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Catalan is not a dialect

  Tags: Catalan | Dialect
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
46 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 35 6  Next >>
Lucas
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 Message 25 of 46
04 November 2010 at 7:30am | IP Logged 
For me, the fact that some languages are called "dialects" doesn't mean you can say
this is a dialect and this is a language!

It's a bit like some cars are called "hummer" and some people are called "americans".

I'd suggest the following topics for people here trying to define the difference
between a language and a dialect:
- What's the difference between a car and a hummer?
- What's the difference between an human being and an american?
- etc...



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Andy E
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 Message 26 of 46
04 November 2010 at 8:36am | IP Logged 
mrwarper wrote:
Could any administrator turn the URLs above into real links, please? Thank you :)


I'm no administrator , so this is the best I can do...

http://www.filosofia.org/hem/dep/boe/19750701.htm

http://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-1975-13948

Very interesting read, thanks.

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mrwarper
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 Message 27 of 46
04 November 2010 at 9:32am | IP Logged 
Andy E wrote:
mrwarper wrote:
Could any administrator turn the URLs above into real links, please? Thank you :)

I'm no administrator , so this is the best I can do...

http://www.filosofia.org/hem/dep/boe/19750701.htm

http://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-1975-13948

Very interesting read, thanks.
You're welcome.

Actually most of the whole bunch of documents they list in http://www.filosofia.org/hem/dep/boe/ (I haven't read them all) are equally interesting; they make a surprising portrait of how things really went at the time, which apparently is a really uncomfortable truth - the nationalists always speak to the contrary (so as to look as some kind of 'heroes' in front of their hordes/herds because 'they' started it all) and the media never dwell on what actually happened, because it apparently goes against the current government interests too.

For starters, most of the BOE of that time exists just a bunch of pictures, i.e. way less accessible, searchable, etc. than modern issues, so understandably... and so conveniently as well :(

Thank you for the links, Andy, mine won't work until I reach admin-knows-what limit ;)

Edit: it seems I can make links now - let the spam begin!!! (Just kidding :P)

Edited by mrwarper on 04 November 2010 at 9:34am

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vilas
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 Message 28 of 46
04 November 2010 at 10:16am | IP Logged 
Iversen wrote:
Italian is a dialect (of Tuscan) and not a language


just kidding, of course


I like the joke !

But Tuscan is a dialect with many languages or a language with many dialects (Fiorentino-Senese-Occidentale-Pisano-Pistoiese-Lucchese-Are tino-Grossetano-
Apuano etc. etc)
look here        http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialetto_toscano



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Cainntear
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 Message 29 of 46
04 November 2010 at 12:27pm | IP Logged 
mrwarper wrote:
-WRT Catalan, Valencian and Mallorquin I'm aware of some differences in vocabulary but I don't really know them well enough to tell if it's something deeper.

The biggest grammatical difference is the past tense. Valencian and Insular Catalan use a preterite similar to Spanish and the past historic in French and Italian, but West Catalan and (I think) North Catalan use a periphrastic past composed from the conjugation of "to go" followed by an infinitive -- I went is "vaig anar" (lit "Voy ir" or "I go go").

There's a marked difference in phonology, in that unstressed A and E in West and (again, "I think") North Catalan are schwaified to an extent, but take a hard "a" sound in Valencian and Insular.

Quote:
-As Iversen said I doubt there are any Catalan speakers who never heard Spanish.

Perhaps in Alghero/Àlguero in Sardinia, where there is no native Spanish-speaking population, but around 10,000 speakers of Algherese Catalan.
Quote:
But when I was in Barcelona I easily understood 95% of their jargon easily, except for different words, with a nearly 0 prior exposition (just some news flashes with Catalan politicians and subtitles). For whatever reason this greatly surprised my students (they probably have been taught to expect the opposite by their nationalist local governments), but then again I might be readier to understand things because I study languages.

The last sentence is, in my experience, correct.
I hear plenty of Spanish people tell me they understand Italian, and plenty of Italian speakers say they understand Spanish. But they're invariably people who have studied another language or 2.
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vilas
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 Message 30 of 46
04 November 2010 at 3:01pm | IP Logged 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algherese   &nbs p; (in English)

Cainntear Wrote
"Perhaps in Alghero/Àlguero in Sardinia, where there is no native Spanish-speaking population, but around 10,000 speakers of Algherese Catalan"

Algureres is a variant of Catalan
around 26.000 speakers
here some info in  English     http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Algherese     (

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vilas
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 Message 31 of 46
04 November 2010 at 4:18pm | IP Logged 
In Sardinia there are , no less than   8 languages + Italian

http://sardegna.blogosfere.it/2010/08/cartina-linguistica-de lla-sardegna.html

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mrwarper
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 Message 32 of 46
04 November 2010 at 6:06pm | IP Logged 
vilas wrote:
In Sardinia there are , no less than   8 languages + Italian
http://sardegna.blogosfere.it/2010/08/cartina-linguistica-de lla-sardegna.html

Wow, that's completely crazy!

Cainntear wrote:
mrwarper wrote:
-WRT Catalan, Valencian and Mallorquin...

The biggest grammatical difference is the past tense. Valencian and Insular Catalan use... but West Catalan and (I think) North Catalan use...

There's a marked difference in phonology...


Interesting. So, would you say that Catalan is a dialect of Valencian, or that they are separate languages? :D

Quote:
Quote:
...but then again I might be readier to understand things because I study languages.

The last sentence is, in my experience, correct.
I hear plenty of Spanish people tell me they understand Italian, and plenty of Italian speakers say they understand Spanish. But they're invariably people who have studied another language or 2.

Interestingly enough, the only time I've been to Italy (some 15 years ago) some people and I (I especially remember that old-as-Satan waiter) found each other mutually comprehensible with very little effort, and to some others I had to speak English (which I found mighty weird, but hey).

Edited by mrwarper on 04 November 2010 at 6:08pm



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