Previous installments: Occitan, Luxembourgish
In tribute to the Catalonians voting for greater autonomy from Spain this past Sunday, this week's language is Catalan.
Catalan is spoken by about 10 million people primarily in the Spanish regions of Catalonia, Valencia and Balearic Islands, but also in Andorra, southern France and northwestern Italy. Like Spanish, Catalan is a romance language. It is occasionally, and controversially, considered to be merely a dialect of Occitan, which is spoken in neighbouring regions. A perhaps even more contentious matter is whether the Catalan dialect spoken in Valencia (called Valencian) should be considered a distinct separate language.
In English, the word cul-de-sac, a dead-end street, is considered to be of either French or Catalan origin. Barrack is derived from the Catalan word barraca.
Famed Spanish author Carlos Ru�z Zaf�n was born in Barcelona, Catalonia. He has written in Catalan, though Ru�z Zaf�n's most famous novel, La Sombra del Viento (The Shadow of the Wind) was written in Spanish.
For more information on Catalan, check out the English Wikipedia entry, or alternatively the Catalan one.
