Valencian language

Valencian (valencià) or the Valencian language (llengua valenciana) is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community of Spain to refer to the Romance language also known as Catalan,   either as a whole or in its Valencia-specific linguistic forms. The Valencian Community's 1982 Statute of Autonomy and the Spanish Constitution officially recognise Valencian as the name of the regional language.

Valencian displays transitional features between Ibero-Romance languages and Gallo-Romance languages. According to philological studies, the varieties of this language spoken in the Valencian Community and El Carche cannot be considered a single dialect restricted to these borders: the several dialects of Valencian (Alicante's Valencian, Southern Valencian, Central Valencian or Apitxat, Northern Valencian or Castellon's Valencian and Transitional Valencian) belong to the Western group of Catalan dialects.

There is a political controversy within the Valencian Community regarding its status as a glottonym or as an independent language, since official reports show that the majority of the people in the Valencian Community consider it as a separate language, different from Catalan, although the same studies show that this percentage decreases among younger generations and people with higher studies. According to the 2006 Statute of Autonomy, Valencian is regulated by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, following the legacy established by the Castelló norms, which adapt Catalan orthography to Valencian idiosyncrasies.

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. The earliest recorded chess game with modern rules for moves of the queen and bishop was in the Valencian poem Scachs d'amor (1475).

Official status
The official status of Valencian is regulated by the Spanish Constitution and the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, together with the Law on the Use and Teaching of Valencian (ca).

Article 6 of the Valencian Statute of Autonomy sets the legal status of Valencian, establishing that:
 * The native language of the Valencian Community is Valencian.
 * Valencian is the official language in the Valencian Community, along with Spanish, which is the official language of Spain. Everyone shall have the right to know and use them, and to receive education on Valencian and in Valencian.
 * No one can be discriminated against by reason of their 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.

Passed in 1983, the Law on the Use and Teaching of Valencian develops this framework, providing for the implementation of a bilingual educational system, regulating the use of Valencian in the public administration and judiciary system, where citizens can freely use it when acting before both, or establishing the right to be informed by media in Valencian among others.

Valencian is also protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, ratified by Spain. However, the Committee of Experts of the Charter has pointed out a considerable number of deficiencies in the application of the Charter by the Spanish and Valencian governments.

Distribution
Unlike in other bilingual Autonomous communities, Valencian has not historically been spoken to the same extent throughout the Valencian Community. Slightly more than a quarter of its territory, equivalent to 10-15% of the population (its inland and southernmost areas), is Spanish-speaking since the Middle Ages. Additionally, it is also spoken by a small number of people in the El Carche comarca, a rural area in the Region of Murcia adjoining the Valencian Community. Nevertheless, Valencian does not have any official recognition in this area. Nowadays about 600 people are able to speak Valencian in El 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 collected 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 can speak Valencian "perfectly" or "quite well" (54.3% in the Valencian-speaking areas and 10% in the Spanish-speaking areas)
 * 26.2% answered they can write Valencian "perfectly" or "quite well" (29.5% in the Valencian-speaking areas and 5.8% in the Spanish-speaking areas)

The survey shows that, although Valencian is still the common language in many areas in the Valencian Community, where slightly more than half of the Valencian population are able to speak it, most Valencians do not usually use Valencian in their social relations.

Moreover, according to the most recent survey in 2021, 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 at single-digit numbers. However, the percentage of residents who claim to be able to understand and read Valencian seems to have increased since 2015.

Due to a number of political and social factors, including repression, immigration and lack of formal instruction in Valencian, the number of speakers has severely decreased, and the influence of Spanish has led to the appearance of a number of barbarisms.

Features of Valencian
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. There is a great deal of variety within the Valencian Community, and by no means do the features below apply to every local version.

The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua specifies standard Valencian as having some specific syntax, vocabulary, verb conjugations and accent marks compared to standard Catalan.

Vowels



 * The stressed vowel system of Valencian is the same as that of Eastern Catalan:, , , , , , and , with and  being considerably lower than in EC.
 * The vowels and  are more open and centralised than in Spanish. This effect is more pronounced in unstressed syllables, where the phones are best transcribed . As the process is completely predictable, the latter symbols are not used elsewhere in the article.
 * The vowel is somewhat retracted  and  is somewhat advanced  both in stressed and unstressed syllables.  and  can be realised as mid vowels  in some cases. This occurs more often with.
 * The so-called "open vowels", and, are generally as low as  in most Valencian dialects. The phonetic realisations of  approaches  and  is as open as  (as in traditional RP dog). This feature is also found in Balearic.
 * is slightly more open and centralised before liquids and in monosyllabics.
 * is most often a back vowel. In some dialects (including Balearic) can be unrounded.
 * The vowel is slightly more fronted and closed than in Central Catalan (but less fronted and closed than in Majorcan). The precise phonetic realisation of the vowel  in Valencian is [ ~ ], this vowel is subject to assimilation in many instances.
 * Stressed can be retracted to  in contact with velar consonants (including the velarized ), and fronted to  in contact with palatals. This is not transcribed in the article.
 * Final unstressed may have the following values: [ ~  ~ ], depending on the preceding sounds and/or dialect, e.g. taula  'table'.
 * All vowels are phonetically nasalised between nasal consonants or when preceding a syllable-final nasal.
 * Vowels can be lengthened in some contexts.
 * There are five general unstressed vowels . Although unstressed vowels are more stable than in Eastern Catalan dialects, there are many cases where they merge:
 * In some Valencian varieties, unstressed and  are realised as  before labial consonants (e.g. coberts  'cutlery'), before a stressed syllable with a high vowel (e.g. sospira  'he/she sighs') and in some given names (e.g. Josep  'Joseph') (note also in some colloquial speeches initial unstressed  is often diphthongized to, olor ) 'smell (n.)'). Similarly, unstressed , and  are realised as  in contact with sibilants, nasals and certain approximants (e.g. eixam  'swarm', entendre  'to understand', clevill  'crevice'). Likewise (although not recommended by the AVL), unstressed   merges with  in contact with palatal consonants (e.g. genoll  'knee'), and especially (in this case it is accepted) in lexical derivation with the suffix -ixement (e.g. coneixement  'knowledge'). In the Standard all these reductions are accepted ( →  is only accepted in words with the suffix -ixement).
 * Many Valencian dialects, especially Southern Valencian, feature some sort of vowel harmony (harmonia vocàlica). This process is normally progressive (i.e. preceding vowels affect those pronounced afterwards) over the last unstressed vowel of a word; e.g. hora >  'hour'. 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 varieties assimilate both to the height and the quality of the preceding stressed vowel (e.g. terra  'Earth, land' and dona  'woman'); in other varieties, it is just the height that assimilates, so that terra and dona can be pronounced with either   or with , depending on the speaker.
 * In a wider sense, vowel harmony can occur in further instances, due to different processes involving palatalisation, velarisarion and labialisation
 * In certain cases, the unstressed become silent when followed or preceded by a stressed vowel: quinze anys.
 * In certain accents, vowels occurring at the end of a prosodic unit may be realized as centering diphthongs for special emphasis, so that Eh tu! Vine ací "Hey you! Come here!" may be pronounced . The non-syllabic is unrelated to this phenomenon as it is an unstressed non-syllabic allophone of  that occurs after vowels, much like in Spanish.

Consonants

 * The voiced stops are lenited to approximants  after a continuant, i.e. a vowel or any type of consonant other than a stop or nasal (exceptions include  after lateral consonants). These sounds are realised as voiceless plosives in the coda in standard Valencian.
 * can also be lenited in betacist dialects.
 * is often elided between vowels following a stressed syllable (found notably in feminine participles, →, and in the suffix -dor); e.g. fideuà  ( < fideuada) ' fideuà', mocador  'tissue' (note this feature, although widely spread in South Valencia, is not recommended in standard Valencian, except for reborrowed terms such as Albà, Roà, the previously mentioned fideuà, etc.).
 * Unlike other Catalan dialects, the clusters and  never geminate or fortify in intervocalic position (e.g. poble  'village').
 * The velar stops, are fronted to pre-velar position [, ] before front vowels: qui  ('who').
 * Valencian has preserved in most of its varieties the mediaeval voiced pre-palatal affricate (similar to the j in English "jeep") in contexts where other modern dialects have developed fricative consonants  (like the si in English "vision"), e.g. dijous  ('Thursday').
 * Note the fricative appears only as a voiced allophone of  before vowels and voiced consonants; e.g. peix al forn  'oven fish'.
 * Unlike other Catalan dialects, and  do not geminate (in most accents): metge  ('medic'), and cotxe  ('car'). Exceptions may include learned terms like pidgin  ('pidgin').
 * In the Standard, intervocalic, e.g. setze ('sixteen'), and , e.g. potser ('maybe'), are recommended to be pronounced with a gemination of the stop element ( and , respectively).
 * occurs in Balearic, Alguerese, standard Valencian and some areas in southern Catalonia (e.g. viu, 's/he lives'). It has merged with elsewhere.
 * is realized as an approximant after continuants: avanç  ('advance'). This is not transcribed in this article.
 * Deaffrication of to  in verbs ending in -itzar and derivatives: analitzar  ('to analise'), organització  ('organization'). Also in words like botzina  ('horn'), horitzó  ('horizon') and magatzem  ('storehouse') (c.f. guitza, 'bother').
 * Most varieties of Valencian preserve final stops in clusters (e.g., and ): camp 'field' (a feature shared with modern Balearic). Dialectally, all final clusters can be simplified.
 * is normally velarised, especially in the coda.
 * is generally dropped in the word altre ('other'), as well as in derived terms.
 * is mostly retained in the coda (e.g. estar, 'to be'), except for some cases where it is dropped: arbre ('tree") and diners  ('money'). In some dialects  can be further dropped in combinatory forms with infinitives and pronouns.
 * In some dialects, is pronounced  or  after . In the Standard only is accepted after  (in the inchoative form with  → ), and after : ells  ('they'). In some variants the result may be an affricate.

Morphology

 * The present first-person singular of verbs differs from Central Catalan. All those forms without final -o are more akin to mediaeval Catalan and contemporary Balearic Catalan.


 * Present subjunctive is more akin to medieval 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 generalised since there are Valencian dialects 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.
 * The infinitive veure ('to see') has the variant vore, which belongs to more informal and spontaneous registers.
 * The usage of the periphrasis of obligation tindre + que + infinitive is widely spread in colloquial Valencian, instead of the Standard haver + de (equivalent to English "have to").


 * 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 dialects (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 local variations for nosaltres, vosaltres ('we, you'): mosatros, moatros, matros, etc.; vosatros, voatros, vatros, etc.; also for the weak form mos/-mos instead of standard ens/'ns/-nos ('us') and vos/-vos instead of us/-vos ('you pl.'), the latter (vos, instead of us) considered standard.
 * 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:
 * , when it forms syllable with a pronoun: m'ho dóna, dóna-m'ho ('s/he gives it to me')
 * or, when it comes before a verb starting with consonant: ho dóna (or ) ('s/he gives it')
 * , when precedes a vowel or when coming after a vowel: li ho dóna ('s/he gives it to her/him'), dóna-ho  ('you give it')
 * , when it comes after a consonant or a semivowel: 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 dialects.
 * 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 Tortosan).

Vocabulary
Valencian vocabulary contains words both restricted to the Valencian-speaking domain, as well as words shared with other Catalan varieties, especially with Northwestern ones. Words are rarely spread evenly over the Valencian community, but are usually contained to parts of it, or spread out into other dialectal areas. Examples include hui 'today' (found in all of Valencia except transitional dialects, in Northern dialects avui) and espill 'mirror' (shared with Northwestern dialects, Central Catalan mirall). There is also variation within Valencia, such as 'corn', which is dacsa in Central and Southern Valencian, but panís in Alicante and Northern Valencian (as well as in Northwestern Catalan). Since Standard Valencian is based on the Southern dialect, words from this dialect are often used as primary forms in the standard language, despite other words traditionally being used in other Valencian dialects. Examples of this are tomaca 'tomato' (which is tomata outside of Southern Valencian) and matalaf 'mattress' (which is matalap in most of Valencia, including parts of the Southern Valencian area).

Below are a selection of words which differ or have different forms in Standard Valencian and Catalan. In many cases, both standards include this variation in their respective dictionaries, but differ as to what form is considered primary. In other cases, Valencian includes colloquial forms not present in the IEC standard. Primary forms in each standard are shown in bold (and may be more than one form). Words in brackets are present in the standard in question, but differ in meaning from how the cognate is used in the other standard.

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 Castelló (Normes de Castelló) 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 dialects

 * Transitional Valencian (valencià de transició) or Tortosan (tortosí): spoken only in the northernmost areas of the province of Castellon 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 $\langler\rangle$ is not pronounced in infinitives; e.g. cantar  (Standard ) ('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 Castellon's Valencian (valencià 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  (Standard ) '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  by some speakers; 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 are devoiced ; 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 dialect 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 dialect 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 dialects which maintains "full form" (me, ne, te, se, etc.).
 * Alicante's Valencian (valencià alacantí): spoken in the southern half of the province of Alicante, and the area of El 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 $\langler\rangle$ is not 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').

Authors and literature

 * Misteri d'Elx (c. 1350). Liturgical drama. Listed as Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
 * Curial e Güelfa (15th century), humanistic chivalric romance
 * Ausiàs March (Gandia, 1400 – Valencia, 3 March 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 poet.
 * 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.

Media in Valencian
Until its dissolution in November 2013, the public-service Ràdio Televisió Valenciana (RTVV) was the main broadcaster of radio and television in Valencian language. The Generalitat Valenciana constituted it in 1984 in order to guarantee the freedom of information of the Valencian people in their own language. It was reopened again in 2018 in the same location but under a different name, À Punt, and it is owned by À Punt Media, a group owned by the Generalitat Valenciana. The new television channel claims to be plural, informative and neutral for all of the Valencian population. It is bilingual, with a focus on the Valencian language. It's recognised as a regional TV channel.

Prior to its dissolution, the administration of RTVV under the People's Party (PP) had been controversial due to accusations of ideological manipulation and lack of plurality. The news broadcast was accused of giving marginal coverage of the Valencia Metro derailment in 2006 and the indictment of President de la Generalitat Francisco Camps in the Gürtel scandal in 2009. Supervisors appointed by the PP were accused of sexual harassment.

In face of an increasing debt due to excessive expenditure by the PP, RTVV announced in 2012 a plan to shed 70% of its labour. The plan was nullified on 5 November 2013 by the National Court after trade unions appealed against it. On that same day, the President de la Generalitat Alberto Fabra (also from PP) announced RTVV would be closed, claiming that reinstating the employees was untenable. On 27 November, the legislative assembly passed the dissolution of RTVV and employees organised to take control of the broadcast, starting a campaign against the PP. Nou TV's last broadcast ended abruptly when Spanish police pulled the plug at 12:19 on 29 November 2013.

Having lost all revenues from advertisements and facing high costs from the termination of hundreds of contracts, critics question whether the closure of RTVV has improved the financial situation of the Generalitat, and point out to plans to benefit private-owned media. Currently, the availability of media in the Valencian language is extremely limited. All the other autonomous communities in Spain, including the monolingual ones, have public-service broadcasters, with the Valencian Community being the only exception despite being the fourth most populated.

In July 2016 a new public corporation, Valencian Media Corporation, was launched in substitution of RTVV. It manages and controls several public media in the Valencian Community, including the television channel À Punt, which started broadcasting in June 2018.

Politico-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 Language Academy (Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, AVL) considers Valencian and Catalan to be two names for the same language.

""

The AVL was established in 1998 by the PP-UV government of Eduardo Zaplana. According to El País, Jordi Pujol, then president of Catalonia and of the CiU, negotiated with Zaplana in 1996 to ensure the linguistic unity of Catalan in exchange for CiU support of the appointment of José María Aznar as Prime Minister of Spain. Zaplana has denied this, claiming that "[n]ever, never, was I able to negotiate that which is not negotiable, neither that which is not in the negotiating scope of a politician. That is, the unity of the language". The AVL orthography is based on the Normes de Castelló, a set of rules for writing Valencian established in 1932.

A rival set of rules, called Normes del Puig, were established in 1979 by the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture (Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana, RACV), which considers itself a rival language academy to the AVL, and promotes an alternative orthography, treating Valencian as an independent language, as opposed to a variety of Catalan. Compared to Standard Valencian, this orthography excludes many words not traditionally used in the Valencian Community, and also prefers spellings such as ⟨ch⟩ for /tʃ/ and ⟨y⟩ for /j/ (as in Spanish). Besides, these alternative Norms are also promoted and taught by the cultural association Lo Rat Penat. Valencian is classified as a Western dialect, along with the North-Western varieties spoken in Western Catalonia (Province of Lleida and most of the Province of Tarragona). The various forms of Catalan and Valencian are mutually intelligible (ranging from 90% to 95%)

Despite the position of the official organizations, an opinion poll carried out between 2001 and 2004 showed that the majority (65%) of the Valencian people (both Valencian and Spanish speakers) consider Valencian different from Catalan: this position is promoted by people who do not use Valencian regularly. Furthermore, the data indicate that younger people educated in Valencian speaking areas are considerably less likely to hold these views. According to an official poll in 2014, 54% of Valencians considered Valencian to be a language different from Catalan, while 41% considered the languages to be the same. By applying a binary logistic regression to the same data, it was also found that different opinions about the unity of the language are different between people with certain levels of studies and the opinion also differs between each of the Valencian provinces. The opinion agreeing on the unity of Valencian and Catalan has significant differences regarding age, level of education and province of residence, with a majority of those aged 18–24 (51%) and those with a higher education (58%) considering Valencian to be the same language as Catalan. This can be compared to those aged 65 and above (29%) and those with only primary education (32%), where the same view has its lowest support. People living in the province of Castellón are more prone to be in favor of the unity of the language, while people living in the province of Alicante are more prone to be against the unity of the language, especially in the areas where Valencian is not a mandatory language at schools. Later studies also showed that the results differ significantly depending on the way the question is posed.

The ambiguity regarding the term Valencian and its relation to Catalan has sometimes led to confusion and controversy. In 2004, during the drafting of the European Constitution, the regional governments of Spain where a language other than Spanish is co-official were asked to submit translations into the relevant language in question. Since different names are used in Catalonia ("Catalan") and in the Valencian Community ("Valencian"), the two regions each provided one version, which were identical to each other.