Valencian dialect

Valencian (Valencià) is the name used for the language spoken along with Spanish in the Valencian autonomous region of Spain.

Table of contents

1 Status of Valencian
2 Features of Valencian
3 Sub-dialects of Valencian
4 External links

Status of Valencian

Valencian is similar to the Catalan spoken in West Catalonia and Andorra and is nearly indistinguishable from the Catalan spoken in Southwest Catalonia. Linguists tend to regard Valencian simply as a variant or dialect of the Catalan language or even as merely a different name for the same reality. However, some groups in Valencia claim Valencian to be a distinct language for political reasons.

There is no mention of Valencian or Catalan or any language other than Spanish in the Spanish Constitution of 1978 The Estatut d'Autonomia (Autonomy Statute) refers to the vernacular language as Valencian, a name used traditionally since the 15th century, but makes no point about whether it is a different language from Catalan or not. In fact, this issue has been explicitly established by the new official Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, which has opposed firmly the politically motivated attempts of some minority sectors to split Valencian and Catalan norms apart. There is an unofficial so-called Real Academia de Cultura Valenciana (Valencian Language Royal Academy) (founded in 1915) that campaigns for Valencian as a separate language with a different written norm.

Features of Valencian

A system of 7 stressed vowels /a,E,e,i,O,o,u/, reduced to 5 in unstressed position (/E,e/ > [e], /O,o/ > [o]) (a feature shared with North-Western Catalan and Ribagorçan)
In general, use of modern forms of the determinate article (el,els) and the 3rd person unstressed object pronouns (el, els). For the other unstressed object pronouns, etymological old forms (me,te,se,ne,mos,vos...) can be found, depending on places, in conjunction with the more modern (or reforced) ones (em,et,es,en)
Valencian has preserved mediaeval prepalatal afficates [dZ],[tS] in contexts where other modern dialects have developed fricatives [Z] or [jZ] (feature shared with modern Ribagorçan)
Valencian preserves the final stop in the groups [mp,nt,Nk,lt] (feature shared with modern Balearic)
Valencian is the only modern Catalan variant that articulates etymological final [r] in all contexts
Valencian preserves the mediaeval system of demonstratives with three different levels of demonstrative precision (este/açò/ací, eixe/això/aquí, aquell/allò/allí) (feature shared with modern Ribagorçan)
Valencian has -i- as theme vowel for incoative verbs of the 3rd conjugation este servix (this one serves) (like North-Western Catalan)
An exclusive feature of Valencian is the subjunctive imperfect morpheme /ra/: que ell vinguera (that he might come)

Sub-dialects of Valencian

Northern: spoken in most of the province of Castellón, and the area of Matarraña in the province of Teruel. Northern Valencian is very similar to the Catalan of the Tortosa area, in the province of Tarragona.
Central or apitxat, spoken in Valencia city and its area. Apitxat has two distinct features:
- All voiced sibillants get unvoiced (that is, apitxat pronounces ['tSove] ['kasa] (young man, house), where other Valencians would pronounce ['dZove], ['kaza]) (feature shared with and Ribagorçan)
- It preserves the strong simple past, which has been substituted by a analytic past with VADERE + infinitive in the rest of modern Catalan variants (simple past is still preserved incomplete in Ibiza).
Southern: spoken in most of the province of Alicante, and the area of Carxe in the province of Murcia

Valencian was the home language of the Borgia family.