By Sarah-Claire Jordan
Catalan is a language spoken mainly in Spain, particularly the region known as Catalonia, from where it gets its name. Depending on the area, Catalan is either only spoken at home, spoken at home and taught in school, or only spoken by older generations. In the region of Catalonia, it is recognized as an official language along with Spanish. Outside of Europe, however, Catalan doesn’t come up much in conversation. To give you a better idea of what the language is like, check out these four important facts about Catalan:
1. It’s not a dialect of Spanish
Many people falsely assume that, since it is spoken in Spain, Catalan must just be a regional dialect of Spanish. Anyone who has seen or heard Catalan will tell you, however, that it is quite different from Spanish in many ways. In fact, it shares more with French and Italian than Spanish. There are also several dialects of Catalan itself, which would be called something else if Catalan were just a dialect of Spanish. The dialects of Catalan are generally divided into Eastern and Western Catalan, with variation depending on the region. The dialect of Catalan spoken in Valencia is called Valencian sometimes, which is a bit confusing, but it is still just a dialect of Catalan.
2. It has a history of being banned
As with many minority native languages in any country, throughout history, Catalan has been treated as an inferior language that needed to be abolished, or at least restricted. Probably the first instance of this was after the War of Spanish Succession, when the Catalans were defeated. A series of laws were passed that made Spanish the one and only official language for legal documents, which meant Catalan could not be used in that field. Much later, during Franco’s regime, Catalan was outright banned from 1940 to 1978. Today, it is alive and well in Catalonia and other areas, but there are still many people who harbor anti-Catalan sentiment.
3. It is spoken outside of Spain
To further prove that Catalan is not a dialect of Spanish, it can be found spoken in other countries. The most notable of these countries is Andorra, since Catalan is the official national language of the country, and the only national language too. France is also an important country for Catalan, as the region sometimes referred to as Northern Catalonia is actually the department of Pyrénées-Orientales in France. It is also spoken in Italy in the city of Alghero, which is on the island of Sardinia. The Catalan spoken in Alghero is very unique, however, but still intelligible with other dialects of Catalan.
4. It has more in common with Gallo-Romance languages than Ibero-Romance languages
Surprisingly enough, the Ibero-Romance languages (Spanish and Portuguese) are not as similar to Catalan as one Gallo-Romance language in particular: Occitan. Occitan is spoken in southern France and shares a lot with Catalan in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. In fact, sometimes the Catalan TV channels in Spain will air shows in Occitan, particularly if music is involved.
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