|
Balearic is the Catalan variant spoken in the Balearic Islands (Spanish las Islas Baleares), Spain. Catalan (Català , Valencià ) is a Romance language understood by as many as 12 million people in portions of Spain, France, Andorra and Italy, although the majority of active Catalan speakers are in Spain. ...
Capital Palma de Mallorca Official languages Catalan and Castilian Area – Total – % of Spain Ranked 17th 4 992 km² 1,0% Population – Total (2003) – % of Spain – Density Ranked 14th 916 968 2,2% 183,69/km² Demonym – English – Catalan – Spanish Balearic balear balear Statute of Autonomy March 1, 1983 ISO 3166...
Some features of Balearic variant:
- Part of Balearic preserves a vocalic system of 8 stressed vowels /a,@,E,e,i,O,o,u/. In particular:
- Majorca system has 8 stressed vowels /a,@,E,e,i,O,o,u/, reduced to 4 in unstressed position (/a,@,E,e/ > [@], /O,o/ > [o]);
- Western Minorca system has 8 stressed vowels /a,@,E,e,i,O,o,u/, reduced to 3 in unstressed position (/a,@,E,e/ > [@], /O,o,u/ > [u]);
- Eastern Minorca and Ibiza system has but 7 stressed vowels /a,E,e,i,O,o,u/, reduced to 3 in unstressed position (/a,E,e/ > [@], /O,o,u/ > [u]), just like Central Catalan.
- Balearic preserves /v/ as a distinct phoneme from /b/, like Alguerese and most of Valencian do as well.
- Balearic is the Catalan variant that has the strongest tendency to not pronounce historical final [r] in any context.
- Balearic preserves the salat determinate article (derived from Latin IPSE,IPSA instead of ILLE,ILLA), a feature only shared with Sardinian among nowadays romance languages, but that was more common in other Catalan and Gascon areas in ancient times.
|
Feeds |
Contact