "to roast", of Germanic origin, contrast with Spanish {{wikt-lang|es|lodo}} and {{wikt-lang|es|asar}}, of Latin origin; whereas Catalan {{wikt-lang|ca|filosa}} "spinning wheel" and {{wikt-lang|ca|templa}} "temple", of Latin origin, contrast with Spanish {{wikt-lang|es|rueca}} and {{wikt-lang|es|sien}}, of Germanic origin.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}}

The same happens with Arabic loanwords. Thus, Catalan {{lang|ca|alfàbia}} "large earthenware jar" and {{wikt-lang|ca|rajola}} "tile", of Arabic origin, contrast with Spanish {{wikt-lang|es|tinaja}} and {{wikt-lang|es|teja}}, of Latin origin; whereas Catalan {{wikt-lang|ca|oli}} "oil" and {{wikt-lang|ca|oliva}} "olive", of Latin origin, contrast with Spanish {{wikt-lang|es|aceite}} and {{wikt-lang|es|aceituna}}.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}} However, the Arabic element is generally much more prevalent in Spanish.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}}

Situated between two large linguistic blocks (Iberian Romance and Gallo-Romance), Catalan has many unique lexical choices, such as {{wikt-lang|ca|enyorar}} "to miss somebody", {{wikt-lang|ca|apaivagar}} "to calm somebody down", and {{wikt-lang|ca|rebutjar}} "reject".{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}}

{{Main|Catalan Countries}}

Traditionally Catalan-speaking territories are sometimes called the {{lang|ca|Països Catalans}} (Catalan Countries), a denomination based on cultural affinity and common heritage, that has also had a subsequent political interpretation but no official status. Various interpretations of the term may include some or all of these regions.

|-

| La Franja || {{lang|ca|La Franja}} || A part of the Autonomous Community of Aragon, specifically a strip bordering Western Catalonia. It comprises the {{lang|ca|comarques}} of Ribagorça, Llitera, Baix Cinca, and Matarranya.

|-

| Balearic Islands || {{lang|ca|Illes Balears}} || Comprising the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera.

|-

| Carche || {{lang|ca|El Carxe}} || A small area of the Autonomous Community of Murcia, settled in the 19th century.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=1}}

|-

| Italy || Alghero || {{lang|ca|L'Alguer}} || A city in the Province of Sassari, on the island of Sardinia, where the Algherese dialect is spoken.

|}

The number of people known to be fluent in Catalan varies depending on the sources used. A 2004 study did not count the total number of speakers, but estimated a total of 9–9.5 million by matching the percentage of speakers to the population of each area where Catalan is spoken.{{cite web |url=http://www20.gencat.cat/portal/site/Llengcat/menuitem.b318de7236aed0e7a129d410b0c0e1a0/?vgnextoid=11a1d4b73920b110VgnVCM1000008d0c1e0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=11a1d4b73920b110VgnVCM1000008d0c1e0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&newLang=en_GB |title=Sociolinguistic situation in Catalan-speaking areas. Tables. Official data about the sociolinguistic situation in Catalan-speaking areas: Catalonia (2003), Andorra (2004), the Balearic Islands (2004), Aragonese Border (2004), Northern Catalonia (2004), Alghero (2004) and Valencian Community (2004) |publisher=Generalitat of Catalonia |date=7 August 2008 |access-date=13 March 2012 |archive-date=14 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314032229/http://www20.gencat.cat/portal/site/Llengcat/menuitem.b318de7236aed0e7a129d410b0c0e1a0/?vgnextoid=11a1d4b73920b110VgnVCM1000008d0c1e0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=11a1d4b73920b110VgnVCM1000008d0c1e0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&newLang=en_GB |url-status=live}} The web site of the Generalitat de Catalunya estimated that as of 2004 there were 9,118,882 speakers of Catalan.{{Citation |title=Catalan, language of Europe |url=http://www20.gencat.cat/docs/Llengcat/Documents/Publicacions/Catala%20llengua%20Europa/Arxius/cat_europa_angles_07.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222153758/http://www20.gencat.cat/docs/Llengcat/Documents/Publicacions/Catala%20llengua%20Europa/Arxius/cat_europa_angles_07.pdf |publisher=Generalitat of Catalonia |access-date=13 March 2012 |archive-date=22 December 2012 |url-status=dead}} These figures only reflect potential speakers; today it is the native language of only 35.6% of the Catalan population.[http://www.idescat.cat/territ/BasicTerr?TC=5&V0=3&V1=3&V3=3325&V4=3326&ALLINFO=TRUE&PARENT=25&CTX=B Población según lengua habitual. Datos comparados 2003–2008. Cataluña. Año 2008] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102013451/http://www.idescat.cat/territ/BasicTerr?TC=5&V0=3&V1=3&V3=3325&V4=3326&ALLINFO=TRUE&PARENT=25&CTX=B |date=2 November 2013 }}, Encuesta de Usos Lingüísticos de la población (2003 y 2008), Instituto de Estadística de Cataluña According to Ethnologue, Catalan had 4.1 million native speakers and 5.1 million second-language speakers in 2021.

File:Llengua catalana al món.svg

According to a 2011 study the total number of Catalan speakers was over 9.8 million, with 5.9 million residing in Catalonia. More than half of them spoke Catalan as a second language, with native speakers being about 4.4 million of those (more than 2.8 in Catalonia).{{Citation |title=Informe sobre la situació de la llengua catalana |date=2011 |url=http://www.demolinguistica.cat/arxiu/web/informe/informe2011.pdf |trans-title=Report on the situation of the Catalan language |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123162105/http://www.demolinguistica.cat/arxiu/web/informe/informe2011.pdf |publisher=Xarxa CRUSCAT |archive-date=23 January 2013 |language=ca}} Very few Catalan monoglots exist; virtually all of the Catalan speakers in Spain are bilingual speakers of Catalan and Spanish, with 99.7% of Catalan speakers in Catalonia able to speak Spanish and 99.9% able to understand it.{{cite conference |url=https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/arxius/ambits-treball/Drets%20Ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstics/Seminari%20Internacional%20sobre%20les%20lleng%C3%BCes%20en%20l'%C3%A0mbit%20de%20la%20salut.pdf |title="Can you understand me, doctor?" Dealing with linguistic rights in public health systems in Catalan-speaking areas of Spain |last1=Ibáñez Ferreté |first1=Òscar-Adrià |date=November 2020 |publisher=Åbo Akademi University |location=Vaasa, Finland |conference=Seminarium om social- och hälsovård för språkliga minoriteter [Seminar on social and health service for linguistic minorities]}}

In Roussillon, only a minority of French Catalans speak Catalan nowadays, with French being the majority language for the inhabitants after a continued process of language shift. According to a 2019 survey by the Catalan government, 31.5% of the inhabitants of Catalonia predominantly spoke Catalan at home whereas 52.7% spoke Spanish, 2.8% both Catalan and Spanish and 10.8% other languages.{{Cite news |url=https://elpais.com/ccaa/2019/07/08/catalunya/1562592970_754956.html |title=El uso del catalán crece: lo entiende el 94,4% y lo habla el 81,2% |last=Geli |first=Carles |date=8 July 2019 |work=El País |access-date=8 July 2019 |language=es |issn=1134-6582 |archive-date=8 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708163015/https://elpais.com/ccaa/2019/07/08/catalunya/1562592970_754956.html |url-status=live}}

Spanish was the most spoken language in Barcelona (according to the linguistic census held by the Government of Catalonia in 2013) and it is understood almost universally. According to 2013 census, Catalan was also very commonly spoken in the city of 1,501,262: it was understood by 95% of the population, while 72.3% over the age of two could speak it (1,137,816), 79% could read it (1,246.555), and 53% could write it (835,080).{{cite web |author1=Departament d'Estadística. Ajuntament de Barcelona |title=Coneixement del català: Evolució de les característiques de la població de Barcelona (Knowledge of Catalan in Barcelona) |url=http://www.bcn.cat/estadistica/catala/dades/tpob/pad/evo/ev11.htm |website=Ajuntament de Barcelona |access-date=13 November 2015 |language=ca |date=2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231210119/http://www.bcn.cat/estadistica/catala/dades/tpob/pad/evo/ev11.htm |archive-date=31 December 2015}} The share of Barcelona residents who could speak it (72.3%){{cite web |title=Coneixement del català: Evolució de les característiques de la població de Barcelona (Knowledge of Catalan in Barcelona) |url=http://www.bcn.cat/estadistica/catala/dades/tpob/pad/evo/ev11.htm |website=Ajuntament de Barcelona |access-date=13 November 2015 |language=ca |date=2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231210119/http://www.bcn.cat/estadistica/catala/dades/tpob/pad/evo/ev11.htm |archive-date=31 December 2015}} was lower than that of the overall Catalan population, of whom 81.2% over the age of 15 spoke the language. Knowledge of Catalan has increased significantly in recent decades thanks to a language immersion educational system. An important social characteristic of the Catalan language is that all the areas where it is spoken are bilingual in practice: together with French in Roussillon, with Italian in Alghero, with Spanish and French in Andorra, and with Spanish in the rest of the territories.

:1.{{note|a}} The number of people who understand Catalan includes those who can speak it.

:2.{{note|b}} Figures relate to all self-declared capable speakers, not just native speakers.

(% of the population 15 years old and older).

(% of the population 15 years old and older).

{{Cite web |url=http://www.noticies.cat/pnoticies/notitem.jsp?item=noticia&idint=223737 |title=El català no avança en la incorporació de nous parlants |date=23 October 2007 |website=Telenotícies |language=ca |trans-title=Catalan is not progressing in the incorporation of new speakers |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071124091243/http://www.noticies.cat/pnoticies/notItem.jsp?item=noticia&idint=223737 |archive-date=24 November 2007}}

To calculate the absolute number the figures have been proportioned to the whole population regardless of the age, rounded to the nearest 500.

{{Main|Catalan phonology}}

Catalan phonology varies by dialect. Notable features include:{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}}

• Marked contrast of the vowel pairs {{IPA|/ɛ, e/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ, o/}}, as in other Western Romance languages, other than Spanish.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}}
• Lack of diphthongization of Latin short {{lang|la|ĕ}}, {{lang|la|ŏ}}, as in Galician and Portuguese, but unlike French, Spanish, or Italian.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}}
• Abundance of diphthongs containing {{IPA|/w/}}, as in Galician and Portuguese.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}}

In contrast to other Romance languages, Catalan has many monosyllabic words, and these may end in a wide variety of consonants, including some consonant clusters.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}} Additionally, Catalan has final obstruent devoicing, which gives rise to an abundance of such couplets as {{lang|ca|amic}} ("male friend") vs. {{lang|ca|amiga}} ("female friend").{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}}

Central Catalan pronunciation is considered to be standard for the language.{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=5}} The descriptions below are mostly representative of this variety.Wheeler 2005 takes the same approach For the differences in pronunciation between the different dialects, see the section on pronunciation of dialects in this article.

File:Catalan vowel chart.svgs of Standard Eastern Catalan{{sfn|Carbonell|Llisterri|1999|p=62}}]]

Catalan has inherited the typical vowel system of Vulgar Latin, with seven stressed phonemes: {{IPA|/a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u/}}, a common feature in Western Romance, with the exception of Spanish.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}} Balearic also has instances of stressed {{IPA|/ə/}}.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|pages=37, 53–54}} Dialects differ in the different degrees of vowel reduction,{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=37}} and the incidence of the pair {{IPA|/ɛ, e/}}.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=38}}

In Central Catalan, unstressed vowels reduce to three: {{IPA|/a, e, ɛ/ > [ə]}}; {{IPA|/o, ɔ, u/ > [u]}}; {{IPA|/i/}} remains distinct.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=54}} The other dialects have different vowel reduction processes (see the section pronunciation of dialects in this article).

The consonant system of Catalan is rather conservative.

• {{IPA|/l/}} has a velarized allophone in syllable coda position in most dialects.{{sfn|Recasens|Espinosa|2005|p=20}} However, {{IPA|/l/}} is velarized irrespective of position in Eastern dialects such as Majorcan{{sfn|Recasens|Espinosa|2005|p=3}} and standard Eastern Catalan.
• {{IPA|/v/}} occurs in Balearic,{{sfn|Carbonell|Llisterri|1992|p=53}} Algherese, standard Valencian and some areas in southern Catalonia.{{sfn|Veny|2007|p=51}} It has merged with {{IPA|/b/}} elsewhere.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=13}}
• The velar nasal /ŋ/ is an allophone of /n/ before /g/ or /k/. However, it has become phonemic in Central dialects that delete the final element of word-final consonant clusters, resulting in minimal pairs such as fan [ˈfan] (“they do”) and fang [ˈfaŋ] (“mud”, pronounced [ˈfaŋk] in other dialects).
• In Valencian, the fricative [ʒ] (and [jʒ]) appears only as a voiced allophone of /ʃ/ (and /jʃ/) before vowels and voiced consonants; e.g. peix al forn [ˈpejʒ al ˈfoɾn] ('oven fish'). The /ʒ/ phoneme in other Catalan dialects is pronounced /dʒ/ in standard Valencian.
• Voiced obstruents undergo final-obstruent devoicing: {{IPA|/b/ > [p], /d/ > [t], /ɡ/ > [k]}}.{{sfn|Lloret|2004|p=278}}
• Voiced stops become lenited to approximants in syllable onsets, after continuants: {{IPA|/b/}} > {{IPAblink|β}}, {{IPA|/d/}} > {{IPAblink|ð}}, {{IPA|/ɡ/}} > {{IPAblink|ɣ}}.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=10}} Exceptions include {{IPA|/d/}} after lateral consonants, and {{IPA|/b/}} after {{IPA|/f/}}. In coda position, these sounds are realized as stops,{{cite book |last=Hualde |first=José |year=1992 |title=Catalan |page=368 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-05498-0}} except in some Valencian dialects where they are lenited.{{sfn|Recasens|Espinosa|2005|p=1}}
• There is some confusion in the literature about the precise phonetic characteristics of {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, {{IPA|/ʒ/}}, {{IPA|/tʃ/}}, {{IPA|/dʒ/}}. Some sources{{sfn|Carbonell|Llisterri|1992|p=53}} describe them as "postalveolar". Others{{sfn|Recasens|Fontdevila|Pallarès|1995|p=288}}{{sfn|Recasens|Espinosa|2007|p=145}} as "back alveolo-palatal", implying that the characters {{angbr IPA|ɕ ʑ tɕ dʑ}} would be more accurate. However, in all literature only the characters for palato-alveolar affricates and fricatives are used, even when the same sources use {{angbr IPA|ɕ ʑ}} for other languages such as Polish and Chinese.{{harvnb|Recasens|1993}}. Here Recasens labels these Catalan sounds as "laminoalveolars palatalitzades".{{harvnb|Recasens|Pallarès|2001}}. Here the authors label these Catalan sounds as "laminal postalveolar".{{sfn|Recasens|Espinosa|2007|p=145}}
• The distribution of the two rhotics {{IPA|/r/}} and {{IPA|/ɾ/}} closely parallels that of Spanish. Between vowels, the two contrast, but they are otherwise in complementary distribution: in the onset of the first syllable in a word, {{IPAblink|r}} appears unless preceded by a consonant. Dialects vary in regards to rhotics in the coda with Western Catalan generally featuring {{IPAblink|ɾ}} and Central Catalan dialects featuring a weakly trilled {{IPAblink|r}} unless it precedes a vowel-initial word in the same prosodic unit, in which case {{IPAblink|ɾ}} appears.{{sfn|Padgett|2009|p=432}}
• In careful speech, {{IPA|/n/}}, {{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/l/}} may be geminated. Geminated {{IPA|/ʎ/}} may also occur.{{sfn|Carbonell|Llisterri|1992|p=53}} Some analyze intervocalic {{IPA|[r]}} as the result of gemination of a single rhotic phoneme.{{sfn|Wheeler|1979}} This is similar to the common analysis of Spanish and Portuguese rhotics.See {{cite book |last1=Bonet |first1=Eulàlia |last2=Mascaró |first2=Joan |year=1997 |chapter=On the Representation of Contrasting Rhotics |title=Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of the Major Iberian Languages |editor1-last=Martínez-Gil |editor1-first=Fernando |editor2-last=Morales-Front |editor2-first=Alfonso |publisher=Georgetown University Press |isbn=978-0-87840-647-0}} for more information.

{{Main|Phonological history of Catalan}}

File:Linguistic map Southwestern Europe-en.gif

Catalan shares features with neighboring Romance languages (Occitan, Italian, Sardinian, French, Spanish).{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=1}}

• Marked contrast of the vowel pairs {{IPA|/ɛ/ ~ /e/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ/ ~ /o/}}, as in other Western Romance languages, except Spanish and Sardinian.{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}}
• Lenition of voiced stops {{IPA|[b] → [β], [d] → [ð], [ɡ] → [ɣ]}} as in Galician and Spanish.{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}}
• Lack of diphthongization of Latin short {{lang|la|ĕ}}, {{lang|la|ŏ}}, as in Galician, Sardinian and Portuguese, and unlike French, Spanish and Italian.{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}}
• Abundance of diphthongs containing {{IPA|/w/}}, as in Galician and Portuguese.{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}}
• Abundance of {{IPA|/ʎ/}} and {{IPA|/ɲ/}} occurring at the end of words, as for instance {{wikt-lang|ca|moll}} ("wet") and {{wikt-lang|ca|any}} ("year"), unlike Spanish,{{sfn|Hall|2001|p=19}} Portuguese or Italian.

In contrast with other Romance languages, Catalan has many monosyllabic words; and those ending in a wide variety of consonants and some consonant clusters.{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}} Also, Catalan has final obstruent devoicing, thus featuring many couplets like {{lang|ca|amic}} ('male friend') vs. {{lang|ca|amiga}} ('female friend').{{sfn|Ferrater Soler|1977|p=630}}

File:WIKITONGUES- Ona speaking Catalan.webm

File:WIKITONGUES- Artur speaking Catalan.webm, former president of Catalonia, discussing individual identity, collective identity and language]]

Catalan sociolinguistics studies the situation of Catalan in the world and the different varieties that this language presents. It is a subdiscipline of Catalan philology and other affine studies and has as an objective to analyze the relation between the Catalan language, the speakers and the close reality (including the one of other languages in contact).

• Dialects of Catalan
• Variations of Catalan by class, gender, profession, age and level of studies
• Process of linguistic normalization
• Relations between Catalan and Spanish or French
• Perception on the language of Catalan speakers and non-speakers
• Presence of Catalan in several fields: tagging, public function, media, professional sectors

{{Main|Catalan dialects}}

File:Catalan dialects-en.png

The dialects of the Catalan language feature a relative uniformity, especially when compared to other Romance languages;{{sfn|Moll|2006|p=47}} both in terms of vocabulary, semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|pp=634–635}} Mutual intelligibility between dialects is very high,{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=1}}{{sfn|Costa Carreras|Yates|2009|p=5}}{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=5}} estimates ranging from 90% to 95%. The only exception is the isolated idiosyncratic Algherese dialect.{{sfn|Moll|2006|p=47}}

Catalan is split in two major dialectal blocks: Eastern and Western.{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=5}}{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|pp=634–635}} The main difference lies in the treatment of unstressed {{lang|ca|a}} and {{lang|ca|e}}; which have merged to {{IPA|/ə/}} in Eastern dialects, but which remain distinct as {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/e/}} in Western dialects.{{sfn|Moll|2006|p=47}}{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=5}} There are a few other differences in pronunciation, verbal morphology, and vocabulary.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=1}}

Western Catalan comprises the two dialects of North-Western Catalan and Valencian; the Eastern block comprises four dialects: Central Catalan, Balearic, Roussillonese, and Algherese.{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=5}} Each dialect can be further subdivided in several subdialects. The terms "Catalan" and "Valencian" (respectively used in Catalonia and the Valencian Community) refer to two varieties of the same language.{{Citation |title=Dictamen de l'Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua sobre els principis i criteris per a la defensa de la denominació i l'entitat del valencià |date=2005 |url=http://www.avl.gva.es/va/acords-AVL/main/03/document/NOMENTITAT.pdf |trans-title=Resolution of the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua concerning the principles and criteria for protecting the name and identity of Valencian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923181117/http://www.avl.gva.es/va/acords-AVL/main/03/document/NOMENTITAT.pdf |publisher=Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua |language=ca-valencia |archive-date=23 September 2015}} There are two institutions regulating the two standard varieties, the Institute of Catalan Studies in Catalonia and the Valencian Academy of the Language in the Valencian Community.

Central Catalan is considered the standard pronunciation of the language and has the largest number of speakers.{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=5}} It is spoken in the densely populated regions of the Barcelona province, the eastern half of the province of Tarragona, and most of the province of Girona.{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=5}}

Catalan has an inflectional grammar. Nouns have two genders (masculine, feminine), and two numbers (singular, plural). Pronouns additionally can have a neuter gender, and some are also inflected for case and politeness, and can be combined in very complex ways. Verbs are split in several paradigms and are inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, mood, and gender. In terms of pronunciation, Catalan has many words ending in a wide variety of consonants and some consonant clusters, in contrast with many other Romance languages.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}}

Catalan has inherited the typical vowel system of Vulgar Latin, with seven stressed phonemes: {{IPA|/a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u/}}, a common feature in Western Romance, except Spanish.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}} Balearic has also instances of stressed {{IPA|/ə/}}.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|pages=37, 53–54}} Dialects differ in the different degrees of vowel reduction,{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=37}} and the incidence of the pair {{IPA|/ɛ e/}}.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=38}}

In Eastern Catalan (except Majorcan), unstressed vowels reduce to three: {{IPA|/a, e, ɛ/ > [ə]}}; {{IPA|/o, ɔ, u/ > [u]}}; {{IPA|/i/}} remains distinct.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=54}} There are a few instances of unreduced {{IPA|[e]}}, {{IPA|[o]}} in some words.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=54}} Algherese has lowered {{IPA|[ə]}} to {{IPA|[a]}}.

In Majorcan, unstressed vowels reduce to four: {{IPA|/a, e, ɛ/}} follow the Eastern Catalan reduction pattern; however {{IPA|/o, ɔ/}} reduce to {{IPA|[o]}}, with {{IPA|/u/}} remaining distinct, as in Western Catalan.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|pages=53–54}}

In Western Catalan, unstressed vowels reduce to five: {{IPA|/e, ɛ/ > [e]}}; {{IPA|/o, ɔ/ > [o]}}; {{IPA|/a, u, i/}} remain distinct.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=53}}{{sfn|Carbonell|Llisterri|1999|pp=54–55}} This reduction pattern, inherited from Proto-Romance, is also found in Italian and Portuguese.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=53}} Some Western dialects present further reduction or vowel harmony in some cases.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=53}}{{sfn|Recasens|1996|pp=75–76, 128–129}}

Central, Western, and Balearic differ in the lexical incidence of stressed {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/ɛ/}}.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=38}} Usually, words with {{IPA|/ɛ/}} in Central Catalan correspond to {{IPA|/ə/}} in Balearic and {{IPA|/e/}} in Western Catalan.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=38}} Words with {{IPA|/e/}} in Balearic almost always have {{IPA|/e/}} in Central and Western Catalan as well.{{vague|date=April 2014}}{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=38}} As a result, Central Catalan has a much higher incidence of {{IPA|/ɛ/}}.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=38}}

|}

Catalan dialects are characterized by final-obstruent devoicing, lenition and voicing assimilation. Additionally, many dialects contrast two rhotics ({{IPA|/r, ɾ/}}) and two laterals ({{IPA|/l, ʎ/}}).

Most Catalan dialects are also renowned by the usage of dark l (i.e. velarization of {{IPA|/l/}} → {{IPAblink|ɫ}}), which is especially noticeable in syllable final position, in comparison to neighbouring languages, such as Spanish, Italian and French (that lack this pronunciation).

There is dialectal variation in regard to:

• The pronunciation and distribution of sibilants (with different results according to voicing and affrication vs. deaffrication).
• While, arguably there are seven to eight sibilants in Standard Catalan and Standard Valencian, dialects like Central Valencian and Ribagorçan only have three or four.
• The usage of the voiced labiodental fricative phoneme {{IPAslink|v}}.
• The pronunciation or not of yod ({{IPAslink|j}}) in the digraph {{angbr|ix}}.
• The elision and pronunciation of final rhotics (either {{IPAslink|ɾ}} or {{IPAslink|r}}).
• The delateralization of the palatal lateral approximant ({{IPAslink|ʎ}}).
• The alternation of lenition vs. fortition (such as {{IPA|/b/}} in {{lang|ca|poble}} 'village, people' → {{IPA|[β]}} vs. {{IPA|[b]}} vs. {{IPA|[bː]}} vs. {{IPA|[p]}} vs. {{IPA|[pː]}}).

Western Catalan: In verbs, the ending for 1st-person present indicative is {{lang|ca|-e}} in verbs of the 1st conjugation and -∅ in verbs of the 2nd and 3rd conjugations in most of the Valencian Community, or {{lang|ca|-o}} in all verb conjugations in the Northern Valencian Community and Western Catalonia.
E.g. {{lang|ca|parle}}, {{lang|ca|tem}}, {{lang|ca|sent}} (Valencian); {{lang|ca|parlo}}, {{lang|ca|temo}}, {{lang|ca|sento}} (North-Western Catalan).

Eastern Catalan: In verbs, the ending for 1st-person present indicative is {{lang|ca|-o}}, {{lang|ca|-i}}, or -∅ in all conjugations.
E.g. {{lang|ca|parlo}} (Central), {{lang|ca|parl}} (Balearic), and {{lang|ca|parli}} (Northern), all meaning ('I speak').

Western Catalan: In verbs, the inchoative endings are {{lang|ca|-isc}}/{{lang|ca|-esc}}, {{lang|ca|-ix}}, {{lang|ca|-ixen}}, {{lang|ca|-isca}}/{{lang|ca|-esca}}.

Eastern Catalan: In verbs, the inchoative endings are {{lang|ca|-eixo}}, {{lang|ca|-eix}}, {{lang|ca|-eixen}}, {{lang|ca|-eixi}}.

Western Catalan: In nouns and adjectives, maintenance of {{IPA|/n/}} of medieval plurals in proparoxytone words.
E.g. {{lang|ca|hòmens}} 'men', {{lang|ca|jóvens}} 'youth'.

Eastern Catalan: In nouns and adjectives, loss of {{IPA|/n/}} of medieval plurals in proparoxytone words.
E.g. {{lang|ca|homes}} 'men', {{lang|ca|joves}} 'youth' (Ibicencan, however, follows the model of Western Catalan in this case{{Cite book |last=Moll, Francesc de B. |title=Gramática catalana; referida especialment a les Illes Balears |date=1968 |publisher=Editorial Moll |isbn=84-273-0044-1 |location=Palma de Mallorca |oclc=2108762}}).

Despite its relative lexical unity, the two dialectal blocks of Catalan (Eastern and Western) show some differences in word choices.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}} Any lexical divergence within any of the two groups can be explained as an archaism. Also, usually Central Catalan acts as an innovative element.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}}

{{Main|Institut d'Estudis Catalans|Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua}}

File:Casa de Convalescència - IEC.JPG

Standard Catalan, virtually accepted by all speakers,{{sfn|Wheeler|2003|p=207}} is mostly based on Eastern Catalan,{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=5}}{{sfn|Wheeler|2003|p=170}} which is the most widely used dialect. Nevertheless, the standards of the Valencian Community and the Balearics admit alternative forms, mostly traditional ones, which are not current in eastern Catalonia.{{sfn|Wheeler|2003|p=170}}

The most notable difference between both standards is some tonic {{angbr|e}} accentuation, for instance: {{lang|ca|francès, anglès}} (IEC) – {{lang|ca-valencia|francés, anglés}} (AVL). Nevertheless, AVL's standard keeps the grave accent {{angbr|è}}, while pronouncing it as {{IPA|/e/}} rather than {{IPA|/ɛ/}}, in some words such as: {{lang|ca-valencia|què}} ('what'), or {{lang|ca-valencia|València}}. Other divergences include the use of {{angbr|tl}} (AVL) in some words instead of {{angbr|tll}} like in {{lang|ca-valencia|ametla}}/{{lang|ca|ametlla}} ('almond'), {{lang|ca-valencia|espatla}}/{{lang|ca|espatlla}} ('back'), the use of elided demonstratives ({{lang|ca|este}} 'this', {{lang|ca|eixe}} 'that') in the same level as reinforced ones ({{lang|ca|aquest, aqueix}}) or the use of many verbal forms common in Valencian, and some of these common in the rest of Western Catalan too, such as subjunctive mood or inchoative conjugation in {{lang|ca|-ix-}} at the same level as {{lang|ca|-eix-}} or the priority use of {{lang|ca|-e}} morpheme in 1st person singular in present indicative ({{lang|ca|-ar}} verbs): {{lang|ca|jo compre}} instead of {{lang|ca|jo compro}} ('I buy').

In the Balearic Islands, IEC's standard is used but adapted for the Balearic dialect by the University of the Balearic Islands's philological section. In this way, for instance, IEC says it is correct writing {{lang|ca|cantam}} as much as {{lang|ca|cantem}} ('we sing'), but the university says that the priority form in the Balearic Islands must be {{lang|ca|cantam}} in all fields. Another feature of the Balearic standard is the non-ending in the 1st person singular present indicative: {{lang|ca|jo compr}} ('I buy'), {{lang|ca|jo tem}} ('I fear'), {{lang|ca|jo dorm}} ('I sleep').

In Alghero, the IEC has adapted its standard to the Algherese dialect. In this standard one can find, among other features: the definite article {{lang|ca|lo}} instead of {{lang|ca|el}}, special possessive pronouns and determinants {{lang|ca|la mia}} ('mine'), {{lang|ca|lo sou/la sua}} ('his/her'), {{lang|ca|lo tou/la tua}} ('yours'), and so on, the use of {{lang|ca|-v-}} {{IPA|/v/}} in the imperfect tense in all conjugations: {{lang|ca|cantava}}, {{lang|ca|creixiva}}, {{lang|ca|llegiva}}; the use of many archaic words, usual words in Algherese: {{lang|ca|manco}} instead of {{lang|ca|menys}} ('less'), {{lang|ca|calqui u}} instead of {{lang|ca|algú}} ('someone'), {{lang|ca|qual/quala}} instead of {{lang|ca|quin/quina}} ('which'), and so on; and the adaptation of weak pronouns. In 1999, Catalan (Algherese dialect) was among the twelve minority languages officially recognized as Italy's "historical linguistic minorities" by the Italian State under Law No. 482/1999.Law No. 482 of 15 December 1999. "Rules on the protection of historical linguistic minorities". Article 2. Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 297. 20 December 1999

In 2011,Decreto 89/2011, de 5 de abril, del Gobierno de Aragón, por el que se aprueban los

Estatutos de la Academia Aragonesa del Catalán. [http://www.boa.aragon.es/cgi-bin/EBOA/BRSCGI?CMD=VEROBJ&MLKOB=592553980606 BOA núm. 77, de 18 de abril de 2011] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412145503/http://www.boa.aragon.es/cgi-bin/EBOA/BRSCGI?CMD=VEROBJ&MLKOB=592553980606 |date=12 April 2018 }} the Aragonese government passed a decree approving the statutes of a new language regulator of Catalan in La Franja (the so-called Catalan-speaking areas of Aragon) as originally provided for by Law 10/2009.Ley 10/2009, de 22 de diciembre, de uso, protección y promoción de las lenguas propias de Aragón [https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2010-1711 BOE núm. 30, de 4 de febrero de 2010.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412145822/https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2010-1711 |date=12 April 2018 }} The new entity, designated as {{lang|ca|Institut Aragonès del Català}}, shall allow a facultative education in Catalan and a standardization of the Catalan language in La Franja.

{{Wikisourcelang|ca|Dictamen sobre els principis i criteris per a la defensa de la denominació i l'entitat del valencià|AVL: Dictamen sobre els principis i criteris per a la defensa de la denominació i l'entitat del valencià}}

{{Main|Valencian (disambiguation){{!}}Valencian|Valencian language controversy|Blaverism|Anti-Catalanism}}

File:Subdialectes del valencià.svg

Valencian is classified as a Western dialect, along with the North-Western varieties spoken in Western Catalonia (provinces of Lleida and the western half of Tarragona).{{sfn|Feldhausen|2010|p=5}}{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|pages=2–3}} Central Catalan has 90% to 95% inherent intelligibility for speakers of Valencian.

Linguists, including Valencian scholars, deal with Catalan and Valencian as the same language. The official regulating body of the language of the Valencian Community, the Valencian Academy of Language (Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, AVL) declares the linguistic unity between Valencian and Catalan varieties.

{{Quote box|width=40%|align=left|quote= [T]he historical patrimonial language of the Valencian people, from a philological standpoint, is the same shared by the autonomous communities of Catalonia and Balearic islands, and Principality of Andorra. Additionally, it is the patrimonial historical language of other territories of the ancient Crown of Aragon [...] The different varieties of these territories constitute a language, that is, a "linguistic system" [...] From this group of varieties, Valencian has the same hierarchy and dignity as any other dialectal modality of that linguistic system [...]|source=Ruling of the Valencian Language Academy of 9 February 2005, extract of point 1.Original full text of Dictamen 1: D'acord amb les aportacions més solvents de la romanística acumulades des del segle XIX fins a l'actualitat (estudis de gramàtica històrica, de dialectologia, de sintaxi, de lexicografia…), la llengua pròpia i històrica dels valencians, des del punt de vista de la filologia, és també la que compartixen les comunitats autònomes de Catalunya i de les Illes Balears i el Principat d'Andorra. Així mateix és la llengua històrica i pròpia d'altres territoris de l'antiga Corona d'Aragó (la franja oriental aragonesa, la ciutat sarda de l'Alguer i el departament francés dels Pirineus Orientals). Els diferents parlars de tots estos territoris constituïxen una llengua, és a dir, un mateix «sistema lingüístic», segons la terminologia del primer estructuralisme (annex 1) represa en el Dictamen del Consell Valencià de Cultura, que figura com a preàmbul de la Llei de Creació de l'AVL. Dins d'eixe conjunt de parlars, el valencià té la mateixa jerarquia i dignitat que qualsevol altra modalitat territorial del sistema lingüístic, i presenta unes característiques pròpies que l'AVL preservarà i potenciarà d'acord amb la tradició lexicogràfica i literària pròpia, la realitat lingüística valenciana i la normativització consolidada a partir de les Normes de Castelló.}}

The AVL, created by the Valencian parliament, is in charge of dictating the official rules governing the use of Valencian, and its standard is based on the Norms of Castelló (Normes de Castelló). Currently, everyone who writes in Valencian uses this standard, except the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture (Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana, RACV), which uses an independent standard for Valencian.

Despite the position of the official organizations, an opinion poll carried out between 2001 and 2004{{Cite web |url=https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20041209/51262801790/casi-el-65-de-los-valencianos-opina-que-su-lengua-es-distinta-al-catalan-segun-una-encuesta-del-ci.html |title=Casi el 65% de los valencianos opina que su lengua es distinta al catalán, según una encuesta del CIS |date=9 December 2004 |website=La Vanguardia |language=es |trans-title=Almost 65% of Valencians believe that their language is different from Catalan, according to a CIS survey |agency=Europa Press |access-date=8 March 2020 |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727082617/https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20041209/51262801790/casi-el-65-de-los-valencianos-opina-que-su-lengua-es-distinta-al-catalan-segun-una-encuesta-del-ci.html |url-status=live}} showed that the majority of the Valencian people consider Valencian different from Catalan. This position is promoted by people who do not use Valencian regularly.{{sfn|Wheeler|2003|p=207}} Furthermore, the data indicates that younger generations educated in Valencian are much less likely to hold these views. A minority of Valencian scholars active in fields other than linguistics defends the position of the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture (Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana, RACV), which uses for Valencian a standard independent from Catalan.{{Cite web |url=http://www.racv.es/vcia/vista-listado-academicos-numero |title=Llistat dels Acadèmics de número |website=Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana |language=ca-valencia |trans-title=List of RACV academics |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161214031455/http://www.racv.es/vcia/vista-listado-academicos-numero |archive-date=14 December 2016}}

This clash of opinions has sparked much controversy. For example, during the drafting of the European Constitution in 2004, the Spanish government supplied the EU with translations of the text into Basque, Galician, Catalan, and Valencian, but the latter two were identical.{{Cite web |url=http://www.mail-archive.com/infozefir@listserv.rediris.es/msg00442.html |title=Traducció única de la Constitució europea |last=Isabel i Vilar |first=Ferran |date=30 October 2004 |website=I-Zefir |language=ca-valencia |trans-title=Unique translation of the European Constitution |access-date=29 April 2009 |archive-date=9 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609224822/http://www.mail-archive.com/infozefir@listserv.rediris.es/msg00442.html |url-status=live}}

Despite its relative lexical unity, the two dialectal blocks of Catalan (Eastern and Western) show some differences in word choices.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}} Any lexical divergence within any of the two groups can be explained as an archaism. Also, usually Central Catalan acts as an innovative element.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}}

Literary Catalan allows the use of words from different dialects, except those of very restricted use.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}} However, from the 19th century onwards, there has been a tendency towards favoring words of Northern dialects to the detriment of others.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}}

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.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}} 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.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=632}} 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.

The process of morphological derivation in Catalan follows the same principles as the other Romance languages,{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}} where inflection is common. Many times, several affixes are appended to a preexisting lexeme, and some sound alternations can occur, for example {{lang|ca|elèctric}} {{IPA|[əˈlɛktrik]}} ("electrical") vs. {{lang|ca|electricitat}} {{IPA|[ələktrisiˈtat]}}. Prefixes are usually appended to verbs, as in {{lang|ca|preveure}} ("foresee").{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}}

There is greater regularity in the process of word-compounding, where one can find compounded words formed much like those in English.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}}

{{Main|Catalan orthography}}

File:Catalan geminated L in a dictionary.jpg

File:Billboard in Barcelona (detail).png (detail), showing the word {{lang|ca|iŀlusió}} ("illusion")]]

Catalan uses the Latin script, with some added symbols and digraphs.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=6}} The Catalan orthography is systematic and largely phonologically based.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=6}} Standardization of Catalan was among the topics discussed during the First International Congress of the Catalan Language, held in Barcelona October 1906. Subsequently, the Philological Section of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC, founded in 1911) published the Normes ortogràfiques in 1913 under the direction of Antoni Maria Alcover and Pompeu Fabra. In 1932, Valencian writers and intellectuals gathered in Castelló de la Plana to make a formal adoption of the so-called Normes de Castelló, a set of guidelines following Pompeu Fabra's Catalan language norms.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cUu_apMqBF0C |title=The Architect of Modern Catalan: Selected writings |date=2009 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |isbn=978-9027289247 |editor-last=Carreras |editor-first=Joan Costa |language=en |translator-last=Yates |translator-first=Alan}}

{{Main|Catalan grammar}}

The grammar of Catalan is similar to other Romance languages. Features include:{{sfn|Swan|2001|pp=97–98}}

• Use of definite and indefinite articles.{{sfn|Swan|2001|pp=97–98}}
• Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles are inflected for gender (masculine and feminine), and number (singular and plural). There is no case inflexion, except in pronouns.{{sfn|Swan|2001|pp=97–98}}
• Verbs are highly inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, and mood (including a subjunctive).{{sfn|Swan|2001|pp=97–98}}
• There are no modal auxiliaries.{{sfn|Swan|2001|pp=97–98}}
• Word order is freer than in English.{{sfn|Swan|2001|pp=97–98}}

File:Flexió of word Gat.jpg

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In gender inflection, the most notable feature is (compared to Portuguese, Spanish or Italian), the loss of the typical masculine suffix {{lang|ca|-o}}. Thus, the alternance of {{lang|ca|-o}}/{{lang|ca|-a}}, has been replaced by ø/{{lang|ca|-a}}.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}} There are only a few exceptions, such as {{lang|ca|minso}}/{{lang|ca|minsa}} ("scarce").{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}} Many not completely predictable morphological alternations may occur, such as:{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}}

• Affrication: {{lang|ca|boig}}/{{lang|ca|boja}} ("insane") vs. {{lang|ca|lleig}}/{{lang|ca|lletja}} ("ugly")
• Loss of {{lang|ca|n}}: {{lang|ca|pla}}/{{lang|ca|plana}} ("flat") vs. {{lang|ca|segon}}/{{lang|ca|segona}} ("second")
• Final obstruent devoicing: {{lang|ca|sentit}}/{{lang|ca|sentida}} ("felt") vs. {{lang|ca|dit}}/{{lang|ca|dita}} ("said")

Catalan has few suppletive couplets, like Italian and Spanish, and unlike French. Thus, Catalan has {{lang|ca|noi}}/{{lang|ca|noia}} ("boy"/"girl") and {{lang|ca|gall}}/{{lang|ca|gallina}} ("cock"/"hen"), whereas French has {{lang|ca|garçon}}/{{lang|ca|fille}} and {{lang|ca|coq}}/{{lang|ca|poule}}.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}}

There is a tendency to abandon traditionally gender-invariable adjectives in favor of marked ones, something prevalent in Occitan and French. Thus, one can find {{lang|ca|bullent}}/{{lang|ca|bullenta}} ("boiling") in contrast with traditional {{lang|ca|bullent}}/{{lang|ca|bullent}}.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}}

As in the other Western Romance languages, the main plural expression is the suffix {{lang|ca|-s}}, which may create morphological alternations similar to the ones found in gender inflection, albeit more rarely.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=630}} The most important one is the addition of {{lang|ca|-o-}} before certain consonant groups, a phonetic phenomenon that does not affect feminine forms: {{lang|ca|el pols}}/{{lang|ca|els polsos}} ("the pulse"/"the pulses") vs. {{lang|ca|la pols}}/{{lang|ca|les pols}} ("the dust"/"the dusts").{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|pp=630–631}}

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The inflection of determinatives is complex, specially because of the high number of elisions, but is similar to the neighboring languages.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}} Catalan has more contractions of preposition + article than Spanish, such as {{lang|ca|dels}} ("of + the [plural]"), but not as many as Italian (which has {{lang|it|sul}}, {{lang|it|col}}, {{lang|it|nel}}, etc.).{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}}

Central Catalan has abandoned almost completely unstressed possessives ({{lang|ca|mon}}, etc.) in favor of constructions of article + stressed forms ({{lang|ca|el meu}}, etc.), a feature shared with Italian.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}}

The morphology of Catalan personal pronouns is complex, especially in unstressed forms, which are numerous (13 distinct forms, compared to 11 in Spanish or 9 in Italian).{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}} Features include the gender-neutral {{lang|ca|ho}} and the great degree of freedom when combining different unstressed pronouns (65 combinations).{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}}

Catalan pronouns exhibit T–V distinction, like all other Romance languages (and most European languages, but not Modern English). This feature implies the use of a different set of second person pronouns for formality.

This flexibility allows Catalan to use extraposition extensively, much more than French or Spanish. Thus, Catalan can have {{lang|ca|m'hi recomanaren}} ("they recommended me to him"), whereas in French one must say {{lang|fr|ils m'ont recommandé à lui}}, and Spanish {{lang|es|me recomendaron a él}}.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}} This allows the placement of almost any nominal term as a sentence topic, without having to use so often the passive voice (as in French or English), or identifying the direct object with a preposition (as in Spanish).{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}}

{{clear}}

Like all the Romance languages, Catalan verbal inflection is more complex than the nominal. Suffixation is omnipresent, whereas morphological alternations play a secondary role.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}} Vowel alternances are active, as well as infixation and suppletion. However, these are not as productive as in Spanish, and are mostly restricted to irregular verbs.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}}

The Catalan verbal system is basically common to all Western Romance, except that most dialects have replaced the synthetic indicative perfect with a periphrastic form of {{lang|ca|anar}} ("to go") + infinitive.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}}

Catalan verbs are traditionally divided into three conjugations, with vowel themes {{lang|ca|-a-}}, {{lang|ca|-e-}}, {{lang|ca|-i-}}, the last two being split into two subtypes. However, this division is mostly theoretical.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}} Only the first conjugation is nowadays productive (with about 3500 common verbs), whereas the third (the subtype of {{lang|ca|servir}}, with about 700 common verbs) is semiproductive. The verbs of the second conjugation are fewer than 100, and it is not possible to create new ones, except by compounding.{{sfn|Enciclopèdia Catalana|p=631}}

{{clear}}

{{Main|Catalan syntax}}

The grammar of Catalan follows the general pattern of Western Romance languages. The primary word order is subject–verb–object.{{Cite web |url=https://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_ctl |title=Catalan |website=World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) Online |access-date=14 March 2020 |archive-date=12 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212065626/https://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_ctl |url-status=live}} However, word order is very flexible. Commonly, verb-subject constructions are used to achieve a semantic effect. The sentence "The train has arrived" could be translated as {{lang|ca|Ha arribat el tren}} or {{lang|ca|El tren ha arribat}}. Both sentences mean "the train has arrived", but the former puts a focus on the train, while the latter puts a focus on the arrival. This subtle distinction is described as "what you might say while waiting in the station" versus "what you might say on the train".{{sfn|Wheeler|Yates|Dols|1999}}

{{Main|Catalan names}}

In Spain, every person officially has two surnames, one of which is the father's first surname and the other is the mother's first surname.{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=8}} The law contemplates the possibility of joining both surnames with the Catalan conjunction i ("and").{{sfn|Wheeler|2005|p=8}}article 19.1 of Law 1/1998 stipulates that "the citizens of Catalonia have the right to use the proper regulation of their Catalan names and surnames and to introduce the conjunction between surnames"

Selected text{{sfn|Swan|2001|p=112}} from Manuel de Pedrolo's 1970 novel {{lang|ca|Un amor fora ciutat}} ("A love affair outside the city").

{{Portal|Spain|Andorra|Italy|France|Language}}

{{div col}}

;Organizations

• Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Catalan Studies Institute)
• Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (Valencian Academy of the Language)
• Òmnium Cultural
• Plataforma per la Llengua

;Scholars

• Marina Abràmova
• Germà Colón
• Dominique de Courcelles
• Martí de Riquer
• Arthur Terry
• Lawrence Venuti

;Other

• Languages of Catalonia
• Linguistic features of Spanish as spoken by Catalan speakers
• Languages of France
• Languages of Italy
• Languages of Spain
• Normes de Castelló
• Pompeu Fabra

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist|group=note}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

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• {{cite book |last1=Melchor |first1=Vicent de |last2=Branchadell |first2=Albert |title=El catalán: una lengua de Europa para compartir |year=2002 |publisher=Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |location=Bellaterra |isbn=84-490-2299-1 |page=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HpKVwFYoxGgC |language=es |access-date=5 November 2020 |archive-date=27 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240427085544/https://books.google.com/books?id=HpKVwFYoxGgC |url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |last=Moll |first=Francesc de B. |title=Gramàtica Històrica Catalana |orig-date=1958 |date=2006 |publisher=Universitat de València |isbn=978-84-370-6412-3 |edition=Catalan |page=47 |language=ca}}
• {{cite book |last=Moran |first=Josep |title=Treballs de lingüística històrica catalana |year=1994 |publisher=Publicacions de l'Abadia de Monsterrat |location=Barcelona |isbn=84-7826-568-6 |pages=55–93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RXqT88QcKjUC&q=greuges+guitard+isarn&pg=PA38 |language=ca |access-date=5 November 2020 |archive-date=27 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240427085649/https://books.google.com/books?id=RXqT88QcKjUC&q=greuges+guitard+isarn&pg=PA38#v=snippet&q=greuges%20guitard%20isarn&f=false |url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |last=Moran |first=Josep |title=Estudis d'història de la llengua catalana |year=2004 |publisher=Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat |location=Barcelona |isbn=84-8415-672-9 |pages=37–38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RXqT88QcKjUC |language=ca |access-date=5 November 2020 |archive-date=25 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240425121043/https://books.google.com/books?id=RXqT88QcKjUC |url-status=live}}
• {{cite journal |last=Padgett |first=Jaye |date=December 2009 |journal=The Linguistic Review |volume=26 |issue=4 |doi=10.1515/tlir.2009.016 |title=Systemic Contrast and Catalan Rhotics |url=https://jayepadgett.sites.ucsc.edu/systemic-contrast-and-catalan-rhotics/ |pages=431– |s2cid=15197551 |access-date=17 March 2020 |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727082601/https://jayepadgett.sites.ucsc.edu/systemic-contrast-and-catalan-rhotics/ |url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |last=Recasens |first=Daniel |year=1993 |chapter=Fonètica i Fonologia |title=Enciclopèdia Catalana}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Recasens |first1=Daniel |last2=Fontdevila |first2=Jordi |last3=Pallarès |first3=Maria Dolors |year=1995 |title=Velarization Degree and Coarticulatory Resistance for /l/ in Catalan and German |journal=Journal of Phonetics |volume=23 |issue=1 |page=288 |doi=10.1016/S0095-4470(95)80031-X}}
• {{cite book |last=Recasens |first=Daniel |year=1996 |title=Fonètica descriptiva del català: assaig de caracterització de la pronúncia del vocalisme i el consonantisme català al segle XX |edition=2nd |place=Barcelona |publisher=Institut d'Estudis Catalans |isbn=9788472833128 |pages=75–76, 128–129}}
• {{cite book |last1=Recasens |first1=Daniel |last2=Pallarès |first2=Maria Dolors |year=2001 |title=De la fonètica a la fonologia: les consonants i assimilacions consonàntiques del català |publisher=Editorial Ariel |place=Barcelona |isbn=978-84-344-2884-3}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Recasens |first1=Daniel |last2=Espinosa |first2=Aina |year=2005 |title=Articulatory, positional and coarticulatory characteristics for clear /l/ and dark /l/: evidence from two Catalan dialects |journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=1, 20 |doi=10.1017/S0025100305001878 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |s2cid=14140079}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Recasens |first1=Daniel |last2=Espinosa |first2=Aina |year=2007 |title=An Electropalatographic and Acoustic Study of Affricates and Fricatives in Two Catalan Dialects |journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association |volume=37 |issue=2 |page=145 |doi=10.1017/S0025100306002829 |s2cid=14275190}}
• {{cite book |last=Riquer |first=Martí de |title=Història de la Literatura Catalana |year=1964 |publisher=Ariel |location=Barcelona |language=ca |chapter=Vol.1}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Russell-Gebbett |editor-first=Paul |title=Mediaeval Catalan Linguistic Texts |publisher=Dolphin Book Co. Ltd., Oxford |year=1965 |editor-link=Paul S. N. Russell-Gebbett |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y_4GMwEACAAJ |access-date=5 November 2020 |archive-date=27 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240427085542/https://books.google.com/books?id=y_4GMwEACAAJ |url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |last=Schlösser |first=Rainer |title=Die romanischen Sprachen |year=2005 |publisher=C.H. Beck |location=Munich}}
• {{cite book |last=Swan |first=Michael |title=Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and Other Problems, Volume 1 |year=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6UIuWj9fQfQC |isbn=978-0-521-77939-5}}
• {{cite journal |last=Thomas |first=Earl W. |year=1962 |pages=43–48 |title=The Resurgence of Catalan |journal=Hispania |volume=45 |issue=1 |doi=10.2307/337523 |jstor=337523}}
• {{cite book |last=Wheeler |first=Max W. |date=1979 |title=Phonology of Catalan |place=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-11621-9}}
• {{cite book |last1=Wheeler |first1=Max |last2=Yates |first2=Alan |last3=Dols |first3=Nicolau |year=1999 |title=Catalan: A Comprehensive Grammar |place=London |publisher=Routledge}}
• {{cite book |last=Wheeler |first=Max |title=The Romance Languages |year=2003 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-415-16417-6 |pages=170–208 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lULWOT1o0SsC |chapter=5. Catalan}}
• {{cite book |last=Wheeler |first=Max |year=2005 |title=The Phonology of Catalan |url=https://archive.org/details/phonologycatalan00whee |url-access=limited |place=Oxford |page=[https://archive.org/details/phonologycatalan00whee/page/n66 54] |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-925814-7}}
• {{cite book |last=Wheeler |first=Max |year=2006 |title=Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics}}
• {{cite book |last=Wheeler |first=Max |title=Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World |year=2010 |publisher=Elsevier |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-08-087774-7 |pages=188–192 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F2SRqDzB50wC |chapter=Catalan |access-date=5 November 2020 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124913/https://books.google.com/books?id=F2SRqDzB50wC |url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |last=Veny |first=Joan |title=Homenatge a Arthur Terry |year=1997 |publisher=Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat |location=Barcelona |isbn=84-7826-894-4 |pages=9–18 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OMaXD1caTiEC&q=greuges+guitard+isarn&pg=PA17 |chapter=greuges de Guitard isarn, Senyor de Caboet (1080–1095) |access-date=5 November 2020 |archive-date=25 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240425121102/https://books.google.com/books?id=OMaXD1caTiEC&q=greuges+guitard+isarn&pg=PA17#v=snippet&q=greuges%20guitard%20isarn&f=false |url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |last=Veny |first=Joan |year=2007 |title=Petit Atles lingüístic del domini català |volume=1 & 2 |place=Barcelona |publisher=Institut d'Estudis Catalans |page=51 |isbn=978-84-7283-942-7}}

{{refend}}

Institutions

• [http://www.cpnl.cat/ Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística]
• [http://www.iec.cat/ Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC)]
• [https://www.avl.gva.es/ Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL)]

About the Catalan/Valencian language

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110529085634/http://www2.iec.cat/institucio/seccions/Filologica/gramatica/default.asp Gramàtica de la Llengua Catalana] (Catalan grammar), from the Institut d'Estudis Catalans
• [https://www.avl.gva.es/documents/31987/65233/GNV Gramàtica Normativa Valenciana] (Valencian grammar). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101063611/http://www.avl.gva.es/documents/31987/65233/GNV |date=1 November 2020}}, from the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
• [https://www.apuntsdellengua.es/ Apunts de llengua], learning program by À Punt
• [https://llengua.gencat.cat/ca/inici llengua.gencat.cat], by the Government of Catalonia
• [http://www.verbs.cat/ verbs.cat] (Catalan verb conjugations with online trainers)
• [http://www.ub.edu/lexdialgram/ LEXDIALGRAM] (online portal of 19th-century dialectal lexicographical and grammatical works of Catalan hosted by the University of Barcelona)

Monolingual dictionaries

• [http://dlc.iec.cat/ DIEC2], from the Institut d'Estudis Catalans
• [http://www.avl.gva.es/lexicval/ Diccionari Normatiu Valencià (DNV)], from the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
• [http://ec.grec.net/cgi-bin/AppDLC3.exe?APP=CERCADLC&GECART= Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana]. {{Webarchive|url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160518140450/http://ec.grec.net/cgi-bin/AppDLC3.exe?APP=CERCADLC&GECART= |date=18 May 2016 }}, from Enciclopèdia Catalana
• [http://dcvb.iecat.net/ Diccionari Català-Valencià-Balear] d'Alcover i Moll. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040826061207/http://dcvb.iecat.net/ |date=26 August 2004 }}, from the Institut d'Estudis Catalans
• [http://www.dilc.org/ Diccionari Invers de la Llengua Catalana] (Dictionary of Catalan words spelled backward)
• [http://www.trobat.com/servicis/dvo.php trobat.com] (online Valencian dictionary)

Bilingual and multilingual dictionaries

• [http://www.grec.cat/cgibin/mlt00.pgm Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana Multilingüe]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140531071849/http://www.grec.cat/cgibin/mlt00.pgm |date=31 May 2014 }} (Catalan ↔ English, French, German and Spanish), from Enciclopèdia Catalana

Automated translation systems

• [https://traductor.gencat.cat/text.do Traductor] automated, online translations of text and web pages (Catalan ↔ English, French and Spanish), from gencat.cat by the Government of Catalonia

Learning resources

• [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Catalan_Swadesh_list Catalan Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words], from Wiktionary's [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Swadesh_lists Swadesh-list appendix]

Catalan-language online encyclopedia

• [http://www.enciclopedia.cat/ Enciclopèdia Catalana]

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