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Central Catalan (Catalan:català central)[a] is anEastern Catalandialect spoken in the whole province ofBarcelona, the eastern half of the province ofTarragona and most of the province ofGirona, except for its northern part, where a transition toNorthern Catalan begins.
This variety (when free of localisms from Barcelona, Tarragona or Girona) is perceived by most Catalans as thestandard form inCatalonia. As such, it is the variety used in most written and audiovisual media, as well as in learning materials.
In theEmpordà region of Catalonia there is a distinctive Empordanese subdialect. As evidenced in writings from the turn of the 19th century by authors such asJoaquim Ruyra, differences between Empordanese and Barcelonese were formerly more pronounced in such areas of usage as thesalat definite article (which is still common inBalearic Catalan). In the books of Ruyra there are signs of a clear state ofdiglossia: the more cultured figures, including the narrator, use the standard Barcelona dialect, whilst the local fishermen employ their own dialect.[citation needed]
Some of the chief differences are:
The Christian colonisation of theBalearics was primarily done with settlers from this region and so both dialects share several similarities, most obviously the use of thesalat definite article (practically extinct in Empordanese but still common in Balearic varieties).
In addition, some synonyms are more preferred to their Standard Catalan equivalents, for examplecapir,capieixo, forentendre,entenc ('to understand', 'I understand') andtesta forcap ('head') which share a closer similarity to modern Italian (capire,capisco /testa) than Standard Catalan.
Excerpt from theParable of the Prodigal Son extracted from the works of 19th-century linguistManuel Milà i Fontanals, who wrote extensively about Catalan dialectal differences:
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| Un home només tenia dos fills. El més jove va dir al seu pare: «Ja és hora que sigui el meu propi amo i que tingui cèntims [diners]; me n'he [me n'haig] d'anar a veure món. Partiu la vostra herència i doneu-me el que em toqui». «Ai, fill meu», va dir el pare, «com vulguis; ets un dolent i Déu et castigarà». I després va obrir un calaix, va partir la seva herència i va fer-ne [en va fer] dues parts. | There once was a man with two sons. The younger said to his father: "Now it's time that I follow my own master and that I have money: I have to go out and see the world. Divide your goods and give me that which is my share." "Oh, my son," said his father, "as you wish, you are a bad man and God will punish you." And afterwards he opened a small box, and divided everything he had into two parts. |
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