Northern Valencian


Northern Valencian is a dialect chain spoken in the north of the Valencian Community and south of Catalonia. It comprises two main varieties: Transitional Valencian spoken around the town of Tortosa, and classified as either a dialect of Catalonia, or a Valencian dialect; and Castellon's Valencian or Northern Valencian.

Transitional Valencian

Phonetic features

  • Fall of final : canta, millo.
  • Progressive deaffrication of intervocalic : metge > me'e or me'e, bajoca > ba'oca or ba'oca.
  • diphthong in cuina and buit.

    Morphology

  • Desinence in -o for the first person of the present of indicative: parlo instead of parle, dormo instead of dorm.
  • Tendency to velarised analogical formations of the present of subjunctive: vaiga/''vaigue 'I go', haiga/haigue 'I have, there is'.
Subdivisions:
  1. Northern Zone. It is the area with stronger Tortosan influence, where the following features are shared: firmer preservation of in the suffix -ada ; articulation of final -a'' ; only exist the forms of the subjunctive imperfect past in -s, like in Tortosan and General Catalan ; preservation of the old literary articles lo and los.
  2. Southern Zone. Similar to Tortosan in some features, but generally closer to Valencian: total or partial elision of in the suffix -ada ; forms of the imperfect past of subjunctive in -r. As we move away inland the linguistic levelling with Castellon's Valencian is each time more noticeable: drop of in the -ador suffix or 'farmer', moca, lost of the phoneme and palatalisation of the affricate phonemes and . The articles lo and los are changed to el and els, except the coastal zone of Baix Maestrat. It is peculiar the old speech of Alcalà de Xivert, with almost all its features of the Tortosan zone, but with the preservation of final -r.

    Castellon's Valencian

The existence of this dialectal zone opposite to Northern Transitional Valencian is founded by a very symbolical feature for the speakers: the -e of the first person of indicative. If the criteria for the classification of Castellon's Valencian would be based only in the treatment of final -r and the phoneme, would be necessary to circumscribe Castellon's Valencian only to the coastal zone between Benicàssim and Xilxes, since this is the area that maintains final -r and do not deaffricate ever in intervocalic position. It is believed that, even though the relevance of these two last features, the grouping of l'Alcalatén and el Pla de l'Arc with the northern sector of la Plana is a fact that must take into account the sum of other phonetic features, like the lack of contrast between and, the palatalisation of and, the use of the diphthong in cuit and huit and the model of verbal conjugation.
Subdivisions:
  1. Northern Zone. In this area, the phonetic features noted for the southern area of northern Valencian are generalised: elision of in the suffix -ada and normally also in the -ador suffix or 'farmer', moca. It is general the pronunciation of like and the palatalisation of the affricate phonemes and . With punctual exceptions, the opposition of and does not exist now. In terms of verbal morphology, Northern Castellon's Valencian has a very significative feature compared to the southern area of la Plana and Northern Valencian: all final -a of General Valencian systematically change to -e, except for the imperatives. This morphological feature is also important to include the languages of Alcalatén and Pla de l'Arc within the northern Castellonenc and not in the northern Valencian.
  2. Southern Zone.  It is the most conservative area of Castellon's Valencian and more akin to the general non-apitxat Valencian, with the following peculiarities with respect to the northern sector of la Plana: the process of confluence of the phonemes and is less advanced and the same occurs with the distinction of and, kept, at least, between older people and adults. The voiceless affricate phoneme becomes normally palatal, but the phoneme it is kept alveolar, often with epenthesis of, : dotze, setze > dotzre, setzre. The verbal morphology is identical to Traditional General Valencian, with final -a and -e and also with the forms -am and -au of the subjunctive and the imperative of some verbs of the 2nd and 3rd conjugations. From this area it is very peculiar the speech of Onda and its surroundings, with the complex mixture of dialectal features from the north and south: the devoicing of, the betacism and the appearance of -e instead of final -a: tindrie, face, like Northern Castellon's Valencian.