NJF Team¿Italian? ¿French? ¿Portuguese? ¿Spanish? NO… Català
Barcelona is a multicultural city where the variety of sounds, pronunciations and accents from different parts of the world stands out. Nevertheless, Barcelona is the capital of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, a region with its own language that extends to other territories of its surroundings, including European countries.
The Catalan, as well as Spanish, is the official language at Catalonia which originates from the vulgar latin, meaning, the latin popularly spoken at the streets. It is a language that had lots of influence from French, Italian and Spanish which is why it is not difficult to confuse its words with these languages. Catalan has many variants that have developed through the rest of Spanish communities such as the Community of Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Eastern Region of Aragon and a part of the Region of Murcia. On the other hand, there is France, Italy and, above all, Andorra where it is the official language.
In 1939, during the time of the dictator Franco in Spain, the use of Catalan was prohibited in the streets so it was obliged to speak only Spanish. The Catalan language was used at home and was not taught at schools, reason why it was a time that put into risk the continuation of it among the new generations. After the fall of Franco and once again, the arrival of the democratic government, it was possible to recover the importance of the Catalan language in the culture of a region rooted to its customs and own roots.
Today a lot of Catalans admire the way in which the foreigners have opened to know the language and have learned it thanks to the facilities that are given by Barcelona´s City Hall through the Language Normalization Center and the different language schools that are in the city.
Here you can find some words to surprise in Catalan.
Bon dia Good Morning
Si us plau Please
Merci Thanks
D´accord Ok, agreed
Com va tot? ¿How is everything going?
Que hi vagi bé Hope everything goes well
Pá amb tomaquet Bread with tomato (a classic)
Bon profit Have a good meal
Bona nit Good night
Fins després See you later
Adeu Bye
Bona sort! (Good luck!)
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