The Catalan-speaking world Language Grammar Phonology and orthography Institut d'Estudis Catalans Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua History History of Catalonia · Counts of Barcelona Crown of Aragon · Military history of Catalonia Catalan constitutions · Furs of Valencia Treaty of the Pyrenees · Nueva Planta decrees Geography Països Catalans Catalonia · Valencia · Balearic Islands Northern Catalonia · Franja de Ponent Andorra · L'Alguer · Carxe Government and Politics Generalitat de Catalunya Generalitat Valenciana Govern de les Illes Balears Consell General de les Valls (Andorra) Politics of Catalonia Catalan nationalism Traditions Castells · Correfoc · Falles · Sardana ·  Moros i cristians · Caganer · Tió de Nadal Botifarra · Barça · Paella · Rumba Myths and legends Arts Catalan literature · Antoni Gaudí · Modernisme La Renaixença · Noucentisme Salvador Dalí · Joan Miró · Antoni Tàpies This box: view • talk • edit

The phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official Catalan grammar is the Grammar of the Catalan language. Morphology For general discussion of morphology (not specific to Catalan see main article This article covers the Orthography of Catalan, a Romance language. The Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Institute for Catalan Studies or IEC is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua ( AVL) - Valencian Academy of the Language - is an institution created on September 16, 1998 by the For other perspectives on the History of Catalonia, see also History of Europe; History of Spain; History of France; Crown of Aragon The Count of Barcelona was the major ruler in Catalonia from the 9th until the 17th century The Crown of Aragon was a permanent union of multiple titles and states in the hands of the King of Aragon. Origins The origins of the military force in Catalonia soar to the 13th century, with the Sagramental, the fraternity among several villages to guarantee their Origin The Corts of Barcelona The Catalan constitutions were promulgated by the Corts of Barcelona ( corts being the Catalan for courts Furs of Valencia ( Furs de València, in Valencian) were the laws of the Kingdom of Valencia during most of Middle Ages and The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in 1659 to end the war between France and Spain that had begun in 1635 during the Thirty Years' War. The Nueva Planta decrees (Decretos de Nueva Planta were a number of Decrees signed between 1707 and 1716 by Philip V &mdashthe first Bourbon king of Different meanings Països Catalans is a polysemic expression and so it has different meanings depending on the context Catalonia (Cataluña Catalunya Aranese: Catalonha) is an Autonomous Community in the northeast part of Spain. The Valencian Community ( Valencian and official Comunitat Valenciana; Comunidad Valenciana is an Autonomous community located in central to The Balearic Islands ( Catalan and official Illes Balears; Spanish: Islas Baleares) are an Archipelago in the western Mediterranean The term La Franja ("The Strip" more properly Franja de Aragón or Franja de Poniente "Western Strip" in Spanish) Franja d'Aragó Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra ( Catalan: Principat d'Andorra) is a small Landlocked country in western Alghero ( l'Alguer in Catalan and S'Alighèra in Sardinian) is a town of about 42000 inhabitants (down from 54300 inhabitants since early El Carche ( el Carxe in Valencian) is a mountainous sparsely populated area in Murcia, Spain, lying between the municipalities Jumilla The Generalitat Valenciana is the generic name covering the different self government institutions under which the Spanish Autonomous community of Valencia is politically The Balearic Islands ( Catalan and official Illes Balears; Spanish: Islas Baleares) are an Archipelago in the western Mediterranean The General Council of the Valleys (in Catalan, Consell General de les Valls) is the Unicameral Parliament of Andorra. Catalonia is a Spanish Autonomous Community with a high-level of self-government Catalan Nationalism, or Catalanism (from Catalanisme in Catalan) is a political movement advocating for either further political A castell is a human tower traditionally built during festivals in many places in Catalonia, Spain. Correfocs are amongst the most striking of Catalonia 's festive events " Devils quot play with Fire and with the people The Falles (in Valencian) are a Valencian traditional celebration in praise of Saint Joseph in Valencia Spain. The sardana (Catalan plural sardanes) is a type of Circle dance typical of Catalonia. Moros y Cristianos (in Spanish) or Moros i Cristians (in Valencian) literally means Moors and Christians, and A Caganer (kəɣəˈne is a little statue found in Catalonia, in neighbouring areas with Catalan culture such as Andorra, and in other parts of Spain Portugal and The Tió de Nadal (roughly "Christmas Log" also known as "Tió" (trunk or log a big piece of cut wood or "Tronca" ("log" Botifarra (butiˈfarə is the Catalan name for the Roman Sausage lucanica, made of raw pork and spicesthe recipe for which is still used today in Italy and other parts of the Fútbol Club Barcelona ( Catalan fudˈbɔɫ ˌklup bəɾsəˈlonə Spanish ˈfutβol ˌkluβ baɾθeˈlona known familiarly as Barça (Spanish ˈbaɾsa Catalan Paella (pa'eʎa is an internationally famous dish consisting of White rice, Meat, Seafood, Beans and Vegetables (depending on Catalan myths and legends are the traditional myths and Legends of the Catalan -speaking world especially Catalonia itself passed down for generations Catalan literature is the name conventionally used to refer to Literature written in the Catalan language. Catalan Modernisme (not to be confused with Modernism) was the Catalan equivalent to a number of fin-de-siècle movements such as Symbolism, The Renaixença (rənəˈʃɛnsə was an early 19th century late romantic revivalist movement in Catalan language and culture akin to the Noucentisme ( Noucentista being its adjective was a Catalan cultural movement of the early 20th century that originated largely as a reaction against Modernisme Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech 1st Marquis of Púbol (May 11 1904 &ndash January 23 1989 was a Spanish Catalan Surrealist Joan Miró i Ferrà ( April 20, 1893 &ndash December 25, 1983) was an ethnic Catalan (of Spanish nationality Antoni Tàpies (born in Barcelona, December 13, 1923) is a Spanish Catalan painter Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all Although there are two main 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. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official Valencian ( valencià) is the historical traditional and official name used in the Valencian Community of Spain to refer to the region's native language 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. The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation Barcelona ( Catalan bəɾsəˈlonə Spanish baɾθeˈlona is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation ^[1][2]

Catalan shares features with neighboring Romance languages (Italian, Sardinian, Occitan, Spanish). Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Sardinian ( Sardu, Saldu) is after Italian the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, remarkable for being the most conservative Occitan ( IPA BrE: /ˈɒksɪtn/ AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtɑn/ known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name occitan ^[3]

Contents 1 Consonants 2 Vowels 3 Processes 4 Prosody 4.1 Stress 4.2 Phonotactics 5 Dialectal variation 6 Historical development 7 See also 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 External links

Consonants

Catalan consonants^[4]

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m			n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p		t		(c) ~ k
	voiced	b		d		(ɟ) ~ g
Affricate	voiceless				(ts)	(tɕ)
	voiced				(dz)	(dʑ)
Fricative	voiceless		f		s	ɕ
	voiced		(v)		z	ʑ
Trill					r
Tap					ɾ
Approximant						j	w
Lateral					l	ʎ

Phonetic notes: /t/ and /d/ are denti-alveolar, having both dental and alveolar contact with the tongue. In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet In Phonetics, labiodentals are Consonants articulated with the lower Lip and the upper Teeth. In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. In Phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of Consonantal sound which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both /n/, /l/, and /ɾ/ are "front alveolar;" /s/ and /r/ are "back alveolar" (or postalveolar); /ʎ/ and /ɲ/ are "front alveolo-palatal"; and /ɕ/, /ʑ/, /tɕ/ and /dʑ/ are "back alveolo-palatal. Postalveolar consonants are Consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the Alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the "^[5]

Plosives: Voiced plosives become lenited (that is, fricatives or approximants of the same place of articulation) "only in syllable onsets, after continuants. Lenition is a kind of Consonant mutation that appears in many Languages Along with assimilation, it is one of the primary sources of historical change In Articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a Consonant is the point of contact where an Obstruction "^[6] Exceptions include /d/ after lateral consonants and /b/ after /f/: ull de bou [uʎ də ˈβɔw] ('round window'); bolígraf boníssim [buˈliɣɾəv buˈnisim] ('excellent ballpoint'). In the coda position, these sounds are always realized as plosives^[7] except in Valencian, where they are lenited. ^[8]

/b/ and /g/ may be geminated in certain environments (poble [ˈpɔbblə] 'village'). ^[9]

In Majorcan varieties, /k/ and /g/ become [c] and [ɟ] word-finally and before front vowels;^[10] in some of these dialects, this has extended to all environments except before liquids and back vowels [ˈbanʲc] ('bench'). Liquid consonants, or liquids, are Approximant Consonants that are not classified as Semivowels (glides because they do not correspond phonetically A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as ^[11]

Affricates: The phonemic status of affricates is dubious; after other consonants, affricates are in free variation with fricatives, e. g. clenxa [ˈklɛnʲtɕə] ~ [ˈklɛnʲɕə] ('hair parting')^[12] and may be analyzed as either single phonemes or clusters of a stop and a fricative.

• Alveolar affricates occur the least of all affricates. ^[13]
  • /dz/ only occurs intervocalically. ^[14]
  • Instances of /ts/ arise mostly from compounding; the few lexical instances arise from historical compounding. ^[15] For instance, potser [puˈtse]^[16] ('maybe') comes from pot ('may') + ser ('be' inf). In Grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages As such, /ts/ does not occur word-initially, but it may occur finally in cases of heteromorphemic plural endings: tots [tots] ('everybody'). ^[17]
• The distribution of alveo-palatal affricates (/tɕ/ and /dʑ/) depends on dialect:
  • In Standard Eastern Catalan, word-initial /tɕ/ is found only in a few words of foreign origin (txec 'Czech') while being found freely intervocalically and word-finally. In Phonetics, alveolo-palatal (or alveopalatal) Consonants are palatalized postalveolar Fricatives articulated with
  • Standard Eastern Catalan also only allows intervocalic /dʑ/. Phonemic analyses show word-final occurrences, but final devoicing eliminates this from the surface.
  • In various other dialects (as well as in emphatic speech^[18]), /tɕ/ occurs word-initially and after another consonant to the exclusion of /ɕ/. These instances of word-initial /tɕ/ seem to correspond to /ɕ/ of other dialects, including the standard (on which the orthography is based): xinxa ('bedbug'), pronounced [ˈɕinʲɕə] in the standard, is [ˈtɕinʲtɕə] in these varieties. ^[19]
  • Similarly, in Valencia and southern Catalonia, all occurrences of /dʑ/ correspond to the voiced fricative /ʑ/ in other dialects. ^[20]

There is dialectal variation in regards to affricate length, with long affricates occurring in both Eastern and Western dialects such as in Majorca and specific Northern and Southern Valencian areas and short affricates being otherwise widespread throughout Valencia. ^[21] Also, intervocalic affricates are predominately long, especially those that are voiced or occurring immediately after a stressed syllable (fletxa [ˈflet. tɕə] 'arrow'). ^[22]

Fricatives: /v/ only occurs in Balearic^[23] and southern Valencian as well as northern Valencian and southern Catalonia. Everywhere else, it has merged with /b/. ^[24] In Majorcan, [v] and [w] are in complementary distribution, with [v] occurring before vowels (e. g. blava [ˈblavə] 'blue' fem. vs blau [blaw] 'blue' masc. ). In other varieties that have both sounds, they are in contrast before vowels, with neutralization in favor of [w] before consonants. ^[25]

In Valencian, /s/ and /ɕ/ are auditorily similar such that neutralization may occur in the future. ^[26] In Northern Valencian, /ɕ/ is depalatalized to [jsʲ] or [js] as in caixa [ˈkajsə] ('box'), Central Valencian words like mig ('half') and leig have been transcribed with [ts] rather than [tɕ], and Southern Valencian /tɕ/ "has been reported to undergo depalatalization without merging with [ts]" as in baixar ('to go down'). ^[27]

Sonorants: While "dark" (velarized) [ɫ] may be a positional allophone of /l/ in most dialects (such as in the syllable coda^[28]), /l/ is dark irrespective of position in Eastern dialects like Majorcan. Velarization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants by which the back of the Tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the In Phonology, a syllable coda comprises the Consonant sounds of a Syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a Vowel ^[29]

In careful speech, /n/, /m/, and /l/ may be geminated (e. g. innecessari [innəsəˈsaɾi] 'unnecessary'; immens [imˈmɛns] 'huge'; il·lusió [iɫɫuˈzio] 'illusion'). A geminated /ʎʎ/ may also occur (e. g. espatlla [əsˈpaʎʎə] 'shoulder'). ^[30]

Vowels

Catalan possesses seven vowel phonemes (see chart at right). The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation In unstressed syllables, /e/, /ɛ/, and /a/ are reduced to [ə] while /o/ and /ɔ/ are reduced to [u]. In Western Catalan dialects, [e], [o], and [a] may appear in unstressed syllables as well. ^[31]

In Majorcan, [ə] appears in stressed position. ^[32]

There are also a number of phonetic diphthongs, all of which begin (rising diphthongs) or end (falling diphthongs) in [j] or [w]:^[33]

[ej]	rei	'king'	[ɛw]	peu	'foot'
[uj]	avui	'today'	[ow]	pou	'well'
[ja]	iaia	'grandma'	[wa]	quatre	'four'
[jɛ]	veiem	'we see'	[wə]	aigua	'water'

Other diphthongs include /wi/ and /iw/. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with

Processes

There are certain instances of compensatory diphthongization in Majorcan so that /ˈtroncs/ ('logs') (in addition to deleting the palatal plosive) develops a compensating palatal glide and surfaces as [ˈtrojns] (and contrasts with the unpluralized [ˈtronʲc]). Diphthongization compensates for the loss of the palatal stop (segment loss compensation). There are other cases where diphthongization compensates for the loss of point of articulation features (property loss compensation) as in [ˈaɲ] ('year') vs [ˈajns] ('years'). ^[34]

The dialectal distribution of compensatory diphthongization is almost entirely dependent on the dorsal plosive (/k~c/) and the extent of consonant assimilation (whether or not it's extended to palatals). ^[35]

Voiced affricates are devoiced after stressed vowels in dialects like Eastern Catalan where there may be a correlation between devoicing and lengthening (Gemination) of voiced affricates: metge ('doctor') /ˈmeddʑə/ → [ˈmettɕə]. In Phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken Consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short Consonant. ^[36] In Barcelona, voiced plosives may be geminated and devoiced (poble [ˈpɔppɫə] 'village'). ^[37]

Prosody

Stress

Stress most often occurs on any of the last three syllables of a word. Compound words and adverbs formed with |ˈment| may have more than one stressed syllable (e. g. parallamps [ˌpaɾəˈʎams] 'lightning conductor'; bonament [ˌbɔnəˈmen] 'willingly') but every lexical word has just one stressed syllable. ^[38]

Phonotactics

Any consonant, as well as [j] and [w] may be an onset. Clusters may consist of a consonant plus a semivowel (C[j], C[w]) or an obstruent plus a liquid. Liquid consonants, or liquids, are Approximant Consonants that are not classified as Semivowels (glides because they do not correspond phonetically Some speakers may have one of these obstruent-plus-liquid clusters preceding a semivowel, e. g. síndria [ˈsin. dɾjə] ('watermelon'); for other speakers, this is pronounced as [ˈsin. dɾi. ə] (i. e. the semivowel must be syllabic in this context). ^[39]

Word-medial codas are restricted to one consonant + [s] (extra [ˈɛks. tɾə]). ^[40] In the coda position, voice contrasts among obstruents are neutralized. ^[41] Although there are exceptions (such as futur [fuˈtuɾ] 'future'), syllable-final /ɾ/ is often lost before a word boundary or before the plural morpheme of most words: color [kuˈɫo] ('color') vs. coloraina [kuluˈɾajnə]. ^[42]

In Catalan, obstruents fail to surface word-finally when preceded by a homorganic consonant (e. g. /nt/ → [n]). Complex codas simplify only if the loss of the segment doesn’t result in the loss of place specification. ^[43]

Suffixation examples^[44]

	Final	Internal	Gloss
no cluster	[ˈkam]	[kəmˈpɛt]	'field'
	[ˈpun]	[punˈtɛt]	'point'
	[ˈbaŋ]	[bəŋˈkɛt]	'bank'
	[məˈlal]	[mələlˈtɛt]	'ill, sick'
	[ˈɔr]	[urˈtɛt]	'orchard'
	[ˈgus]	[gusˈtɛt]	'taste'
cluster	[ˈserp]	[sərˈpɛt]	'snake'
	[ˈdisk]	[disˈkɛt]	'disk'
	[ˈmɔɫk]	n/a	'I grind'

When the dimunitive [ˈɛt] is added to [ˈkam] it makes [kəmˈpɛt], which makes it seem as though the underlying representation is |ˈkamp| (with subsequent cluster simplification), however when the copula [ˈes] is added it makes [ˈkəmˈes]. The resulting generalization is that this underlying /p/ will only surface in a morphologically complex word. ^[45]

Word-final fricatives (except /f/) are voiced before a following vowel, e. g. bus enorme [ˈbuz əˈnormə] ('huge diver'). ^[46] In Majorcan and Minorcan Catalan, /f/ undergoes total assimilation to a following consonant (just as stops do): buf gros [ˈbug ˈgɾɔs] ('large puff'). ^[47]

Dialectal variation

The differences in the vocalic systems outlined above are the main criteria used to differentiate between the major dialects: Wheeler (2005) distinguishes two major dialect groups, Western dialects and Eastern ones; the latter of which only allow [i], [ə], and [u] to appear in unstressed syllables and include North Catalan, Central Catalan, Balearic, and Alguerese. The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation Central Catalan is the Eastern Catalan Dialect with the highest number of speakers since it is commonly spoken in densely populated areas such as the whole Barcelona Balearic is the name given collectively to the group of Catalan variants spoken in the Balearic Islands, Spain. Algherese (standard Catalan Alguerès, Algherese Alguerés) is the variant of the Catalan language spoken in the city of Alghero ( L'Alguer Valencian ( valencià) is the historical traditional and official name used in the Valencian Community of Spain to refer to the region's native language The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation Central Catalan is the Eastern Catalan Dialect with the highest number of speakers since it is commonly spoken in densely populated areas such as the whole Barcelona Balearic is the name given collectively to the group of Catalan variants spoken in the Balearic Islands, Spain. Algherese (standard Catalan Alguerès, Algherese Alguerés) is the variant of the Catalan language spoken in the city of Alghero ( L'Alguer Western dialects, which allow any vowel in unstressed syllables, include northern and western Catalan, and Valencian. Valencian ( valencià) is the historical traditional and official name used in the Valencian Community of Spain to refer to the region's native language

Historical development

As a Romance language, Catalan comes directly from Vulgar Latin. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin As such, it shares certain phonological changes from Latin with other Romance languages:^[48]

• /b/ and /w/ between vowels became [β].
• /d/ became [ð] between vowels in Iberia, Gaul, Raetia, northern Italy, and a part of Sardinia. /dr/ also became lenited in Iberia and Gaul.
• Intervocalic sounds were often voiced (circa fifth century CE).
• The velars /k/ and /g/ became palatalized before front vowels.
  • by the fourth century, palatal /g/ had become more of a palatal approximant. When following a vowel and preceding a stressed vowel, this approximant became fused with the following front vowel: /maˈgister/ → [maˈjɪster] → [maˈester] → [ˈmastiɾ]. In the Iberian peninsula, southwestern Gaul, and portions of Sardinia, Sicily, and southwestern Italy, this palatal approximant stage was retained while other dialects made different developments.
  • Palatal /k/, which had developed a palatal offglide, continued to advance further forward in the mouth to become [tʲj] (which led to some confusion between /kj/ and /tj/; by the sixth or seventh century, this palatalized coronal had become an affricate ([tʲsʲ] or [ts]).
  • /sk/ was also part of this palatalization
• Before or after another consonant /l/ was velarized (leading to l-vocalization in some dialects. In linguistics l-vocalization is a process by which an /l/ sound is replaced by a Vowel or Semivowel sound After consonants, this may have lead to the realization of a palatal lateral in Spanish and Italian.
• /kʷ/ became /k/ before /u/ and /o/ by the first century.
• Intervocalic pretonic /g/ was deleted in most words.
• /h/ was deleted, first when medial and then in all contexts soon after.
• /m/ and /n/ became silent word-finally (presumably after an intermediate state of being realized as the nasalization of the preceding vowel); the latter also being lost in the coda position before /s/.
• /ks/ was reduced to /s/ before or after another consonant. By analogy, the prefix ex- before vowels may have also been pronounced /es/. Later on, /ks/ was also reduced word-finally except in monosyllabic words.
• /sj/, /lj/ and /nj/ became palatal between vowels.
• stressed /e/ and /i/, when immediately followed by a vowel of the punultimate syllable, became /j/; /u/ in the same environment became /w/. ^[49]
• /ss/ after diphthongs and long vowels reduced to /s/ (degeminated): /kaːssus/ → /kaːsus/. There was just general confusion in regards to geminated consonants but they were normally retained after long vowels. ^[50]
• Short /i/ and /u/ became [e] and [o], probably by the first century CE. Also, vowel quantity between short mid-vowels and long mid-vowels became differentiated: /deus/ → [dɛus]. ^[51]
• /n/, followed by a fricative (/f/, /ʒ/, /s/, or /v/), was deleted and replaced by the lengthening of the previous vowel: /kensor/ → /tʃeːsor/. ^[52]
• Eventually (in Spain and parts of Gaul), all stressed vowels were pronounced long while unstressed vowels were short. The new long vowels were pronounced in most regions with diphthongization although Portugal, southern Gaul, Lombardy, and Sicily didn’t participate in this early breaking. The vowels most affected were /ɛː/ and /ɔː/. ^[53]
• Vowels were often syncopated. ^[54]
  • between a labial and another consonant.
    • when such a deletion brought [aβ] to precede another consonant, it became [au].
  • between a consonant and a liquid or vice versa.

See also

• List of phonetics topics
• Catalan orthography

References

Bibliography

• Carbonell, Joan F. The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation The Phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation & Joaquim Llisterri (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53-56
• Carbonell, Joan F. & Joaquim Llisterri (1999), "Catalan", written at Cambridge, Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet. , Cambridge University Press, 61-65, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
• Grandgent, Charles Hall (1907), "Phonology", An Introduction to Vulgar Latin, D. C. Heath & Co. , 60-143
• Herrick, Dylan (2002), "Catalan Phonology: Cluster Simplification and Nasal Place Assimilation", written at Amsterdam, in Wiltshire, Caroline & Camps, Joaquim, Romance Phonology and Variation, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 69-84, ISBN 1588110796
• Hualde, José (1992), Catalan, Routledge, ISBN 0415054982
• Mascaró, Joan (1976), Catalan Phonology and the Phonological Cycle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Mascaró, Juan (2001), "Compensatory diphthongization in Majorcan Catalan", in Kreidler, Charles W. , Phonology: Critical Concepts in Linguistics, Taylor and Francis, 580-593, ISBN 0415203473
• Recasens, Daniel & Maria Dolores. Pallarès (1995), "Velarization degree and coarticulatory resistance for /l/ in Catalan and German", Journal of Phonetics 23: 37-52
• Recasens, Daniel & Aina Espinosa (2005), "Articulatory, positional and coarticulatory characteristics for clear /l/ and dark /l/: evidence from two Catalan dialects", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (1): 1-25
• Recasens, Daniel & Aina Espinosa (2007), "An electropalatographic and acoustic study of affricates and fricatives in two Catalan dialects", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (2): 143-172
• Veny, Joan (1989), written at Palma de Mallorca, Els parlars catalans. Palma is the major City and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain Síntesi de dialectologia. (eighth ed. ), Editorial Moll
• Wheeler, Max W (1979), written at Oxford, Phonology Of Catalan, Blackwell
• Wheeler, Max W (2005), written at Oxford, The Phonology Of Catalan, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199258147
• Wheeler, Max; Alan Yates & Nicolau Dols (1999), written at London, Catalan: A Comprehensive Grammar, Routledge

External links

• A proposal for Catalan SAMPA

---

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic