Catalan phonology
The phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation. Although there are two standard dialects, one based on Eastern Catalan and one based on Valencian, this article deals with features of all or most dialects, as well as regional pronunciation differences. Various studies have focused on different Catalan varieties; for example, and analyze Central Eastern varieties, the former focusing on the educated speech of Barcelona and the latter focusing more on the vernacular of Barcelona, and does a careful phonetic study of Central Eastern Catalan.
Catalan is characterized by final-obstruent devoicing, lenition, and voicing assimilation; a set of 7 or 8 phonemic vowels, vowel assimilations, many phonetic diphthongs, and vowel reduction, whose precise details differ between dialects. Several dialects have a dark l, and all dialects have palatal l and n.
Consonants
Phonetic notes:- , are laminal denti-alveolar,. After, they are laminal alveolar,.
- , are velar but fronted to pre-velar position before front vowels. In some Majorcan dialects, the situation is reversed; the main realization is palatal,, but before liquids and rounded back vowels they are velar,.
- ,, are apical front alveolar,,, but the first two are laminal denti-alveolar, before,. In addition, is postalveolar or alveolo-palatal before,,,, velar before, and labiodental before,, where it merges with. It also merges with before,.
- ,, are apical back alveolar,,, also described as postalveolar.
- , are apical alveolar,. They may be somewhat fronted, so that the stop component is laminal denti-alveolar, while the fricative component is apical post-dental.
- , are laminal "front alveolo-palatal",.
- There is some confusion in the literature about the precise phonetic characteristics of,,, and ; while and describe them as "back alveolo-palatal", implying that the characters would be more accurate, they use the characters for palato-alveolar affricates and fricatives while using for alveolo-palatal sounds in examples in other languages like Polish or Chinese. Otherwise, sources, like generally describe them as "postalveolar".
- Since the vast majority of Catalan speakers are bilingual in either Spanish and/or French, they import loan phonemes not present in Catalan like, from Spanish, and from French, especially in proper nouns; e.g. Badajoz, Vuitton.
Obstruents
Stops
Voiced stops become lenited to approximants in syllable onsets, after continuants: →, →, →. Exceptions include after lateral consonants and after, e.g. ull de bou , bolígraf boníssim . Additionally, remains unlenited in non-betacist dialects. In the coda position, these sounds are always realized as stops except in many Valencian dialects, where they are lenited.In some Valencian dialects final can be lenited before a vowel: tot açò .
In some dialects initial can be lenited: gata .
In many Catalan dialects, and may be geminated in certain environments.
In Majorcan varieties, and become and word-finally and before front vowels, in some of these dialects, this has extended to all environments except before liquids and back vowels; e.g. sang .
Affricates
The phonemic status of affricates is dubious; after other consonants, affricates are in free variation with fricatives, e.g. clenxa and may be analyzed as either single phonemes or clusters of a stop and a fricative.- Alveolar affricates, and, occur the least of all affricates.
- * only occurs intervocalically: metzines .
- * Instances of arise mostly from compounding; the few lexical instances arise from historical compounding. For instance, potser comes from pot + ser. As such, does not occur word-initially; other than some rare words of foreign origin, but it may occur word-finally and quite often in cases of heteromorphemic plural endings: tots .
- The distribution of alveolo-palatal affricates, and, depends on dialect:
- * In Standard Eastern Catalan, word-initial is found only in a few words of foreign origin while being found freely intervocalically and word-finally: despatx .
- * Standard Eastern Catalan also only allows in intervocalic position. Phonemic analyses show word-final occurrences of , but final devoicing eliminates this from the surface: raig .
- * In various other dialects, occurs word-initially and after another consonant to the exclusion of. These instances of word-initial seem to correspond to in other dialects, including the standard : xinxa, pronounced in the standard, is in these varieties.
- * Similarly, in most of Valencian and southern Catalonia, most occurrences of correspond to the voiced fricative in Standard Eastern Catalan: gel .
Fricatives
occurs in Balearic, as well as in Alguerese, standard Valencian and some areas in southern Catalonia. Everywhere else, it has merged with historic so that and occur in complementary distribution. In Majorcan, and are in complementary distribution, with occurring before vowels. In other varieties that have both sounds, they are in contrast before vowels, with neutralization in favor of before consonants.In some Valencian dialects, and are auditorily similar such that neutralization may occur in the future. That is the case of Northern Valencian where is depalatalized to as in caixa. Central Valencian words like mig and lleig have been transcribed with rather than the expected, and Southern Valencian "has been reported to undergo depalatalization without merging with ". as in passets versus passeig
In Aragon and Central Valencian, voiced fricatives and affricates are missing and has merged with the set.
Sonorants
While "dark l",, may be a positional allophone of in most dialects, is dark irrespective of position in Eastern dialects like Majorcan and standard Eastern Catalan.The distribution of the two rhotics and closely parallels that of Spanish. Between vowels, the two contrast 'myrrh' vs. mira , but they are otherwise in complementary distribution. appears in the onset, except in word-initial position, after,, and , and in compounds, where is used. Different dialects vary in regards to rhotics in the coda, with Western Catalan generally featuring and Central Catalan dialects like those of Barcelona or Girona featuring a weakly trilled unless it precedes a vowel-initial word in the same prosodic unit, in which case appears. There is free variation in "r" word-initially, after,, and, and in compounds, wherein is pronounced or, the latter being similar to English red: ruc, honra , Israel .
In careful speech,,, and may be geminated 'unnecessary'; emmagatzemar . A geminated may also occur . analyzes intervocalic as the result of gemination of a single rhotic phoneme: serra 'saw, mountains'.
Vowels
Phonetic notes:- The vowel is further back and open than the Castilian counterpart in North-Western and Central Catalan, slightly fronted and closed in Valencian and Ribagorçan, and further fronted and closed in Majorcan.
- The open-mid and are lower in Majorcan, Minorcan and Valencian.
- In Alguerese, Northern Catalan and some places bordering the Spanish-speaking areas, open-mid and close-mid vowels may merge into mid vowels; and.
- The close vowels are more open than in Castilian. Unstressed are centralized.
- * In Valencian and most Balearic dialects are further open and centralized.
- Northern Catalan sometimes adds two loan rounded vowels, and, from French and Occitan.
- The realization of the reduced vowel varies from mid to near-open, with the latter variant being the most usual in the Barcelona metropolitan area, where the distinction between and is less pronounced than in other varieties that maintain the distinction.
- Phonetic nasalization occurs for vowels occurring between nasal consonants or when preceding a syllable-final nasal; e.g. diumenge .
Stressed vowels
Contrasting series of the main Catalan dialects:
| Vowel | word | gloss | |
| sic | 'sic' | ||
| séc | 'fold' | ||
| sec | 'dry' 'I sit' | ||
| sac | 'bag' | ||
| sóc | 'I am' | ||
| soc | 'clog' | ||
| suc | 'juice' |
| Vowel | word | gloss | |
| sic | 'sic' | ||
| séc | 'fold' | ||
| sec | 'I sit' | ||
| sec | 'dry' | ||
| sac | 'bag' | ||
| sóc | 'I am' | ||
| soc | 'clog' | ||
| suc | 'juice' |
| Vowel | word | gloss | |
| sic | 'sic' | ||
| séc | 'fold' | ||
| sec | 'dry' 'I sit' | ||
| sac | 'bag' | ||
| soc | 'clog' | ||
| suc sóc | 'juice', 'I am' |
| Vowel | word | gloss | |
| sic | 'sic' | ||
| séc sec | 'fold' 'dry, I sit' | ||
| set | 'seven' | ||
| sac | 'bag' | ||
| sóc | 'I am' | ||
| soc | 'clog' | ||
| suc | 'juice' |
Unstressed vowels
In Eastern Catalan, vowels in unstressed position reduce to three :,, ;,, ; remains unchanged. However there are some dialectal differences: Alguerese merges,, and with ; and in most areas of Majorca, can appear in unstressed position.In Western Catalan, vowels in unstressed position reduce to five:, ;, ; remain unchanged. However, in some Western dialects reduced vowels tend to merge into different realizations in some cases:
- Unstressed may merge with before a nasal or sibilant consonant, in some environments before any consonant, and in monosyllabic clitics. This sounds almost the same as the Barcelonian open schwa. Likewise, unstressed may merge into when in contact with palatal consonants.
- Unstressed may merge with before a bilabial consonant, before a stressed syllable with a high vowel, in contact with palatal consonants, and in monosyllabic clitics.
| Vowel | Example | Gloss | |
| si | 'if' | ||
| se | 'itself' | ||
| sa | 'her' | ||
| -nos | 'us' | ||
| uns | 'some' |
| Vowel | Example | gloss | |
| si | 'if' | ||
| se | 'itself' | ||
| sa | 'her' | ||
| -nos | 'us' | ||
| uns | 'some' |
| Vowel | Example | Gloss | |
| si | 'if' | ||
| se | 'itself' | ||
| sa | 'her' | ||
| -nos | 'us' | ||
| uns | 'some' |
Diphthongs and triphthongs
There are also a number of phonetic diphthongs and triphthongs, all of which begin and/or end in or.In standard Eastern Catalan, rising diphthongs are only possible in the following contexts:
- in word-initial position, e.g. iogurt .
- The semivowel occurs between vowels as in feia or diuen.
- In the sequences or plus vowel, e.g. guant, quota, qüestió, pingüí ; these exceptional cases even lead some scholars to hypothesize the existence of rare labiovelar phonemes and.
Processes
The dialectal distribution of compensatory diphthongization is almost entirely dependent on the dorsal stop and the extent of consonant assimilation.
Voiced affricates are devoiced after stressed vowels in dialects like Eastern Catalan where there may be a correlation between devoicing and lengthening of voiced affricates: metge → . In Barcelona, voiced stops may be fortified.
Assimilations
Catalan denti-alveolar stops can fully assimilate to the following consonant, producing gemination; this is particularly evident before nasal and lateral consonants: e.g. cotna, motlle/motle, and setmana. Learned words can alternate between featuring and not featuring such assimilation.Central Valencian features simple elision in many of these cases though learned words don't exhibit either assimilation or elision: atles and administrar.
Prosody
Stress
Stress most often occurs on any of the last three syllables of a word 'compass', càstig 'punishment', pallús .Compound words and adverbs formed with may have a syllable with secondary stress 'willingly'; parallamps but every lexical word has just one syllable with main stress.
Phonotactics
Any consonant, as well as and may be an onset. Clusters may consist of a consonant plus a semivowel or an obstruent plus a liquid. Some speakers may have one of these obstruent-plus-liquid clusters preceding a semivowel, e.g. síndria ; for other speakers, this is pronounced .Word-medial codas are restricted to one consonant + ). In the coda position, voice contrasts among obstruents are neutralized. Although there are exceptions, syllable-final rhotics are often lost before a word boundary or before the plural morpheme of most words: color vs. coloraina .
In Central Eastern Catalan, obstruents fail to surface word-finally when preceded by a homorganic consonant. Complex codas simplify only if the loss of the segment doesn't result in the loss of place specification.
When the suffix -erol is added to camp it makes, indicating that the underlying representation is , however when the copula is added it makes. The resulting generalization is that this underlying will only surface in a morphologically complex word. Despite this, word-final codas are not usually simplified in most of Balearic and Valencian.
Word-initial clusters from Graeco-Latin learned words tend to drop the first phoneme: pneumàtic , pseudònim , pterodàctil , gnom .
Word-final obstruents are devoiced; however, they assimilate voicing of the following consonant, e.g. cuc de seda . In regular and fast speech, stops often assimilate the place of articulation of the following consonant producing phonetic gemination: tot bé .
Word-final fricatives are voiced before a following vowel; e.g. bus enorme .
In Majorcan and Minorcan Catalan, undergoes total assimilation to a following consonant : buf gros .
Dialectal variation
The differences in the vocalic systems outlined above are the main criteria used to differentiate between the major dialects:distinguishes two major dialect groups, western and eastern dialects; the latter of which only allow,, and to appear in unstressed syllables and include Northern Catalan, Central Catalan, Balearic, and Alguerese. Western dialects, which allow any vowel in unstressed syllables, include Valencian and North-Western Catalan.
Regarding consonants, betacism and fricative–affricate alternations are the most prominent differences between dialects.
Other dialectal features are:
- Vowel harmony with and in Valencian; this process is progressive over the last unstressed vowel of a word; e.g. hora →. However, there are cases where regressive metaphony occurs over pretonic vowels; e.g. tovallola → , afecta → .
- In a number of dialects unstressed can merge with or according to the previous or following vowel. This merger is especially common in words with the prefix in or im.
- In Southern Valencian subvarieties, especially in Alicante Valencian, the diphthong has become : bous .
- In regular speech in both Eastern and Western Catalan dialects, word-initial unstressed – or – may be diphthongized to or : ofegar .
- In Aragonese Catalan, is palatalized to in consonant clusters; e.g. plou 'it rains'.
- In Alguerese and Ribagorçan word-final and are depalatized to and, respectively; e.g. gall , any .
- Varying degrees of L-velarization among dialects: is dark irrespective of position in Balearic and Central Catalan and might tend to vocalization in some cases. In Western varieties like Valencian, this dark l contrasts with a clear l in intervocalic and word-initial position; while in other dialects, like Alguerese or Northern Catalan, is never velarized in any instance.
- :ca:Iodització in regular speech in most of Majorcan, Northern Catalan and in the historic comarca of Vallès : merges with in some Latin-derived words with intervocalic L-palatalization ; e.g. palla . An exception to this rule is initial L-palatalization; e.g. lluna .
- The dorso-palatal may occur in complementary distribution with, only in Majorcan varieties that have dorso-palatals rather than the velars found in most dialects: guerra vs. sa guerra .
- In northern and transitional Valencian, word-initial and postconsonantal alternates with intervocalically; e.g. joc 'game', but pitjor 'worse', boja 'crazy'.
- In northern Valencia and southern Catalonia has merged with realizations of after a high front vocoid; e.g. terrissa , insistisc vs. pixar , deixar . In these varieties is not found after other voiced consonants, and merges with after consonants; e.g. punxa .
- Intervocalic dropping in regular speech in Valencian, with compensatory lengthening of vowel ; e.g. vesprada .
- In northern Catalonia and in the town of Sóller, a uvular trill or approximant can be heard instead of an alveolar trill; e.g. córrer .
Historical development
- Marked contrast of the vowel pairs and, as in other Western Romance languages, except Spanish and Sardinian.
- Lenition of voiced stops as in Galician and Spanish.
- Lack of diphthongization of Latin short ĕ, ŏ, as in Galician and Portuguese, and unlike French, Spanish and Italian.
- Abundance of diphthongs containing, as in Galician and Portuguese.
- Abundance of and occurring at the end of words, as for instance and , unlike Spanish, Portuguese or Italian.