Balearic Catalan

Dialects

The dialects spoken in the Balearic Islands are mallorquí, spoken on Mallorca; menorquí, on Menorca; and eivissenc, on Ibiza and Formentera.

Features

Distinctive features of Catalan in the Balearic Islands differ according to the specific variant being spoken (Mallorcan, Menorcan, or Ibizan).

Phonology

;Vowels :{| class="wikitable" |+ ! ! scope="col" | Front ! scope="col" | Central ! scope="col" | Back |- align=center ! scope="row" rowspan ="2" | Close | | | |- align=center | | |- align=center ! rowspan="2" scope="row" | Open | | |- align=center |}

:Notes: :* Most variants preserve a vocalic system of eight stressed vowels; , , , , , , , : :** The Mallorcan system has eight stressed vowels , reduced to four in unstressed position. :** The Western Menorcan system has eight stressed vowels , reduced to three in unstressed position. :** The Eastern Menorcan and partly the Ibizan system have seven stressed vowels reduced to three in unstressed position (as in Central Catalan). There are differences between the dialect spoken in Ibiza Town (eivissenc de vila) and those of the rest of the island (eivissenc pagès) and Formentera (formenterer). :** The vowel is central in Ibizan (as most Catalan dialects), while it is front in Mallorcan and Menorcan. The variant is found in Felanitx. :The so-called "open vowels" (vocals obertes), and , are generally as low as in most Balearic subvarieties. The phonetic realizations of approaches (as in American English *lad*) and is as open as (as in traditional RP *dog*) (feature shared with Valencian). In many Mallorcan dialects can be unrounded to . : In most of parts of Mallorca, words with ante-penultimate stress ending in -ia lose the ; e.g. glòria ('glory') is pronounced as glòri .

;Consonants :{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |+ Consonants of Balearic Catalan ! colspan=2 | ! Labial ! Dental/ Alveolar ! Palatal ! Velar |- ! colspan=2 | Nasal | | |

| | |- ! voiced | | |- ! rowspan=2 | Affricate ! voiceless | | | | |- ! voiced | | | | |- ! rowspan=2 | Fricative ! voiceless | | | | |- ! voiced | | | | |- ! rowspan="2" | Rhotics ! trill | | | | |- ! tap | | | | |- ! rowspan=2 | Approximant ! median | | | | |- ! lateral | | | | |}

:Notes: :* In Mallorcan and some Menorcan subvarieties and become palatal, and , before non-back vowels and word-finally; e.g. guerra ('war'), casa ('house'). :* is in free variation with . :* A phonemic distinction between and is preserved, as in Algherese and Standard Valencian, e.g. viu . :* As Central Catalan is velarised, , in all instances; e.g. tela ('fabric'). However the velarised (also known as dark l) is not used in the transcriptions of any Catalan variety. :* The palatal lateral approximant is preserved as a distinct phoneme, with absence of ieisme except for the most Castilianised speakers. However, most Mallorcan speakers use rather than in words that in Latin had + yod (--, --), --, or --; e.g. palla 'straw', from Latin palea. This is known as iodització. Note that this phenomenon is more restricted than ieisme, as is always used initially e.g. lluna ('moon'), as well as intervocalically in words that had -- in Latin. :* Depalatalization of syllable-final and with compensatory diphthongization in Mallorcan: anys ('years'), troncs ('logs'). :* Most Balearic variants preserve final stops in clusters; e.g. , , , and : ''ca'''mp''''' 'field' (feature shared with Modern Valencian). :* Balearic variants of Catalan have the strongest tendency not to pronounce historical final in any context; e.g. amor 'love', cor 'heart'. :* Assimilation of intervocalic clusters in some Mallorcan and Menorcan subvarieties:

::{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" ! colspan="3" | Cluster assimilations |- ! IPA ! word ! gloss |- | || acte || 'act' |- | || excés || 'excess' |- | || examen || 'exam' |- |

|| propdit abduir anècdota maragda || 'before said' 'abduct' 'anecdote' 'emerald' |- |

|| submarí capmoix admet setmana || 'submarine' 'crestfallen' 'admitted' 'week' |- |

|| obnoxi apnea adnat cotna || 'obnoxious' 'apnea' 'adnate' 'rind' |}

:(Notice some of these assimilations may also occur in continental Catalan: capmoix 'crestfallen').

:Other assimilations (amongst many) include:

:* (e.g. afgans 'afghani') :* (e.g. Carles 'Carl')

;Prosody

• Except in Ibiza, in combinations of verb and weak pronoun (clitics), the accent moves to the final element; e.g. comprar-ne or (Standard Central Catalan ).

Morphology and syntax

• Balearic preserves the salat definite article (derived from Latin ipse/ipsa instead of ille/illa), a feature shared only with Sardinian among extant Romance languages, but which was more common in other Catalan and Gascon areas in ancient times. However, the salat definite article is also preserved along the Costa Brava (Catalonia) and in the Valencian municipalities of Tàrbena and La Vall de Gallinera.
• The personal article en/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 be jo parlo ('I speak') is realised as jo 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 ('you pl. 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 are nowadays also common in many places.
• In combinations of two unstressed pronouns preceding a verb, one direct with the form el, la, etc. and the other indirect with the form me, te, etc., the direct pronoun appears first. For example, la me dóna ('s/he gives it to me'), Standard Catalan me la dóna.

Lexicon

• 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') and rata-pinyada for "rat-penat" ('bat').
• Menorcan has a few English loanwords dating back to the British occupation, such as grevi ('gravy'), xumaquer ('shoemaker'), boínder ('bow window'), xoc ('chalk') or ull blec ('black eye').

Political questions

Some in the Balearic Islands, such as the Partido Popular party member and former Balearic president José 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.

References

Bibliography

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References

1. Some Iberian scholars may alternatively classify Catalan as [[Iberian Romance languages. Iberian Romance/East Iberian]].
2. "2011 census, from Institut Balear d'Estadística, Govern de les Illes Balears". Caib.es.
3. {{Harvcoltxt. Carbonell. Llisterri. 1992
4. {{Harvcoltxt. Wheeler. 2005
5. http://riowang.blogspot.com/2011/10/mallorcan.html {{Self-published source. (August 2022)