Catalan - proper language or Spanish dialect?
My linguistics teacher mentioned today in class that, because Spanish speakers could understand it, Cátalan was a dialect of Spanish and not its own language, even though Catalan speakers would claim otherwise. I guess she has more in-depth reasons but she just said this in passing while talking about dialects.
I found this interesting.
What do you think?
13 Answers
Hi, say to your teacher that she is not correct! I'm not Catalan but it’s its own language and not a Spanish dialect. In Spain there are 3 official languages in addition to Spanish: they are. Catalan, Euskera and Gallego.
Of course, the Catalan language is a romance language as is Spanish. The Catalan language has several dialects.
I have to say that this is a controversial matter but no one can deny that Catalan is a distinct language in its own right.
If Catalan were to be considered a dialect of a major, modern Romance language then I think it would be more correct to call it a dialect of French as it's more closely related to French than Spanish (although I not sure how much Spanish has influence it in modern times). Is Portuguese a dialect of Spanish (or vice-versa)? I think those 2 language are more similar than Catalan and Spanish.
When in Barcelona I tried to read Catalan, and it while of course the following wasn't the actual origin of Catalan, it almost seemed as though they had taken some words from French, some from Spanish, some from Italian, mixed them up and then misspelled all of them. I'm not a linguist but I'd say it is a separate language.
Catlan is definitely it's own language. The romance languages in the geographic area from France to Spain were split, originally recorded by Dante, according to which corruption of vulgar Latin they used for "yes". Catalan and Occitan were in the Lenga d'òc because they use oc as opposed to oïl (French) or sí (Spanish, Italian for example). These languages were originally spoken in southern France and Spain around the Pyrenees, although many of the other languages in the family are now extinct.
"I got up at 7 today"
Catalan: Avui m’he llevat a les 7
Spanish: Hoy me levanté a las 7
Not that I'm an expert, but I would say that these are a bit more different than they are similar. If you look at the grammar, such as inflectional verb endings, you will find quite a few differences as well.
Aside from these differences, it would still be strange to consider Catalan to be a dialect of Spanish in that it is not a direct descendant of the Castillian
There are several dialects of English that many native speakers can't understand. . .
Catalán es una lengua cooficial reconocida en el estado de España.
Tiene total validez como lengua en la Comunidad Autónoma de Cataluña.
Para trabajar en Cataluña en puestos de la Administración Publica tienes que dominar el español y el catalán.
Para mi como madrileño, no muy agradable la existencia de otras lenguas dentro de España, ya que personalmente dificultan la comunicación dentro del propio país.
If somebody needs it, I can try to translate it to English
Un saludo.
When I was in a Barcelona restaurant I read a Catalan menu for the first time and remember thinking that it was like "modified" French.
Creo que puedo responder a esta pregunta porque soy de España. Realmente el Catalán no es una lengua oficial es co-oficial y significa que se habla solo en una parte de España. Los españoles, la mayoría, no saben Catalán porque solo se habla allí y no es necesario. En Cataluña se habla español aunque también catalán y este dialecto del latín es mucho más parecido al francés que al español. Además no es lo mismo el catalán que el valenciano se parecen pero son distintos. Además el catalán lo habla muy poca gente.
Catlan is it own language, which looks more like French that Spanish. It is dominant in Andorra.
Your Spanish teacher (who said Catalan was a dialect because it is understood by Spanish speakers) is essentially wrong. There were no nuances in his/her response.
Someone observed that 'a language has an army.' This is as cute as it is insightful. However, Catalan is different. Here are some nuances. About twice as many people speak Catalan as Danish, yet no one doubts that Danish is a language (11 million to 6 million.) Yet Denmark has an army, whereas Cataluna does not. However, since the Danish army would be overwhelmed in the most trivial conflict, Denmark's national defense strategy is to turn on all radio and TV stations with a recorded message that says 'we give up.' So, there you have it. According to the 'army theory,' the jury is still out!
By the way, Spanish and Italian are also mutually understandable. For an example, see the movie "Goya in Bordeaux.' In it Goya and an Italian art dealer are carrying on a conversation in Spanish and Italian with 100% comprehension. Many Italians and Spaniards will confirm that Italian and Spanish are mutually understandable. And, no one doubts that these two are languages.
Here's another tack: If we think about it, there's technically no such thing as "Spanish", other than in the sense that was we call "Spanish" is the language that the Kingdom of Spani adopted as its official language several hundred years ago.
But Spain became what is is today after a number of smaller kingdoms were incorporated by / into the kingdom of Castilla. While it is all one country today, several of those former regions: Valencia, Galicia, Cataluña, Euskadi, Navarra fiercely stick to their cultural heritage, and maintain their original languages. To boot: Catalán, Aranés, Valenciano, Gallego, and Euskera - plus Castellano, of course.
So, while the official language is Castilian (Castellano), all the other languages are separate and very much alive. Euskera, in particular, is a very different and peculiar language (non hindo-european). I have heard an old joke that says: " todos los vascos son buenos porque tienen el euskara, un idioma tan complicado que ni el diablo se lo pudo aprender" (All Basques are good because they have Euskara, a language so difficult that not even the devil could learn it).
Catalan is officially a separate language. Sin duda. It's closely related to both French and Spanish and fairly easy to understand if you speak these languages, but it is the officialanguage of Cataluna and also for Mallorca and is taught inthe schools.The roadsigns in these regions are in both Spanish and Catalan.
