Valencian language

Following the Reconquista Valencian was spoken much further south than is currently the case, in a situation of bilingualism with Spanish. The latter then gradually imposed itself in many zones, with the limit between the two stabilizing around the mid-18th century.

Valencian has not historically been spoken to the same extent throughout the Valencian Community. Roughly a quarter of its territory, equivalent to 10% of the population (its inland and southernmost areas), is Spanish-speaking since the Middle Ages.

Additionally, it is also spoken by a small number of people in the El Carche comarca, a rural area in the Region of Murcia adjoining the Valencian Community.[22][23][24]Nevertheless, Valencian does not have any official recognition in this area. Nowadays about 600 people are able to speak Valencian in El Carche.[25]

Knowledge of Valencian according to the 2001 census. The light green areas inland and in the southernmost part are not historically Valencian speaking (large).

In 2010 the Generalitat Valenciana published a study, Knowledge and Social use of Valencian,[26] which included a survey sampling more than 6,600 people in the provinces of Castellón, Valencia, and Alicante. The survey simply collected the answers of respondents and did not include any testing or verification. The results were:

Valencian was the language "always, generally, or most commonly used":

• at home: 31.6%
• with friends: 28.0%
• in internal business relations: 24.7%

For ability:

• 48.5% answered they can speak Valencian "perfectly" or "quite well" (54.3% in the Valencian-speaking areas and 10% in the Spanish-speaking areas)
• 26.2% answered they can write Valencian "perfectly" or "quite well" (29.5% in the Valencian-speaking areas and 5.8% in the Spanish-speaking areas)

The survey shows that, although Valencian is still the common language in many areas in the Valencian Community, where slightly more than half of the Valencian population are able to speak it, most Valencians do not usually use Valencian in their social relations.

Moreover, according to the most recent survey in 2021,[27] there is a downward trend in everyday Valencian users. The lowest numbers are in the major cities of Valencia and Alicante, where the percentage of everyday speakers is at single-digit numbers. However, the percentage of residents who claim to be able to understand and read Valencian seems to have increased since 2015.

Due to a number of political and social factors, including repression, immigration and lack of formal instruction in Valencian, the number of speakers has severely decreased, and the influence of Spanish has led to the appearance of a number of barbarisms.[28]

Vowels of Valencian, from Saborit Vilar 2009, p. 23

• The stressed vowel system of Valencian is the same as that of Eastern Catalan: /a/, /e/, /ɛ/, /i/, /o/, /ɔ/, and /u/, with /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ being considerably lower than in EC.[36]
  • The vowels /i/ and /u/ are more open and centralised than in Spanish. This effect is more pronounced in unstressed syllables, where the phones are best transcribed [ɪ, ʊ].[37] As the process is completely predictable, the latter symbols are not used elsewhere in the article.
  • The vowel /e/ is somewhat retracted [e̠] and /o/ is somewhat advanced [o̟] both in stressed and unstressed syllables. /e/ and /o/ can be realised as mid vowels [e̞, o̞] in some cases. This occurs more often with /o/.[38]
  • The so-called "open vowels", /ɛ/ and /ɔ/, are generally as low as /a/ in most Valencian dialects. The phonetic realisations of /ɛ/ approaches [æ] and /ɔ/ is as open as [ɒ] (as in traditional RP dog). This feature is also found in Balearic.[39]
    • /ɛ/ is slightly more open and centralised before liquids /l, r/ and in monosyllabics.
    • /ɔ/ is most often a back vowel. In some dialects (including Balearic) /ɔ/ can be unrounded.
  • The vowel /a/ is slightly more fronted and closed than in Central Catalan (but less fronted and closed than in Majorcan). The precise phonetic realisation of the vowel /a/ in Valencian is [ɐ ~ ä], this vowel is subject to assimilation in many instances.[40]
    • Stressed /a/ can be retracted to [ɑ] in contact with velar consonants (including the velarized [ɫ]), and fronted to [a] in contact with palatals.[40] This is not transcribed in the article.
    • Final unstressed /a/ may have the following values: [ɜ ~ ɞ ~ ɐ], depending on the preceding sounds and/or dialect, e.g. taula [ˈtawɫɜ ~ ˈtawɫɞ ~ ˈtawɫɐ] 'table'.
  • All vowels are phonetically nasalised between nasal consonants or when preceding a syllable-final nasal.[41]
  • Vowels can be lengthened in some contexts.[41]
• There are five general unstressed vowels /a, e, i, o, u/. Although unstressed vowels are more stable than in Eastern Catalan dialects, there are many cases where they merge:[41]
  • In some Valencian varieties, unstressed /o/ and /ɔ/ are realised as /u/ before labial consonants (e.g. coberts [kuˈbɛɾ(t)s] 'cutlery'), before a stressed syllable with a high vowel (e.g. sospira [susˈpiɾa] 'he/she sighs') and in some given names (e.g. Josep [dʒuˈzɛp] 'Joseph') (note also in some colloquial speeches initial unstressed /o ~ ɔ/ is often diphthongized to [aw], olor [awˈɫoɾ]) 'smell (n.)'). Similarly, unstressed /e/, and /ɛ/ are realised as /a/ in contact with sibilants, nasals and certain approximants (e.g. eixam [ajˈʃãm] 'swarm', entendre [ãnˈtẽndɾe] 'to understand', clevill [kɫaˈviʎ] 'crevice'). Likewise (although not recommended by the AVL), unstressed /e ~ ɛ/ merges with /i/ in contact with palatal consonants (e.g. genoll [dʒiˈnoʎ] 'knee'), and especially (in this case it is accepted) in lexical derivation with the suffix -ixement (e.g. coneixement [konejʃiˈmẽnt] 'knowledge'). In the Standard all these reductions are accepted (/e, ɛ/ → [i] is only accepted in words with the suffix -ixement).
  • Many Valencian dialects, especially Southern Valencian, feature some sort of vowel harmony (harmonia vocàlica). This process is normally progressive (i.e. preceding vowels affect those pronounced afterwards) over the last unstressed vowel of a word; e.g. hora /ˈɔɾa/ > [ˈɔɾɞ] 'hour'. However, there are cases where regressive metaphony occurs over pretonic vowels; e.g. tovallola /tovaˈʎɔla/ > [tɞvɞˈʎɔɫɞ] 'towel', afecta /aˈfɛkta/ > [ɜˈfɛktɜ] 'affects'. Vowel harmony differs greatly from dialect to dialect, while many varieties assimilate both to the height and the quality of the preceding stressed vowel (e.g. terra [ˈtɛrɜ] 'Earth, land' and dona [ˈdɔnɞ] 'woman'); in other varieties, it is just the height that assimilates, so that terra and dona can be pronounced with either [ɜ] ([ˈtɛrɜ, ˈdɔnɜ]) or with [ɞ] ([ˈtɛrɞ, ˈdɔnɞ]), depending on the speaker.
    • In a wider sense, vowel harmony can occur in further instances, due to different processes involving palatalisation, velarisarion and labialisation
  • In certain cases, the unstressed /a, e/ become silent when followed or preceded by a stressed vowel: quinze anys [kĩnzˈãɲ(t)ʃ].
  • In certain accents, vowels occurring at the end of a prosodic unit may be realized as centering diphthongs for special emphasis, so that Eh tu! Vine ací "Hey you! Come here!" may be pronounced [ˈeˈtuə̯ ˈvinea̯ˈsiə̯]. The non-syllabic [a̯] is unrelated to this phenomenon as it is an unstressed non-syllabic allophone of /a/ that occurs after vowels, much like in Spanish.

• The voiced stops /d, ɡ/ are lenited to approximants [ð, ɣ] after a continuant, i.e. a vowel or any type of consonant other than a stop or nasal (exceptions include /d/ after lateral consonants). These sounds are realised as voiceless plosives in the coda in standard Valencian.
  • /b/ can also be lenited in betacist dialects.
  • /d/ is often elided between vowels following a stressed syllable (found notably in feminine participles, /ada/ → [aː], and in the suffix -dor); e.g. fideuà [fiðeˈwaː] ( < fideuada) ' fideuà', mocador [mokaˈoɾ] 'tissue' (note this feature, although widely spread in South Valencia, is not recommended in standard Valencian,[35] except for reborrowed terms such as Albà, Roà, the previously mentioned fideuà, etc.).
  • Unlike other Catalan dialects, the clusters /bl/ and /ɡl/ never geminate or fortify in intervocalic position (e.g. poble [ˈpɔbɫe] 'village').
• The velar stops /k/, /ɡ/ are fronted to pre-velar position [k̟, ɡ̟] before front vowels: qui [ˈk̟i] ('who').
• Valencian has preserved in most of its varieties the mediaeval voiced pre-palatal affricate /dʒ/ (similar to the j in English "jeep") in contexts where other modern dialects have developed fricative consonants /ʒ/ (like the si in English "vision"), e.g. dijous [diˈdʒɔws] ('Thursday').
  • Note the fricative [ʒ] appears only as a voiced allophone of /ʃ/ before vowels and voiced consonants; e.g. peix al forn [ˈpejʒ aɫ ˈfoɾn] 'oven fish'.
• Unlike other Catalan dialects, /dʒ/ and /tʃ/ do not geminate (in most accents): metge [ˈmedʒe] ('medic'), and cotxe [ˈkotʃe] ('car'). Exceptions may include learned terms like pidgin [ˈpidːʒĩn] ('pidgin').
• In the Standard, intervocalic /dz/, e.g. setze ('sixteen'), and /ts/, e.g. potser ('maybe'), are recommended to be pronounced with a gemination of the stop element (/dːz/ and /tːs/, respectively).
• /v/ occurs in Balearic,[49] Alguerese, standard Valencian and some areas in southern Catalonia (e.g. viu [ˈviw], 's/he lives').[50] It has merged with /b/ elsewhere.[51]
  • /v/ is realized as an approximant [ʋ] after continuants: avanç [aˈʋans] ('advance'). This is not transcribed in this article.
• Deaffrication of /dz/ to [z] in verbs ending in -itzar and derivatives: analitzar [anaɫiˈzaɾ] ('to analise'), organització [oɾɣanizaˈsjo] ('organization'). Also in words like botzina [boˈzina] ('horn'), horitzó [oɾiˈzo] ('horizon') and magatzem [maɣaˈzẽm] ('storehouse') (c.f. guitza [ˈɡidːza], 'bother').
• Most varieties of Valencian preserve final stops in clusters (e.g. /mp/, /nt/, /ŋk/, and /lt/): camp [ˈkãmp] 'field' (a feature shared with modern Balearic). Dialectally, all final clusters can be simplified.
• /l/ is normally velarised ([ɫ]), especially in the coda.
  • /l/ is generally dropped in the word altre [ˈatɾe] ('other'), as well as in derived terms.[35]
• /r/ is mostly retained in the coda (e.g. estar [esˈtaɾ], 'to be'), except for some cases where it is dropped: arbre [ˈabɾe] ('tree") and diners [diˈnes] ('money').[35] In some dialects /r/ can be further dropped in combinatory forms with infinitives and pronouns.
• In some dialects, /s/ is pronounced [sʲ] or [ʃ] after /i, j, ʎ, ɲ/. In the Standard only is accepted after /i/ (in the inchoative form with /sk/ → [ʃk]), and after /ʎ, ɲ/: ells [ˈeʎʃ] ('they'). In some variants the result may be an affricate.[52]

• The present first-person singular of verbs differs from Central Catalan. All those forms without final -o are more akin to mediaeval Catalan and contemporary Balearic Catalan.

• Present subjunctive is more akin to medieval Catalan and Spanish; -ar infinitives end ⟨e⟩, -re, -er and -ir verbs end in ⟨a⟩ (in contemporary Central Catalan present subjunctive ends in ⟨i⟩).
• An exclusive feature of Valencian is the subjunctive imperfect morpheme -ra: que ell vinguera ('that he might come').
• Valencian has -i- as theme vowel for inchoative verbs of the third conjugation; e.g. servix ('s/he serves'), like North-Western Catalan. Although, again, this cannot be generalised since there are Valencian dialects that utilize -ei-, e.g. serveix.
• In Valencian the simple past tense (e.g. cantà 'he sang') is more frequently used in speech than in Central Catalan, where the periphrastic past (e.g. va cantar 'he sang') is prevailing and the simple past mostly appears in written language. The same, however, may be said of the Balearic dialects.[53]
• The second-person singular of the present tense of the verb ser ('to be'), ets ('you are'), has been replaced by eres in colloquial speech.
• The infinitive veure ('to see') has the variant vore, which belongs to more informal and spontaneous registers.
• The usage of the periphrasis of obligation tindre + que + infinitive is widely spread in colloquial Valencian, instead of the Standard haver + de (equivalent to English "have to").

Clitics

• In general, use of modern forms of the determinate article (el, els 'the') and the third-person unstressed object pronouns (el, els 'him, them'), though some dialects (for instance the one spoken in Vinaròs area) preserve etymological forms lo, los as in Lleida. For the other unstressed object pronouns, etymological old forms (me, te, se, ne, mos, vos...) can be found, depending on places, in conjunction with the more modern reinforced ones (em, et, es, en, ens, us...).
  • Several local variations for nosaltres, vosaltres ('we, you'): mosatros, moatros, matros, etc.; vosatros, voatros, vatros, etc.; also for the weak form mos/-mos instead of standard ens/'ns/-nos ('us') and vos/-vos instead of us/-vos ('you pl.'), the latter (vos, instead of us) considered standard.
• The adverbial pronoun hi ('there') is almost never used in speech and is replaced by other pronouns. The adverbial pronoun en ('him/her/them/it') is used less than in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.[53]
• Combined weak clitics with li ('him/her/it') preserve the li, whereas in Central Catalan it is replaced by hi. For example, the combination li + el gives li'l in Valencian (l'hi in Central Catalan).
• The weak pronoun ho ('it') is pronounced as:
  • [ew], when it forms syllable with a pronoun: m'ho dóna [mew ˈðona], dóna-m'ho [ˈdonamew] ('s/he gives it to me')
  • [ew] or [u], when it comes before a verb starting with consonant: ho dóna [ew ˈðona] (or [u ˈðona]) ('s/he gives it')
  • [w], when precedes a vowel or when coming after a vowel: li ho dóna [liw ˈðona] ('s/he gives it to her/him'), dóna-ho [ˈdonaw] ('you give it')
  • [o], when it comes after a consonant or a semivowel: donar-ho [doˈnaɾo] ('to give it').
• The personal pronoun jo ('I') and the adverb ja ('already') are not pronounced according to the spelling, but to the etymology ([ˈjɔ] and [ˈja], instead of /ˈ(d)ʒɔ/ and /ˈ(d)ʒa/). Similar pronunciations can be heard in North-Western Catalan and Ibizan.
• The preposition amb ('with') merges with en ('in') in most Valencian dialects.
• Valencian preserves the mediaeval system of demonstratives with three different levels of demonstrative precision (este or aquest/açò/ací, eixe or aqueix/això/ahí, aquell/allò/allí or allà, where aquest and aqueix are almost never used) (feature shared with modern Ribagorçan and Tortosan).

Valencian vocabulary contains words both restricted to the Valencian-speaking domain, as well as words shared with other Catalan varieties, especially with Northwestern ones. Words are rarely spread evenly over the Valencian community, but are usually contained to parts of it, or spread out into other dialectal areas. Examples include hui 'today' (found in all of Valencia except transitional dialects, in Northern dialects avui) and espill 'mirror' (shared with Northwestern dialects, Central Catalan mirall). There is also variation within Valencia, such as 'corn', which is dacsa in Central and Southern Valencian, but panís in Alicante and Northern Valencian (as well as in Northwestern Catalan). Since Standard Valencian is based on the Southern dialect, words from this dialect are often used as primary forms in the standard language, despite other words traditionally being used in other Valencian dialects. Examples of this are tomaca 'tomato' (which is tomata outside of Southern Valencian) and matalaf 'mattress' (which is matalap in most of Valencia, including parts of the Southern Valencian area).

Below are a selection of words which differ or have different forms in Standard Valencian and Catalan. In many cases, both standards include this variation in their respective dictionaries, but differ as to what form is considered primary. In other cases, Valencian includes colloquial forms not present in the IEC standard. Primary forms in each standard are shown in bold (and may be more than one form). Words in brackets are present in the standard in question, but differ in meaning from how the cognate is used in the other standard.

The Academy of Valencian Studies (Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, AVL), established by law in 1998 by the Valencian autonomous government and constituted in 2001, is in charge of dictating the official rules governing the use of Valencian.[56] Currently, the majority of people who write in Valencian use this standard.[57]

Standard Valencian is based on the standard of the Institute of Catalan Studies (Institut d'Estudis Catalans, IEC), used in Catalonia, with a few adaptations.[58] This standard roughly follows the Rules of Castelló (Normes de Castelló) from 1932,[59] a set of othographic guidelines regarded as a compromise between the essence and style of Pompeu Fabra's guidelines, but also allowing the use of Valencian idiosyncrasies.

Dialects of Valencian

• Transitional Valencian (valencià de transició) or Tortosan (tortosí): spoken only in the northernmost areas of the province of Castellon in towns like Benicarló or Vinaròs, the area of Matarranya in Aragon (province of Teruel), and a southern border area of Catalonia surrounding Tortosa, in the province of Tarragona.
  • Word-initial and postconsonantal /dʒ/ (Catalan /ʒ/ and /dʒ/~/ʒ/) alternates with [(j)ʒ] intervocalically; e.g. joc [ˈdʒɔk] ('game'), but pitjor [piˈʒo] ('worse'), boja [ˈbɔjʒa] ('crazy') (Standard Valencian /ˈdʒɔk/, /piˈdʒoɾ/; /ˈbɔdʒa/; Standard Catalan /ˈʒɔk/, /piˈdʒo/ and /ˈbɔʒə/).
  • Final ⟨r⟩ [ɾ] is not pronounced in infinitives; e.g. cantar [kãnˈta] (Standard /kanˈtaɾ/) ('to sing').
  • Archaic articles lo, los ('the') are used instead of el, els; e.g. lo xic ('the boy'), los hòmens ('the men').
• Northern Valencian (valencià septentrional) or Castellon's Valencian (valencià castellonenc): spoken in an area surrounding the city of Castellón de la Plana.
  • Use of [e] sound instead of standard ⟨a⟩ /a/ in the third person singular of most verbs; e.g. (ell) cantava [kãnˈtave] (Standard /kanˈtava/) 'he sang'. Thus, Northern Valencian dialects contrast forms like (jo) cantava [kãnˈtava] ('I sang') with (ell) cantava [kãnˈtave] ('he sang'), but merges (jo) cante [ˈkãnte] ('I sing') with (ell) canta [ˈkãnte] ('he sings').
  • Palatalization of ⟨ts⟩ /ts/ > [tʃ] and ⟨tz⟩ /dz/ > [dːʒ]; e.g. pots /ˈpots/ > [ˈpotʃ] ('cans, jars, you can'), dotze /ˈdodze/ > [ˈdodːʒë] ('twelve').
  • Depalatalization of /jʃ/ to [jsʲ] by some speakers; e.g. caixa /ˈkajʃa/ > [ˈkajsʲa] ('box').
• Central Valencian (valencià central), or Apitxat, spoken in Valencia city and its area, but not used as standard by the Valencian media.
  • Sibilant merger: all voiced sibilants are devoiced (/dʒ/ > [tʃ], /dz/ > [ts], /z/ > [s]); that is, apitxat pronounces casa [ˈkasa] ('house') and joc [ˈtʃɔk] ('game'), where other Valencians would pronounce /ˈkaza/ and /ˈdʒɔk/ (feature shared with Ribagorçan).
  • Betacism, that is the merge of /v/ into /b/; e.g. viu [ˈbiw] (instead of /ˈviw/) ('he lives').
  • Fortition (gemination) and vocalisation of final consonants; nit [ˈnitː(ə)] (instead of /ˈnit/) ('night').
  • It preserves the strong simple past, which has been substituted by an analytic past (periphrastic past) with vadere + infinitive in the rest of modern Catalan and Valencian variants. For example, aní instead of vaig anar ('I went').
• Southern Valencian (valencià meridional): spoken in the contiguous comarques located in the southernmost part of the Valencia province and the northernmost part in the province of Alicante. This dialect is considered as Standard Valencian.
  • Vowel harmony: the final syllable of a disyllabic word adopts a preceding open ⟨e⟩ ([ɜ]) or ⟨o⟩ ([ɞ]) if the final vowel is an unstressed -⟨a⟩ or -⟨e⟩; e.g. terra [ˈtɛrɜ] ('earth, land'), dona [ˈdɔnɞ] ('woman').
  • This dialect retain geminate consonants (⟨tl⟩ /lː/ and ⟨tn⟩ /nː/); e.g. guatla [ˈɡʷaɫːa] ('quail'), cotna [ˈkõnːa] ('rind').
  • Weak pronouns are "reinforced" in front of the verb (em, en, et, es, etc.) contrary to other dialects which maintains "full form" (me, ne, te, se, etc.).
• Alicante's Valencian (valencià alacantí): spoken in the southern half of the province of Alicante, and the area of El Carche in Murcia.
  • Intervocalic /d/ elision in most instances; e.g. roda [ˈrɔa] ('wheel'), nadal [naˈaɫ] ('Christmas').
  • Yod is not pronounced in ⟨ix⟩ /jʃ/ > [ʃ]; e.g. caixa [ˈkaʃa] ('box').
  • Final ⟨r⟩ is not pronounced in infinitives; e.g. cantar [kãnˈta] ('to sing').
  • There are some archaisms like: ans instead of abans ('before'), manco instead of menys ('less'), dintre instead of dins ('into') or devers instead of cap a ('towards').
  • There are more interferences with Spanish than other dialects: assul (from azul) instead of blau (or atzur) ('blue'), llimpiar (from limpiar) instead of netejar ('to clean') or sacar (from sacar) instead of traure ('take out').