Northern Catalan

Dialect of Catalan spoken in Roussillon, France From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Northern Catalan (Catalan: català septentrional),[a] also known as Roussillonese (rossellonès),[b] is a Catalan dialect mostly spoken in Northern Catalonia (roughly corresponding with the region of Roussillon), but also extending in the northeast part of Southern Catalonia in a transition zone with Central Catalan.[1][2] All speakers of Catalan from North Catalonia are at least natively bilingual with French.[3]

NativetoFrance
RegionNorthern Catalonia
EthnicityCatalans
Quick facts Native to, Region ...
Northern Catalan
Roussillonese
català septentrional
rossellonès
Native toFrance
RegionNorthern Catalonia
EthnicityCatalans
Early forms
Catalan alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
IETFca-FR
A map of the French department of Oriental Pyrenees with most of the areas highlighted but for the middle north.
The areas of French Oriental Pyrenees where Catalan is spoken in ■ orange.
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Phonology

See also: Catalan phonology and Help:IPA/Catalan
Vowels
More information Front, Back ...
Vowels of Northern Catalan
Front Back
Close i   (y)u
Mid e   (ø)o
Open a
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Notes:
  • Northern Catalan has five stressed vowels: /i, e, a, o, u/. In some local varieties /y, ø/ can also be found.
    • Like other Eastern Catalan dialects, unstressed /a/ and /e/ are realized as schwa [ə], and [u] substitutes unstressed /o/.
    • /e, ø, o/ are phonetically true-mid: [e̞, ø̞, o̞] (transcribed here without the diacritic).
  • There are some instances of historic stressed /o/ that has changed to /u/: Canigó > Canigú.
  • As in the Balearic dialects, final ⟨a⟩ [ə] is not pronounced in words ending with ia if the stress is before the penultimate syllable.
Consonants
More information Labial, Dental/ Alveolar ...
Consonants of Northern Catalan
Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Palatal Velar Uvular
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t k
voiced b d ɡ
Affricate voiceless t͡s t͡ʃ
voiced d͡z d͡ʒ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ
voiced z ʒ ʁ
Approximant median j w
lateral l ʎ
Rhotics trill ʀ
tap
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Notes:
  • In Northern Catalonia, a uvular trill [ʀ] or approximant [ʁ] can be heard instead of the alveolar trill (and tap), e.g. córrer [ˈkoʀə] ~ [ˈkoʁə] ('to run').[4]

Morphology

Some subdialects keep the singular masculine definite article lo, as in North-Western Catalan and many varieties of Occitan.

Northern Catalan has a large body of words imported from French and Occitan.[5] It also features some grammatical forms and structures that are typical of Occitan, such as the use of a lone post-verbal pas, rather than a lone preverbal no to express basic negation (Northern Catalan canti pas vs. Central Catalan no canto, 'I don't sing' or 'I'm not singing'); pas is also used in some other Catalan dialects for emphasis but always with no before the verb (Central Catalan no canto pas, 'I do not sing' or 'I am not singing').

See also

Notes

  1. [a]
    Catalan pronunciation: [kətəˈla səptəntɾiuˈnal]
  2. [b]
    Catalan pronunciation: [rusəʎuˈnɛs]

References

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