Catalan language

Geographic distribution

Estimates of the number of Catalan speakers vary from four million to twelve million. http://www.caib.es/conselleries/educacio/dgpoling/user/catalaeuropa/reduides/tripticangles.pdf (pdf), http://www.brazilbrazil.com/roman.html, http://193.2.100.60/SALTMIL/history/review.htm, http://www.scbwi.org/pubs/bulletin/bull_archives/jan_feb_2003/intl_news.htm, http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=CLN.

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Catalan is spoken in:

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• Catalonia in Spain.
• An adjacent strip of Aragon, Spain, in particular the comarques of Baixa Ribagorça, Llitera, Baix Cinca, and Matarranya.
• Balearic Islands in Spain.
• Andorra.
• Part of the Land of Valencia in Spain, where the language is officially named Valencian.
• Northern Catalonia in France.
• The city of Alghero (l'Alguer) on Sardinia, an island in Italy.
• A small region in Murcia, Spain, known as el Carche in Castilian and el Carxe in Catalan/Valencian.

All these areas are informally called Catalan countries (Catalan Països Catalans), a denomination based originally on cultural affinity and common heritage, that some have subsequently interpreted politically.

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Official status

Catalan is the official language of Andorra. It is co-official in the Spanish regions of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and Valencia, and in the Sardinian city of Alghero, in Italy. It has no official status in the parts of Aragon where it is spoken, but has gained some recognition by Aragonese laws since 1990. It has no official status in the other places where it is spoken.

Related Topics:
Andorra - Catalonia - Balearic Islands - Valencia - Sardinia - Alghero - Italy - Aragon

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Number of Catalan speakers

Territories where Catalan is official

Other territories

World

Notes: The number of people who understand Catalan includes those who can speak it.

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Sources: Catalonia:

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Statistic data of 2001 census, from Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya, Generalitat catalana http://www.idescat.net/territ/BasicTerr?TC=5&V0=3&V1=3&V3=876&V4=17&ALLINFO=TRUE&PARENT=1&CTX=B. Land of Valencia: Statistical data from 2001 census, from Institut Valencià d'Estadística, Generalitat Valenciana http://ive.infocentre.gva.es/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/IVE_PEGV/CONTENTS/cvcifras/2004/val/cvx2004_02.pdf. Balearic Islands: Statistical data from 2001 census, from Institut Balear d'Estadística, Govern de les Illes Balears http://www.caib.es/ibae/demo/catala/t2.htm. Northern Catalonia: Media Pluriel Survey commissioned by Prefecture of Languedoc-Roussillon Region done in October 1997 and published in January 1998 http://www.linmiter.net/information_catalan.html. Andorra:

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Sociolinguistic data from Andorran Government, 1999 http://www.catala.ad/CatalaAnd/DadSocLin.htm. Aragon: Sociolinguistic data from Euromosaic http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/document/catala/an/e19/e19.html. Alguer: Sociolinguistic data from Euromosaic http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/homect/index2.html. Rest of World: Estimate for 1999 by the Federació d'Entitats Catalanes outside the Catalan Countries.

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