As a member of thedialect continuum of Romance languages,Catalan (includingValencian) displays linguistic features similar to those of its closest neighbors (Occitan,Aragonese). The following features represent in some cases unique changes in the evolution of Catalan fromVulgar Latin; other features are common in other Romance-speaking areas.

Catalan is one of theWestern Romance languages; it is most closely related to Occitan and only diverged from it between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries^[1] after the cultural ties with France were broken. In time, Catalan became more tied to theIbero-Romance languages in Spain; because these languages are significantly more conservative than French (which has been the most important influence over Occitan in the last several hundred years), most of the differences between Catalan and Occitan are due to developments in Occitan that did not occur in Catalan.

As a Western Romance language, Catalan shares the following features not found inItalo-Romance:

• Voicing (andlenition) of intervocalic -p-, -t-, -c- into -b-, -d-, -g- (capra 'goat' >cabra,catēna 'chain' >cadena,secūrvs 'safe' >segur).
• Loss of gemination instop consonants.
• Development of/ts/ (later/s/) instead of/tʃ/ from palatalized/k/. For example,caelvm ('sky, heaven') > Old Catalancel/tsɛl/ > modern[ˈsɛl] (cf. Italiancielo/tʃɛlo/).
• Development ofc inct,cs into palatal/j/ (vs./tt/,/ss,ʃʃ/ in Italian).
• Apico-alveolar pronunciation of/s/ and/z/. (This was once common to all Western Romance languages, but has since disappeared from French, some Occitan dialects, and Portuguese.^[2])

Innovations:

• Loss of final unstressed vowels except -a (mūrum 'wall' >*muro >mur,flōrem 'flower' >flor); cf. the maintenance of all final vowels except -e after[ɾ,s,ts] in Spanish and Portuguese, e.g.muro butflor; Italo-Romance maintains all final vowels (Italianmuro,fiore). The resulting final voiced obstruents undergodevoicing:frigidvs ('cold') >fred[ˈfɾɛt] or[ˈfɾet]. However, final voiceless fricatives arevoiced before vowels and voiced consonants (regressive voicing assimilation):els homes 'the men'[əls] +[ˈɔməs] >[əlˈzɔməs];peix bo 'good fish'[ˈpe(j)ʃ] +[ˈbɔ] >[ˈpe(j)ʒˈβɔ]. (The same final-obstruent devoicing occurs in all of the Western Romance languages to the extent that obstruents become final, but this is fairly rare in Ibero-Romance. Cf. Portugueseluz "light"/lus/ vs.luzes "lights"/ˈluzɨs/,/luzis/,Old Spanishrelox "(wrist) watch"/reˈloʃ/ vs.relojes "(wrist) watches"/reˈloʒes/.) (Apparent maintenance of-o in first-person singular and-os plurals are likely secondary developments: Old Catalan had no first-person singular-o, and-os plurals occur where they are etymologically unjustified, e.g.peixos "fishes" <PISCĒS, cf. Portuguesepeixes.)
• Diphthongization of/ɛ/ and/ɔ/ before palatal consonants (with subsequent loss of middle vowel if atriphthong is produced). Spanish and Portuguese insteadraise the vowel to becomemid-high; in Spanish, this prevents diphthongization. (But diphthongization between palatals does occur inAragonese.) Latincoxa 'thigh' > */kuoiʃa/ >cuixa (cf. Frenchcuisse but Portuguesecoxa). Latinoctō 'eight' >*/uoit/ >vuit (cf. Frenchhuit but Portugueseoito, Spanishocho;Old Occitan bothueit andoch). Latinlectum 'bed' >*/lieit/ >llit (cf. Frenchlit but Portugueseleito, Spanishlecho;Old Occitan bothlieig andleit).

Conserved features:

• Preservation of initialpl-,cl-,fl- (plicāre 'fold' >aplegar 'to reach',clavis 'key' >clau,flamma 'flame' >flama) in contrast topalatalization of these initial clusters in Spanishllegar,llave,llama and Portuguesechegar,chave,chama. In Italo-Romance postconsonantal -l- is generallyvocalized to -i-[j], hence Italianpiegare,chiave,fiamma.

Innovations:

• Development of late-final/v/ into/u/ (vocalization):navem 'ship' >nau,brevem 'brief' >breu. Compare Occitannau,breu; contrast with Frenchnef,bref and Old Spanish non-finalnave,breve.
• Loss of word-final -n:panis ('bread') >pa,vinvm ('wine') >vi. (In some Occitan dialects, e.g. Provençal, the consonant was not lost.) Unlike in Languedoc and Northern Catalan, plural forms conserve this[n]:pans,vins.
• Merger of Proto-Western-Romance/ð/ (from intervocalic -d-) and/dz/ (from intervocalic -ty-, -c(e)-, -c(i)-). The result was originally/z/ or/dz/, still preserved in Occitan and partly in Old Catalan,^{[dubious –discuss]} but in modern Catalan now developed to/w/ or lost.

Conserved features:

• Preservation ofVulgar Latin stressed -e- and -o- (short ⟨ĕ⟩ and ⟨ŏ⟩) as[ɛ] and[ɔ] respectively (terra 'land' >terra,mele 'honey' >mel,focum 'fire'>foc[ˈfɔk],bovem 'ox'>bou[ˈbɔw]). These monophthongs were also preserved in Portuguese (terra,mel,fogo,boi). Contrast with the diphthongs in Spanishtierra,miel,fuego,buey. French diphthongizes inopen syllables, hencemiel, Old Frenchbuef (modernbœuf/bœf/), butterre without diphthong. Occitan, but not Catalan, diphthongizes these vowels beforevelar consonants, i.e./k/,/ɡ/,/w/:terra,mel, butfuec,bueu.

• Development of -au-, -ai- to/ɔ,e/ (monophthongization) rather than preservation as/au,ai/ (but Portuguese has/ou,ei/). For example,caulem 'cabbage' >col,paucum 'not much' >poc. (The same development occurred in French.)
• Development of -x-/ks/, -scj-/skj/, -ssj-/ssj/ to[(j)ʃ] (also in Portuguese). Latincoxa 'thigh' >cuixa, Portuguesecoxa vs. Frenchcuisse. Latinlaxāre 'to loosen' (later 'to let') > Catalan and Portuguesedeixar, Old Spanishdexar, but Frenchlaisser, Old Occitanlaisar. Latinbassiāre 'to lower' > Catalan and Portuguesebaixar, Old Spanishbaxar, but Frenchbaisser. (In Occitan dialects near Catalan and Gascon, there is palatization too:baishar,daishar.)

Conserved features shared by Catalan with Spanish and Portuguese:

• Preservation of Western Romance/u/ and/o/ as[u] and[o]; (other) Gallo-Romance languages have changed these to[y] and[u], respectively. Latin (lūna) 'moon' >lluna[ˈʎunə] or[ˈʎuna/ɛ], Occitanluna[ˈlynɔ], Frenchlune[lyn]. Latin (duplum) 'double' >doble[ˈdobːlə],[ˈdoble] or[ˈdoβle] (also[ˈdopːlə],[ˈdoplə]), Spanishdoble[ˈdoβle], Occitandoble[ˈduble], Frenchdouble[dubl].

Innovations shared by Spanish and Catalan:

• Palatalization of -ll- to[ʎ]:caballum ('horse') >cavall (cf. Spanishcaballo with[ʎ] still preserved in conservative rural districts in Spain; Portuguesecavalo, Occitancaval, Frenchcheval, all with simple/l/). In a few cases,/l/ appears as a result of early simplification of -ll- after a long vowel:vīlla 'town' >vila;st(r)ēlla 'star' > Western Catalanestrela, Easternestrella (cf. Spanishestrella, Portugueseestrela < -ll- but Frenchétoile < -l-).
• Palatalization of -nn- to[ɲ]:annum ('year') >any (cf. Spanishaño)
• Reduction of -mb- tom:camba 'leg' >cama,lumbum 'loin' >llom,columbum >colom (cf. Spanishlomo,palumba >paloma but Portugueselombo, pombo/pomba). Occurs in some Occitan dialects (Gascon and southernLanguedoc).

• Initial/ɡ/ + yod or/e/ or/i/,/d/ + yod,/j/ >[dʒ]* >[ʒ] or[dʒ] (in contrast to Spanish[ʝ~ɟʝ] before stressed non-back vowels)

Conserved features (contrasting with Spanish innovations):

• Intervocalic/l/+yod (-li-, -le-) and -cl- developed only to[ʎ]ll, as inmuliere 'wife' >muller,oricla 'ear' >orella,veclu 'old' >vell, without the further change seen in Spanish toj (Old Spanish[(d)ʒ], currently[x]). The sound developed differently into/j/ in the east-central andBalearic varieties, known asiodització (not to be confused with 'ieisme'). Compare Portuguesemulher, orelha, velho, Occitanmolher, Frenchoreille, vieil, in contrast to Spanishmujer, oreja, viejo.
• The cluster -ct- developed only to/(j)t/, as inlactem >*lleit >llet, without the further change to/tʃ/ seen in Spanish and Middle Occitan. The outcome/(j)t/ is found also in Gascon and Languedocian dialects near Catalan, French, and all other Ibero-Romance languages (Portuguese, Leonese, Aragonese). Compare Northern Occitanlait, Occitan near Catalanlèit, Frenchlait, Portugueseleite, in contrast to Southern Occitanlach and Spanishleche.
• The consonant that developed from initial/j/ or/ɡ/ + front vowel is preserved before unstressed non-back vowels in Catalan, as ingelāre ('freeze') >gelar[ʒəˈla]or[dʒeˈla(ɾ)] oriectāre ('lay down') >*gieitar >gitar[ʒiˈta]or[dʒiˈta(ɾ)] , rather than being lost as in Spanish. Compare Portuguese, Occitangelar in contrast to Spanishhelar/eˈlar/ or Portuguesejeitar, Occitangitar, Frenchjeter in contrast to Spanishechar.
• Initial/f/ remains as such, whereas in Spanish it became/h/ (later lost) before a vowel (i.e. unless preceding/r/,/l/,/w/,/j/^{[dubious –discuss]}). (Gascon actually develops/f/ into/h/ in all circumstances, even before consonants or semi-vowels.)
• Voiced sibilants remain as such, whereas in Spanish they merge into voiceless sibilants.

• Palatalization of -sc- before -e,i- to[(j)ʃ]. Especially visible in verbs of the third conjugation (-īre) that took what was originally aninchoative infix (-ēsc-/-īsc-), e.g.servēscit 'serves' (present tense, 3rd person singular indicative) >serveix/servix. Found inAragonese,Leonese and in some Portuguese words. (In Portuguese,piscem 'fish' >peixe,miscere 'to mix' >mexer 'to shake', but most verbs in-scere end in(s)cer, e.g.crēscere 'to grow' >crescer,nascere 'to be born' >nascer,*offerescere 'to offer' >oferecer.)

Innovations:

• Reduction of consonant cluster -nd- to -n- (ambulāre 'to stroll' >andar 'to go' >anar,mandāre 'to send, to lead' >manar). Compare reduction of -mb- to -m-. Also found inGascon and southernLanguedoc.
• Palatalization of initiall- (lūna 'moon' >lluna,lvpvs 'wolf' >llop). This feature can be found as well in theFoix dialect of Occitan and inAstur-Leonese.

• Unusual development of early/(d)z/, resulting from merger of Proto-Western-Romance/ð/ (from intervocalic -d-) and/dz/ (from intervocalic -ty-, -c(e)-, -c(i)-); see note above about a similar merger in Occitan. In early Old Catalan, became/w/ finally or before a consonant, remained as/(d)z/ between vowels. In later Old Catalan,/(d)z/ lost between vowels:
  • pedem 'foot' >peu
  • crucem 'cross' >creu,crēdit 'he believes' >(ell) creu
  • Verbs in second-person plural ending in -tis:mirātis 'you (pl.) look' >*miratz >mirau >mireu/mirau
  • ratiōnem 'reason' >razó >raó
  • vicīnum 'neighbor' >vezí >veí
  • recipere 'to receive' >rezebre >reebre >rebre
• Partial reversal of Proto-Western-Romance/e/ and/ɛ/, according to the following stages:
  • (1) Stressed/e/ >/ə/ in most circumstances
  • (2) Stressed/ɛ/ >/e/ in most circumstances
  • (3) Stressed/ə/ maintained as such (in theBalearic Islands);/ə/ >/ɛ/ (in Eastern, hence standard, Catalan);/ə/ >/e/ (in Western Catalan).
• Secondary development of doubled resonant consonants (/ll/,/mm/,/nn/,/ʎʎ/):septimāna ('week') >setmana[səmˈmanə],cutina fromcvtis ('skin') >cotna[ˈkonːə] ('pork rind'),modulum ('mold') >motlle/motle[ˈmɔʎːə]/[ˈmɔlːe] ('mold, a spring'). Later augmented by learned borrowings fromClassical Latin (latinisms):athlēta ('athlete') >atleta[əlˈlɛtə],intelligentem ('intelligent') >intel·ligent[intəlːiˈʒen(t)].Italian has doubled consonants of all sorts, but for the most part these represent direct preservations from Latin rather than secondary developments. Vulgar Latin geminate/ll/,/rr/,/nn/ and sometimes/mm/ develop differently in the various Western Romance languages from the corresponding single consonants, but in divergent ways, indicating that the geminate forms must have been preserved in the early medieval forms of these languages even after geminateobstruents were lost. Some dialects ofAragonese (a sister language to Catalan) still preserve/ll/ as the reflex of Latin/ll/. Catalan modern geminate resonants do not descend from these early medieval geminates (/ll/,/mm/,/nn/ >/ʎ/,/m/ ,/ɲ/), but the development of secondary geminate resonants may have been influenced by nearby dialects that still maintained the original geminates or by other secondary geminates that must have existed at one point (e.g.duodecim > proto-Western-Romance /doddze/, where the outcome of resulting/ddz/ is distinguished from single/dz/ in Catalan, Occitan and French and where the French outcomedouze, with no diphthongization, clearly indicates a geminate consonant).

As aRomance language, Catalan comes directly fromVulgar Latin. As such, it shares certain phonological changes from Latin with other Romance languages:^[3]

• Intervocalic consonant lenition, similar to most of Western Romance languages:
  • Intervocalic sounds were often voiced (circa fifth century AD).
  • /b/ and/w/ between vowels became[v]. E.g.caballu >cavall "horse" (this later evolved to [β] in central, northern, and northwestern dialects).
  • /d/ became[ð] between vowels in Iberia, Gaul, Raetia, northern Italy, and a part of Sardinia.
  • Intervocalic pretonic/ɡ/ was deleted in most words.
  • In some cases other voiced stops were lost as well. E.g.volebat >volia "s/he wanted",pavore >pahor >por "awe".^[4]
  • Geminate voiceless stops are simplified. E. g.bucca >boca "mouth",passare >passar[pəˈsa] ~[paˈsar] "pass".^[5]
• The velars/k/ and/ɡ/ became palatalized before front vowels.
  • by the fourth century, palatalized/ɡ/ had become a palatal approximant/j/. When following a vowel and preceding a stressed vowel, this approximant became fused with the following front vowel:/maˈɡister/ >[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.
  • Palatalized/k/, which had developed a palatal offglide (i.e.[kʲj], 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 ([tsʲ] or[ts]).
  • /sk/ was also part of this palatalization.
• Before or after another consonant/l/ was velarized (leading tol-vocalization in some dialects). After consonants, this may have led to the realization of a palatal lateral in Spanish and Italian.
• /kʷ/ became/k/ before/u/ and/o/ by the first century.
• /h/ was deleted, first when medial and then in all contexts soon after.
• /n/ became silent word-finally; nasalization on vowels (represented bym word-finally andn before/s/ and/f/^[6]) is also lost.
• /ks/ was reduced to/s/ before or after another consonant. By analogy, the prefixex- 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.
• /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.^[7]
• /n/, followed by a fricative (/f/,/ʒ/,/s/, or/v/), was deleted and replaced by the lengthening of the previous vowel:/kensor/ >/tʃeːsor/.^[8]
• Loss of final-n after the demise of final unstressed vowels, e. g.manu >man >mà "hand".^{[citation needed]}
• UnlikeSpanish and otherIberian Romance languages,betacism or loss ofb/v distinction seems to be in Catalan an innovation since the modern era.^{[citation needed]}
• LikeAsturian,palatalization of Latin word initiall-; e.g.luna >lluna "moon";lupu >llop "wolf", with evidence for it by the ninth century.^[9]
• Vocalization to[w] of final-d of diverse origins and the Latin verbal ending-tis:pede >peu[pɛw] "foot";credit >creu[ˈkɾɛw] "he believes";miratis >miratz >mirau >mireu[miˈɾɛw] "you watch".^{[citation needed]}

• Eventually (in Iberia 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 did not participate in this early breaking. The vowels most affected were/ɛː/ and/ɔː/.^[8]
• Vowels were oftensyncopated.^[10]
  • 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.
• In Eastern dialects: Latin shorte > closed[e], and Latin longe > neutral vowel[ə] and then later > open[ɛ]; so the final outcome of Latin short and longe is reversed in relation to other Romance languages.^{[citation needed]}
• UnlikeOccitan and otherGallo-Romance languages, Catalan preserves the three degrees for rounded back vowels/ɔou/, and/u/ is not fronted to/y/.^{[citation needed]}
• Short/i/ and/u/ became[e] and[o], probably by the first century AD. Also, vowel quantity between short mid-vowels and long mid-vowels became differentiated:/deus/ >[dɛus].^[11]
• LikeOccitan, loss ofLatin final unstressed vowels, except-a; and then after some of the resulting consonantic groups a support vowel-e (pronounced [e] or[ə]) appears, e. g.fame >fam "hunger";bucca >boca "mouth";nostru >nostre "ours".^{[citation needed]}
• Stressed/e/ and/i/, when immediately followed by a vowel of the penultimate syllable, became/j/;/u/ in the same environment became/w/.^[12]

The following tables show where/ɛ/ and/ɔ/^[13] are found in most dialects (especially in Valencian), and where/ə/ (corresponding with/ɛ/ in Central Catalan and/e/ in Western Catalan) is found in Balearic:

(*) Words with this symbol accept two pronunciations (open and close).

• Grandgent, Charles Hall (1907), "Phonology",An Introduction to Vulgar Latin, D.C. Heath & Co., pp. 60–143,ISBN 978-1-4021-6201-5{{citation}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Badia i Margarit, Antoni Maria (1964),El català, entre la Gal·loromània i la Iberoromània, Llengua i cultura als Països Catalans, Barcelona: Grup 62
• Colón, Germà (1993),El lèxic català dins la Romània, Biblioteca Lingüística Catalana, Valencia: Universitat de València,ISBN 84-370-1327-5
• Lacreu Cuesta, Josep (2002),Manual d'ús de l'estàndard oral (6th ed.), Valencia: Universitat de València,ISBN 978-84-370-5390-5

• L'estàndard oral valencià(in Valencian)

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