Mallorcan or Majorcan () is the subdialect of Balearic spoken on the island of Mallorca, which is part of the Balearic dialect and the eastern block of Catalan. Balearic as a whole is a consecutive dialect formed by colonization of the Central Catalan area. Like Menorcan, Ibizan and Algherese, its isolation makes it a lateral area, which has meant that it has not been affected by many innovations from the continent and, on the contrary, contains a good number of active dialectalisms unknown outside the island.
History The substrate of Mallorcan Catalan is different from that of continental Catalan in terms of pre-Roman material, since it comes from the Talaiotic culture, but there are only limited remains of it in the toponymy. It is not known for sure whether, among the toponymy, there is anything Germanic (Vandalic) and Greek (from the Roman domination of the East). Many more toponyms remain from the Arabic element than from the pre-Roman substrates, but there was possibly not much influence of Insular Arabic on the current Catalan of Mallorca due to the fact that, possibly, most of the Arabisms of Mallorcan were imported during the repopulation. Alongside the Arabisms there is the Berber element, increasingly known, coming from the first Muslim colonization and the subsequent Almoravid and Almohad dominations. As for the remains of Latin, the last stage of which disappeared with Arabization, they are also abundant in toponymy, under the increasingly criticized name of Mozarabisms; they have recently been revised and their number has decreased, as well as in the common lexicon, where their identification is not always certain. All this means that three strata can be identified in the Mallorcan toponymy before the Conquest: a final Arab stratum (to which some Amazigh element can be added), an earlier stratum belonging to the Latin toponyms before the Islamic conquest, and a first stratum to which the pre-Roman toponyms belong.
The Catalan repopulation of Mallorca from 1229 onwards led to a change in the population that marginalised the native population capable of transmitting the remains of the previous languages, not only of the common lexicon but also of the toponymy: many toponyms were forgotten or were replaced by Catalan toponyms, and in other cases the location was wrong or they were poorly transmitted through transcriptions in Latinised forms. The dialectal features of Mallorcan are, therefore, mostly passive , coming mainly from the salty Empordà Catalan and, a minority, from the relations with the Catalan counties of the North Pyrenees, which were within the Crown of Mallorca. The origin of some of these dialectalisms, however, could be the relations with the Occitan properties of the Crown of Mallorca itself, especially with Montpellier. As for active dialectalisms, their study will have to determine their origin (the influence of the medieval Italian colonies in the city of Mallorca has not yet been evaluated).
Knowledge of the formation of the Mallorcan dialect therefore depends on historical studies, especially from sources that report informal oral records, and especially royal court books and data and receipts. These sources, and some formal ones, give us news of the existence of dialectal features that have disappeared today. The most interesting object of study is the origin and chronology of the dialectalisms active in the phonetic system, none of which has a general diffusion on the island.
From a chronological point of view, some passive dialectalisms represent medieval stages of the general language or Eastern Catalan, therefore identified with the classical language.
The existence of some Mallorcanisms is already attested to in the Regles d'esquivar vocables o mots grossers o pagesívols (c. 1492), alongside the existence of forms specific to other regions, characteristic of vulgar language. Alongside this identification, however, there are testimonies of the consideration of the purity of the Catalan language in the Balearic Islands, in the Crònica of the Empordà native Ramon Muntaner, and in the work of the Tortosa native Cristòfor Despuig Los Col·loquis de la insigne ciutat de Tortosa (1557), which attributes it to geographical isolation.
The existence of dialectal features was not reflected in the appearance of a specific name for the dialectal variety. The first name of the Catalan language with the Mallorcan gentilic appears in the prologue of the translation of Cicero's Paradoxes by Ferran Valentí . Valentí contrasts the popular, local and familiar character of Catalan to the universality of the Latin language, which he calls "vulgar materno e Mallorquí segons la ciutat on só nat e criat e nodrit" (1450). "Mallorquí" therefore refers to the Catalan of the city of Mallorca, learned by Valentí from his mother and from the streets and squares. Furthermore, in the same work, Valentí makes an explicit statement of the Catalanity of the Mallorcan Ramon Llull, the Valencian Nicolau Quilis and the Barcelonan Bernat Metge, whom he considers to be of the same nationality. The later texts in which the name Mallorcan and the Mallorcan language appear do not present dialectal features; these names are therefore a reflection of the administrative organization, of the title of Kingdom of Mallorca. This is a parallel case to the use of the name Valencian and the Valencian language in the Kingdom of Valencia.
Phonetics Vocalism
Mallorcan has eight stressed vowels. The stressed vowels of Mallorcan are the original system of the Eastern block , which has remained unchanged. Thus, Latin Ē and Ĭ (the closed e /e/ of Vulgar Latin) are /ə/ in Mallorcan (PLĒNUM > pl[ə], PĬRA > p[ə]ra), while, as in the rest of Catalan, part of Latin Ĕ (the open e /ɛ/ of Vulgar Latin) is /ɛ/ (TĔRRA > t[ɛ]rra) and the other is /e/ (TĔMPUS > t[e]mps). The preservation of this vowel system is shared with Eastern Ibizan and Western Menorcan . In turn, the towns of Alaró, Binissalem and Lloseta have followed the example of central Catalan and the eastern half of Menorca and the western half of Ibiza and have evolved the system, so that the neutral e has become open /ɛ/ in tonic position.
In general, the open e /ɛ/ and the open o /ɔ/, as in Valencian, are slightly more open than in Central Catalan.
Regarding unstressed vocalism:
The o does not suffer vowel reduction in unstressed position, unlike the rest of the eastern dialects and like the western dialects; in fact, Mallorcan is the only dialect of the eastern block with this characteristic. In Mallorcan, therefore, dove is pronounced [kolóm]. However, in the dialect of Sóller there is reduction of o to u in unstressed position.
In certain localities, however, the o does close in u in unstressed position when i or u appears in an adjacent syllable; thus, coixí and comú, in certain towns are pronounced [kuʃí] and [kumú]. This phenomenon, a vowel harmony caste , is shared by most of Western Catalan and is already detected in the old language. On the contrary, in the town of Manacor and in the traditional speech of Palma de Mallorca there is a tendency to overcorrect this phenomenon, and thus pronunciations such as fogir and estodiar are frequent.
Although, like the entire eastern block of Catalan, /a/, /ɛ/, /e/ and /ə/, in unstressed position, are neutralized into [ə], there is a certain tendency not to neutralize /e/. Thus, in those cases in which the morphology allows the recovery of the timbre /e/ in stressed position, /e/ often does not suffer vowel reduction, and one says [pe'ɣa] pegar, [kɾe'ma] cremar and [pe'ʃət] peixet. This phenomenon is exclusive to Mallorcan among all the eastern dialects, but does not occur systematically.
The neutral vowel, in contact with a palatal consonant, tends to close in i in certain words, such as [ki'ʃal] queixal, [ʒi'kətə] jaqueta, [gi'ʎətə] galleta. This phenomenon is partially shared with Northwestern Catalan and it is not a systematic phenomenon either.
Share with all Balearic Catalan :
The neuter vowel is delayed to o when o appears in an adjacent syllable: home and knee (genoll) become homo and jonoll.
Unstressed finals in /iə/ suffer the dropping of the final /ə/, and thus memória and gràcia become memori and graci. However, it does not occur in the town of Felanitx.
The group /wə/ becomes /o/, and thus aigua, quaranta and llengua become aigo, coranta and llengo.
Consonantism Mallorcan has several features that it shares with all Balearic Catalan:
Iodization, that is, which distinguishes the Latin groups LL, which becomes /ʎ/ (GALLUM > ga[ʎ]), with respect to C'L, G'L and LI, which become /j/ (AURĬC'LA > ore[j]a). It is worth noting that this /j/ falls between certain vowels and, in some towns, is completely elided (as in Menorca): palla is ['paə] and orella is [o'ɾəə] or [o'ɾə]. In the rest of the localities, this /j/ is pronounced noticeably lower, almost like a semi-vowel /e/. The localities that completely elided the /j/ between vowels are Llucmajor, Campos, Porreres, Montuïri, Vilafranca de Bonany, Sineu, Ariany, Maria de la Salut, Santa Margalida, Llubí, Muro, Sa Pobla, Búger, Campanet, Sóller and Fornalutx.
Distinction between /b/ and /v/.
Maintenance without palatalization of the old tl group in words like batle and ametla. There are also many geminate l'''s, such as al·lot, camamil·la and cel·la. In general, in Mallorca, the l is of dental articulation , and not alveolar, as in the rest of Catalan. In implosive position, the l can be vocalized into u, and thus espelma is called espeuma and alzina, auzina; this was already happening in Old Catalan.
Other consonantal phenomena that characterize Mallorcan are:
As in Menorcan and Valencian, the groups -nt, -rt, -lt, -mp and -nk (jugant, port, alt, camp and blanc) are maintained.
Drop of almost all r in final position: mar is pronounced [ma] and cor, [kɔ].
In some speakers, the u intervocalic /w/ can become a fricative : diuen > diven. An antihiatic v can also appear in certain vowel contacts: ravó and cova for ração and coa.
The s followed by a voiced consonant can become r (rhotacism of the s), and thus bisbe and fantasma can become birbe and fantarma. Also if a word ending in s is followed by a word beginning with a voiced consonant: és meu [əɾmew].
Metathesis of the r occurs in several words that begin with a bilabial consonant: words like pebre, padrí and podrir can be articulated prebe, pradí and prodir. In pebre and padrí it is more common than in words like pedra and pobre.
In several localities, the consonants /k/ and /g/ have a much more advanced articulation when followed by a non-back vowel, that is, [i], [e], [ə] and [a], a sound that is usually transcribed [c] and [ɟ] ([ʝ] in the approximate version). Thus, casa, paga and vaquer are pronounced ['cazə], ['paʝə] and [və'ce]. This phenomenon occurs in the towns of Ses Salines, Santanyí, Felanitx, Manacor, Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, Sant Joan, Lloret de Vistalegre, Pollença, Algaida, Valldemossa, Puigpunyent, Calvià, in Marratxí and in the traditional speech of Palma.
It is very common in Mallorcan, as well as in Menorcan, that there are more consonant assimilations than in the rest of the dialects. Thus, capsa, acció, exèrcit and dissabte are pronounced ['katsə], [ətsi'o], [ə'dzɛɾsit] and [di'satte]; it also occurs between two words: sac buit is [sabbujt] and set carros is [sɛkkaros].
Morphology Mallorcan shares with all Balearic a series of conservations (possibly due to their insularity) of Old Catalan in terms of morphology.
Nominal morphology