Catalan is a Western Romance language derived from Vulgar Latin and named after the medieval Principality of Catalonia, in northeastern modern Spain. It is the only official language of Andorra, and a co-official language of the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia. It also has semi-official status in the Italian comune of Alghero. It is also spoken in the eastern strip of Aragon, in some villages of Region of Murcia called Carche and in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France. These territories are often called Països Catalans or "Catalan Countries".
Valencian or Valencian language is the historical, traditional and official name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and extra-officially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), for referring to the Romance language also known as Catalan. The Valencian Community's 1982 Statute of Autonomy and the Spanish Constitution officially recognize Valencian as the regional language.
Joan Coromines i Vigneaux was a linguist who made important contributions to the study of Catalan, Spanish, and other Romance languages.
The phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation. Although there are two standard dialects, one based on Eastern Catalan and one based on Valencian, this article deals with features of all or most dialects, as well as regional pronunciation differences. Various studies have focused on different Catalan varieties; for example, Wheeler (1979) and Mascaró (1976) analyze Central Eastern varieties, the former focusing on the educated speech of Barcelona and the latter focusing more on the vernacular of Barcelona, and Recasens (1986) does a careful phonetic study of Central Eastern Catalan.
Catalan orthography encompasses the spelling and punctuation of the Catalan language.
Percale is a closely woven plain-weave fabric often used for bed covers. Percale has a thread count of about 200 or higher and is noticeably tighter than the standard type of weave used for bedsheets. It has medium weight, is firm and smooth with no gloss, and warps and washes very well. It is made from both carded and combed yarns, and may be woven of various fibers, such as cotton, polyester, or various blends.
Manuel Sanchis i Guarner was a Spanish philologist, historian and writer.
Carles Riba i Bracons was a Catalan poet, writer and translator.
Father Antoni Maria Alcover i Sureda, also known as Mossèn Alcover was a modernist Majorcan writer, who wrote on a wide range of subjects including the Catholic Church, folklore and linguistics. He is chiefly associated with efforts to revive interest in the Catalan language and its dialects. Among his works was a Catalan-Valencian-Balearic dictionary.
The first names, or glossonyms, of the Catalan language formed in a dialectal relation with Latin, in which Catalan existed as a variety. These names already expressed the relationship between the two languages. New names that related Catalan to Rome came about to dignify the Catalan language in the thirteenth century, though Latinists called it vulgar and the people planus, or pla.
Francesc de Borja Moll Casanovas was a linguist, philologist and editor from Menorca. His father was called Josep Moll Vidal and his mother Maria-Anna Casanovas Oliver. He was the 7th child of their humble marriage. However the first 5 children of the family died before they reached 5 years old; and for this reason, Francesc was an extremely protected child. In his book Els meus primers trenta anys he states that both his mother and father, together with his godmother and brother were the most important figures in his life. He wrote many books on the Catalan language and its varieties spoken on the Balearic Islands. He was also the main collaborator with Father Antoni Maria Alcover in his Diccionari Català-Valencià-Balear.
Catalan originated from Vulgar Latin in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. It diverged from the other Romance languages in the 9th century. At that time, Catalan spread quickly throughout the Iberian peninsula when the Catalan counts conquered Muslim territory. By the 11th century, the Catalan language was present in several feudal documents. Catalan was present throughout the Mediterranean by the 15th century. This was during a time when the city of Valencia was thriving.
Germà Colón i Doménech is a notable philologist of Romance philology and Catalan lexicology. He was appointed a professor at the University of Basel, in Switzerland.
Josep Maria Nadal i Farreras is Professor of History of Language at the University of Girona.
The dialects of the Catalan language feature a relative uniformity, especially when compared to other Romance languages; both in terms of vocabulary, semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology. Mutual intelligibility between its dialects is very high, estimates ranging from 90% to 95%. The only exception is the isolated idiosyncratic Alguerese dialect.
The Dictionary of the Catalan language of the Institute of Catalan Studies (DIEC) is the dictionary of Catalan of the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC) and, therefore, the standard dictionary of and reference for the Catalan language, together with the dictionary of standard Valencian produced by the AVL.
Joan Solà Cortassa was a Catalan linguist and philologist. He was professor of Catalan language and literature at the University of Barcelona from 1984 onwards, and vice president of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC) from 2009.
The Normes ortogràfiques are a list of 24 rules which were promulgated by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans on January 24, 1913, with the purpose of regularizing Catalan spelling. They were born out of the necessity to establish a graphic codification for the Catalan language, which at the moment did not have a unitary spelling.
