Philologists coined
Balearic as a collective name for the group of
CatalanCatalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià , as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of...
variants that people speak in the
Balearic IslandsThe Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula....
. Those who speak it refer to their variant by the name local to their individual island: "Mallorquí" (on Majorca), "Eivissenc" (Ibiza), and "Menorquí" (Minorca).
At the last census, 746,792 people in the Balearic Islands claimed to be able to speak Catalan, though some of these people may be speakers of mainland variants.
Some features of Balearic:
- Most variants of Balearic preserve a vocalic system of 8 stressed vowels :
- The Majorcan system has 8 stressed vowels , reduced to 4 in unstressed position ( → ), ( → ).
- The Western Minorca
Minorca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
n system has 8 stressed vowels , reduced to 3 in unstressed position ( → ), ( → );
- The Eastern Minorca
Minorca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
n and IbizaIbiza is an island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Iberian Peninsula Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses...
n system has only 7 stressed vowels reduced to 3 in unstressed position ( → ) ( → ), just as in Central CatalanCentral Catalan is the Eastern Catalan dialect with the highest number of speakers, since it is commonly spoken in densely populated areas such as the whole Barcelona province, the eastern half of Tarragona province and most of the Girona province, except for it is northern part, where a transition...
.
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Philologists coined
Balearic as a collective name for the group of
CatalanCatalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià , as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of...
variants that people speak in the
Balearic IslandsThe Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula....
. Those who speak it refer to their variant by the name local to their individual island: "Mallorquí" (on Majorca), "Eivissenc" (Ibiza), and "Menorquí" (Minorca).
At the last census, 746,792 people in the Balearic Islands claimed to be able to speak Catalan, though some of these people may be speakers of mainland variants.
Some features of Balearic:
- Most variants of Balearic preserve a vocalic system of 8 stressed vowels :
- The Majorcan system has 8 stressed vowels , reduced to 4 in unstressed position ( → ), ( → ).
- The Western Minorca
Minorca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
n system has 8 stressed vowels , reduced to 3 in unstressed position ( → ), ( → );
- The Eastern Minorca
Minorca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
n and IbizaIbiza is an island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Iberian Peninsula Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses...
n system has only 7 stressed vowels reduced to 3 in unstressed position ( → ) ( → ), just as in Central CatalanCentral Catalan is the Eastern Catalan dialect with the highest number of speakers, since it is commonly spoken in densely populated areas such as the whole Barcelona province, the eastern half of Tarragona province and most of the Girona province, except for it is northern part, where a transition...
. There are differences between the dialect spoken in Ibiza TownIbiza is a city and municipality located on the southeast coast of the island of Ibiza in the Balearic Islands autonomous community. Although called Ibiza in Spanish, its official Catalan name is Eivissa and its inhabitants call it Vila d'Eivissa or simply Vila...
(eivissenc de vila) and those of the rest of the island (eivissenc pagès) and FormenteraFormentera is the smallest and southernmost island of the Illes Pitiüses group and belongs to the Balearic Islands autonomous community . It is long and is located approximately south of Ibiza in the Mediterranean Sea...
(formenterer).
- Balearic preserves a phonemic distinction between and , as do Alguerese
Algherese is the variant of the Catalan language spoken in the city of Alghero , in the northwest of Sardinia....
and most varieties of ValencianValencian is the historical, traditional, and official name used in the Valencian Community of Spain to refer to the region's native language....
.
- Balearic is the variant of Catalan that has the strongest tendency not to pronounce historical final r in any context.
- Balearic preserves the salat definite article (derived from Latin ipse/ipsa instead of ille/illa), a feature shared only with Sardinian
Sardinian is, after Italian, the main language spoken on the island of Sardinia, Italy. It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum....
among extant Romance languages, but which was more common in other CatalanCatalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià , as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of...
and GasconGascon could refer to one of the following:*Gascon cattle*Gascon language*Gascon Saintongeois...
areas in ancient times. However, the salat definite article is also preserved along the Costa BravaThe Costa Brava is a coastal region of northeastern Catalonia, Spain, in the comarques of Alt Empordà, Baix Empordà and La Selva, in the province of Girona. Costa is the Catalan and Spanish word for 'coast', and Brava means 'rugged' or 'wild'...
(CataloniaCatalonia is an Autonomous Community in northeast Spain. The capital city is Barcelona.Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an official population of 7,364,078. It borders France and Andorra to the north, Aragon to the west, the Valencian Community to the south, and the...
) and in the ValencianThe Valencian Community is an Autonomous Community located in central and south-eastern Spain. It is divided into three provinces, from south to north: Alicante, Valencia and Castellón....
municipalities of Tàrbena and La Vall de GallineraGallinera or The Vall of Gallinera is one of valleys in the northeast part Alicante, included in the Marina Alta comarca. It is formed by the nuclei of Benirrama, Benialí, Benissivá, Benitaia, Carroja, Alpatró, Llombai and Benissili. All these towns constitute a single municipality...
.