As a member of the dialect continuum of Romance languages, Catalan (including Valencian) displays linguistic features similar to those of its closest neighbors (Occitan, Aragonese). The following features represent in some cases unique changes in the evolution of Catalan from Vulgar Latin; other features are common in other Romance-speaking areas.
Phonology Catalan is one of the Western Romance languages; it is most closely related to Occitan and only diverged from it between the eleventh and fourteenth centuriesRiquer, Martí de, Història de la Literatura Catalana, vol. 1. Barcelona: Edicions Ariel, 1964 after the cultural ties with France were broken. In time, Catalan became more tied to the Ibero-Romance languages in Spain; because these languages are significantly more conservative than French (which has been the most important influence over Occitan in the last several hundred years), most of the differences between Catalan and Occitan are due to developments in Occitan that did not occur in Catalan.
Common features with Western Romance languages As a Western Romance language, Catalan shares the following features not found in Italo-Romance: Voicing (and lenition) of intervocalic --, --, -- into -b-, -d-, -g- ( 'goat' > cabra, 'chain' > cadena, 'safe' > segur). Loss of gemination in stop consonants. Development of (later ) instead of from palatalized . For example, ('sky, heaven') > Old Catalan cel > modern (cf. Italian cielo ). Development of in , into palatal (vs. , in Italian). Apico-alveolar pronunciation of and . (This was once common to all Western Romance languages, but has since disappeared from French, some Occitan dialects, and Portuguese.)
Common features with Gallo-Romance languages
Innovations: Loss of final unstressed vowels except - ( 'wall' > *muro > mur, 'flower' >flor); cf. the maintenance of all final vowels except - after in Spanish and Portuguese, e.g. muro but flor; Italo-Romance maintains all final vowels (Italian muro, fiore). The resulting final voiced obstruents undergo devoicing: ('cold') > fred or . However, final voiceless fricatives are voiced before vowels and voiced consonants (regressive voicing assimilation): els homes 'the men' + > ; peix bo 'good fish' + > . (The same final-obstruent devoicing occurs in all of the Western Romance languages to the extent that obstruents become final, but this is fairly rare in Ibero-Romance. Cf. Portuguese luz "light" vs. luzes "lights" , , Old Spanish relox "(wrist) watch" vs. relojes "(wrist) watches" .) Apparent maintenance of -o in first-person singular and -os plurals are likely secondary developments: Old Catalan had no first-person singular -o, and -os plurals occur where they are etymologically unjustified, e.g. peixos "fishes" < , cf. Portuguese peixes. Diphthongization of and before palatal consonants (with subsequent loss of middle vowel if a triphthong is produced). Spanish and Portuguese instead raise the vowel to become mid-high; in Spanish, this prevents diphthongization, but diphthongization between palatals does occur in Aragonese. Latin 'thigh' > * > cuixa (cf. French cuisse but Portuguese coxa). Latin 'eight' > > vuit (cf. French huit but Portuguese oito, Spanish ocho; Old Occitan both ueit and och). Latin 'bed' > > llit (cf. French lit but Portuguese leito, Spanish lecho; Old Occitan both lieig and leit). Conserved features: Preservation of initial -, -, - ( 'fold' > aplegar 'to reach', 'key' > clau, 'flame' > flama) in contrast to palatalization of these initial clusters in Spanish , , and Portuguese , , . In Italo-Romance postconsonantal -- is generally vocalized to -i- , hence Italian , , .
Common features with Occitano-Romance languages
Innovations: Development of late-final into (vocalization): 'ship' > , 'brief' > . Compare Occitan , ; contrast with French , and Old Spanish non-final nave, breve. Loss of word-final -: ('bread') > pa, ('wine') > vi. (In some Occitan dialects, e.g. Provençal, the consonant was not lost.) Unlike in Languedoc and Northern Catalan, plural forms conserve this : pans, vins. Merger of Proto-Western-Romance (from intervocalic --) and (from intervocalic --, --, --). The result was originally or , still preserved in Occitan and partly in Old Catalan, but in modern Catalan now developed to or lost. Conserved features: Preservation of Vulgar Latin stressed -- and -- (short ⟨ĕ⟩ and ⟨ŏ⟩) as and respectively ( 'land' > terra, 'honey' > mel, 'fire'> foc , 'ox'> bou ). These monophthongs were also preserved in Portuguese (terra, mel, fogo, boi). Contrast with the diphthongs in Spanish tierra, miel, fuego, buey. French diphthongizes in open syllables, hence miel, Old French buef (modern bœuf ), but terre without diphthong. Occitan, but not Catalan, diphthongizes these vowels before velar consonants, i.e. , , : terra, mel, but fuec, bueu.
Common features with Spanish, Portuguese, or French but not Occitan
Development of --, -- to (monophthongization) rather than preservation as (but Portuguese has ). For example, 'cabbage' > col, 'not much' > poc. (The same development occurred in French.) Development of -- , -- , -- to (also in Portuguese). Latin 'thigh' > cuixa, Portuguese coxa vs. French cuisse. Latin 'to loosen' (later 'to let') > Catalan and Portuguese deixar, Old Spanish dexar, but French laisser, Old Occitan laisar. Latin 'to lower' > Catalan and Portuguese baixar, Old Spanish baxar, but French baisser. (In Occitan dialects near Catalan and Gascon, there is palatization too: baishar, daishar.)
Conserved features shared by Catalan with Spanish and Portuguese: Preservation of Western Romance and as and ; (other) Gallo-Romance languages have changed these to and , respectively. Latin () 'moon' > or , Occitan , French . Latin () 'double' > , or (also , ), Spanish , Occitan doble , French .
Innovations shared by Spanish and Catalan: Palatalization of -- to : ('horse') > (cf. Spanish with still preserved in conservative rural districts in Spain; Portuguese , Occitan , French , all with simple ). In a few cases, appears as a result of early simplification of -- after a long vowel: 'town' > ; 'star' > Western Catalan , Eastern (cf. Spanish , Portuguese < -- but French < --). Palatalization of -- to : ('year') > (cf. Spanish ) Reduction of -- to m: 'leg' > , 'loin' > , > (cf. Spanish , > but Portuguese ). Occurs in some Occitan dialects (Gascon and southern Languedoc).
Common features with Occitan, French, and Portuguese, but not Spanish
Initial + yod or or , + yod, > > or (in contrast to Spanish before stressed non-back vowels)
Conserved features (contrasting with Spanish innovations): Intervocalic (--, --) and -- developed into ll, as in 'wife' > , 'ear' > , 'old' > . Unlike Spanish, Catalan did not undergo the later change of to j (Old Spanish , now ). In some eastern-central and Balearic varieties, however, the sound developed into through a process known as iodització (not to be confused with 'ieisme'). The development probably involved an intermediate [jl] (formerly written yl: mirayl, current mirall). In most dialects, including Standard Central Catalan, this was later absorbed into , while in some varieties, especially Balearic Catalan and certain areas of Girona and Barcelona, it was simplified to . Thus, 'bee' became abella, pronounced in Standard Central Catalan but [əˈβɛ.jə] in varieties with iodització. Compare Portuguese , Occitan , French , in contrast to Spanish . The cluster -- developed only to , as in > *lleit > , without the further change to seen in Spanish and Middle Occitan. The outcome is found also in Gascon and Languedocian dialects near Catalan, French, and all other Ibero-Romance languages (Portuguese, Leonese, Aragonese). Compare Northern Occitan lait, Occitan near Catalan lèit, French , Portuguese , in contrast to Southern Occitan lach and Spanish . The consonant that developed from initial or + front vowel is preserved before unstressed non-back vowels in Catalan, as in ('freeze') > or ('lay down') > *gieitar > , rather than being lost as in Spanish. Compare Portuguese, Occitan gelar in contrast to Spanish or Portuguese , Occitan , French in contrast to Spanish . Initial remains as such, whereas in Spanish it became (later lost) before a vowel (i.e. unless preceding , , , ). (Gascon actually develops into in all circumstances, even before consonants or semi-vowels.) Voiced sibilants remain as such, whereas in Spanish they merge into voiceless sibilants.
Features not in Spanish or (most of) Occitan, but found in other minority Romance languages Palatalization of -- before -- to . Especially visible in verbs of the third conjugation (-) that took what was originally an inchoative infix (--/--), e.g. 'serves' (present tense, 3rd person singular indicative) > serveix/servix. Found in Aragonese, Leonese and in some Portuguese words. (In Portuguese, 'fish' > peixe, 'to mix' > mexer 'to shake', but most verbs in end in (s)cer, e.g. 'to grow' > crescer, 'to be born' > nascer, 'to offer' > oferecer.) Innovations: Reduction of consonant cluster -- to -n- ( 'to stroll' > andar 'to go' > anar, 'to send, to lead' > manar). Compare reduction of -- to -m-. Also found in Gascon and southern Languedoc. Palatalization of initial - ( 'moon' > lluna, 'wolf' > llop). This feature can be found as well in the Foix dialect of Occitan and in Astur-Leonese.
Unique features, not found elsewhere Unusual development of early , resulting from merger of Proto-Western-Romance (from intervocalic --) and (from intervocalic --, --, --); see note above about a similar merger in Occitan. In early Old Catalan, became finally or before a consonant, remained as between vowels. In later Old Catalan, lost between vowels: 'foot' > peu 'cross' > creu, 'he believes' > (ell) creu Verbs in second-person plural ending in -: 'you (pl.) look' > *miratz > mirau > mireu/mirau 'reason' > razó > raó 'neighbor' > vezí > veí 'to receive' > rezebre > reebre > rebre Partial reversal of Proto-Western-Romance and , according to the following stages: Firstly, stressed became in Eastern dialects (Central and Balearic) in most cases. Secondly, stressed became in almost all dialects (Central, Balearic, Valencian) in most cases. Third, stressed remained unchanged in Balearic Catalan but became in Central Catalan. For this reason, the word dret ('right') is pronounced in Valencian, in Balearic, and in Central Catalan. There are some dialectal exceptions to this evolution. For example, several locations in the Balearic Islands changed to , as Central Catalan did. Also, in the western regions of Pallars and Ribagorça, all were retained without evolving to . In the Algherese dialect, evolved to instead of , and somewhat later than Central Catalan did.