EL CATALÀ! The Catalan Language is Fascinating

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  • čas přidán 28. 09. 2018
  • This video is all about the Catalan language! Special thanks to Pablo Pankun Román for his feedback and audio samples. Check out his excellent Spanish-learning channel called “Dreaming Spanish”: / @dreamingspanish
    ►Learn a language with native teachers online using italki: go.italki.com/1Ojye8x
    Check out Langfocus on Patreon: / langfocus
    Current Patreon members include:
    Jugurtha Ait Juba, Artur Kondrashin, Scott Irons, Quaoar, Zsolt Márta, Angelina Parish, Lev Osherovich, Marshall Levin, Lisa Dunaway, Pietro Toniolo, Andres Resendez Borgia, Anjo Barnes, Auguste Fields, Behnam Esfahbod, Bennett Seacrist, Brandon Gonzalez, Brian Michalowski, David Anglin, Fiona de Visser, Georgina Toland, Guillermo Jimenez, Jacob Madsen, John Moffat, Matthew Etter, Michael Arbagi, Michael Cuomo, Paul Boychuk, Rosalind Resnick, Ruben Sanchez Jr, Sebastian Langshaw, ShadowCrossZero, Toki Pona, Victoria Goh, Vincent David, Yuko Sunda, [APG]RoboCop[CL], Adam Fitch, Adam Powell, Adam Vanderpluym, Alberto del Angel, Alex Hanselka, Ali Muhammed Alshehri, Andrew Woods, Angeline Biot, Ashley Dierolf, Atsushi Yoshida, Avital Levant, Brent Warner, Brian Begnoche, Bronwyn Salton, Bruce Schultz, Bruce Stark, Bruno Filippi, Carl saloga, Charis T'Rukh, Christian Langreiter, Christopher Lowell, Craig A Stewart, Dave Orum, David LeCount, Diane Young, divad, Dmitry Stillermann, Don Ross, Donald and Alexandra Wycoff, Donald Tilley, Edward Wilson, Erin Robinson Swink, fatimahl, Florian Breitwieser, Frank Sellers, Frédéric Fournier, Greg Gibson, Haiko Eitzen, Hannes Egli, Harry Kek, Henri Saussure, Ian Smith, James and Amanda Soderling, James Lillis, JC Edwards, Jeff Miller, Jens Aksel Takle, Jerry Janowitz, Jessica Morris, JESUS FERNANDO MIRANDA BARBOSA, JL Bumgarner, Justin Faist, Kenneth M Thomas, Kevin J. Baron, Klaw117, Kristopher Robinson, Leo Barudi, Lincoln Hutton, Lorraine Inez Lil, Mahmoud Hashemi, Marco Barcellos, Margaret Langendorf, Mark, Mark Grigoleit, Mark Kemp, Maurice Chou, Merrick Bobb, Michael Regal, Mikael Uttermalm, Mike Frysinger, Mohammed A. Abahussain, Nicholas Gentry, Nicole Tovar, Oleksandr Ivanov, Panot, Pauline Pavon, Peter Andersson, Peter Nikitin, Phoebe Churches, Pomax, Raymond Thomas, Rick Gerritzen, Rob Hoskins, Robert (Bob) Dobbin, Robert Sheehan, Roland Seuhs, Ronald Brady, Scott Fujan, Scott Russell, Sergei Tikhomirov, Sergio Pascalin, Sergios Tsakatikas, Sierra Rooney, Simon Blanchet, Sophia-Rose Marron, Spartak Kagramanyan, Steeven Lapointe, Stefan Reichenberger, Suzanne Jacobs,
    Sven Onnerstad, Theophagous, Thomas Mitchell, Tryggurhavn, veleum, William O Beeman, yasmine jaafar, Zhiyuan Shi, Zsolt Márta, Éric Martin, 耳血.
    Music:
    Intro: “Foundation” by Vibe Tracks.
    Main: “Time Illusionist” by Asher Fulero.
    Outro music: "Rocka" by Text Me Records / Bobby Renz.

Komentáře • 9K

  • @Langfocus
    @Langfocus  Před 5 lety +513

    Hi everyone! I hope you like the new video! Check out Pablo's channel "Dreaming Spanish", he deserves more subs! czcams.com/channels/ouyFdE9-Lrjo3M_2idKq1A.html (He's the guy saying the Catalan sentences in the video). Also:
    ►Learn a language with native teachers online using italki: go.italki.com/1Ojye8x --► My favorite way to practices languages!

    • @AndyMoonKR
      @AndyMoonKR Před 5 lety +8

      Great job!

    • @Laekaja
      @Laekaja Před 5 lety +6

      His voice is melts like butter. So smooth

    • @marccarrerasv
      @marccarrerasv Před 5 lety +27

      I'm sorry to point this out, but as a native Catalan speaker, the sentence "M'ha donat els diners aquest matí" does not mean the same as "M'ho ha donat aquest matí". The correct substitution would be "M'els ha donat aquest matí", since "els diners" is a definite masculine object.

    • @dustgreylynx
      @dustgreylynx Před 5 lety +2

      Oh yes, and also would be cool to quenya/sindarin video :)

    • @maghraouimehadji2412
      @maghraouimehadji2412 Před 5 lety +2

      Of course, I like it as usual 😊😊

  • @cyclpiancitydweller9517
    @cyclpiancitydweller9517 Před 4 lety +460

    "Warning! Abandon topic Abandon topic!"

  • @laiaferran9727
    @laiaferran9727 Před 3 lety +1435

    i'm catalan and honestly i'm so surprised by the accuracy of this video. really great job !

    • @UncleMichaelable
      @UncleMichaelable Před 3 lety +53

      This guy is well studied when he speaks about any language.

    • @keatkhamjornmeekanon7616
      @keatkhamjornmeekanon7616 Před 3 lety +18

      He forgets Catalan spoken in Pepignan, France.

    • @erwinedditya9854
      @erwinedditya9854 Před 3 lety +2

      Hi Laia, are you interested in exchanging language with Indonesian?

    • @2011nbn
      @2011nbn Před 2 lety

      No you’re not!

    • @laiaferran9727
      @laiaferran9727 Před 2 lety +3

      @@erwinedditya9854 hi, i'm actually not learning indonesian but i would still love to help you with your catalan !!

  • @ElinT13
    @ElinT13 Před 3 lety +390

    I am half German half Italian, and I speak French and learned Latin. I find Catalan in some ways very similar to Italian, and I once conversed with a Catalan in Italian while he answered me in Catalan. That worked well and was very fun!

    • @antoni-olafsabater9729
      @antoni-olafsabater9729 Před 2 lety +3

      Sure !

    • @carlescastellollopis5855
      @carlescastellollopis5855 Před rokem +11

      In the Alger a Island of Italy continue speaking catalan, due to the expansion of Corona d’Aragó that happend on the XV century by Alfons V el Magnànim.

    • @francescch
      @francescch Před rokem +7

      Yes! It's easy for catalan speakers to understand italian people (each one in its own language).

    • @amanitecaesar3892
      @amanitecaesar3892 Před rokem +6

      Italian has a dialect called Tarantino that is brutally similar to catalan.

    • @cadian101st
      @cadian101st Před rokem +9

      According to ethnologue Italian is the most similar major Romance language to Catalan in terms of shared vocabulary. Probably the maritime connections across the western Mediterranean mutually influencing word usage

  • @schiarazula
    @schiarazula Před 2 lety +549

    Since Andorra is an independent country, Catalan can be considered an official language at the national level.

    • @Abanico751
      @Abanico751 Před 2 lety +15

      Yes, it is.

    • @ARCPolus
      @ARCPolus Před 2 lety +27

      Andorra also speaks French unofficially. Technically you can consider Catalan an official language at the national level but it's a micronation with 77 thousand inhabitants, so it barely counts for anything.

    • @Abanico751
      @Abanico751 Před 2 lety +10

      @@ARCPolus French is not unofficial in Andorra. Both, Catalan and French are official and Catalan is also a national language in Catalonia, part of France and Alghero in Sardinia.

    • @ARCPolus
      @ARCPolus Před 2 lety +35

      @@Abanico751 Catalan is the only official language in Andorra. It is also the historical and traditional language of the country used by government, television, radio, and other national media and is the main language of all the people living in the territory of Andorran nationality, who constitute 33% of the total population. Spanish is the second most spoken language due to Spanish immigrants going to live in the principality.
      Meanwhile only 7% of the population is French and most speak Catalan.

    • @Abanico751
      @Abanico751 Před 2 lety +3

      @@ARCPolus Oh, my God! That's not true at all. Official languages in Andorra are French and Catalan. That's because State Government is divided between la Seu bishop and France President. Numbre of speaking people is just another question but school is bilingual in both languages. Please, visit the country and inform yourself.

  • @marialuizadeoliveira5916
    @marialuizadeoliveira5916 Před 4 lety +465

    When I first watched Merlí, I thought "It's Portuguese, no, it's Italian, no, it's Spanish. But I don't understand what they say! Why???". I'm a Brazilian Portuguese native speaker and I understand very well Italian and Spanish. Catalan is an amazing and beautiful language. Great job, Paul.

    • @endrewtkm
      @endrewtkm Před 4 lety +4

      Estou assistindo Merlí tbm

    • @Ronaldo-rt7hl
      @Ronaldo-rt7hl Před 3 lety

      Same when I first watch Merlí I kept asking asking myself why wasn’t I understanding 😅😂

    • @blaznfattyz
      @blaznfattyz Před 3 lety +1

      it has a little of all romance languages in it. so thats why people would be confused.

    • @juandiegovalverde1982
      @juandiegovalverde1982 Před 3 lety

      Lola, but you are Spanish.

    • @joret9814
      @joret9814 Před 3 lety +9

      @@juandiegovalverde1982 or from andorra, or perpignan, or from alguero you don't know.

  • @xMarcoMax
    @xMarcoMax Před 5 lety +1487

    Great video, but I have only a little thing to add: I'm from Alghero and here we don't exactly speak Catalan, but what we could call a Catalan dialect, the Algherese (what a surprise). In fact, our dialect is basically the Catalan language of the 14th-15th century, so we can say that it is the "arcaic" version of modern Catalan, mixed a little bit with Sardinian and Italian, so some words are not the same; because of that, we can have an almost perfect conversation with Catalans.
    I just wanted to add this little information :)

    • @tenienteramires4428
      @tenienteramires4428 Před 5 lety +50

      Realment l'Alguerés és molt paregut al meu dialecte del català. Jo soc del d'una zona on també diem "lo pare" i "los hòmens" :)

    • @sissi9367
      @sissi9367 Před 5 lety +31

      Wow *-* so if i talk to you in Catalan (I'm from Barcelona) you would understand me?

    • @pipocalavera
      @pipocalavera Před 5 lety +10

      és bo saber-ho :)

    • @xMarcoMax
      @xMarcoMax Před 5 lety +61

      @@sissi9367 Yes, more or less. When I was a child I went to Barcelona with my school and my teacher always talked with the receptionist of the hotel in dialect with total underatanding between them 😁

    • @danigonzalez4299
      @danigonzalez4299 Před 5 lety +42

      Visca els germans algueresos!

  • @tcbbctagain572
    @tcbbctagain572 Před 2 lety +122

    As a portuguese speaker 🇵🇹, that lived in Catalonia for 15 months i have to say that when it comes to pronunciation and phonology Catalan feels like it's closer to Portuguese than to Spanish. When i heard people speaking Catalan from the distance, it literally felt like they were speaking Portuguese

    • @Rafael36967
      @Rafael36967 Před rokem +5

      Estou a viver em Barcelona já há alguns meses, e pelo menos a mim parece me tudo menos parecido ao Português, exceto no típico "bon dia" que aí é praticamente igual, mas de resto acho-a uma lingua muito particular e muito diferente das outras, o mais parecido ainda me parece o Italiano mas mesmo assim existe uma diferença bem grande.

    • @jeanlundi2141
      @jeanlundi2141 Před rokem +3

      @@Rafael36967 Se achas o catalão mais proximo em som do italiano que do português, só posso concluir que tás bêbado.

    • @Rafael36967
      @Rafael36967 Před rokem +1

      @@jeanlundi2141 Poderia ser o caso, mas após 4 meses do meu comentário e de conviver diariamente com catalães há já praticamente um ano, continuo a achar o mesmo 😂 E pelo menos os Catalães com quem já falei sobre isto também não acham que Português-Catalão sejam linguas parecidas.

    • @jeanlundi2141
      @jeanlundi2141 Před rokem

      @@Rafael36967 Em termos de escrita e algumas expressões têm algumas parecenças com o francês e italiano, por razões óbvias. Mas fonéticamente, em termos de como a lingua soa falada, a parecença com o português PT é bem notória. Se calhar os teus amigos também tão bêbados ;)

    • @jw-ws8dz
      @jw-ws8dz Před 10 měsíci +2

      Are you from Portugal? To me Catalan sounds more like Spanish than Portuguese (especially European Portuguese). Catalan has much less complicated phonology than Portuguese and has a more similar vowel inventory to Spanish. However, it could be that the Catalan I'm used to hearing (i.e. from young people) has been"corrupted" by Spanish. More "pure" Catalan (for example, when spoken by my partner's dad, who's in his 70s) sounds like a hybrid between Spanish and French.

  • @pkate2199
    @pkate2199 Před 3 lety +513

    I’m russian and I can speak catalan a little.
    As for me it’s the most interesting Romance language. I can speak also Italian and Spanish but Catalan definitely is my favorite

    • @gaborodriguez1346
      @gaborodriguez1346 Před 3 lety +2

      As a romance speaker, Spanish is my first language, I also find interesting Catalan. Although it's not the most interesting for me.

    • @theknightswhosay
      @theknightswhosay Před 2 lety +10

      I bet you’d have an easy time with Romanian

    • @FutbolDePasillo
      @FutbolDePasillo Před 2 lety +24

      Wow! És bonic llegir això

    • @homoshomos4566
      @homoshomos4566 Před 2 lety +3

      why ? I wanna know why Catalan is the most interesting Romance language for you, Please .

    • @pkate2199
      @pkate2199 Před 2 lety +36

      @@homoshomos4566 First of all because it’s not mainstream, you know 🙂 then I just adore Catalan phonetics. In Russian we have a lot of similar sounds but some Catalan words is such a struggle for a non native Catalan speaker. I remember when my classmates tried to conjugate the verb “llegir”, like «llegeixo”, “llegeixes” etc. l think I’ve never laughed so hard in my life😅 but I do like the way Catalan sounds. For me it sounds like Spanish, French, Portuguese, Latin and a bit of Italian combined...or like Spanish spoken in reverse 🙂 oh, and of course els pronoms febles - still have no idea how this stuff works 🤯 In short, I like Catalan cause it’s very unique.
      Btw I also like Catalan literature and “algo muere cada día” by Susana March is one of my favorite books ever 🙂

  • @nikobellic570
    @nikobellic570 Před 5 lety +666

    Surprisingly good natured comment section. No political flame wars here that i can see. Just language enthusiasts!

    • @ekx5120
      @ekx5120 Před 5 lety +16

      Topic was not abandoned and dealt with like adults. That's the kind of CZcams commenters they are. Kudos.

    • @jpferraz4000
      @jpferraz4000 Před 5 lety +3

      Escreveu pouco e "disse" tudo! Greetings from Brazil!

    • @aplicacionsaranya4241
      @aplicacionsaranya4241 Před 5 lety +6

      I'm Catalan. I love any language. My pitty it's not to have enough lifetime to learn all of them. Just a language enthusiasts. Thanks a lot.

    • @johngower2086
      @johngower2086 Před 5 lety +10

      I had to laugh at his social warnings. It is true, don’t fall for the Valencian trap. I did get an Andorran passport stamp and teased my Catalan friends that I was the only one of us with Catalan in my passport.

    • @gigieinaudi24
      @gigieinaudi24 Před 4 lety +11

      Giusto ci penso io...Espanya merda sempre visca Catalunya lliure 🎗☺️

  • @jake_oliver
    @jake_oliver Před 4 lety +454

    I'm a native speaker of portuguese and I can understand 100% of written catalan but 0% of spoken catalan

    • @Lara-fx4ex
      @Lara-fx4ex Před 3 lety +65

      hahaha I am catalan and the samee with portuguese

    • @thinkOfMeAsAClassicalMusician
      @thinkOfMeAsAClassicalMusician Před 3 lety +10

      Hahaha this is so accurate

    • @bwuwohk.o2016
      @bwuwohk.o2016 Před 3 lety +4

      Specially with the accents😅

    • @llagona
      @llagona Před 2 lety +2

      AS a Native speaker of south Catalan (Valenciano) I could not understand the very first months of Catalan TV back when it started broadcasting here in Valencia (Valencia and Cataluña are different regions). There's a town 4 km south of mine where they pronunciate some letters in some words weirdly for us

    • @paum2
      @paum2 Před 2 lety +2

      That’s because people speak very fast, but you can read it as slow as you want to understand it

  • @salvadoralvarezbonet3783
    @salvadoralvarezbonet3783 Před 3 lety +278

    I'm catalan (central dialect, but not the barceloní) and I think that Occitan and the northern Italian languages are the closest to the catalan, and by pronunciation I think the Portuguese is very close to us too. Greetings from the Penedès region

    • @KirillTheBeast
      @KirillTheBeast Před 3 lety +8

      I'm from Barcelona and I've grown to hate my own dialect because of how dry it feels, bro. The cool thing is that having lived in Zaragoza for a couple of years and then moving to Lleida for a decade, now nobody can guess where I'm from but everybody knows I'm not from around.

    • @krampus3556
      @krampus3556 Před 2 lety +6

      I often thought it sounds kind of Portuguese when I heard an interview in catalan. Interesting that a native agrees with that.

    • @Rafael36967
      @Rafael36967 Před rokem +3

      I'm portuguese and I'm currently living in Barcelona. I don't think that both languages are similar, except the pronunciation of the "Bom dia" that its almost the same thing ahaha

    • @goodlife6277
      @goodlife6277 Před rokem +7

      Sou português e de facto a pronúncia catalã tem uma forte semelhança com a nossa língua.

    • @botelladeagua4750
      @botelladeagua4750 Před rokem

      Simply not true for Italian. I'm Catalan

  • @hnavarro9504
    @hnavarro9504 Před 3 lety +335

    I'm from Valencia, and my native language is catalan. Some people insist catalan and valencian are two different languages, they are not, valencian is only the name we have here for our common language.

    • @gaborodriguez1346
      @gaborodriguez1346 Před 3 lety +37

      Si,es como el Rumano y el Moldavo,son la misma lengua,pero por razones políticas de proclaman lenguas separadas.

    • @xellosxellos4457
      @xellosxellos4457 Před 2 lety +38

      they are not different languages, but VALENCIAN was born before catalan, so catalan would be a dialect of valencian.

    • @j.m2742
      @j.m2742 Před 2 lety +4

      @@xellosxellos4457 exactly, thats the point

    • @ripoll6156
      @ripoll6156 Před 2 lety +5

      @@xellosxellos4457 THANKS, that’s exactly the thing, the catalan didn’t existed until 1600

    • @robertin_5643
      @robertin_5643 Před 2 lety +1

      El valenciano es un dialecto del castellano

  • @Ennio444
    @Ennio444 Před 5 lety +786

    I am a Catalan native speaker and I took a course of Occitan while I was living in Montpellier.
    My experience was that Occitan was ridiculously close and easy to learn. The teacher even told me that I should not try to mimic her pronunciation because her family, like most Occitan speakers, skipped a generation and she had a thick French accent with stress on the last vowels, gutural rolling r's and all; instead, she said I should just use my own Catalan pronounciation with some Mistralian extra rules (like the A's at end of feminines pronounced O's, which was hard to pull out, especially because Aranese Occitan speakers in Catalonia don't do it).
    All in all, it was like learning a different dialect more than a new language. Very similar to going to Mallorca, where a combination of thick, different accent (weak vowels in stressed syllables, for instance, is natural to a Balearic speaker but counter inutuitive to a central Catalan speaker) and new vocabulary makes for very confusing "I though we spoke the same language!" moments.
    By the way, kudos for the way you lampshaded the quagmire of politics embroiled in the language discussion ;)

    • @kanut5493
      @kanut5493 Před 5 lety +52

      Amazing to see some strangers learning occitan :) And yes Catalan is like a sibling language for us occitans :)

    • @kanut5493
      @kanut5493 Před 5 lety +42

      @Macuahuitl the french are usually horribly bad with their accent... They do no effort. That's the same when a french person start speaking in English...

    • @familhagaudir8561
      @familhagaudir8561 Před 5 lety +14

      Do you want some bonus irony for the accent recomendations from the Occitan teacher?
      The traditional variety of Occitan spoken in and around Montpelhièr maintains the final -a. It did not shift to -o as in most other varieties.

    • @PainterVierax
      @PainterVierax Před 5 lety +24

      Well, it's the same with the Breton language taught in Diwan schools : teachers aren't native speakers and it sound weird compared to elder's speaking.
      I don't know if it's a French particularity but we suck in language learning/teaching :D
      I had an English teacher with Ch'ti accent and another with Congolese accent… my German teachers were better.

    • @PainterVierax
      @PainterVierax Před 5 lety +29

      thanks Sylvana but I guess speaking English is most challenging for native speakers of Roman languages than writing it. ;)
      In France particularly, our language courses are more based on reading, writing and listening than oral expression and we're generally not very flexible and tolerant in comprehension : average Frenchs don't understand Québec dialects or even their own regional language, and creoles are often gibberish even if some of those overseas' places are still parts of France. Since the third Republic, French medias and institutions tends to crush language diversity and in the meantime are very conservative regarding English language (almost all movies/series are dubbed). Even if it gets a bit better now with internet and regionalism, Metropolitan Frenchs are still bad at languages.

  • @Mr._Lechkar
    @Mr._Lechkar Před 5 lety +690

    I love the way how you decipher languages Paul. Keep up the good work 😉

    • @juanbaez4955
      @juanbaez4955 Před 5 lety +16

      CANADA HAS GIVEN A GENIUS IN LANGUAGES AND IS PAUL OF
      LANG FOCUS.

    • @davidrosner6267
      @davidrosner6267 Před 5 lety +2

      Paul, you do a great job explaining the mechanics of languages to the masses! Having studied Latin in secondary school, I am intrigued by your videos!

    • @amadorluque7112
      @amadorluque7112 Před 5 lety +1

      Te olvidas del Aranes , idioma también oficial en Catalunya

  • @111mckenzie
    @111mckenzie Před 2 lety +81

    As a Catalan speaker, it’s great how easy it is for us to learn French or Italian for us compared to other people, even Spaniards. It’s crazy how much closer it is

    • @spiguy
      @spiguy Před 11 měsíci +3

      As a French speaker, Catalan seems more gentle than Italian and more intelligible than Spanish.

  • @zoebells767
    @zoebells767 Před 3 lety +498

    It's literally every Romance language combined.

    • @KirillTheBeast
      @KirillTheBeast Před 3 lety +59

      I'm a born and raised catalonian from Barcelona; you're absolutely right. The standard dialect is a little bit dryer than the others, but if you analyse those from Lleida or Girona, you'll literally feel like you're looking at an arbitrary mix of Italian, French and Spanish or (how my teacher used to put it) "you get five parts of Spanish and start subtracting the Arab influence until you're left with just four tenths of a language, then call France and Italy and have them duke it out to see who gets to fill in the remaining gaps".

    • @KirillTheBeast
      @KirillTheBeast Před 3 lety +11

      ​@@Annnto Alright, good points were made, but there's a lot to unpack here:
      1.- There was a fair degree of hyperbole in my teacher's meme-worthy claim, which was made in a very tongue-in-cheek tone, even though...
      2.- Yes, Catalonia's education system is very heavily politicised and biased in favor of nationalism. It's a tragedy.
      3.- The whole discussion about the degree to which languages influence each other is very unscientific and very politically biased.
      One blatant example of this is precisely the degree of Arabic influence in modern Spanish: On one hand, you can track down the volume of vocabulary that's rooted in Arabic, and you'll come up with a very dry and scientific claim entirely based on data, and that is JUST FINE, but rarely useful.
      On the other I've never seen anyone aside from that one teacher (who, by the way, was a Spanish teacher from Valladolid which is where the standard Spanish dialect is supposed to be spoken) speak about influence in terms of negative space. Just think about how much Spanish DIDN'T change under the caliphate's rule. The consolidation of a bunch of the language can be atributed to Arabic influence, which is exactly what my teacher meant with his high tier mememancery. Every change in proto-Catalan rooted in Provençal/Occitan lexic that didn't happen in the then proto-Spanish would then be considered Arabic influence, which becomes an even more reasonable claim when you consider the fact that the early muslim occupation put some serious effort into peaceful coexistence and the conservation of local culture.
      That entire topic needs a serious cathegorical revamp in order to get rid of the politisation. "Influence" doesn't just mean "volume of vocabulary rooted in X's lexical forms".
      Cheers

    • @_Executor_
      @_Executor_ Před 3 lety +5

      De hecho pienso lo mismo. Ellos incluso tienen una buena universidad para los traductores. Aunque no recuerdo el nombre, pero definitivamente creo que su idioma es una buena base para aprender otros fácilmente y pues la mayoría de ellos son bilingües.

    • @KirillTheBeast
      @KirillTheBeast Před 3 lety +3

      @@_Executor_ Crecer hablando castellano y catalán a nivel nativo aporta ciertas ventajas a la hora de aprender otras lenguas romances. El castellano de por si ya tiene al menos un par de sonidos consonánticos casi exclusivos (como la jota o la erre), mientras que el catalán tiene otros tres o cuatro más además de las inflexiones vocálicas o la vocal neutra. Si uno quiere aprender francés, italiano o rumano habiendo crecido en Cataluña, el esfuerzo a llevar a cabo es trivial. Dicho esto, lenguas germánicas como el alemán, holandés, o el inglés no se ven tan afectadas, ya que a penas comparten raíces léxicas no importadas, además de tener su propia sintaxis casi totalmente aislada del latín.
      Edit: me olvidé de la vocal neutra xD

    • @ricardj02
      @ricardj02 Před 2 lety +12

      @@KirillTheBeast Seguisc sense comprendre per què has dit que el català és un put-purri de llengües barrejades, però bé. Podríem dir el mateix del portugués, compartix r franceses i tal, però és un destrellat. Cada llengua que deriva del llatí és normal que tinga connexions amb certes llengües romàniques. Parlar de 'si açò i allò' és una barreja de tal llengua és infravalorar-la. Cap persona parla del portugués com una barreja de cap llengua, per què ho fem de la nostra?

  • @noemidiaz6817
    @noemidiaz6817 Před 4 lety +1852

    Sóc l'única catalana que ha vist el vídeo per curiositat? Hahaha, no he pogut trobar a ningú als comentaris provinent de Catalunya. Em sembla una llengua molt tendre i bonica. Visca el català i visca la terra!

    • @Trollcar
      @Trollcar Před 3 lety +36

      No, yo soc catala

    • @Trollcar
      @Trollcar Před 3 lety +43

      Visca el catala i la terra

    • @relleno24
      @relleno24 Před 3 lety +36

      Una llengua molt tendra.

    • @Samaruk
      @Samaruk Před 3 lety +47

      Jo soc de Castelló i també ho he vist per curiositat.

    • @Ishkar
      @Ishkar Před 3 lety +31

      No pas, hi ha prous catalans per aquí xD

  • @vboyz21
    @vboyz21 Před 4 lety +435

    English: To Whisper
    Spanish: Susurrar
    Catalan: Xiuxiuejar 😂

  • @nike_trap8716
    @nike_trap8716 Před 3 lety +631

    So do you want to speak spanish, italian or french?
    Cataluña: yes

    • @oier2995
      @oier2995 Před 3 lety +28

      No funciona así crack

    • @edgarmaestre6622
      @edgarmaestre6622 Před 3 lety +72

      So do you want speak spanish, italian or french?
      Catalonia: NOPE
      Now its ok

    • @BrianDeParma
      @BrianDeParma Před 3 lety +72

      Best sentences to get a Catalan speaker very mad at you:
      1- "Catalan is a dialect of Spanish"
      2- "Catalan is a mix of Spanish, Italian and French".

    • @nike_trap8716
      @nike_trap8716 Před 3 lety +12

      @@BrianDeParma obvio no es un derivado de estos idiomas pero tiene características de cada uno, no pq ellos se las pasaron si no porque así se desarrolló el catalan, independiente de otras lenguas romances. Tampoco se enojen capos

    • @AitorKravitz
      @AitorKravitz Před 3 lety +39

      @@nike_trap8716 el catalan tiene cosas parecidas a otras lenguas latinas, como pasa con todas, pero nadie dice que el castellano sea una mezcla de portugués y catalan. Es igual de absurdo que decir que el catalan es mezcla de castellano y francés. Ninguna de las lenguas romances es mezcla de las otras, cada una evolucionó del latín a su manera.

  • @mallaanimations130
    @mallaanimations130 Před 3 lety +27

    I grew up in Sweden so my native language is Swedish. Then in school we’re taught English early in life. Then I started studying Icelandic at age 10 (bc my mom is from Iceland). When I turned 15 my family moved from Göteborg to Jokkmokk where I made a Sámi friend. And I wanted to learn Northern Sámi after that. Then when I turned 19 I moved to Vaasa in Finland. So I started learning Finnish. Now I live in Iceland. And after watching this video I want to learn Català. Thank you 🙏

  • @wisdon
    @wisdon Před 4 lety +355

    I'm from a city in the center of Italy is very similar to Catalan and when I went Barcelona I spoke my dialect and we understood each other

    • @montimuros2837
      @montimuros2837 Před 4 lety +3

      Are you from La Gàrdia?

    • @guilvg
      @guilvg Před 4 lety +23

      What you speak is not a dialect, is a language.

    • @pallll12r
      @pallll12r Před 3 lety +2

      Di dove sei

    • @relleno24
      @relleno24 Před 3 lety +10

      Vaig estar a Roma . I allí feien una campanya per a recollir la merda dels gossos. Al cartell deia RECULLA-LI-LA. Així és com ho diria un valencià. Roma té influència dels Borja.

    • @deadoralive923
      @deadoralive923 Před 3 lety +5

      Yes, im from the north coast of Girona(gerunda)In L'empordà (emporio) and we speak a dialect thats really similar to the Italian spoken in Rome. I understand more Roman italian than the Oficial. When i was living there i learned Roman dialect cause was reallt similar and if i speak in catalan was easy to understand each other, and more if i use some antic catalan words. Lenguage is a Joy

  • @cuylerotsuka
    @cuylerotsuka Před 5 lety +743

    The first Romance language I studied was Spanish, followed by French, then Portuguese and now Catalan. I have known about Catalan since I studied Spanish ten years ago, but hadn't begun studying the actual language until very recently. What strikes me are the similarities to French in terms of vocabulary (matí-matin, gaire-guère, finestra-fenêtre, semblar-sembler, netejar-nettoyer), but the pronunciation is very much similar to Spanish or Italian with the trilled r, or Portuguese with the open and closed vowels. Actually, one of the features that stand out to me as unique wasn't mentioned in this video--the "eix" infix when conjugating -ir verbs (llegeixo, tradueixes, existeix, protegeixen). A phonological feature that stands out to me is the prominence of "ll" and "ny" in final positions (lluny, Llull, any, pertany, vall) since Spanish never has "ll" or "ñ" at the end of words.
    El català em sembla una llengua molt bonica! Bona feina, Paul!

    • @lluiscalvet329
      @lluiscalvet329 Před 5 lety +9

      Hiii I can help you with the catalan I you want :D

    • @AriiAR
      @AriiAR Před 5 lety +62

      Qué maco veure gent que vol aprendre el català! Moltes gràcies!

    • @lilylarkspur1424
      @lilylarkspur1424 Před 5 lety +8

      Cuyler Otsuka catalan is like spanish, italian, french and portuguese in one

    • @rocmiraclepallares7504
      @rocmiraclepallares7504 Před 5 lety +22

      Això es deu a que els catalans històricament som més propers al francès que al castellà.

    • @gunnercanhampla4498
      @gunnercanhampla4498 Před 5 lety +9

      Estudiar catala es una perduda de temps,tots els catalans/valencians/mallorquins parlem espanyol.Millor estudia un altre llenguatge que et siga util de veritat

  • @larrydirtybird
    @larrydirtybird Před 4 lety +64

    When I first visited Catalonia, the only romance language I spoke was Spanish. I could understand a good deal of what was written in newspapers, but I could understand almost nothing of what was said. Now I also speak Italian fluently, and I am semi-fluent in French. With my Italian and French knowledge added to my Spanish, Catalan is so incredibly easy for me to read now. I can read it almost as easily as I read English. But still, when they speak it’s really hard, easier, but still for me to understand. It seems like they eat half of their words.

    • @juancarlosrivera1151
      @juancarlosrivera1151 Před 11 měsíci +8

      Spanish speaker, I couldn’t understand a thing for 2-3yr until I studied the phonetic rules. 1-2 hours and the puzzle was clear

    • @Aurora-oe2qp
      @Aurora-oe2qp Před 10 měsíci +4

      Yep, as Juan said, it has some quirky rules for pronunciation. One is that consonant clusters, a sequence of two or more consonants, are often reduced word-finally. So for example "molt" is pronounced "mol", but "moltes" is pronounced "moltes". Another thing is vowel reduction, which happens especially in Central Catalan, which has seven vowels in stressed positions: u, ó, ò, a, i, é, è, but in unstressed positions these are reduced to only three. É and è merges with a, ó and ò merges with u, and i remains unmerged. What makes it even harder is that the diacritics over the o and e are not written out very often, unless, of course, the stress would mandate it, like in Spanish. In Spanish this is fine, but in Catalan this means you kinda just have to know which vowel the word has. Molt, for example, is pronounced mólt, but it's not written like that, so you kinda just have to know it. I'm sure there's other things that might make it a bit hard to understand in speech, but really, I don't know too much about Catalan and this is just soke observations I have made while casually learning it.

    • @juancarlosrivera1151
      @juancarlosrivera1151 Před 10 měsíci

      @@Aurora-oe2qp to be fair, Catalan is one of the easiest languages a Spanish speaker can learn. Many other languages, like Portuguese, French or English have quirky, or not trivial phonetics. Italian has trivial phonetics, but catalan is one of the easiest once you relax constraints on basicality

    • @patocarlos1631
      @patocarlos1631 Před 8 měsíci

      @@Aurora-oe2qp mmmm i'll make your brain explode :P MOLT is pronounced mÓlt in "much", but it's pronounced mÒlt if reffered to "grind" (verb "moldre" - to grind and i almost assure that the last 't' is somehow pronounced in "mòlt", maybe comes from "moldre"? I dunno ) :P anyway, all depend in the dialects, the Central (Barcelona's) one is the crappiest jejejeje

  • @daniwis24
    @daniwis24 Před 2 lety +10

    I'm from Catalonia and I find this type of video fascinating, thx! 🔥

    • @Langfocus
      @Langfocus  Před 2 lety +2

      It’s my pleasure, and I’m happy to hear that! 👍🏻

  • @eduardpuiggarcia6584
    @eduardpuiggarcia6584 Před 4 lety +715

    9:34 pronoms febles, the nightmare of all teens that study Catalan in school

    • @jordijulve3572
      @jordijulve3572 Před 4 lety +32

      Els temuts durant molts anys..... Pronoms febles....

    • @FerranLorenteV
      @FerranLorenteV Před 4 lety +39

      Aquests que tothom possa sense saber perquè

    • @thepooh6727
      @thepooh6727 Před 4 lety +9

      Estic d'acord amb tu amic meu

    • @alexeiderperezhernandez461
      @alexeiderperezhernandez461 Před 4 lety +16

      Però per què tan complicats? L'euskera té 13 declinacions i el polonès, una de les llengües més difícils que hi ha, a part de 30 declinacions té conjugacions i les saben utilitzar, sabent com d'enrevessat és el sistema de declinacions, què passa? No tenim prou inteligència aquí com per poder parlar bé la nostra llengua o què? Els pronoms febles són quatre parauletes auxiliars, no sabeu el que és utilitzar 30 declinacions o el sistema xinès de caracters.

    • @FerranLorenteV
      @FerranLorenteV Před 4 lety +40

      @@alexeiderperezhernandez461 Són facils d'utilitzar, però quan la profe et posa dos o tres junts i et pregunta que fa cadascun t'ha fotut.

  • @oldaccount14
    @oldaccount14 Před 4 lety +790

    Hey! A catalan guy here!
    Really appreciated this video. We're a small territory, not a big language. I find it cool people actually know what catalan is lol
    Great video :b
    Visca Catalunya!

    • @laurencec09
      @laurencec09 Před 4 lety +46

      I'm English and want to learn Catalan, seems like a cool language :)

    • @mrloxicoz9353
      @mrloxicoz9353 Před 4 lety +34

      Y viva españa

    • @iwanttoliveinsoutheastasia2952
      @iwanttoliveinsoutheastasia2952 Před 4 lety +10

      People know what it is because you, m'da fuckers cry so loud that everyone in the left thinks that Spain is a facist state.

    • @Tabish29
      @Tabish29 Před 4 lety +26

      @@iwanttoliveinsoutheastasia2952 I bet you're not from some occupied territory right asswipe?

    • @iancampion6979
      @iancampion6979 Před 4 lety +5

      I want to live in Southeast Asia hahah

  • @alexvila6611
    @alexvila6611 Před 3 lety +93

    As a Catalan native I feel that, even though we all can speak Spanish since we are bilingual, the closest Romance languages to Catalan are Romanian and Italian. Especially with Romanian, it is incredible the amount of exact coincidences in vocabulary and in pronunciation or accent.

  • @ooommm4024
    @ooommm4024 Před rokem +12

    I was a Spanish major in college and can remember having to study the writing of Christopher Columbus for my Spanish and Latin American history classes. As Spanish is not my main language, I was surprised how hard some parts were to understand. I later learned much of his work was written in Catalán.

  • @torsora
    @torsora Před 5 lety +70

    As native Catalan speaker, I feel Occitan is the closest to our language, I also can understand some Italian and French, we share a lot of words, sometimes more than we do with Spanish.
    Visca el català i l'occità!

    • @eb.3764
      @eb.3764 Před 5 lety +4

      they are part of the same family tree and used to be a part of catalonia so

  • @Halloweenpunkass
    @Halloweenpunkass Před 4 lety +348

    I'm catalan from Perpignan yeaaah!

    • @Valdoy
      @Valdoy Před 4 lety +12

      Salut de Prades !

    • @rao803
      @rao803 Před 4 lety +17

      Perpinyà* If there's no translation to English then use the original one.

    • @idkwtibwiok8310
      @idkwtibwiok8310 Před 4 lety +14

      Perpinyà*

    • @moulinexm7600
      @moulinexm7600 Před 3 lety +5

      @@Valdoy Jean Castex lol

    • @gerarddoba9151
      @gerarddoba9151 Před 3 lety +5

      Perpinyà*! que em ploren els ulls TT

  • @Penyagolosa2
    @Penyagolosa2 Před rokem +28

    I am from Valencia and I agree with the video almost in its entirety. Good job.

  • @alexmood6407
    @alexmood6407 Před rokem +15

    I spoke with a guy from Valencia and he was very offended when I said Valencian and Catalan are different names for the same language.
    But then again, same happens in Croatia when you tell them that Croatian and Serbian are the same language based on the same Stokavian dialect.
    And why is Norwegian Bokmal different language from Danish exactly?
    It’s always fun when languages are politicised.

    • @dunagarceran789
      @dunagarceran789 Před rokem +1

      el catalan es un idioma que viene del latin

    • @sxxrpientes5512
      @sxxrpientes5512 Před 11 měsíci +3

      i'm from Valencia, and yes, they are the same language, people here are not pissed off by that fact, but because politicians and media imposed on public opinion and even in the education system here that Valencian comes from Catalan and it's just a dialect, fomenting fake histories and saying Valencian autors are from Catalunya etc... The reality is that Valencian was the first one to be written and had a "golden century", meanwhile, catalan did not.

  • @mr08tsx
    @mr08tsx Před 4 lety +196

    Portuguese is my mother language. I find Catalan an intriguing and interesting language.
    Just returned from vacationing on the island of Menorca; 11 days were not enough. I was in paradise.
    I've been watching MERLI, on Netflix, and I'm in love with the language.

    • @diogorodrigues747
      @diogorodrigues747 Před 4 lety +2

      But it's a very hard language to understand, despite the common sounds and word order.

    • @mr08tsx
      @mr08tsx Před 4 lety +6

      Diogo Rodrigues
      Agree. But in “love” with it, nonetheless. 😎

    • @euricofonseca8514
      @euricofonseca8514 Před 3 lety +4

      I'm Portuguese too and catalan is more similar to in speaking than the galego.

    • @diogorodrigues747
      @diogorodrigues747 Před 3 lety +6

      @@euricofonseca8514 Acho que estás errado, pois o galego que tu ouves é "mascarado".

    • @euricofonseca8514
      @euricofonseca8514 Před 3 lety +1

      @@diogorodrigues747 Estou a falar da pronúncia em exclusivo, que se assemelha imenso ao português de Portugal. De resto, o galego é bem mais semelhante como óbvio, no entanto o galego tem uma pronúncia semelhante ao espanhol.

  • @caioalmeida7452
    @caioalmeida7452 Před 5 lety +45

    I'm a native speaker of Portuguese, and I didn't have lots of complications learning Catalan, I'm not a native in Catalan, but I started to understand better Italian, Occitan and a little French. I'm just in love for Catalan, and I recommend to learn because Catalan is a very beautiful language!

    • @josemaj.5ona989
      @josemaj.5ona989 Před 5 lety +2

      Eso que dices es justo lo que me pasa a mí, hablo español y catalán y debido a ello entender el occitano y el italiano me resulta fácil tanto si es hablado como escrito, pero con el francés sólo lo entiendo bien cuando es escrito.
      Por cierto, el portugués de Portugal nunca lo he estudiado pero lo entiendo bien tanto si es hablado como escrito. En cambio le portugués de Brasil sólo lo entiendo si es escrito. ¿A qué crees que se puede deber eso?.
      Saludos desde España :-)

    • @aplicacionsaranya4241
      @aplicacionsaranya4241 Před 5 lety +2

      @@josemaj.5ona989 No soy lingüista pero creo que el parecido que todos notamos entre Portugués, Catalán, Occità, Italiano y Español y ya no tanto con el Francès es porque el francés tuvo mucha influencia de los francos (el nombre mismo viene de ellos) y franco era el famoso Carlomagno de l'imperio germano con capital en Aachen (niederdeutsch). Bueno más o menos. Me disculpo por posibles generalizaciones.

    • @josemaj.5ona989
      @josemaj.5ona989 Před 5 lety

      @@aplicacionsaranya4241 , yo tampoco soy lingüista, y de este tema hablo por hablar, que quede claro :) , pero si se piensa bien, germanos como eran los francos, también eran los visigodos, que se asentaron por casi toda la Península Ibérica, así como los suevos, que crearon el primer reino independiente en lo que ahora es Galicia y parte de Portugal, tras la caída del Imperio Romano de Occidente, o los ostrogodos, que se asentaron por casi toda la Península Itálica. No sé, yo he oído teorías, para explicar el porqué de esa pronunciación del francés tan peculiar, que van desde que en Francia se mantuvo la manera de pronunciar que tenían los celtas, pese a haber sido romanizados por Julio César, a que esa manera de pronunciar se debe a que los francos tenían un acento germano muy cerrado. Supongo que nunca quedará claro el porqué de esa manera tan peculiar de pronunciar que tienen los franceses, porque en el caso de los rumanos se sabe a ciencia cierta que pese a venir del latín tb su idioma, éste ha sido muy influido por las lenguas eslavas que tiene alrededor. El caso de la pronunciación del francés es un misterio.

    • @aplicacionsaranya4241
      @aplicacionsaranya4241 Před 5 lety +1

      @@josemaj.5ona989 Ostres m'has fet sentir altre cop com gaudia amb tots aquests grups de pobles que has esmentat. Això del misteri. Hipòtesi personal no per solucionar-ho però poder sí , poder acostar-nos més. Actualment som humans aquí amb els nostre ordinadors, .... No crec que per això tinguem més CI o les nostres mans funcionin millor, ... No vull dir que ens fem vestits de l'època i agafem un cavall però ja que tenim força informació, posar-nos en el seu lloc, fer proves amb les possibles evolucions. No sé, segurament una bestiesa. T'agraeixo els mots que has compartit amb mi.

  • @valeriacao510
    @valeriacao510 Před 2 lety +22

    For me, I am Italian (Sardinian not from the Alghero area), Catalan sounds like an ancient version of Spanish/French. Documents redacted here in Sardinia during the Aragona reign are written in ancient Catalan, even in the south of Sardinia. I really enjoyed watching an entire series I found on Netflix in Catalan, with the help of subtitles. In time I got used to the pronunciation and it became easier for me to understand without reading them. Great video, thank you!

    • @peremartin6043
      @peremartin6043 Před rokem +3

      Disculpa Valeria, em podries comentar quines sèries has vist al netflix en català?

    • @bennettjoseph9970
      @bennettjoseph9970 Před rokem +1

      @@peremartin6043 It was probably "Welcome to the Family", which was the first Catalan-language series Netflix aired, beginning in 2018. In March the website ePrimeFeed reported that 70 series and/or movies in Catalan are coming to Netflix soon. So far I can see a few more now: "Merlí: Sapere Aude", "The Hockey Girls", "If I Hadn't Met You", and "The Next Skin".

  • @gabrielamelo5377
    @gabrielamelo5377 Před 3 lety +44

    as a brazilian french student who speaks spanish and is familiar with italian my mind just blew up when I first heard this language. I’ve got amazed and definitly wanna learn it in a close future. Thx for the amazing content! ✨

  • @monicamolla3988
    @monicamolla3988 Před 4 lety +380

    I am Valencian and the reason they want to call it Valencian instead of Catalan is because they don't want to have something to do with the independence. I am a lingust so I call it Catalan, my mother tongue

    • @saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014
      @saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014 Před 2 lety +9

      Oh, thats why? The only reason?

    • @fabiolimadasilva3398
      @fabiolimadasilva3398 Před 2 lety +25

      Valencian and Catalan proper can be compared to Brazilian and European Portuguese in my point of view.

    • @iRaYm0n
      @iRaYm0n Před 2 lety +23

      Denominació científica català, denominació geogràfica valencià, però que tens raó és el mateix i és català

    • @tempo1530
      @tempo1530 Před 2 lety +7

      A vegades penso que la gent catalanoparlant a València és més conscient a València que a Catalunya.
      “Visca la terreta”!

    • @jordiserrabravo2
      @jordiserrabravo2 Před 2 lety +27

      Sorry but you are wrong. This differentiation is made just in order to break any common identity between catalonia, valencia and Balears, the regions of the former crown of Aragon. Com bé sabràs, una llengua és un element identitari potent, i l'únic objectiu d'espanya és fer aquestes identitas prou petites com per absorbir-les una a una. A valència ho ha aconseguit el PP tants anys, i ja vas veure el discurs de l'amic Casado l'altre dia dient que no parlen català a balears, que parlen mallorquí, eivissenc, formenterè... Però després a Mèxic i argentina es parla espanyol oi? doncs això. No té res a veure amb la independència, ser catalano parlant no implica voler la independència, simplement volen evitar tenir una identitat diferent a la castellana prou forta dins el seu país. Salut!

  • @rogerfernandezescude3431
    @rogerfernandezescude3431 Před 5 lety +283

    First of all, as Catalan native speaker: the video is great; perfect; fantastic. You avoided political quastions in a very elegant way (you talk about linguistics, not politics so, well avoided). While I was watching the video, I was thinking: "let's see if Paul will talk about the (for me) main curiosity about catalan..." And yes: you explained very well the "weak pronouns". Unfortunately, the spanish presence on media is making young people using uncorrectly these pronouns (I'm always correcting my son... he's gonna hate me!). So, again, congratulations! It was fun after having seen all of your videos and how you analyse languages, to watch this being done to my language!

    • @IapetusRetroStuff
      @IapetusRetroStuff Před 5 lety +10

      Força desde Portugal :)

    • @manfrevanderland9333
      @manfrevanderland9333 Před 5 lety +9

      Definitely, at the Batxillerat I learnt how to use the “pronoms febles” correctly, we speak it very bad and schools do teach in catalan but forget to teach catalan on a propper way... (t’ho escric en anglès per si algú ho llegeix que ho pugui entendre😂)

    • @YangSing1
      @YangSing1 Před 5 lety +2

      Roger Fernàndez Escudé Why would you put an article before names?

    • @rogerfernandezescude3431
      @rogerfernandezescude3431 Před 5 lety +11

      Why? I really don't know. But it helps also to define formality. You don't put the article to historical or famous people. For example, I would say "Quim Torra ha dit....." (Quim Torra has said....) and I don't put the article because he is the Catalan Prime Minister. Or I would say "Lluís Companys va morir..." (Lluís Companys died...) because he is an historical personage. Instead, I would say "En Pere ja vingut" (Pere has come) because he is a friend or somebody that I know. It's a slight difference, but sometimes is hard for foreign catalan speakers

    • @nerowantsmetal
      @nerowantsmetal Před 5 lety

      @@rogerfernandezescude3431 una amiga tuvo la fortuna de ganarse una beca a Barcelona, en México es muy mal visto que pongas un articulo definido antes de un nombre propio, por ejemplo "La Frida irá conmigo al concierto" pero es muy común entre comunidades indígenas (y pequeñas cosas como esta se transfieren al dialecto o acento local). Por lo tanto es mal visto porque se considera que nunca tuviste la educación de "hablar bien". Pero por lo que me contó mi amiga fue que es muy común entre catalanes mientras hablan español utilizar el artículo definido antes de un nombre.
      Mi duda es, ¿allá también es mal visto o simplemente no lo notan?

  • @fabiolimadasilva3398
    @fabiolimadasilva3398 Před 3 lety +26

    In Portuguese, when someone knows a person well, in the sense of intimacy, the definitive article is used before a given name: "O José é um bom professor".

    • @Augusto.Siciliani
      @Augusto.Siciliani Před 3 lety +2

      In the north and northeast of Brazil, definite articles are never used before proper names.

    • @valeriacao510
      @valeriacao510 Před 2 lety +1

      Also in Italy, in the Lombardia region, but I think also someplace else, they use the article before a given name.

    • @fabiolimadasilva3398
      @fabiolimadasilva3398 Před 2 lety +1

      @@valeriacao510 Bom dia, Valeria. De fato falamos formas diferentes de latim. Saudações do Brasil!

    • @fabiolimadasilva3398
      @fabiolimadasilva3398 Před 2 lety

      @@Augusto.Siciliani bom dia! Sou do Rio e o uso do artigo é um indicativo bastante comum do grau de proximidade.

    • @valeriacao510
      @valeriacao510 Před 2 lety +1

      @@fabiolimadasilva3398 Saluti dalla Sardegna!

  • @huangec
    @huangec Před 3 lety +50

    I used to live in Venice, and was very surprised when I visited Barcelona that I had very little trouble understanding the people. They sounded like they were speaking a strange form of Venetian!

  • @jwchavez
    @jwchavez Před 5 lety +292

    I am mexican, and as such, a native mexican-spanish speaker. Catalan sounds for us (mexicans) something half way between french and iberian spanish. Some sentences can be pretty understandable, but other ones are not so. In fact, sometimes i can say that even italian may be more understandable. Great video as always, regards to you and the catalan speaking people!

    • @Nacho2002b
      @Nacho2002b Před 5 lety +18

      At some point it was said that Visigoths though of Catalans as Franks and Franks thought about Catalans as Visigoths. Bonus item. Catalan and Castilian mean the same thing: castle dweller.

    • @Kongorlobo
      @Kongorlobo Před 5 lety +2

      Well, Ancient Catalans were Visigoths, actually. They just were under Frank administration.

    • @Nacho2002b
      @Nacho2002b Před 5 lety

      @@Kongorlobo The end result was that the visigoths thought of them as franks, and the franks thought of them as visigoths. Which is what is going to happen with anybody at the divide of two clearly differentiated groups....

    • @Kongorlobo
      @Kongorlobo Před 5 lety

      @@Nacho2002b Yeah, I guess that would lead to that kind of situation. Anyway, they were always more Visigoth than anything, it seems there always was a clear differentiation between the frankish rulers and the native counts. Something that probably lead to their independence.

    • @Nacho2002b
      @Nacho2002b Před 5 lety +1

      @@Kongorlobo Oh, yes. Toulouse in France was originally a visigothic city. Catalans were more Gothic than Frankish. But, as we seem to agree, there is all this Frankisher than thou, Visigothiker than thou mentality with the people inbetween. In the end they went south, and James the First of Aragon actually boasted that his was the best kingdom in the Spains. Because in the middle ages the people in Spain had the perception that there were many Spains. Shame the notion was lost.

  • @jmiquelmb
    @jmiquelmb Před 5 lety +346

    Man thank you for talking about the Catalan-Valencian topic in a civil and academic approach despite risking criticism. It's political nonsense basically. My favorite instance of this was when using the train ticket machines in Spain where you could choose all the different languages that are official: Spanish, Basque, Galician, Catalan AND Valencian. Yeah, they put a Valencian option separate from Catalan DESPITE the fact that every damn word used was the same (yeah I bothered trying both options). I just found hilarious howfar you can go pretending that it's not the same language, despite how obvious it is

    • @ferranmateo4803
      @ferranmateo4803 Před 5 lety +53

      If this rule of 3 is followed, Andalusian or American dialects should not be considered as Spanish either, but as a different language. The Balearic dialect should also be a language like Valencian. Unfortunately, and for a long time, there has been a great hatred in Valencia towards everything Catalan, so they cannot bear that there is a part of their population that speaks the same language.

    • @jmiquelmb
      @jmiquelmb Před 5 lety +14

      @@ferranmateo4803 Exactly. In fact, neither Catalan, Valencian, Andalusian or American would be languages either, since they have different smaller dialects on their own region. It wouldn't make any sense

    • @kyomademon453
      @kyomademon453 Před 5 lety +26

      @@ferranmateo4803 valencians hate catalans because catalunya went on its spread of denying other cultures in the "" paisos catalanes""

    • @servusdei2332
      @servusdei2332 Před 5 lety +22

      los valencianos no quieren denominar su lengua catalan porque no son catalanes, los catalanes tienen que denominar su lengua valenciano, pero nunca van a hacerlo. La misma situación es en Balcanes - el croato, el serbo, el bosniano y el montenegrino son la misma lengua

    • @jmiquelmb
      @jmiquelmb Před 5 lety +47

      @@servusdei2332 Y los americanos hablan inglés. Y los austriacos alemán. Y los argentinos español. A mí me da igual lo que se sientan ellos. Pero por favor que no hagan el ridículo con niñadas de ese estilo. Decir que no hablan catalán es un insulto a la inteligencia. Los Balcanes no me parecen un gran ejemplo de convivencia nacional por cierto.

  • @a3dr2
    @a3dr2 Před 3 lety +44

    Catalan is so beautiful

  • @rngnv4551
    @rngnv4551 Před rokem +32

    My family immigrated to Guatemala from Barcelona and still speak Spanish with a heavy Calatan accent 400 years later. Until we dove into our family history we had no idea that we were still using loan-words from Catalan sounding more Portuguese or Italian than Central American Spanish speakers. It's so cool and also made Catalan easier to pick up than say Mexican-Spanish. Learning Latin in school also helps with a lot of the tenses as well as grammatical structure.

    • @enriquetaborda8521
      @enriquetaborda8521 Před 10 měsíci

      What kind of loan-words? That´s very interesting

    • @martinapinazo4489
      @martinapinazo4489 Před 6 měsíci +4

      Como que tu familia emigró a Guatemala hace 400 años , pa eso di que tus ancestros emigraron porque madre mía 😂

    • @hyperion3145
      @hyperion3145 Před 3 měsíci

      My family had the same but colonized Puerto Rico and Florida, but kept the accent and loan words.

    • @rngnv4551
      @rngnv4551 Před 3 měsíci

      They did. We have the records. Bless your heart summer child. @@martinapinazo4489

  • @tatidossantos935
    @tatidossantos935 Před 5 lety +284

    I had no idea Catalan was so similar to other romance languages, I'm amazed. I'm from Cape Verde and Portuguese is our official language, so I noticed the similarities between these two languages. I have to learn more about Catalan 😊

    • @jlaf1969
      @jlaf1969 Před 4 lety +3

      Valenciano no es catalán, fascistas

    • @manuelx
      @manuelx Před 4 lety +9

      No os cansareis de hacer el ridículo nunca.

    • @mickybcn7453
      @mickybcn7453 Před 4 lety +1

      @@jlaf1969 , En todo el mundo el catalán es enseñado en docenas de universidades (excepto en Españistan) me puedes decir en cuantas universidades es enseñado el valenciano?, es que mas tontos i no naceis.

    • @jlaf1969
      @jlaf1969 Před 4 lety +2

      @@mickybcn7453 en las mismas que no se enseñaba islandes hasta que se independizo de Groenlandia, en las mismas que decían que los negros eran subhumanos, etc, etc, etc. Las univerisdades e basan en la autoridad no en la inteligencia. Por cierto el "padre", Pompeu Fabra,· del catalán era filólogo??? Creo que no, amor

    • @jlaf1969
      @jlaf1969 Před 4 lety +2

      @@mickybcn7453 mas que tu si, dado que tengo capacidad critica cosa que tu no. Yo se quienes son mis padres y de donde vengo, y tu? Supongo que prefieres ser un esclavo complaciente, os quejáis de lo "español" pero bien que le laméis el culo a los pankatalanistas. Por cierto cuando se acabe el dinero a quien vais a robar con las subvenciones?

  • @1987Marineta
    @1987Marineta Před 4 lety +301

    I'm a Catalan speaker, and I've just been to Italy (Milan). It was surprisingly so easy to understand, even spoken. As for written, I'd say French is very similar to Catalan in loads of expressions and ways to say things. As a fun fact, I speak the Balear dialect, and the pronounciation is pretty different in a lot of cases. Just to show an example of how different the dialects are:
    "The dog is looking for its toy"
    Western Catalan "El gos està buscant la seva joguina"
    Balearic Catalan "Es ca cerca sa seva jogueta"
    Great vid!

    • @ricardandres2883
      @ricardandres2883 Před 4 lety +9

      És que realment s'assemblen bastant. Nosaltres vam estar per tota Itàlia fa un any i parlàvem en català sense problemes! :)

    • @pnkcnlng228
      @pnkcnlng228 Před 4 lety +23

      I'm from Lombardy too (Como), do you know that the Lombard, the lenguage of the Lombard people is very similar to catàlan, I can understand Catàlan because I speak Lombard very well

    • @ilikedolphins3059
      @ilikedolphins3059 Před 4 lety +1

      Tens rao

    • @artuurgarmau__5625
      @artuurgarmau__5625 Před 4 lety +7

      A les illes balears parlen com nosaltres pero amb ainonims de paraules que a catalunya no sutilitzen per exempla ca es correcte amb catala i cerca tambe pero nosaltres no utilitzem mai aquestes paraules

    • @ulfurkarlsson5885
      @ulfurkarlsson5885 Před 4 lety +2

      I was in Valencia and saw street signs in local language . Something closely related to Catalan and the islands languages .

  • @drixcreatrix
    @drixcreatrix Před 6 měsíci +2

    I speak Portuguese as a native speaker, and I just love what Catalan sounds like. It sounds even more pleasant and familiar than Spanish itself.

  • @sergiboschraga2416
    @sergiboschraga2416 Před rokem +31

    From a native catalan speaker:
    I find catalan very similar to portuguese and italian.
    I am really amazed how you explained how this language works. I'm native and I realized how complicated, complex but also beautifoul our language is.
    I wish catalan was known around the world so if you like this video share it, us, the catalan speakers, would aprecciate it.
    (sorry for any gramatical errors, I try to do my best when I have to talk or speak in english)

    • @dunagarceran789
      @dunagarceran789 Před rokem

      El catalán es una lengua románica de la rama occidental. Presenta dos variedades dialectales fundamentales: la oriental y la occidental, que contienen diferencias léxicas, fonéticas y gramaticales.

    • @citadelofwinds1564
      @citadelofwinds1564 Před 9 měsíci

      I recently started to study Catalan (languages are my hobby) and it is indeed a fascinating and beautiful language. I live in Australia, so wish granted, all the way from the southern hemisphere.

  • @20thReality
    @20thReality Před 5 lety +310

    You shouldn't have done this. I have a shower to take. Now I have to watch this video. Keep up with the good work btw :)

    • @Ketler47
      @Ketler47 Před 5 lety +20

      Showers can wait. Languages can't.

    • @200555280
      @200555280 Před 5 lety +2

      I put my phone on window panel when I shower so far no drown accident happened yet

    • @frostedflame
      @frostedflame Před 5 lety +4

      I use a waterproof bluetooth speaker. I have been known to listen to LangFocus vids in the shower with it.

    • @Helgi105
      @Helgi105 Před 5 lety +1

      You can't hear him in the shower.

  • @jpmmpm
    @jpmmpm Před 4 lety +253

    I’m valencian and I have no problem in telling that I speak catalan. This kind of difference between two languages was established like a political strategy in order to keep us separate. It wasn’t convenient for spain to acknowledge thst we share a common language. Currently, in Valencian Country, (Valencian community was strictly established by spain) we are progressing and changing a little bit our thoughts regarding the language we speak. Sorry for my english and my possibles mistakes.

    • @Kitus164
      @Kitus164 Před 4 lety +33

      Divideix i guanyaras.

    • @amirsanchez8193
      @amirsanchez8193 Před 4 lety +35

      Very true... but the more they try to divide us, the more closer we become... the links between Valencia and Catalunya are strong and come from a long time...

    • @jpmmpm
      @jpmmpm Před 4 lety +14

      Amir Sanchez No puc estar més d’acord amb tu

    • @jpmmpm
      @jpmmpm Před 4 lety +13

      Bossy Bcn Malauradament eixa sempre ha sigut l’estratègia que han emprat

    • @user-be7pw3sm7d
      @user-be7pw3sm7d Před 4 lety +12

      I wonder if Catalonia and Valencia (and also the Balearic Islands) can be united one day

  • @FrightfulAccountant
    @FrightfulAccountant Před rokem +17

    I am a native Dutch speaker that learned in school French as a second language and on holiday in Barcelona I found the Catalan information text more easy to read then the Spanish, the Catalan is more recognisable in vocabulary most of all, quite much like Italian that is in written form often a simular word of the French word. Spanish words are harder to recognize.

  • @sanklesaint
    @sanklesaint Před 3 lety +164

    Wow I speak French and I noticed that Catalan will be more easy to learn then Spanish!!

    • @MrRabiddogg
      @MrRabiddogg Před 2 lety +8

      makes sense considering where it is located. In watching this channel and others like it, it seems like language is more of a layering of dialects where folks on extreme ends cannot understand each other but the closer to the middle you get the more understandable it is.

    • @ulfurkarlsson5885
      @ulfurkarlsson5885 Před 2 lety +10

      I'm Icelandic and in my opinion French is the most difficult language in the world 😆

    • @MrAllzebest
      @MrAllzebest Před 2 lety +7

      @@ulfurkarlsson5885 Try Cambodian (Khmer) for the pronunciation, Hungarian for grammar and Japanese for writing.

    • @s.t.a.r.d.u.s.t.8
      @s.t.a.r.d.u.s.t.8 Před 2 lety +2

      Definitely! You can learn it faster than anyone

    • @oscarmeneurubio3330
      @oscarmeneurubio3330 Před 2 lety +1

      but way less usefull, since you can speak spanish in the whole Spain, including at catalunya, but catalan its not so extended

  • @hortalissa
    @hortalissa Před 5 lety +47

    Hey, as a Catalan myself, it’s a great surprise to see this video! I enjoy this channel a lot, thanks!

  • @KillerFlorin007
    @KillerFlorin007 Před 5 lety +96

    Hi!
    As a ROMANIAN speaker, CATALAN seems to me more easy to learn and close to me than the SPANISH.
    Best regards!

    • @bex1335
      @bex1335 Před 4 lety +5

      I speake both and Catalan is harder :D

    • @lsismico-3242
      @lsismico-3242 Před 4 lety +1

      trust me, catalan is a lot harder than spain, it has more strange things and signs

    • @antoanetaroman9747
      @antoanetaroman9747 Před 4 lety +2

      I also speak both, and I'm Romanian. We have 3000 common words with Catalán (joc, foc, ou, nou, bou, un moment, tot, adaptat, ocupat, etc) But the grammar is tricky, knowing both Spanish and French previously helped a good deal.

    • @antoanetaroman9747
      @antoanetaroman9747 Před 4 lety

      I've been to Jamaica - Ocho Ríos, when working on cruise ships. Very nice people, good food and amazing nature. Best of luck!

  • @didierblanch827
    @didierblanch827 Před 3 lety +8

    Born in Africa but grow up in Catalunya, thanks very much for this video.

  • @lucastperez
    @lucastperez Před 3 lety +22

    I'm brazilian and I remember watching Merli and actually learning quite some words!

  • @GaryBickford
    @GaryBickford Před 5 lety +160

    Paul, my friend from Romania, who speaks several languages, recently traveled to Barcelona. He discovered that he could understand and speak Catalan quite well. He opined that Catalan is nearly identical to classical Romanian from the early 1800s. What are your thoughts?

    • @TradingNirvana
      @TradingNirvana Před 4 lety +56

      Gary Bickford Well, that is, to put it mildly, a wild exaggeration. I’m a Romanian, living in Valencia for 3 years. There are a few very similar words and expressions, but it definitely isn’t anything like Classical Romanian overall. It’s rather a weird mix of French and Spanish.

    • @fasca100
      @fasca100 Před 4 lety +8

      I speak romanian and I found a lot of similarities

    • @alexsasplu
      @alexsasplu Před 4 lety +20

      @@fasca100 I'm Catalan, and I find romanian really close to catalan sometimes, we have more than 2,000 identic words in common, and you can find texts like for example the national anthems of both nations and you'll be able to understand some of their meanings. Brother nations🥰. És un lucre molt bo cercar similituds entre les nostres llengües, car aquestes similituds fan donar compte que al final som tots germans.

    • @alexeiderperezhernandez461
      @alexeiderperezhernandez461 Před 4 lety +1

      They say that catalan and romanian both have a lot of vocabulary in common.

    • @gabytrifoy7012
      @gabytrifoy7012 Před 4 lety +3

      am romanian for me catalan it s sound like a weird spanish and a little bit of french in it 😆😆🤷🏻‍♂️

  • @jokybody
    @jokybody Před 5 lety +85

    As a French speaker from Quebec, Catalan sounds a bit like a mix of French and Spanish to my ears. What was the most surprising and funny when I visited a friend in Girona is that sometimes I mistook what the Catalans were saying for some French with a strong Quebec accent. Example: the sentence "What is that?", which is "Què és això?" in Catalan, sounds just like "Qu'essé ço?" which is "Qu'est-ce que cela?" in colloquial Quebec French! :P

    • @BassDat33
      @BassDat33 Před 5 lety +1

      my head hurts

    • @lauraaa277
      @lauraaa277 Před 5 lety

      That's amazing!

    • @Odisher7
      @Odisher7 Před 5 lety +1

      Native speaker here, i've always thought that same thing :D. Also, i think "Qu'essé ço?" Would sound exactly like "Que es eso?"

    • @tenienteramires4428
      @tenienteramires4428 Před 5 lety

      "Qu'essé ço" sounds more like "què és açò", which is a dialectal variation of "què és això"

    • @Mpe898
      @Mpe898 Před 5 lety

      The accent of at least this speaker reminds me of a French from Quebec accent . From what I’ve heard 🤔

  • @shaun4792
    @shaun4792 Před 4 lety +4

    Hi Paul! Thanks to you I've been learning Spanish for the last year, because at the end of the video you sent me to Dreaming Spanish!

  • @andersonandrade6336
    @andersonandrade6336 Před 3 lety +84

    I will always remember the first words I have ever read in Catalan: “Més que un club”. I’m Brazilian and Catalan sounds like a very beautiful language for me, sweet and misterious. It’s hard to understand spoken Catalan, but I understand, let’s say, 90% of a newspaper like El Periòdico. Studying Catalan is definitelly a plan...

    • @ahmadjaber1719
      @ahmadjaber1719 Před 3 lety +2

      Let me guess. Barca fan?

    • @disbauxa
      @disbauxa Před 2 lety +3

      @@ahmadjaber1719 let me guess. U r so smart?

    • @chipmunk96ful
      @chipmunk96ful Před 2 lety

      Same here bro, same here

    • @disbauxa
      @disbauxa Před 2 lety +6

      @Mar. L no. U r probably not catalan and not prepared to talk about that. Catalonia is more than football. Fighting again the repression of Spain to be independent it’s one of our objectives. It’s just a matter of time. Yes, is not average, Spain is a fascist state, and we do what we can do.

    • @disbauxa
      @disbauxa Před 2 lety +1

      @Mar. L Hahaha u r so funny

  • @zafi8993
    @zafi8993 Před 4 lety +1989

    Like when you're actually catalan but watch this video anyways

    • @gerardlopezcarrion6444
      @gerardlopezcarrion6444 Před 4 lety +33

      zafi tan identificat jajaj

    • @noragonzalezmir3781
      @noragonzalezmir3781 Před 4 lety +16

      Iguals jajaj me fa gracia que ells canvien tots els noms Jaume es Jameees jajajaj no puc

    • @shaide5483
      @shaide5483 Před 4 lety +17

      What’s Catalonia like? I imagine it’s very calm & it’s actually filled with chill people

    • @zafi8993
      @zafi8993 Před 4 lety +19

      @@shaide5483 *laughs hysterically* im sorry bud but rn it feels like a war in Barcelona, a literal one.

    • @shaide5483
      @shaide5483 Před 4 lety +20

      I thought Catalonia was its independent state from Spain

  • @msjaladreips
    @msjaladreips Před 4 lety +79

    I speak Catalan but I’m not a native speaker (I learned it). I can understand Occitan very well in written form but not spoken. I can perfectly understand Aranes and of course Valencian. I can also understand a lot of Italian (without learning it) both spoken and written. I am native slavic speaker.
    Records a tots els Catalans aqui, m’agraden molt Català i cultura catalana! ❤️

    • @angelinabetty
      @angelinabetty Před 2 lety

      How long did it take you to learn Catalan ?

    • @BlitzOfTheReich
      @BlitzOfTheReich Před 2 lety +3

      Aranese is not Catalan.

    • @ledues3336
      @ledues3336 Před rokem

      Good job mate!

    • @dunagarceran789
      @dunagarceran789 Před rokem

      El catalán es una lengua indoeuropea descendiente del latín que forma parte de la familia de las lenguas románicas occidentales como el francés, el occitano, el retorrománico, el castellano, el gallego o el portugués. Como lengua románica occidental, el catalán ocupa un lugar intermedio entre el grupo galorrománico (francés, occitano) y el iberorrománico (castellano, gallego y portuguès).

    • @dunagarceran789
      @dunagarceran789 Před rokem

      @@angelinabetty El catalán es una lengua indoeuropea descendiente del latín que forma parte de la familia de las lenguas románicas occidentales como el francés, el occitano, el retorrománico, el castellano, el gallego o el portugués. Como lengua románica occidental, el catalán ocupa un lugar intermedio entre el grupo galorrománico (francés, occitano) y el iberorrománico (castellano, gallego y portugués).

  • @MarioBecerraC
    @MarioBecerraC Před 3 lety +83

    I remember I was once in Barcelona and an old guy in a bus was saying "tanqueu la porta, tanqueu la porta" (or something similar). And in my brain I was just thinking like "What kind of weird Spanish accent is this?" (I'm a native Mexican speaker). Then it finally dawned on me that he was speaking Catalan, and it all made sense.

    • @deadoralive923
      @deadoralive923 Před 3 lety +20

      ahah , Si vas por Girona escucharias ''Tanca sa porta cullons!''

    • @redtempo5644
      @redtempo5644 Před 3 lety +5

      Significa "cerrad la puerta"

    • @PianoMeSasha
      @PianoMeSasha Před 3 lety

      that's funny since Mexican spanish sounds like a really wierd accent to Puerto Ricans....

    • @doloresdelcastillo252
      @doloresdelcastillo252 Před 3 lety +1

      Mexicans find that Puerto Ricans do not pronounce the ends of their words, and talk to fast.

    • @kame9
      @kame9 Před 3 lety +3

      @@deadoralive923 a mallorca diriem " tanca sa puta porta" jajajajaja

  • @philreed1605
    @philreed1605 Před 2 lety +5

    5:50 I said adieu to someone in France once, he was shocked. He said they use it as a final goodbye when someone dies.

    • @Ulissescars
      @Ulissescars Před měsícem

      Interesting, that's the same in Brazilian Portuguese with "Adeus"

  • @bmi9198
    @bmi9198 Před 5 lety +43

    The Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula are super fascinating to me, thanks for covering this one!

    • @rafaelmelo2576
      @rafaelmelo2576 Před 5 lety +2

      But Catalan descends from Provençal, a Romance language from Gaul.

    • @LuisAldamiz
      @LuisAldamiz Před 5 lety

      True. He should probably have treated Catalan and Occitan as a single unit, because Catalan is only the most widespread dialect of Occitan.

    • @LuisAldamiz
      @LuisAldamiz Před 5 lety +1

      On the other hand, who says Iberia ends in the Pyrenees and not maybe as far North as the Loire. Ethnolinguistically the Pyrenees are not a border, at least not historically.

    • @Enric.
      @Enric. Před 5 lety

      Catalan doesn't descend from Provençal. It's the native language of Catalonia, it's the direct evolution of Latin language in the territory.
      It's similar with Occitan and part of the same branch mainly because they are neighours, but it wasn't brought by immigrants from Provence or anything like that.
      This is the main rule regarding Romance languages in the former Western Roman Empire.

  • @ricardoa.gonzalezedwards782

    There is a mistake in the example "M'ha donat els diners aquest matí" in the minute 11:30. The verb "donat" doesn't stands for "donado" in Spanish (which means donated), it stands for the verb "dado" (which means given)

    • @Langfocus
      @Langfocus  Před 5 lety +34

      I wanted to give the cognate word, even though the meaning is slightly different in Spanish. That was in order to focus on the phonological difference between the two.

    • @edmossbb
      @edmossbb Před 5 lety +8

      This isn't a mistake. "Donar" in Spanish also means "to give" so, "me ha donado el dinero" would be correct.

    • @v4nadium
      @v4nadium Před 5 lety +12

      I think it is meant to be a cognate like Adéu and French Adieu. Adieu is not used in the same context as adéu but it fits better as an example here

    • @GoGreen1977
      @GoGreen1977 Před 5 lety +3

      Thank you for this explanation. As as a student of Spanish, I was a bit confused since I think of "dar" and "donar" differently. But I can see how donar could be used in this instance.

    • @santib94
      @santib94 Před 5 lety +1

      Eduardo Moreno But in spoken Spanish nobody says that.

  • @Drusille
    @Drusille Před 3 lety +19

    i'm catalan and i thin portuguese french and italian are easy to understand for catalans, italian even more than french :) thanks for the video , you explained catalan history pretty well :)

  • @jonsanchezr_7
    @jonsanchezr_7 Před 2 lety +3

    Great job with this video!! Thank you for sharing this content and teaching this wonderful language. I'm catalan and I'm very greatful. 🙌🏼

  • @pllm684
    @pllm684 Před 5 lety +76

    As a Valencian I was waiting for this video some time ago. You never disappoint, Paul. The video is GREAT.

  • @Guitarristandgoats
    @Guitarristandgoats Před 5 lety +195

    Ey the fact that Catalonian is the official language in Andorra should already exclude it from the category "Non-state languages". It's the state language of Andorra.

    • @Guitarristandgoats
      @Guitarristandgoats Před 5 lety +4

      Very good video, just like everything you make :D

    • @karibui494
      @karibui494 Před 5 lety +20

      Andorra is not in the European union, maybe he ment that?

    • @wheeliebeast7679
      @wheeliebeast7679 Před 5 lety +5

      @@karibui494 Also consider that the vast majority of Catalan speakers live outside Andorra

    • @Odisher7
      @Odisher7 Před 5 lety

      Guitarristandgoats #1 catalonian lol
      #2 so it's a state language outside the country it comes from... Never realized it.

    • @aaronmarks9366
      @aaronmarks9366 Před 5 lety +3

      @Ignasi Planas Villalba I feel like "Catalonian" should be an accepted English name for the language, since it means the same thing as "Catalan" originally.

  • @miguelangelescalantegonzal5146

    Great job to explain the catalán similarities and differences with other romance languages, specially spanish, french and italian. I lived in Barcelona from 1996 to 2000. And during that time I studied catalán. I reached a fluency of about 80%. I am mexican and my native language is spanish (castilian). I also speak English with a 95% fluency. I also studied french when younger and reached a fluency of 80%. As I returned to my native Mexico in 2002, it's difficult for me to practice both french and catalán, so my fluency in both has decreased unfortunarely because of lack of practice. I must say that another important aspect that makes catalán different to other similar romance languages áre its sayings and slangs. Cheers!

  • @rodolfoschleier7145
    @rodolfoschleier7145 Před 3 lety +18

    Curiosity: In Brazil there is a city called "Catalão" (Catalan), and another one called "Pirenópolis" because of the similarity with the Pireneu Mountains. Many immigrants from Catalunya came to Brazil.

  • @marithenar.8507
    @marithenar.8507 Před 5 lety +245

    I always wondered about Catalan. Thank you!

    • @judna1
      @judna1 Před 5 lety +2

      Benvinguda a l'aventura que és la llengua catalana, un cop comences, no pots parar! (Welcome to the adventure that is the catalan language, once you start, you can't stop!)

    • @johndeleon8741
      @johndeleon8741 Před 5 lety

      @@judna1 how so?

    • @judna1
      @judna1 Před 5 lety

      @@johndeleon8741 Nothing really it was just a matter of speak. Saying catalan is an interesting language, cause it is.

  • @taimunozhan
    @taimunozhan Před 5 lety +60

    Some Catalan varieties (mostly those spoken in the Balearic islands) have a different set of articles known as 'salty articles' (Cat: articles salats) which has "es" and "sa" rather than "el" and "la". These articles are interesting because they are descended from Latin ipse and ipsa rather than from Latin ille and illa as in nearly all other Romance languages. The only other Romance language with articles derived from ipse is Sardinian, the traditional language of Sardinia, in Italy.
    There might also be some Occitan varieties with the same feature but they are either extinct or nearly extinct.

    • @surtidocuetara
      @surtidocuetara Před 5 lety +5

      I think Paul should prepare a video about Sardinian (and maybe another one about the definite articles in the Balearic Islands!

    • @miotony1
      @miotony1 Před 5 lety +3

      Salty articles comes originally from the coast of Girona, so the video should begin there and not in Baleares (I'm from Mallorca btw).

    • @mki8306
      @mki8306 Před 4 lety

      miotony1 jo tambe

    • @Alan-xe4st
      @Alan-xe4st Před 2 lety

      @@miotony1 I thought they were from the Balearic Islands and they just moved to Girona from speakers of Catalan from the Balearic Islands.

  • @Riurelia
    @Riurelia Před 3 lety +8

    13:28 I have a story about this (although I don't speak Catalan so I might get something wrong).
    There's a song by Miki Núñez called "Escriurem", which is in Catalan. There is a line that says "escriurem que tot no va ser fàcil" (We'll write that everything wasn't easy). It was only yesterday where I realized that "tot no va ser fàcil" means "Everything wasn't easy" and not "everything won't be easy".
    The Romance languages might be similar but they sometimes mess me up.

  • @Margolaria
    @Margolaria Před 3 lety +9

    I like hearing them speak Castillan with their accent and Catalán is one of my favorite languages.

  • @juanfernandoechavarneramon1838

    I am a Catalan and Spanish speaker and since I have gone to Italy many times I noticed that it was easier for me to communicate with italians in catalan rather than Spanish.
    I speak the Valencian dialect and I have noticed that the Valencian doesn't have a strong accent and it sounds mor soft just like italian, that's why I think that the valencian is the closest catalan dialect to italian.

    • @bernatmallenalberdi1111
      @bernatmallenalberdi1111 Před 5 lety +13

      Jo sóc català i també crec que el valencià s'hi assembla més, no només en pronunciació. Eixir/uscire, per exemple.

    • @Ignasimp
      @Ignasimp Před 5 lety +2

      Saying Catalan has a stronger accent than Valencian makes no sense. The accent is different. As a catalan speaker your accent sounds stronger to me. It's a matter of what are you used to.

    • @PedroUR
      @PedroUR Před 5 lety +5

      Yes, Valencian is closer to Italian because it's old Roman language, not Catalan. The same language that Roman settlers brought from Rome 2157 years ago when they founded Valentia. Why else would it be more similar to Italian if, as bribed linguists say, the Catalans tought us how to speak (yes, those illiterate soldiers and peasants did, can you believe it?).

    • @juanfernandoechavarneramon1838
      @juanfernandoechavarneramon1838 Před 5 lety +9

      @@PedroUR what u say makes sense, but Valencian and Catalan are essentially the same language just two different regional dialects to speak the catalan language.

    • @dragonsud1648
      @dragonsud1648 Před 5 lety +2

      @@juanfernandoechavarneramon1838 same language yes, but the discussion is about the name. Llemosí was a french dialect that people named both Catalan and Valencian for distinguishing themselves from the arabs.

  • @Lenve
    @Lenve Před 5 lety +258

    There is a small mistake about the weak pronouns around minute 11:55
    If I were to elide "els diners" in the sentence "M'ha donat els diners aquest matí" I would say "Me'ls ha donat", never "M'ho ha donat". Thats because you know the given thing is a plural masculine noun. If the noun was a singular masculine one, then it would be "Me l'ha donat". It would only be "M'ho ha donat" if the object given was undefined, e.g. "alló" (that thing).

    • @magnvsctv
      @magnvsctv Před 5 lety +4

      "Me'l ha donat" or "Me l'ha donat" ?

    • @borisnot
      @borisnot Před 5 lety +17

      The latter, "me l'ha donat". The appostrophe always goes to the most right position available :)

    • @Lenve
      @Lenve Před 5 lety +2

      @@borisnot Sure, my bad, it is now fixed

    • @fortuny911
      @fortuny911 Před 5 lety +41

      Putus pronoms febles de merda😂

    • @borisnot
      @borisnot Před 5 lety

      xD

  • @skepnof
    @skepnof Před 3 lety +5

    Thank you for spreading the knowledge of Catalan language! Moltes gràcies :)

  • @kristend9261
    @kristend9261 Před 4 lety +4

    I visited Valencia and Barcelona six months ago and they were my favorite cities from my entire trip! Everyone was so nice ❤️❤️

  • @Vyrlokar
    @Vyrlokar Před 5 lety +239

    At last you do this video!
    As a Valencian and native speaker of Catalan, I will say that Valencian and Catalan are just two dialects of the same language. to think otherwise would require you to accept that south american dialects of Spanish are different languages too. I won't touch on the rest of the politics of this though, and well, you sumarized very well what would be the reaction to your videos among some people.
    Now, for the question at the end, I will say that the phonology of Catalan is probably closest to Italian, but since I don't speak it, I can't really say for sure. On the other hand, I speak French as my 3rd language, and well, once you get past the different phonological system, French is really close to Catalan, much more than Spanish, which isn't surprising since "la langue d'Oc" (Occitan/Provencal) is one of the ancestors of modern French

    • @MrRostit
      @MrRostit Před 5 lety +15

      French ancestor is the Langues d'Oïl though.

    • @Robin-zf5wt
      @Robin-zf5wt Před 5 lety +28

      En realitat l’occitan es una amassada de dialèctes (o lengas) intercomprenesibles entre eles (a diferents nivèls) e lo francés ven pas de l’occitan mas pertanh a la familha de las lengas “d’oïl”: solament son de lengas sòrres. Çaquelà e subretot al sud de França, fòrça de mots o d’estructuras del francés d’aquí venon de l’occitan. L’occitan se pareis mai al catalan qu’al francés mas las realitats socioculturalas an fach que l’occitan a manlevat de nombroses mots franceses mentre que lo catalan los a manlevats al castelhan. Ieu, per exemple, parli occitan e castelhan, e pòdi aver una conversacion amb d’amics de Barcelona sens parlar una mica de catalan! Çò que càmbia mai es solament la prononciacion de las paraulas ;) T’inviti a escotar de cançons o de vidèos en occitan (subretot lengadocian) per qu’o pòscas constatar per tu meteis e espèri que m’aguèsses comprengut! Bona nit amic valencià!

    • @Raven-Winter
      @Raven-Winter Před 5 lety +12

      The langues d'oc are not really the ancestors of the standard french we speak. Because it comes from the parisian french, the dialect which was spoke in Paris, which has been forced into the whole country. So it's a language from the north, it belongs to the family of "les langues d'oil". (there use to be 3 big families of languages in France, langues d'oil in the north, langues d'oc in the south, and franco-provençal/arpitan in the south-est)

    • @Vyrlokar
      @Vyrlokar Před 5 lety +6

      Occitan (Langue d'Oc) is not the primary ancestor of modern French, sure, but it's ONE of the ancestors. Sure, modern French is mostly Langue d'Oïl descended, but really, there's some influence from the otherss

    • @Raven-Winter
      @Raven-Winter Před 5 lety +1

      I am not sure, do you have exemples ? (i'm going to do researches now)

  • @sebasnavarro5
    @sebasnavarro5 Před 5 lety +100

    I am catalan and my girlfriend speaks valencian and we have never used a translator to talk each other, good news by the way

    • @user-co5sd3uw7f
      @user-co5sd3uw7f Před 4 lety +40

      U r talking the same language after all

    • @ferrrawr537
      @ferrrawr537 Před 4 lety +19

      Es q son dialectos, yo vivo en Valencia y hablo con mis amigos catalanes, sin problema

    • @jlaf1969
      @jlaf1969 Před 4 lety +1

      @@ferrrawr537 y yo hablo sin problemas con mis amigos portugueses e italianos,

    • @ferrrawr537
      @ferrrawr537 Před 4 lety

      @@jlaf1969 no entiendo tu comentario me lo podrías explicármelo

    • @jlaf1969
      @jlaf1969 Před 4 lety +5

      @@ferrrawr537 todas son lenguas romances, con un tronco básico en el latín. Si hasta entiendo el francés y el rumano ( este último cuesta un poco más). Las lenguas no son definidas lingüísticamente, sino políticamente, mira el caso islandés que no fue reconocido hasta los años 30 del S. XX o el noruego con dos grafías distintas y nadie se rompe las vestiduras. El problema del catalán es que no es catalán es un idioma probeta creado en el S. XIX por la burguesía catalana a partir del barceloni con una visión imperialista y racista. Solo tienes que leer los informes del IEC, que busca la homogeneización de la gran lengua catalana y la creación del gran Imperi Catala, llamado "Paissos Catalans" porque lo de Imperi a los nazionalsocialistas les chirría. Sufrí en la Universidad el adoctrinamiento ideológico y racista de los autoproclamados portadores de la verdad, ante los que cualquier crítica su respuesta era "feixista", una palabra que carece de una base etimológica real; en el resto de lenguas romances la base etimológica de fascitas proviene de fascies, pero feixista proviene de feixa o haza que es un bancal. Y podía seguir. No te fíes de la Wikipedia ni de las Universidades españolas (sic) en general, que están controladas Pol el politburo del pensamiento homogéneo

  • @MaryChain90
    @MaryChain90 Před 3 lety +2

    I'm an Italian native speaker and in the north of Italy it is also possible to hear the definite articles before a person's name like "La Giulia", "Il Piero".

  • @rf1890
    @rf1890 Před rokem +36

    I moved to Barcelona and tried to learn both spanish and catalan at the same time, without yet speaking any other romanic language. That was a big mistake as I confused the often just slightly different words with each other. So I focused on spanish, which is much easier to pronounce from reading. Catalan seemed in a way a bit like french to me, the words are pronounced not necessarily as they look like. Anyway, now after being relatively ok with spanish, I start to take on catalan as well

    • @user-kb6hg7xk5i
      @user-kb6hg7xk5i Před rokem +1

      Good choice. Spanish is an international language, and catalan is only a Provencal dialect. Plus, all catalans speak Spanish, so with Spanish, you can communicate there.

    • @rf1890
      @rf1890 Před rokem +2

      @@user-kb6hg7xk5i hi A. Catalán is not a dialect :). sometimes it's just 1 or 2 persons for which you might want to learn a language... which is why I still gonna learn it eventually.

    • @user-kb6hg7xk5i
      @user-kb6hg7xk5i Před rokem

      @@rf1890 1 or 2 persons for which you might want to learn a language does not mean it is not a dialect. So yes, it's a dialect from Provencal.

    • @rf1890
      @rf1890 Před rokem +2

      @@user-kb6hg7xk5i no it's not. Please look it up... anywhere credible

    • @rf1890
      @rf1890 Před rokem +3

      @@user-kb6hg7xk5i actually quite ironic that you are saying this in a video called: the catalán LANGUAGE.

  • @luisrpa123
    @luisrpa123 Před 5 lety +41

    I'm from Valencia and most educated people are totally aware that Valencian is just another name for our dialect of Catalan. The concept of a separate Valencian language is only adopted by a sector of far-right politics.
    As a Catalan speaker, I feel that Catalan is the intersection of Spanish, French and Italian in most aspects. I have not encountered any Occitan speaker, but I can read Occitan with extreme ease.

    • @herman1francis
      @herman1francis Před 5 lety

      I lived in Toulouse and found some occitan speakers. It's very close but it sounds archaic.

    • @altergreenhorn
      @altergreenhorn Před 5 lety

      Interesting I dont speak any roman language but this game around dialects, language... are very simmilar as in former yugoslavia where you have a few recogized slavic languages not one but you could feel the pressure from the nation of major speaking language in yugoslavia to melt your language in to their language.
      After the yu wars and independence of all nations all backfired now all ex yu nations try to differ their language as much as possible from another ones even by forcing some new words

  • @PATRICKSMITH1
    @PATRICKSMITH1 Před 5 lety +168

    As a Brit who studied at university in Barcelona, I find it interesting that valencians insist on calling the language Valencian, not Catalan. Valencian is more similar to the language spoken in Catalonia than in the Balearic Islands. Balearic natives however are quite happy to say that they are Catalan speakers.

    • @kojisan1
      @kojisan1 Před 5 lety +4

      There's a historical reason behind it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Catalan_language

    • @aitortilla5128
      @aitortilla5128 Před 5 lety +23

      I'm Valencian and we call it Valencian and not Catalan because of tradition. There were many great Valencian writers in the Middle Ages. All of them referred to the language as Valencian. We kept doing that. Today it has become a political tool. Personally I don't use it anymore because of that. I'm amazed by the fact that many people are quite ignorant when it comes to Valencia and Valencian language.

    • @andrescastrerosanchez2210
      @andrescastrerosanchez2210 Před 5 lety +16

      The thing is that Valencians have been calling their language Valencian for some 500 years. Many languages have more than one name, but of course it doesn't mean we speak different languages.

    • @IrEnEjUdIt14
      @IrEnEjUdIt14 Před 5 lety +13

      You'd be surprised about all the Majorcan people who don't want to be called Catalan speakers 😂😂

    • @raulm5794
      @raulm5794 Před 5 lety +18

      Because it is used with political arguments. People use the excuse of the language to link all the territories (Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia) as the "Països catalans/ Catalan countries". In other words it's a form to add more support for the catalan nacionalist ideology. People doesn't have any problem to recognise that all three main dialects are probably the same language but they didn't want to be used by catalan interests. That's the reason in most of Baelaric and Valencian lands try to keep away these comparisons.
      One thing is to support an ideology and other different is to defend your language. We only want to defend our language out of political reasons and to be recognised our importance (culture, language,etc) without being absorbed by catalan culture.
      If you stop and think, Catalan people usually atacks the idea of Spain as a country because their language is so influenced by Spanish and they feel it like an atack for their identety. Well, it makes sense and I can understand it but ... they don't realised that they do the same with Valencian and Balearic territories just to get a little of support in their ideologies against the "spanish language".
      PD: I'm sorry for the mistakes, I'm still learning English but I wanted to explain you the point of view about it out of Catalonia bacause this opinions are not made visible in there.

  • @georgH
    @georgH Před 3 lety +3

    Wow, very nice video! I am surprised how accurate you got! As a Catalan that has lived abroad in different countries for a while, I shared it with my friends!

  • @artaiesalniece1560
    @artaiesalniece1560 Před rokem +2

    I never imagined one day I would be be speaking Catalan! Neither did I have a clue that my life will kindly throw me in 100% Catalan family. Now I am the biggest fan of Catalan language and I am very determined to reach a level that I can comfortably communicate at the family events. Sometimes all you need is one amazing boyfriend/girlfriend and the motivation is already knocking on the doors. Estic molt agraït!
    P.S. My mother tongue is Latvian so there is zero connection between these. First, I have learnt Spanish language (in a natural way) - it helps a lot!
    And I already can feel how Catalan language knowledge will help me with French and Italian! Languages are amazing.

  • @mashinglesboutons6220
    @mashinglesboutons6220 Před 5 lety +34

    As a Spanish speaker (eastern Andalusia dialect) the most striking thing about Catalan is the emphasis on M and L sounds and the way words tend to end with consonant so often.
    Waiting eagerly for a video covering Galician :)

    • @catvideos777
      @catvideos777 Před 5 lety

      The "M" sound? What do you mean? I can understand that you say the "L" sound, which is different from the Spanish one, but the "M" sound?

    • @mashinglesboutons6220
      @mashinglesboutons6220 Před 5 lety

      @@catvideos777 IDK if it's particular to a specific dialect, but the people I know from there (mostly from Girona) use M with emphasis.

    • @aplicacionsaranya4241
      @aplicacionsaranya4241 Před 5 lety

      @@catvideos777 mashing les boutons is right. We catalans are very conscious of that focus on L and M so in our jokes about ourselves we pronounce the L or the M exaggerating them even though a lot more than in normal speaking. Thank you.

    • @catvideos777
      @catvideos777 Před 5 lety

      @@aplicacionsaranya4241 That's total nonsense... The Catalan "M" is pronounced exactly the same than the Spanish "M", so I honestly doubt you are really a Catalan if you agree with such nonsense.

    • @aplicacionsaranya4241
      @aplicacionsaranya4241 Před 5 lety

      @@catvideos777 Sóc catalana del nord. No és cap collonada o ovariada. Cap lletra no es pronuncia exactament que en espanyol basicament perquè tota l'articulació catalana és velar o fins i tot més endarrerida i en canvi l'espanyola es gairebé a tocar de les dents. Aquesta articulació velar és nota més en les consonants que per elles mateixes ja són més cap a velars com ara la L i la M.

  • @askadia
    @askadia Před 5 lety +55

    Catalan, to my Italian ears, simply sounds like one of the dialect of Northern Italy. The first example sentence in an Italian dialect would be 'El Giuse l'è 'n bon profesoro'. Basically, the same 😮

    • @sestoscemo
      @sestoscemo Před 5 lety +9

      I'm italian too, same for me! My catalan collegue sometimes says something I recognise 100% as my dialect (north marche).

    • @askadia
      @askadia Před 5 lety +12

      Yeah, we all speakers of Romance languages really are a big family 😋

    • @danny50582
      @danny50582 Před 5 lety +10

      From a broad perspective, all Romance languages are just different forms of the same language (latin).

    • @judna1
      @judna1 Před 5 lety +4

      I'm catalan, but I do speak italian. And speaking both catalan and spanish plus english helped me learn italian. Examples of that are: Finestra means window in both catalan and italian and computer in italian is exactly the same as it is in english. Oh! And speaking about romanic languages, italian was helpful as well when I learnt portuguese, for instance I can (it: Io posso, pt: Eu posso) dog (it: cane, pt: cão)...
      I've just learnt portuguese recently and still it's a bit tough for me to speak in italian without saying anything in portuguese, but I'm getting better with time, and one day I'll be able to speak italian perfectly again, or at least that's what I hope😅

    • @judna1
      @judna1 Před 5 lety +2

      By the way, I just made a comment in this video with a lot of catalan muisc from different regions, maybe you'll find it interesting, cause it's a nice way to appreciate the different catalan dialects through music.

  • @kuzeyboy
    @kuzeyboy Před 2 lety +1

    I am teaching. myself Catalan and found this really useful - as a grammar learner, I really enjoyed the format!

  • @RiRiMcDowellGrondin
    @RiRiMcDowellGrondin Před rokem +13

    What a fascinating language! Moved here in Catalunya seven years ago. And I found so beautiful, soft and charming... I learned it in no time, probably because I already spoke French and Spanish, and had a very basic knowledge of Italian. So, it sounded very natural to me already, and easy to learn, despite its complexities (which made it even more interesting for me). Your video is very cool! Thanks for speaking about Catalan, hoping this will attract more learners...

  • @AntonioBarba_TheKaneB
    @AntonioBarba_TheKaneB Před 5 lety +74

    As an Italian I must say that I find it a bit difficult to hear, the pronunciation is somewhat in the middle between italian and spanish but the accent sounds to me like a strange variety of Sardinian. It's definitely much easier to understand in written form, since it shares an incredible amount of vocabulary with Italian, especially if you know southern dialects like Neapolitan or Sicilian which had Catalan influence in the past. Very informative video as always, thanks for sharing!

    • @jmundi2002
      @jmundi2002 Před 4 lety

      Im sorry but sardinian is a variant of catalán because the kingom of aragon rule it for 280 years.

    • @Jormunn
      @Jormunn Před 4 lety +6

      +Joan Salas emm...sorry dude but it's don't true....

    • @jmundi2002
      @jmundi2002 Před 4 lety +1

      @@Jormunn Emm... Sorry study a little bit of history

    • @Jormunn
      @Jormunn Před 4 lety +2

      @Joan Salas Man...I'm sardinian...belive me what you say isn't in heaven or on earth....

    • @Jormunn
      @Jormunn Před 4 lety +2

      @Joan Salas And don't be so arrogant about giving me this shit for true ಠ_ಠ

  • @theEtch
    @theEtch Před 5 lety +60

    Molt be! As a French speaker I can understand the majority of written Catalan, but not spoken.

    • @joanllurba8749
      @joanllurba8749 Před 5 lety +16

      Catalan speaker here, it's the same for me with French!

    • @Xitus81
      @Xitus81 Před 5 lety

      @@joanllurba8749 For me too

    • @skirtchaser7766
      @skirtchaser7766 Před 5 lety

      Try to understand catalan insults

    • @itsbritney1013
      @itsbritney1013 Před 5 lety

      Sameee as a catalan speaker 😂

    • @Casper-fv8td
      @Casper-fv8td Před 5 lety +2

      I'm Flemish (Belgian), and sorta speak French as a second language. I have been living in Girona, Catalunya for more than 4 months and I must say: I am very happy that I learned French!
      Although I never followed Catalan lessons, it was quite easy for me to understand basic written Català. Thanks to being exposed to another roman language since the age of 10.

  • @franraymol8853
    @franraymol8853 Před 2 lety +24

    When a romanian inmigrant learns and speaks Catalan, is almost impossible to know that it's not a native speaker.

    • @theknightswhosay
      @theknightswhosay Před 2 lety +1

      That’s exactly what I was thinking. Why are Spaniards speaking Romanian? I actually went to Barcelona two years ago, but I only knew Latin American Spanish. I’m going to Romania this summer. I should have started studying Romanian back then.

    • @dunagarceran789
      @dunagarceran789 Před rokem

      In Spain, six official languages ​​co-exist: Castilian, Catalan, Valencian, Galician, Basque and Aranese (which only has 2800 native speakers). The most predominant language in Spain is Spanish, which, according to the latest data from the INE, is spoken by 98.9% of the total population as a first or second language.

  • @aitalanlangstrump6845
    @aitalanlangstrump6845 Před 3 lety +43

    Molt bon vídeo! Gràcies per difondre la nostra identitat/història a gent de tot el món :)

    • @TagatosElma
      @TagatosElma Před rokem

      Ani peheja tokañy kataluñañe’ẽ, ipu porãiterei. Maitei Paraguay guive 🇵🇾✌🏻

  • @zigi5432
    @zigi5432 Před 5 lety +47

    I am a Ukrainian who now lives in Andorra. I currently study Spanish which everyone speaks perfectly here. The situation here with Catalan and Spanish is almost identical to what we have with Ukrainian and Russian respectively in Kyiv. So I got used very quickly. I have plans to study Catalan right after mastering Spanish. So far I am simultaneously picking some Catalan as well. Lots of stuff come automatically because of the similarity with Spanish, some other stuff I just memorized because I encounter it frequently. What I noticed is that Catalan is much more difficult than Spanish first of all because of the orthography and pronunciation.

    • @robertovalverde9573
      @robertovalverde9573 Před 5 lety +2

      Phonology in catalan is more similar to french, while phonology in spanish is sometimes different to another romance languages and close to basque, an aglutinant, very antique and non indoeuropean language.

    • @carlosmpsenyorcapitacollon6977
      @carlosmpsenyorcapitacollon6977 Před 5 lety +3

      Why did you learn Spanish first? I mean. I do not support Euromaidan but I mean if I went to Ukraine I would learn Ukrainian first, not Russian.

    • @zigi5432
      @zigi5432 Před 5 lety +7

      ​@@carlosmpsenyorcapitacollon6977 Well, I took example from Russians who live in Ukraine! They are like: "Why the hell I should learn Ukrainian if everyone speaks Russian here?" And here they are, living for decades in the country not able to speak or write the official language properly) In fact, I new some Spanish before I came to Andorra so I've decided to finish it first. It seemed more logic as learning two related languages simultaneously is not the best idea. As I said I will definitely proceed with learning Catalan after I succeed with Spanish. And hey, what's wrong with Euromaidan?

    • @johndeleon8741
      @johndeleon8741 Před 5 lety +11

      @@carlosmpsenyorcapitacollon6977 Probably because he's not a separatist douchebag and just choose the most useful language.

    • @alfonsvet
      @alfonsvet Před 5 lety

      @@robertovalverde9573 Depende del dialecto, Roberto. El dialecto de Andorra es del bloque occidental i la fonología tiende más hacia el español o el italiano.

  • @IapetusRetroStuff
    @IapetusRetroStuff Před 5 lety +38

    I live in the south of Portugal and for years I have been very interested in Catalan. We have a phenomenon in the Algarve region of Portugal where we usually drop the last vowel of masculine words or words ending in 'e'. So it gets even closer to Catalan: examples :Friends: Amig/Amigs, bombêr/bombêrs,gat/gats and in Catalan these are Amic/s, Bomber/s, gat and many more. Regarding that phrase 'fa dos anys' here would be "faz dôs ans". This phenomeon is slowly getting lost here as young people want to speak 'proper' portuguese and not be seen as unlearned, poor or rustic. Thank you for the video it is very interesting, keep up the good job Paul.

    • @judna1
      @judna1 Před 5 lety +2

      Olá! Des de Catalunha, para-bens por querer aprender o catalão!
      Eu aprendi o português numa escola de idiomas durante um mes antes de morar dois meses em Lisboa, gostem muito da experiença. Portugal e um bonito país. 😊👏🏽

  • @waxedlatexpanda8496
    @waxedlatexpanda8496 Před rokem

    I have to do a research project for college and this has helped so much with my last subheading so thank you❤️