Balearic

Infobox Language
name=Catalan, Valencian
rank=93
nativename=Català, Valencià
familycolor=Indo-European
states=Spain,
France,
Italy,
Andorra.
region=In Spain:
Catalonia, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands, Aragon (in La Franja), Murcia (in El Carxe).
In France:
Northern Catalonia.
In Italy:
The city of Alghero.
In Andorra.
speakers=9.1 million
fam2=Italic
fam3=Romance
fam4=Italo-Western
fam5=Western
fam6=Gallo-Iberian
fam7=Gallo-Romance
fam8=Occitano-Romance
nation=In Spain:
Catalonia, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands.
In Italy:
Alghero.
In Andorra.
agency=Institut d'Estudis Catalans
Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
iso1=ca|iso2=cat|lc1=cat|ld1=Catalan|ll1=Catalan language|

Balearic is the name given collectively to the group of Catalan variants spoken in the Balearic Islands, Spain. The collective term was coined by philologists, while the historic names used by the speakers themselves refer to the language as if it was local to each island, and so "Mallorquí" ("Majorcan"), "Eivissenc" ("Ibizan") and "Menorquí" ("Minorcan") may be used as alternative names.

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 [http://www.caib.es/ibae/demo/catala/t2.htm. 2001 census, from Institut Balear d'Estadística, Govern de les Illes Balears ]

Some features of Balearic:
*Most variants of Balearic preserve a vocalic system of 8 stressed vowels IPA|/a ə ɛ e i ɔ o u/:
**The Majorcan system has 8 stressed vowels IPA|/a ə ɛ e i ɔ o u/, reduced to 4 in unstressed position (IPA|/a ə ɛ e/ → IPA| [ə] ), (IPA|/ɔ o/ → IPA| [o] ).
**The Western Minorcan system has 8 stressed vowels IPA|/a ə ɛ e i ɔ o u/, reduced to 3 in unstressed position (IPA|/a ə ɛ e/ → IPA| [ə] ), (IPA|/ɔ o u/ → IPA| [u] );
**The Eastern Minorcan and Ibizan system has only 7 stressed vowels IPA|/a ɛ e i ɔ o u/ reduced to 3 in unstressed position (IPA|/a ɛ e/ → IPA| [ə] ) (IPA|/ɔ o u/ → IPA| [u] ), just as in Central Catalan. There are differences between the dialect spoken in Ibiza Town ("eivissenc de vila") and those of the rest of the island ("eivissenc pagès") and Formentera ("formenterer").
* Balearic preserves a phonemic distinction between IPA|/v/ and IPA|/b/, as do Alguerese and most varieties of Valencian.
* 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 among extant Romance languages, but which was more common in other Catalan and Gascon areas in ancient times. However, the "salat" definite article is also preserved along the Costa Brava (Catalonia) and in the Valencian municipalities of Tàrbena and La Vall de Gallinera.

See also

*Catalan language
*Valencian
*Alguerese

References