Catalan phonology and orthography
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Main article: Catalan language
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Diachronical Phnological Features in Relation to Latin
Several characteristic features of Catalan as a Romance language:
- Like Occitan, loss of Latin final unstressed vowels, except -a; and then after some of the resulting consonantic groups a support vowel appears, e. g. fame → fam "hunger"; bucca → boca "mouth"; nostru → nostre "ours".
- Loss of final -n after the demise of final unstressed vowels, e. g. manu → *man → mà "hand".
- In Oriental dialects: Latin short e → closed , and Latin long e → neutral vowel and then later → open ; so the final outcome of Latin short and long e is reversed in relation to other Romance languages.
- Unlike Occitan and other Gallic Romance languages, Catalan preserves the three degrees for rounded back vowels , and is not centralised to .
- Unlike Spanish and other Iberian Romance languages, betacism or loss of b/v distinction seems to be in Catalan an innovation since the modern era, although non-betacist dialects are still preserved in some areas.
- Like Asturian, palatalization of Latin word initial l-; e.g. luna → lluna "moon"; lupu → llop "wolf".
- Vocalization to of final -d of diverse origins and the Latin verbal ending -tis: pede → peu "foot"; credit → creu "he believes"; miratis → miratz → mirau → mireu "you watch".
- Consonantic palatalizations, similar to most Romances:
- → → ; e. g. caelu → cel "sky, heaven".
- → → ; e. g. gelu → gel "ice".
- -ly-, -ll-, -c'l-, -t'l- → ll ; e. g. muliere → muller "wife"; caballu → cavall "horse", but cf other cases like villa → vila "town", where the geminate has been simplified; auricula → *oric'la → orella "ear"; uetulus → *vet'lu → vell "old man".
- -ny-, -gn-, -nn- → ny ; e. g. ligna → llenya "wood".
- Consonantic lenition, similar to most of Western Romances:
- Intervocalic voiced stops become fricatives or zero. E. g. caballu → cavall "horse", volebat → volia "s/he wanted", pavore → pahor → por "awe".
- Intervocalic voiceless stops become voiced. E. g. vita → vida "life".
- Intervocalic geminate voiceless stops are simplified, but intervocalic geminate voiceless fricatives are preserved. E. g. bucca → boca "mouth", passare → passar "pass".
See also specific articles on: Alguerese, Balearic, Ribagorçan, Valencian.
Phoneme inventory and orthography
A summary of the phonemes of contemporary Catalan, their graphemes and sounds:
Plosives
Plosives in final position become voiceless.
- p
- b, v (see below), articulated as fricative between vowels or liquides; in final position
- t
- d, articulated as fricative between vowels or liquids; in final position
- c before a, o, u; qu before e, i; qu for before a, o, u; qü for before e, i
- g before a, o, u; gu before e, i; gu for before a, o, u; gü for before e, i, articulated as fricative between vowels or liquids, in final position
Affricates
Affricates in final position become voiceless. Word final followed by a vowel become voiced.
- ts (not considered a separate phoneme but , by most authors).
- tz (not considered a separate phoneme but , by most authors). In Ribagorçan and Apitxat Valencian (comarques around Valencia city), has merged with voiceless .
- tx; sometimes ig in word final position; many exceptions.
- tj before a, o, u; tg before e, i; many exceptions. In Ribagorçan and Apitxat Valencian (comarques around Valencia city), has merged with voiceless .
Fricatives
Fricatives in final position become voiceless. Word final and followed by a vowel become voiced.
- f
- v. In most modern Catalan dialects has merged with bilabial plosive (a phenomenon called betacism). is still a separate phoneme in Balearic, Alguerese, Valencian (except the comarques around Valencia city), and the comarques around Tarragona city.
- s; ss between vowels; also c before e, i and ç elsewhere.
- z; s between vowels. In Ribagorçan and Apitxat Valencian (comarques around Valencia city), has merged with voiceless .
- x; ix after vowel or in word final position. In Occidental variants (Lleida, Valencian), the written form -ix- is pronounced or . In Barcelona city, in initial position or after nasals is pronounced as affricate .
- j before a, o, u; g before e, i; many exceptions. In Barcelona city, in initial position or after nasals is pronounced as affricate . Some j from standard correspond to in Pallarese or Ribagorçan, and then the rest of j from standard correspond to in Ribagorçan. Most j of standard correspond to in Valencian, and then in Apitxat Valencian (comarques around Valencia city) has merged with voiceless .
Nasals
Nasals in final position retain distinct point or articulation, unlike in Spanish or French.
- m
- The digraph tm in intervocalic position is assimilated to a geminate , as in setmana "week", except usually in some learned words such as ritme "rhythm".
- The syllable final digraph mp is reduced to , as in compte "account", temptar "to tempt".
- n
- The digraph tn in intervocalic position is assimilated to a geminate n , as in cotna "bark", except usually in some learned words such as ètnia "ethnic group".
- ny, palatal nasal, as in Hungarian
- velar nasal , which is written as nc or ng in final position, is not considered a separate phoneme, but or , by most authors.
Laterals
- l. Catalan has a distinctive velar resonance: , like English "dark l" (as in full) unlike the Spanish or French equivalent.
- l·l is ela geminada, a Catalan characteristic grapheme, appearing only in intervocalic position and which stands for a geminate . This geminate pronunciation is always maintained in several popular words, such as til·la "linden" and xarel·lo "muscatel grape". However, by influence from Spanish, many speakers no longer pronounce them geminate in many other words (mostly borrowed words from Latin).
- The digraph tl in intervocalic position is assimilated to a geminate , as in espatla (shoulder), except usually in some borrowed words such as atleta "athlete".
- ll, palatal lateral. Standard Catalan has not merged with , unlike Spanish or French ones, and yeismo is socially stigmatized in the prestigious speech of Barcelona. There is a kind of yeismo called "etymological yeism", affecting only the Eastern dialects and originating from the 13th century, which weakened the from the etymological intervocalic -c'l-, -g'l-, -l'y-, -t'l- (in Spanish those groups have resulted in ). This way, some ll from standard correspond to or to nothing at all in Balearic; e. g. uetula → vella "old woman", Balearic vea.
- tll, this trigraph is assimilated into a geminate ll , as in rotllo "roll".
Rhotics
Two rhotic sounds exist in Catalan, like in Spanish.
- Alveolar flap, written r in all positions but word initial.
- Alveolar trill, written r word-initially, rr between vowels.
Vowels
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Catalan_vowel_chart.png
The vowel phonemes of Standard Catalan
The Standard vowel system has seven different vowels in stressed position , but only can appear in unstressed positions.
In most of Balearics, (written e, è) can be a distinct phoneme as well in stressed position. In Valencian and NW Catalan and can appear as well in unstressed positions.
Dialectal variation
The differences in the vocalic systems outlined above are the main criteria used to diferentiate between the major dialects:
- Central (Girona province, Barcelona province, Tarragona province but the Ebro bassin)
- Northern (Roussillon)
- Balearic (Balearic Islands)
- Alguerese (L'Alguer)
- North-Western (Andorra, Lleida province, Ribagorça, Ebre bassin of Tarragona province)
- Valencian (Eastern half of País Valencià, and Carxe in the Murcia province)
- a, à. Catalan is tenser and more open than the Spanish or French ones. Only in stressed position. When unstressed coalesces to , but not in Western variants (Lleida, Valencian).
- e, è. Only in stressed position. When unstressed coalesces to , but in Western variants (Lleida, Valencian) to .
- e, é. Only in stressed position. When unstressed coalesces to , but not in Western variants (Lleida, Valencian).
- i, í, ï.
- o, ò. Only in stressed position. When unstressed coalesces to , but in Western variants (Lleida, Valencian) and Majorca to .
- o, ó. Only in stressed position. When unstressed coalesces to , but not in Western variants (Lleida, Valencian) and Majorca.
- u, ú, ü.
Diphthongs and triphthongs
Unlike Spanish or French, contiguous vowels normally form descending diphthongs, not ascending ones. Examples:
- mai "never" (1 syllable)
- noi "boy" (1 syllable)
- rei "king" (1 syllable)
- pau "peace" (1 syllable)
- bou "ox" (1 syllable)
- neu "snow" (1 syllable)
- diu "he says" (1 syllable)
- vuit "eight" (1 syllable)
But:
- dia "day" (2 syllables)
- cua "tail" (2 syllables)
- deia "he said" (2 syllables)
- diuen "they say" (2 syllables)
The only ascending diphthongs are those of the kind gu(a/o), gü(e/i) and qu(a/o), qü(e/i):
- aigua "water" (2 syllables)
- ungüent "ointment" (2 syllables)
- pingüí "penguin" (2 syllables)
- llenguota "big tongue" (3 syllables)
- quatre "four" (2 syllables)
- qüestió "question" (2 syllables)
- aqüífer "aquifer" (3 syllables)
- quota "quota" (2 syllables)
A few triphthongs are formed upon those:
- aguaitar "to look at" (3 syllables)
- liqüeu "you liquify" (2 syllables)
If a diaeresis appears over the i or u of what would otherwise be a descending diphthong, the diphthong is broken into a hiatus:
- raïm "grape" (2 syllables)
- taüt "coffin" (2 syllables)
- ruïna "ruin" (3 syllables)
See also
External links
- A proposal for Catalan SAMPA (http://liceu.uab.es/~joaquim/language_resources/SAMPA_Catalan.html)