Valencian language

Valencian (valencià) is the historical, traditional, and official name used in the Valencian Community (Spain) for the language spoken in this region, also known as Catalan (català) in the Spanish Autonomous Communities of Catalonia, Aragon and the Balearic Islands; in the country of Andorra; in the southern French region of the Roussillon; and in the Italian city of Alghero on the island of Sardinia.

Valencian
valencià
Pronunciation[valensiˈa] or [ba-]
Native toSpain
RegionValencia, Murcia (Carche)
See also geographic distribution of Catalan
EthnicityValencians
Native speakers2.4 million  (2004)[1]
Language family
Writing systemCatalan orthography (Latin script)
Official status
Official language inIn Spain:  Valencian Community
Regulated byAcadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Extensió del valencià al País Valencià.svg

In linguistics "Valencian" is also used to identify this distinctive variant spoken in central and southern Valencia which has gained its own currency within the Catalan domain.

Language or dialect?

The official authorities, which are the government of the Valencian Community and the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, accept Valencian as a dialect of Catalan. The Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana and several associations disbelieve this opinion . They believe Valencian is a language in its own. They also accuse the official authorities of mixing Valencian with Catalan. This is done by approaching the Valencian ortography and grammar to the Catalan one.

Valencian Language Media

References

  1. Míriam Luján; Carlos D. Martínez; Vicente Alabau, Evaluation of several Maximum Likelihood Linear Regression variants for language adaptation (PDF), Proceedings of the sixth international conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, LREC 2008, the total number of people who speak Catalan is 7,200,000, (...). The Valencian dialect is spoken by 27% of all Catalan speakers. citing Vilajoana, Jordi, and Damià Pons. 2001. Catalan, Language of Europe. Generalitat de Catalunya, Department de Cultura. Govern de les Illes Balears, Conselleria d’Educació i Cultura.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Some Iberian scholars may alternatively classify Catalan as Iberian Romance/East Iberian.
  3. Wheeler, Max H. (2006). "Catalan". Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-044299-0.
  4. Feldhausen 2010, p. 6.
  5. Wheeler 2005, p. 2.
  6. Costa Carreras & Yates 2009, p. 4.