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Valencian ( or ; endonym: valencià, valenciano, llengua valenciana, or idioma valencià) is the variety of Catalan as spoken in the Valencian Community in Spain.

Introduction
In the Valencian Community, Valencian is the traditional language and is co-official with Spanish. A standardized form exists, based on the Southern Valencian dialect.

The majority of the Valencian community consider Valencian to be distinct from Catalan, although linguists view them as varieties of a single language, which generates some political controversy. Valencian belongs to the Western group of Catalan dialects. Under the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, the Valencian Academy of the Language (Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, AVL) has been established as its regulator. The AVL considers Catalan and Valencian to be simply two names for the same language.

Some of the most important works of Valencian literature experienced a golden age during the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Important works include Joanot Martorell's chivalric romance Tirant lo Blanch, and Ausiàs March's poetry. The first book produced with movable type in the Iberian Peninsula was printed in the Valencian variety.

Official status
The official status of Valencian is regulated by the Spanish Constitution and the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, together with the Law of Use and Education of Valencian.

Article 6 of the Valencian Statute of Autonomy sets the legal status of Valencian, providing that:
 * The official language of the Valencian Community is Valencian.
 * Valencian is official within the Valencian Community, along with Spanish, which is the official language nationwide. Everyone shall have the right to know it and use it, and receive education in Valencian.
 * No one can be discriminated against by reason of his language.
 * Special protection and respect shall be given to the recuperation of Valencian.
 * The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua shall be the normative institution of the Valencian language.

The Law of Use and Education of Valencian develops this frame work, providing for implementation of a bilingual educational system, and regulating the use of Valencian in the public administration and judiciary system, where citizens can freely use it when acting before both.

Valencian is not one of the recognized languages of the European Union (23 official and 26 minority languages).

Distribution
Valencian is not spoken all over the Valencian Community. Roughly a quarter of its territory, equivalent to 10% of the population (its inland part and areas in the extreme south as well), is traditionally Castilian-speaking only, whereas Valencian is spoken to varying degrees elsewhere.

Additionally, it is also spoken by a reduced number of people in Carche, a rural area in the Region of Murcia adjoining the Valencian Community; nevertheless Valencian does not have any official recognition in this area. Although the Valencian language was a important part of the history of this zone, nowadays only about 600 people are able to speak Valencian in the area of Carche.

Knowledge and usage


In 2010 the Generalitat Valenciana published a study, Knowledge and Social use of Valencian, which included a survey sampling more than 6,600 people in the provinces of Castellón, Valencia, and Alicante. The survey simply collects the answers of respondents and did not include any testing or verification. The results were:

Valencian was the language "always, generally, or most commonly used":
 * at home: 31.6%
 * with friends: 28.0%
 * in internal business relations: 24.7%

For ability:
 * 48.5% answered they speak Valencian "perfectly" or "quite well" (54.3% in the Valencian-speaking areas and 10% in the Castilian-speaking areas)
 * 26.2% answered they write Valencian "perfectly" or "quite well" (29.5% in the Valencian-speaking areas and 5.8% in the Castilian-speaking areas)

The survey shows that, although Valencian is still the common language in many areas in the Land of Valencia, where slightly more than half of the Valencian population are able to speak it, most Valencians do not usually speak in Valencian in their social relations. The statistics hide the fact that in the areas where the language is still strong, most people use Valencian in preference to Castilian in all everyday situations.

Moreover, according to a survey in 2008, there is a downward trend in everyday Valencian users. The lowest numbers are in the major cities of Valencia and Alicante, where the percentage of everyday speakers is in single figures. All in all, in the 1993–2006 period, the number of speakers fell by 10 per cent. One of the factors cited is the increase in the numbers of immigrants from other countries, who tend to favour using Spanish over local languages; accordingly, the number of residents who claim no understanding of Valencian sharply increased. One curiosity in the heartlands mentioned above, is that most of the children of immigrants go to public school and are therefore taught in Valencian and are far more comfortable speaking this with their friends. However, some children of Valencian speakers go to private schools run by the church where the curriculum is in Castilian and consequently this becomes their preferred language.

Features of Valencian
Note that this is a list of features of the main forms of Valencian as a group of dialectal varieties that differ from those of other Catalan dialects, particularly from the Central variety of the language. For more general information on the features of Valencian, see Catalan language. Note also that there is a great deal of variety within the Valencian Community, and by no means do the features below apply to every local version.

Vowels

 * Valencian has a system of seven stressed vowels ; reduced to five in unstressed position (}) (feature shared with North-Western Catalan and Ribagorçan).
 * In some Valencian subvarieties, unstressed, and  is realised as  (or ) before labial consonants (e.g. coberts  'cutlery'), before a stressed syllable with a high vowel (e.g. conill  'rabbit'), in contact with palatal consonants (e.g. Josep  'Joseph') and in monosyllabic clitics (note in some colloquial speeches most instances of initial unstressed  can also be reduced to  (or  in fewer cases), such as olor ) 'smell (n)'); unstressed , , and  a  (or ) before nasals and sibilants (e.g. enclusa  'anvil', eixam  'swarm'), and in some exceptional cases when preceding any consonant (e.g. clevill  'crevice'). Likewise, unstressed  merges into  (or ) when in contact with palatal consonants (e.g. genoll  'knee'), and especially in lexical derivation with -eixement/-aixement (e.g. coneixement  'knowledge').
 * Many Valencian subdialects, especially Southern Valencian, feature some sort of vowel harmony (harmonia vocàlica). In Valencian this process is normally progressive (i.e. preceding vowels affect those pronounced afterwards) over the last unstressed vowel of a word; e.g. hora 'time'. However, there are cases where regressive metaphony occurs over pretonic vowels; e.g. tovallola  'towel', afecta  'affects'. Vowel harmony differs greatly from dialect to dialect, while many subvarities would alternate  and, according to the previous stressed vowel (e.g. terra  'Earth, land' and dona  'woman'); others will favor just one realization (either  in all, or some, instances; or ), thus, terra and dona can be pronounced  and  (by those who favor ) or  and  (by those who favor ).
 * The so-called "open vowels" (vocals obertes), and, are generally as low as  in traditional Valencian. The phonetic realizations of  approaches  (as in English land) and  is as open as  (as in English dog) (feature shared with Balearic Catalan).
 * The vowel is slightly fronted and closed than in Central Catalan (but less fronted and closed than in Majorcan). Thus, the realization of  in Valencian approaches  (especially in unstressed syllables).

Consonants

 * Voiced plosives are lenited  after a continuant, i.e. a vowel or any type of consonant other than a stop or nasal (exceptions include  after lateral consonants and  after ). In the coda position (at the end of a word or syllable), these sounds are always realized as plosives except in some Valencian subvarieties, where they are lenited.
 * Deletion of lenited between vowels following a stressed syllable (especially in feminine participles); e.g. fideuà  ( < fideuada).
 * Unlike other Catalan dialects, and  never fortify in intervocalic position  (e.g. poble  'village').
 * The historical labiodental phoneme survives in most traditional subdialects, including the standard, but merger with  is now dominant in Central and some Northern Valencian subvarieties.
 * Valencian has preserved in most of its subvarieties the mediaeval voiced prepalatal affricate (similar to the j in English "jeep") in contexts where other modern dialects have developed fricatives  (like the si in English "vision"); this is a feature shared with modern Ribagorçan. The presence of  for  in Valencian reflects the historical change  >  and the failure for  to become  (a feature shared with Occitan and standard Italian). Nonetheless, the fricative  may appear as a voiced allophone of  before vowels and voiced consonants; e.g. peix espasa  'swordfish'.
 * Deaffrication of in verbs ending in -itzar; e.g. analitzar  'to analize'.
 * Most Valencian subdialects preserve final stops in clusters; e.g. : camp (a feature shared with modern Balearic). The subdialect spoken in Benifaió and Almussafes, some 20 km south of Valencia, remarks these final consonants.
 * Contrary to Eastern Catalan dialects where all instances of are velarized (pronounced "dark"), Valencian alternates more often a clear l  in intervocalic position with a dark l  in the coda. The same also occurs in English accents, such as Received Pronunciation or South African English, as opposed to Scottish or American English where  is always dark.
 * Valencian is the only modern variant that pronounces etymological final in all contexts, although this cannot be generalized since there are Valencian subvarieties which do not pronounce the final  or only pronounce it in some contexts.

Morphology

 * The present first-person singular of verbs differs from Central Catalan; e.g. -ar infinitive: parlar 'to speak' gives parle 'I speak' as opposed to parlo, -re infinitive: batre 'to beat' gives bat 'I beat' as opposed to bato, -er infinitive: témer 'to fear' give tem 'I fear' as opposed to temo, and -ir infinitive: sentir 'to feel' gives sent (pronounced ) 'I feel' as opposed to sento (all those forms without final -o are more akin to mediaeval Catalan and contemporary Balearic Catalan), and inchoative -ir verbs: patir 'to suffer' gives patisc or patesc ('I suffer') as opposed to pateixo.
 * Present subjunctive is more akin to mediaeval Catalan and Spanish; -ar infinitives end $\langlee\rangle$, -re, -er and -ir verbs end in $\langlea\rangle$ (in contemporary Central Catalan present subjunctive ends in $\langlei\rangle$).
 * An exclusive feature of Valencian is the subjunctive imperfect morpheme -ra: que ell vinguera ('that he might come').
 * Valencian has -i- as theme vowel for inchoative verbs of the third conjugation; e.g. servix ('s/he serves'), like North-Western Catalan. Although, again, this cannot be generalized since there are Valencian subdialects that utilize -ei-, e.g. serveix.
 * In Valencian the simple past tense (e.g. cantà 'he sang') is more frequently used in speech than in Central Catalan, where the periphrastic past (e.g. va cantar 'he sang') is prevailing and the simple past mostly appears in written language. The same, however, may be said of the Balearic dialects.
 * The second-person singular of the present tense of the verb ser ('to be'), ets ('you are'), has been replaced by eres in colloquial speech.


 * Clitics
 * In general, use of modern forms of the determinate article (el, els 'the') and the third-person unstressed object pronouns (el, els 'him, them'), though some subdialects (for instance the one spoken in Vinaròs area) preserve etymological forms lo, los as in Lleida. For the other unstressed object pronouns, etymological old forms (me, te, se, ne, mos, vos...) can be found, depending on places, in conjunction with the more modern reinforced ones (em, et, es, en, ens, us...).
 * Several variations for nosaltres, vosaltres ('we, you'): mosatros, moatros, natros; vosatros, voatros, vatros; also for the weak form mos/-mos instead of standard ens/-nos ('us').
 * The adverbial pronoun hi ('there') is almost never used in speech and is replaced by other pronouns. The adverbial pronoun en ('him/her/them/it') is used less than in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.
 * Combined weak clitics with li ('him/her/it') preserve the li, whereas in Central Catalan it is replaced by hi. For example, the combination li + el gives li'l in Valencian (l'hi in Central Catalan).
 * The weak pronoun ho ('it') is pronounced as more often than in other dialects, especially when coming after another pronoun (e.g. m'ho dóna, dóna-m'ho  's/he gives it to me'). However, when preceding a verb on its own it is pronounced as : ho dóna  's/he gives it'. Moreover, after a verb ending in a vowel it is pronounced as  (e.g. dóna-ho  'you give it'); while, when following a verb ending with a consonant it is pronounced as : donar-ho  'to give it'.
 * The personal pronoun jo ('I') and the adverb ja ('already') are not pronounced according to the spelling, but to the etymology ( and, instead of and ). Similar pronunciations can be heard in North-Western Catalan and Ibizan.
 * The preposition amb ('with') merges with en ('in') in most Valencian subdialects.
 * Valencian preserves the mediaeval system of demonstratives with three different levels of demonstrative precision (este or aquest/açò/ací, eixe or aqueix/això/ahí, aquell/allò/allí or allà, where "aquest" and "aqueix" are almost never used) (feature shared with modern Ribagorçan and Tortosí).

Vocabulary

 * Different spelling of words with the same etymology:
 * Cardinal numbers (8, 19, 68, 200, 1 000 000): Huit, dèneu, seixanta-huit (pronounced 'xixanta-huit'), dos-cents, milió (pronounced 'milló') for vuit, dinou, seixanta-vuit, dues-centes, milió, although dos-centes is also found outside Valencian and in many regions of Catalonia seixanta is pronounced [ʃi'ʃanta], as in Valencian.
 * Meua, teua, seua for meva, teva, seva, a feature shared with North-Western Catalan.
 * Hui for avui.
 * Ordinal numbers (5th, 6th, 20th): quint, sext, vigèsim for cinquè, sisè, vintè, although the former are also found outside Valencian: la quinta columna, el vigèsim regiment.


 * Different choice of words
 * For example, "please" in Catalonia is usually si us plau or sisplau, which is close to the French s'il vous plaît; In Valencian per favor is more common, which is closer to the Spanish por favor, although per favor is used in all the Catalan-speaking areas.

Some other features, such as the use of molt de or the lack of hom or geminate l, are often given as examples of differences between Valencian varieties and other forms of the language. However, these are actually differences between colloquial and literary language and, again, may not apply to specific sub-dialects. Northern and southern variants of Valencian share more features with western Catalan (Lower Ebro river area for instance) than with central Valencian. Thus, some of the features listed previously do not apply to them.

Standard Valencian
The Academy of Valencian Studies (Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, AVL), established by law in 1998 by the Valencian autonomous government and constituted in 2001, is in charge of dictating the official rules governing the use of Valencian. Currently, the majority of people who write in Valencian use this standard.

Standard Valencian is based on the standard of the Institute of Catalan Studies (Institut d'Estudis Catalans, IEC), used in Catalonia, with a few adaptations. This standard roughly follows the Rules of Castellón (Normes de Castellón) from 1932, a set of othographic guidelines regarded as a compromise between the essence and style of Pompeu Fabra's guidelines, but also allowing the use of Valencian idiosyncrasies.

Valencian subdialects

 * Transitional Valencian (valencià de transició or tortosí): spoken only in the northernmost areas of the province of Castellón in towns like Benicarló or Vinaròs, the area of Matarranya in Aragon (province of Teruel), and a southern border area of Catalonia surrounding Tortosa, in the province of Tarragona.
 * Word-initial and postconsonantal (Catalan  and ) alternates with  intervocalically; e.g. joc  'game', but pitjor  'worse', boja  'crazy' (Standard Valencian, ; ; Standard Catalan ,  and ).
 * Final $\langler\rangle$ isn't pronounced in infinitives; e.g. cantar  (instead of ) 'to sing'.
 * Archaic articles lo, los ('the') are used instead of el, els; e.g. lo xic 'the boy', los hòmens 'the men'.
 * Northern Valencian (valencià septentrional or castellonenc): spoken in an area surrounding the city of Castellón de la Plana.
 * Use of sound instead of standard $\langlea\rangle$  in the third person singular of most verbs; e.g. (ell) cantava  (instead of ) 'he sang'. Thus, Northern Valencian dialects contrast forms like (jo) cantava  'I sang' with (ell) cantava  'he sang', but merges (jo) cante  'I sing' with (ell) canta  'he sings'.
 * Palatalization of $\langlets\rangle$  and $\langletz\rangle$ ; e.g. pots  'cans, jars, you can', dotze  'twelve'.
 * Depalatalization of to ; e.g. caixa  'box'.
 * Central Valencian (valencià central or apitxat), spoken in Valencia city and its area, but not used as standard by the Valencian media.
 * Sibilant merger: all voiced sibilants get unvoiced ; that is, apitxat pronounces casa ('house') and joc  ('game'), where other Valencians would pronounce  and  (feature shared with Ribagorçan).
 * Betacism, that is the merge of into ; e.g. viu  (instead of ) 'he lives'.
 * Fortition (gemination) and vocalisation of final consonants; nit (instead of ) 'night'.
 * It preserves the strong simple past, which has been substituted by an analytic past (periphrastic past) with + infinitive in the rest of modern Catalan and Valencian variants. For example, aní instead of vaig anar 'I went'.
 * Southern Valencian (valencià meridional): spoken in the contiguous comarques located in the southernmost part of the Valencia province and the northernmost part in the province of Alicante. This subdialect is considered as Standard Valencian.
 * Vowel harmony: the final syllable of a disyllabic word adopts a preceding open $\langlee\rangle$ or $\langleo\rangle$  if the final vowel is an unstressed  -$\langlea\rangle$ or -$\langlee\rangle$; e.g. terra  ('earth, land'), dona  ('woman').
 * This subdialect retain geminate consonants ($\langletl\rangle$ and $\langletn\rangle$ ); e.g. guatla  'quail', cotna  'rind'.
 * Weak pronouns are "reinforced" in front of the verb (em, en, et, es, etc.) contrary to other subdialects which maintains "full form" (me, ne, te, se, etc.).
 * Alicante Valencian (valencià alacantí): spoken in the southern half of the province of Alicante, and the area of Carche in Murcia.
 * Intervocalic elision in most instances; e.g. roda  'wheel', nadal  'Christmas'.
 * Yod is not pronounced in $\langleix\rangle$ ; e.g. caixa 'box'.
 * Final $\langler\rangle$ isn't pronounced in infinitives; e.g. cantar 'to sing'.
 * There are some archaisms like: ans instead of abans 'before', manco instead of menys 'less', dintre instead of dins 'into' or devers instead of cap a 'towards'.
 * There are more interferences with Spanish than other dialects: assul (from azul) instead of blau (or atzur) 'blue', llimpiar (from limpiar) instead of netejar 'to clean' or sacar (from sacar) instead of traure 'take out'.

Linguistic controversy
Linguists, including Valencian scholars, deal with Catalan and Valencian as the same language. The official regulating body of the language of the Valencian Community, the Valencian Academy of Language (Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, AVL) declares the linguistic unity between Valencian and Catalan varieties.



Valencian is classified as a Western dialect, along with the North-Western varieties spoken in Western Catalonia (provinces of Lleida and most of Tarragona). The various forms of Catalan and Valencian are mutually intelligible (ranging from 90% to 95%)

The AVL, created by the Valencian parliament, is in charge of dictating the official rules governing the use of Valencian, and its standard is based on the Rules of Castellón (Normes de Castelló). Currently, everyone who writes in Valencian uses this standard, except the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture (Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana, RACV), which uses for Valencian an independent standard.

Despite the position of the official organizations, an opinion poll carried out between 2001 and 2004 showed that the majority of the Valencian people consider Valencian different from Catalan. This position is promoted by people who do not use Valencian regularly. Furthermore, the data indicates that younger generations educated in Valencian are much less likely to hold these views. A minority of Valencian scholars active in fields other than linguistics defends the position of the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture (Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana, RACV), which uses for Valencian a standard independent from Catalan.

This clash of opinions has sparked much controversy. For example, during the drafting of the European Constitution in 2004, the Spanish government supplied the EU with translations of the text into Basque, Galician, Catalan, and Valencian, but the latter two were identical.

Middle Ages
Misteri d'Elx (c. 1350). Liturgical drama. Listed as Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Renaissance
Ausiàs March (Gandia, 1400 – Valencia, March 3, 1459). Poet, widely read in renaissance Europe.

Joanot Martorell (Gandia, 1413–1468). Knight and the author of the novel Tirant lo Blanch.

Isabel de Villena (Valencia, 1430–1490). Religious poetess.

Joan Roís de Corella (Gandia or Valencia, 1435 – Valencia, 1497). Knight and poet.

Obres e trobes en lahors de la Verge Maria (1474) The first book printed in Spain. It is the compendium of a religious poetry contest held that year in the town of Valencia.