I dont' speak Catalan but I wish to learn it someday.
What is Catalan? Catalan is the official language of the autonomous province of Catalunya. Although Castellano is the official language of Spain, Catalanes make sure they maintain their own language. Catalan is used in schools, in businesses, in roadsigns, etc. Basically, in Catalunya, Castellano is only the second language, an extra subject in school – the majority of schools at least.
How can a “provincial” language have more importance than the principal language of the entire country? Catalanes are very proud of their language. It is often used by Catalanes as one of the reasons why they should not be part of Spain. As some of you may know, Spain has a very complicated history, especially its recent history. After decades of oppression from the Franco regime and its imposition of all things he considered “Spanish” (one country, one language, one religion, etc.) on the entire country, Catalunya tried to regain as much of their own culture and independence as they can. One of those would be keeping their own language alive.
Sidenote: Besides Catalunya, Pais Vasco is another province that has been fighting for independence. This is where the terrorist group, ETA, comes from. Fortunately, the Catalonian separatists turned away from violence after one or two failed attempt.
So how do I get around without knowing Catalan? Well, fortunately, most people speak Castellano. Most adults speak it because they were raised speaking both and used both languages in school. Some say young people now know less and less Castellano. But as far as the kids I’ve met, they speak one just as much as they speak the other.
There are also a ton of immigrants here. Catalunya is one of the more economically successful provinces in Spain. So of course, people migrate to where there are jobs. This includes not only immigrants from other countries, but also people from other provinces. Francisco’s parents, for example, are from Asturias and Castilla de la Mancha. For this reason, Francisco mainly speaks Castellano because it’s how he communicates with his parents.
Furthermore, many words are similar enough to Castellano that when you see it on paper, you will most likely figure out what it means. For example, ciudad would be ciutat, or universidad would be universitat…get the pattern? They also say Catalan is a combination of Castellano, French, and Italian, so if you are familiar with those languages, it helps even more. They say merci instead of gracias, for instance, or per che (because in Italian), instead of porque. The best example of this though would be their numbers: uno, dos, tres, quatre, cinc, sis, set, vuit, nou, deu.
In terms of pronunciation, Catalan also has some strange combination of sounds. I have a theory that Catalanes speak better English because they have as many vowel sound combinations as we English speakers do. They also utilize the different accent marks like ´ and ` and ç. They even have strange words with a period in the middle (ie. Paral.lel).
Thus far, I haven’t really run into any problems. Sometimes people speak with a different accent and I can’t quite get what they are saying. But other than that, no one has ever spoken Catalan to me or made me feel bad that I don’t speak it. Sometimes when I’m with a group of people, they speak Catalan among themselves and then I start to feel left out. In the end though I can’t ever really be angry with them. We are in Catalunya after all.
Here are a few Catalan words/phrases I’ve learned so far:
Que fem? – What are we doing?
Petonets – kisses
Dame foc – Give me a light (when you need to light a cigarette)
Deu – Goodbye
Bon dia – good morning
Bona tarda – good afternoon
Bona nit – good night
Si us plau - please
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