At the 2011 census, 861,232 respondents in the Balearic Islands claimed to be able to understand either Balearic or mainlandCatalan, compared to 111,912 respondents who could not; proportions were similar on each of the islands.[1]
Most variants preserve a vocalic system of eight stressed vowels;/a/,/ə/,/ɛ/,/e/,/i/,/ɔ/,/o/,/u/:
The Majorcan system has eight stressed vowels/a,ə,ɛ,e,i,ɔ,o,u/, reduced to four/ə,i,o,u/ in unstressed position.
The Western Minorcan system has eight stressed vowels/a,ə,ɛ,e,i,ɔ,o,u/, reduced to three/ə,i,u/ in unstressed position.
The Eastern Minorcan and partly the Ibizan system have seven stressed vowels/a,ɛ,e,i,ɔ,o,u/ reduced to three/ə,i,u/ in unstressed position (as inCentral Catalan). There are differences between the dialect spoken inIbiza Town (eivissenc de vila) and those of the rest of the island (eivissenc pagès) andFormentera (formenterer).
The vowel/a/ is central[ä] in Ibizan (as most Catalan dialects), while it is front[a] in Majorcan and Minorcan. The variant[æ] is found inFelanitx.
The so-called "open vowels" (vocals obertes),/ɛ/ and/ɔ/, are generally as low as/a/ in most Balearic subvarieties. The phonetic realizations of/ɛ/ approaches[æ] (as in American Englishlad) and/ɔ/ is as open as[ɒ] (as in traditionalRPdog) (feature shared withValencian). In many Majorcan dialects/ɔ/ can be unrounded to[ɑ].
In most of parts of Majorca, words with ante-penultimate stress ending in-ia lose the⟨a⟩[ə]; e.g.glòria ('glory') is pronounced asglòri[ˈɡlɔɾi].
In Majorcan and some Minorcan subvarieties/k/ and/ɡ/ becomepalatal,[c] and[ɟ], before non-back vowels and word-finally; e.g.guerra[ˈɟɛrə] ('war'),casa[ˈcazə] ('house').
A phonemic distinction between/v/ and/b/ is preserved, as inAlgherese and Standard Valencian, e.g.viu[ˈviw].
As Central Catalan/l/ is velarised,[ɫ], in all instances; e.g.tela[ˈtɛɫə] ('fabric'). However the velarised/l/ (also known as dark l) is not used in the transcriptions of any Catalan variety.
The palatal lateral approximant/ʎ/ is preserved as a distinct phoneme, with absence ofieisme except for the most Castilianised speakers. However, most Majorcan speakers use[j] rather than/ʎ/ in words that in Latin had/l/ + yod (-li-, -le-), -cvl-, or -tvl-; e.g.palla[ˈpajə] 'straw', from Latinpalea. This is known asiodització. Note that this phenomenon is more restricted thanieisme, as/ʎ/ is always used initially e.g.lluna[ˈʎunə] ('moon'), as well as intervocalically in words that had -ll- in Latin.
Depalatalization of syllable-final/ɲs/ and/ŋks/ with compensatory diphthongization in Majorcan:anys[ˈajns] ('years'),troncs[ˈtɾojns] ('logs').
Most Balearic variants preserve final stops in clusters; e.g.[mp],[nt],[ŋk], and[lt]:camp[ˈkamp] 'field' (feature shared with Modern Valencian).
Balearic variants of Catalan have the strongest tendency not to pronounce historical final⟨r⟩ in any context; e.g.amor[əˈmo] 'love',cor[ˈkɔ] 'heart'.
Assimilation of intervocalic clusters in some Majorcan and Minorcan subvarieties:
(Notice some of these assimilations may also occur in continental Catalan:capmoix/ˌkapˈmoʃ/→[ˌkabˈmoʃ]~[ˌkamˈmoʃ] 'crestfallen').
Other assimilations (amongst many) include:
/fɡ/→[ɡː] (e.g.afgans 'afghani')
/ɾl/→[lː] (e.g.Carles 'Carl')
Prosody
Except in Ibiza, in combinations ofverb and weakpronoun (clitics), theaccent moves to the final element; e.g.comprar-ne[komˌpɾaˈnə] or[kumˌpɾaˈnə] (Standard Central Catalan[kumˈpɾar.nə]).
Balearic preserves thesalat definite article (derived from Latinipse/ipsa instead ofille/illa), a feature shared only withSardinian among extant Romance languages, but which was more common in otherCatalan andGascon areas in ancient times. However, thesalat definite article is also preserved along theCosta Brava (Catalonia) and in theValencian municipalities ofTàrbena andLa Vall de Gallinera.
The personal articleen/na,n' is used before personal names.
The first person singular present indicative has a zero exponent, i.e. no visible ending. For example, what in Central Catalan would bejo parlo ('I speak') is realised asjo parl.
In verbs of the first conjugation (in-ar), the first and second person plural forms end in -am and -au respectively. For example,cantam ('we sing'),cantau ('youpl. sing').
Also in verbs of the first conjugation, the imperfect subjunctive is formed with -a-, e.g.cantàs,cantassis. However, the Standard Catalan forms in⟨e⟩ are nowadays also common in many places.
In combinations of two unstressed pronouns preceding a verb, one direct with the formel,la, etc. and the other indirect with the formme,te, etc., the direct pronoun appears first. For example,la me dóna ('s/he gives it to me'), Standard Catalanme la dóna.
Balearic has a large quantity of characteristic vocabulary, especially archaisms preserved by the isolation of the islands and the variety of linguistic influences which surround them. The lexicon differs considerably depending on the subdialect. For example:al·lot for standard "noi" ('boy'),moix for "gat" ('cat'),besada for "petó" ('kiss'),ca for "gos" ('dog'),doblers for "diners" ('money'),horabaixa for "vesprada" ('evening') andrata-pinyada for "rat-penat" ('bat').
Minorcan has a few English loanwords dating back to the British occupation, such asgrevi ('gravy'),xumaquer ('shoemaker'),boínder ('bow window'),xoc ('chalk') orull blec ('black eye').
Some in the Balearic Islands, such as thePartido Popular party member and former Balearic presidentJosé Ramón Bauzà, argue that the dialects of Balearic Islands are actually separate languages and not dialects of Catalan. During the election of 2011, Bauzà campaigned against having centralized or standardized standards of Catalan in public education.[4][better source needed]
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