Valencian language

Valencian or the Valencian language is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community to refer to the Romance language also known as Catalan, either as a whole or in its Valencia-specific linguistic forms. The Valencian Community's 1982 Statute of Autonomy officially recognises Valencian as the name of the native language.
Valencian displays transitional features between Ibero-Romance languages and Gallo-Romance languages. According to philological studies, the varieties of this language spoken in the Valencian Community and Carche cannot be considered a single dialect restricted to these borders: the several [|dialects of Valencian] belong to the Western group of Catalan dialects.
There is [|political controversy within the Valencian Community] regarding whether it is a glottonym or an independent language. The position of the Valencian people that it is an independent language has a majority according to the official reports, from 2/3 in 2004 to a slight majority in 2015. According to the 2006 Statute of Autonomy, Valencian is regulated by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, following the legacy established by the Castelló Norms, which adapt Catalan orthography to Valencian idiosyncrasies.
Some of the most important works of Valencian literature experienced a Golden Age during the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Important works include Joanot Martorell's chivalric romance Tirant lo Blanch, and Ausiàs March's poetry. The first book produced with movable type in the Iberian Peninsula was printed in the Valencian variety. The earliest recorded chess game with modern rules for moves of the queen and bishop was in the Valencian poem Scachs d'amor.

History

The Valencian language is usually assumed to have spread in the Kingdom of Valencia when Catalan and Aragonese colonists settled the territory after the conquests carried out by James the Conqueror. A new resettlement in the 17th century, after the expulsion of the Moriscos, largely led by Castilians, defined the Spanish language varieties of inland Valencia. However, Valencian has historically been the predominant and administrative language in the kingdom.
The first documental reference to the usage of the term valencià to refer to the spoken language of the Valencians is found in a judicial process of Minorca against Gil de Lozano, dated between 1343 and 1346, in which it is said that the mother of the indicted, Sibila, speaks valencianesch because she was from Orihuela.
The concept of Valencian language appeared in the second half of the 14th century and it was progressively consolidated at the same time that its meaning changed due to events of a diverse nature. In the previous centuries the Catalan spoken in the territory of the Kingdom of Valencia was called in different ways: romanç and catalanesch. The concept of the Valencian language appeared with a particularistic character due to the reinforced nature of the legal entity of the Kingdom of Valencia for being the Mediterranean commercial power during the 14th and 15th centuries, becoming in the cultural and literary centre of the Crown of Aragon. Thus, the Valencians, together with the Majorcans, presented themselves to other peoples as Catalans while they referred to themselves as Valencians and Majorcans to themselves to emphasise the different legal citizenship of each kingdom.
In the 15th century, the so-called Valencian Golden Age, the name "Valencian" was already the usual name of the predominant language of the Kingdom of Valencia, and the names of vulgar, romanç or catalanesch had fallen into disuse. Joanot Martorell, author of the novel Tirant lo Blanch, said: ".".
Since the Spanish democratic transition, the autonomy or heteronomy of Valencian with respect to the rest of the Valencian-Catalan linguistic system has been the subject of debate and controversy among Valencians, usually with a political background. Although in the academic field of linguists the unity of the language has never been questioned since studies of the Romance languages, part of Valencian public opinion believes and affirms that Valencian and Catalan are different languages, an idea that began to spread during the turbulent Valencian transition by sectors of the regionalist right and by the so-called blaverisme. There is an alternative secessionist linguistic regulation, the Normes del Puig, drawn up by the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture, an institution founded in 1915 by the Deputation of Valencia, but its use is very marginal.

Official status

The official status of Valencian is regulated by the Spanish Constitution and the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, together with the Law on the Use and Teaching of Valencian.
Article 6 of the Valencian Statute of Autonomy sets the legal status of Valencian, establishing that:
Passed in 1983, the Law on the Use and Teaching of Valencian develops this framework, providing for the implementation of a bilingual educational system, regulating the use of Valencian in the public administration and judiciary system, where citizens can freely use it when acting before both, or establishing the right to be informed by media in Valencian among others.
Valencian is also protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, ratified by Spain. However, the Committee of Experts of the Charter has pointed out a considerable number of deficiencies in the application of the Charter by the Spanish and Valencian governments.

Distribution and usage

Distribution

Unlike in other bilingual autonomous communities, Valencian has not historically been spoken to the same extent throughout the Valencian Community. Slightly more than a quarter of its territory, equivalent to 10-15% of the population, is Spanish-speaking since the Middle Ages.
Additionally, it is also spoken by a small number of people in the Carche comarca, a rural area in the Region of Murcia adjoining the Valencian Community. Nevertheless, Valencian does not have any official recognition in this area. Nowadays about 600 people are able to speak Valencian in Carche.
The Valencian language is traditionally spoken along the coast and in some inland areas in the provinces of Alicante and Castellon, from Vinaròs to Guardamar.

Knowledge and usage

In 2010 the Generalitat Valenciana, or Valencian government, published a study, Coneixement i ús social del valencià, which included a survey sampling more than 6,600 people in the provinces of Castellon, Valencia, and Alicante. The survey simply collected the answers of respondents and did not include any testing or verification. The results were:

Valencian was the language "always, generally, or most commonly used":
* at home: 31.6%
* with friends: 28.0%
* in internal business relations: 24.7%
For ability:
* 48.5% answered they can speak Valencian "perfectly" or "quite well"
* 26.2% answered they can write Valencian "perfectly" or "quite well"

The survey shows that, although Valencian is still the common language in many areas in the Valencian Community, where slightly more than half of the Valencian population are able to speak it, most Valencians do not usually use Valencian in their social relations.
Moreover, according to the most recent survey in 2021, there is a downward trend in everyday Valencian users. The lowest numbers are in the major cities of Valencia and Alicante, where the percentage of everyday speakers is at single-digit numbers. However, the percentage of residents who claim to be able to understand and read Valencian seems to have increased since 2015.

	Valencian-speaking zone	Spanish-speaking zone	Total
Understands it	79.4%	54%	75.8%
Can speak it	54.9%	24.2%	50.6%
Can read it	60.9%	35%	57.2%
Can write it	44.4%	19.5%	40.8%

Due to a number of political and social factors, including repression, immigration and lack of formal instruction in Valencian, the number of speakers has severely decreased, and the influence of Spanish has led to the appearance of a number of barbarisms.

Features of Valencian

This is a list of features of the main forms of Valencian. There is a great deal of variety within the Valencian Community, and by no means do the features below apply to every local version. For more general information about other linguistic varieties, see Catalan language.
The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua specifies Standard Valencian as having some specific syntax, vocabulary, verb conjugations and accent marks compared to Standard Catalan.

Phonology

Vowels

The stressed vowel system of Valencian is the same as that of Eastern Catalan :
*,,,,,, and .

Phoneme	Allophone	Usage	Example	English
	-	-	-	-
		- Found in most instances	mà	hand
		- Before/after palatals, may be higher	nyap	botched job
			llamp	lightning
		- Before/after velars, usually higher in unstressed position	poal	bucket
		- Same than, but followed by a nasal; usually higher in unstressed position	sang	blood
		- In unstressed position	abans	before
		- Nasal ; that is, followed by or in between nasals	llançat	thrown
		- Final unstressed syllables, may be lower and		Earth, land; woman
	∅	- Silent. In unstressed position, when followed or preceded by a stressed vowel	una hora	one hour
	-	-	-	-
		- Before liquids and in monosyllabic terms	set	seven
		- Before nasals	dens	dense
		- Rest of cases, may be lower	tesi	thesis
	-	-	-	-
		- Found in stressed and unstressed syllables, may be lower	sec	dry
		- In stressed and unstressed position followed by or in between nasals, may be lower	lent	slow
		- In some cases, in initial unstressed position before palatals; may be higher	eixam	swarm
		- In some cases, in unstressed position	terrós	earthy
		- In some cases, in initial unstressed position before nasals	entén	he/she understands
		- In some cases, in unstressed position in contact with velars; may be higher	clevill	crevice
		- In some cases, in initial unstressed position before velar nasals; may be higher	enclusa	anvil
		- Found in the suffix -ixement	naixement	birth
	∅	- Silent. In unstressed position, when followed or preceded by a stressed vowel	mà esquerra	left hand
	-	-	-	-
		- Especially found in stressed syllables	sis	six
		- Nasal ; that is, followed by or in between nasals	dins	in, within, inside
		- Unstressed position	xiquet	boy
		- Nasal ; that is, followed by or in between nasals	minvar
		- Unstressed position before/after vowels	iogurt	yoghurt
	∅	- Silent. In the digraph , and dialectally also in the digraph	raig	ray
	-	-	-	-
		- Found before stops and in monosyllabic terms	roig	red
		- Before nasals	pont	bridge
		- Rest of cases, may be lower	dona	woman
	-	-	-	-
		- Found in stressed and unstressed syllables	molt	much, very
		- Nasal ; that is, followed by or in between nasals	on	where
		- Found in the suffix -dor and in coda stressed syllables	cançó	song
		- Unstressed position before labials, a syllable with a high vowel and in some given names	Josep	Joseph
		- Same as, but followed by a nasal	complit	to fulfill
		- Found in most cases with the weak pronoun ho	ho	it
	-	-	-	-
		- Especially found in stressed syllables	lluç	hake
		- Nasal ; that is, followed by or in between nasals	fum	smoke
		- Unstressed position	sucar	to soak, to dip
		- Nasal ; that is, followed by or in between nasals	muntó	a lot
		- Unstressed position before/after vowels	teua	your
	∅	- Silent. After the velars and in the digraphs and	qui	who