| Population |
6,472,828 mother tongue speakers (1996), plus 5,000,000 second or third language speakers in Spain (1994 La Generalitat de Catalunya). Population total all countries 6,565,000 or more. Including second language users: 10,000,000 (1999 WA). |
| Region |
Northeastern Spain, around Barcelona; Catalonia, Valencia Provinces, Balearic Islands, region of Carche, Murcia Province. Menorquin is on Menorca. Pallarese, a subdialect of Northwestern Catalan, is in Pallars. Ribagorçan, another subdialect extends from the Valley of Aran to the south of Tamarit, and from the Noguera Ribagorçana to the border with Aragonese. Also spoken in Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela. |
| Alternate names |
CATALÀ, CATALÁN, BACAVÈS, CATALONIAN |
| Dialects |
CATALAN-ROUSILLONESE (NORTHERN CATALÁN), VALENCIAN (VALENCIANO, VALENCIÀ), BALEARIC (BALEAR, INSULAR CATALAN, MALLORQUI, MENORQUI, EIVISSENC), CENTRAL CATALAN, ALGHERESE, NORTHWESTERN CATALAN (PALLARESE, RIBAGORÇAN, LLEIDATÀ, AIGUAVIVAN). |
| Classification |
Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Ibero-Romance, East Iberian. |
| Comments |
The standard variety is a literary composite which no one speaks, based on several dialects. Pallarese and Ribogorçan dialects are less similar to standard Catalan. Benasquese and Aiguavivan people live in isolated valleys and have a distinct phonology from their neighbors. Tortosin may be closer to Valencian. Central Catalan has about 90% to 95% inherent intelligibility to speakers of Valencian (R.A. Hall, Jr., 1989). Written Catalan is closest to Barcelona speech. Central Catalan has 87% lexical similarity with Italian, 85% with Portuguese and Spanish, 76% with Rheto-Romance, 75% with Sardinian, 73% with Rumanian. Bilingualism in Spanish, French, Italian, Sard, Occitan. All domains. All ages. Official language. Dictionary. Grammar. Literacy rate in first language: 60%. Literacy rate in second language: 96%. The high literacy in Catalan (60%) is recent. Pallarese and Ribogorçan speakers have less education, less contact with the standard, and live in high valleys of the Pyrenees. Some Valencian speakers desire separate literature. Radio programs, TV. Christian, secular. Bible 1478-1993. |
