Valencian language

History

Official status

Distribution and usage

Distribution

Knowledge and usage

• 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"

Features of Valencian

Phonology

Vowels

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

Consonants

• is bilabial, except before and where it becomes labiodental.
•  is apical front alveolar , and laminal denti-alveolar before and.
• * In addition,  is postalveolar  or alveolo-palatal  before ,, and ; velar  before  and ; and labiodental  before  and, where it merges with . It also merges with   before  and .
• is laminal front alveolo-palatal .
• is velar and is only found in the coda.

• Coda obstruents assimilate to the voicing of the following consonant. In the standard, coda fricatives also assimilate to the voicing of the following vowel: els amics . In regular speech in some dialects, final [|plosives] may assimilate to the voicing of the following vowel.
• * Voiced [|obstruents] undergo final-obstruent devoicing so that fred is pronounced with while fredes is pronounced with ..

• is apical front alveolar, and laminal denti-alveolar before and..
• * is normally velarised, especially in the coda.
• ** is generally dropped in the word altre , as well as in derived terms.
• is laminal front alveolo-palatal.
•  is apical front alveolar  and  is apical back alveolar, also described as postalveolar.
• * Between vowels, the two rhotics contrast, but they are otherwise in complementary distribution. appears in the onset, except in word-initial position, after,, and , and in compounds, where is used.
• * is mostly retained in the coda, except for some cases where it can be dropped: prendre , arbre , and diners .
• ** In some dialects can be further dropped in combinatory forms with infinitives and pronouns.
• ** In other dialects, further instances of final are lost: anar .

• The vowels and have as non-vocalic correlates the semivowels and, respectively, which form a diphthong with the preceding or following vowel.
• * According, the sequences  or  are regarded as labiovelar phonemes  and .

• Word-initial clusters from Graeco-Latin learned words tend to drop the first phoneme: gnom , mnemotècnia , pneumàtic , pseudònim , pterodàctil , etc.
• Word-medial codas are restricted to one consonant + .
• In the coda position, voice contrasts among obstruents are neutralised..
• * The pronunciation of final is usually retained in the standard and most Valencian dialects, this includes plural forms : camps, punts and bancs. Medial before consonant merges with, e.g. compte and comte are pronounced as.
• * Other clusters include , , ; , , ; and , , .

• In some places, some terms can undergo sound changes, like cridar → *cridar or quidar. This is heard frequently in the term aigua → àuia .

Morphology

• The present first-person singular of verbs differs from Central Catalan. All those forms without final -o are more akin to mediaeval Catalan and contemporary Balearic Catalan.
• Present subjunctive is more akin to medieval Catalan and Spanish; -ar infinitives end, -re, -er and -ir verbs end in .
• An exclusive feature of Valencian is the subjunctive imperfect morpheme -ra: que ell vinguera.
• Valencian has -i- as theme vowel for inchoative verbs of the third conjugation; e.g. servix, like North-Western Catalan. Although, again, this cannot be generalised since there are Valencian dialects that utilise -ei-, e.g. serveix.
• In Valencian the simple past tense is more frequently used in speech than in Central Catalan, where the periphrastic past is prevailing and the simple past mostly appears in written language. The same, however, may be said of the Balearic dialects.
• The second-person singular of the present tense of the verb ser, ets, has been replaced by eres in colloquial speech.
• The infinitive veure has the variant vore, which belongs to more informal and spontaneous registers.
• The usage of the periphrasis of obligation tindre + que + infinitive is widely spread in colloquial Valencian, instead of the Standard haver + de.
• In colloquial speech the first person of the verb haver 'to have', found mainly in the present perfect tense, has merged with the third person . Thus, m'he comprat uns calcetins becomes m'ha comprat uns calcetins.

• In general, use of modern forms of the determinate article and the third-person unstressed object pronouns, though some dialects preserve etymological forms wikt:lo#Catalan, wikt:los#Catalan as in Lleida. For the other unstressed object pronouns, etymological old forms can be found, depending on places, in conjunction with the more modern reinforced ones.
• * Several local variations for wikt:nosaltres#Catalan, wikt:vosaltres#Catalan : mosatros, moatros, matros, etc. and vosatros, voatros, vatros, etc.; also for the weak form mos/-mos instead of standard ens/'ns/-nos and vos/-vos instead of us/-vos, the latter is considered standard.
• The adverbial pronoun wikt:hi#Catalan is almost never used in speech and is replaced by other pronouns. The adverbial pronoun wikt:en is used less than in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.
• Combined weak clitics with wikt:li#Catalan preserve the li, whereas in Central Catalan it is replaced by hi. For example, the combination li + el gives li'l in Valencian.
• The weak pronoun wikt:ho#Catalan is pronounced as:
• *, when it forms syllable with a pronoun: m'ho dona, dona-m'ho
• * or, when it comes before a verb starting with consonant: ho dona
• *, when precedes a vowel or when coming after a vowel: li ho dona , dona-ho
• *, when it comes after a consonant or a semivowel: donar-ho .
• The personal pronoun wikt:jo#Catalan and the adverb wikt:ja#Catalan are not pronounced according to the spelling, but to the etymology. Similar pronunciations can be heard in North-Western Catalan and Ibizan.
• The preposition wikt:amb#Catalan merges with wikt:en#Catalan in most Valencian dialects.
• The compound preposition wikt:per a#Catalan is usually reduced to wikt:p'a#Catalan in colloquial Valencian.
• Valencian preserves the mediaeval system of demonstratives with three different levels of demonstrative precision .
• * The colloquial variant of wikt:açò#Catalan, wikt:astò#Catalan, is heard frequently in Alacantí Valencian.

Vocabulary

Writing system

• Double consonants like and ; ; and ; ; , , and ; and ; and ; and ; and ; and ; , , , and .
• Some consonant groups in syllabic opening like , , , , , , , , or , found in learned words.
• The graphic groups specific to other languages present in most non-adapted borrowings and in derivatives of foreign proper names.

Varieties of Valencian

Standard Valencian

Valencian dialects

• * Transitional Valencian or Tortosan, also ambiguously termed Northern Valencian: spoken in the comarques situated between Castellon and the border, including towns like Benicarló, Vinaròs and Morella, as well as the contiguous areas to the north of the border: the Matarranya area in Aragon and a strip of southern Catalonia surrounding Tortosa.
• ** Word-initial and postconsonantal alternates with intervocalically; e.g. joc , but pitjor , boja .
• ** Final is not pronounced in infinitives; e.g. cantar .
• ** Archaic articles lo, los are used instead of el, els; e.g. lo xic, los hòmens.
• * Northern Valencian or Castellonenc Valencian : spoken in an area surrounding the city of Castellón de la Plana.
• ** Use of sound instead of standard in the third person singular of most verbs; e.g. cantava 'he sang'. Thus, Northern Valencian dialects contrast forms like cantava with cantava , but merges cante with canta .
• ** Palatalisation of > and > or ; e.g. pots > , dotze > . Thus, this dialect may merge passeig and passets.
• ** Depalatalization of to by some speakers; e.g. caixa .Central area:
• * Central Valencian, or Apitxat, spoken in Valencia city and its area. One of the two most widely spoken [|dialects of Valencian], it is not however used as the main model for the oral standard in Valencian media and education, and is sometimes connated negatively.
• ** Sibilant merger: all voiced sibilants are devoiced ; that is, apitxat pronounces casa and joc , where other Valencians would pronounce and . The names apitxat, ''parlar apitxat and the verb apitxar all refer to this specific pronunciation pattern - as well as itself representing a prime example of devoicing, since devoiced apitxar is also a synonym of voiced pitjar.
• ** Betacism, that is the merge of into ; e.g. viu .
• ** Fortition and vocalisation of final consonants; nit .
• ** It preserves the strong simple past, which has been substituted by an analytic past with + infinitive in the rest of modern Catalan and Valencian variants. For example, aní'' instead of vaig anar.Southern area:
• * Southern Valencian or Upper Southern Valencian: spoken in the contiguous comarques of the Valencian Community located south of Valencia and north of Alicante, respectively, for example in the cities of Dénia, Gandia, Xàtiva and Alcoi, among others. This is the dialect which includes the largest number of general phonetic features considered proper to Standard Valencian, as well as being the second most widely spoken and located in the geographic centre of the country; it is therefore considered by some Valencians as a reference point for Valencian Catalan as a whole.
• ** Vowel harmony: the final syllable of a disyllabic word adopts a preceding open and/or if the final vowel is an unstressed -; e.g. terra , dona . Further merges depends on the town and speaker.
• ** This dialect retains geminate consonants ; e.g. guatla , cotna .
• ** Weak pronouns are "reinforced" in front of the verb contrary to other dialects which maintains "full form".
• * Alacantí Valencian or Lower Southern Valencian: spoken in and around the cities of Alicante, Elche and the area of Carche in Murcia.
• ** Vowel harmony like in the central Southern areas.
• ** Intervocalic elision in most instances; e.g. roda , nadal .
• ** Yod is not pronounced in ; e.g. caixa .
• ** Final is not pronounced in infinitives in some areas and/or contexts; e.g. cantar .
• ** There are some archaisms like: ans instead of abans, manco instead of menys, dintre instead of dins or devers instead of cap a.
• ** There are more interferences with Spanish than other dialects: assul instead of blau , llimpiar instead of netejar or sacar instead of traure.

Authors and literature

• Ausiàs March. Poet, widely read in renaissance Europe.
• Joanot Martorell. Knight and the author of the novel Tirant lo Blanch.
• Isabel de Villena. Religious poet.
• Joan Roís de Corella. Knight and poet.Obres e trobes en lahors de la Verge Maria The first book printed in Spain. It is the compendium of a religious poetry contest held that year in the town of Valencia.

Media in Valencian

Politico-linguistic controversy