Catalan language

Dialects

In 1861, Manuel Milà i Fontanals proposed a dialectal division of Catalan in two major blocks: Eastern Catalan and Western Catalan.

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There is no precise linguistic border between one dialect and another because there is nearly always a dialect transition zone of some size between pairs of geographically identified dialects, (except for dialects specific to an island). The main difference between both blocks are:

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• Western Catalan (Bloc o Branca del Català Occidental):
• Unstressed vowels: {{IPA|/a, e, i, o, u/}}. Distinctions between e and a and o and u.
• Initial or post-consonatic x is affricate {{IPA|/t?}}. Between vowels or final preceded of i, {{IPA|/j?}}.
• 1st person of Indicative's present desinence is -e or -o.
• Inchoative in -ix, -ixen, -isca
• Maintenance of medieval nasal plural in proparoxiton words: hòmens, jóvens
• Specific Vocabulary: espill, xiquet, granera, melic...
• Eastern Catalan (Bloc o Branca del Català Oriental):
• Unstressed vowels {{IPA|/?, i, u/}}. The unstressed vowels e and a becomes /?/ and o and u becomes /u/.
• Initial or post-consonatic x is fricative {{IPA|/?}}. Between vowels or final preceded of i, {{IPA|/?}}.
• 1st person of Indicative's present desinence is -o, -i or ø.
• Inchoative in -eix, -eixen, -eixi.
• The -n- of medieval nasal plural falls in proparoxiton words: homes, joves.
• Specific Vocabulary: mirall, noi, escombra, llombrígol...

In addition, neither dialect is completely homogenous: any dialect can be subdivided into several subdialects. Catalan can be subdivided in two major dialectal blocks and those blocks into individual dialects:

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See Catalan dialect examples for examples of each dialect.

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