Tuesday, May 10, 2005, 17:29 GMT
Cher Greg:
Obviously, popular northern Catalan has taken most 19th and 20th century concepts sharing them with French whilst Catalan spoken on the Spanish side often shares those concepts with Castilian Spanish. Over 90% of French Catalans cannot write their language because it hasn't been taught in French schools. Nowadays there is quite a movement and several thousand children are learning either at Bressola Primary Schools or Catalan as a subject in quite a few public primary schools. It is a major problem because, as you know, French is the only language of the French according to French laws.
I'll put just an example: In Catalan we say "cotxe" (Castilian "coche" pronounced the same way) whilst popular Northern Catalan will say and pronounce (French spelling) "baitoura" (voiture). Since there is no "v/b" difference in many Catalan dialects and the French and Occitan "ü" doesn't exist they just adopt the French word to their phonetic habits.
To say P.O. Box we say Apartat de Correus in Standard Central Catalan (Spanish: Apartado de Correos) whilst northern popular Catalan will say "Bouata Postala" (Boite Postale).
Northern Catalan has a few traditional Occitanisms (feda for general Catalan "ovella" to say sheep) and also keeps some mediaeval archaic forms which have been forgotten in Central Catalan. Another example. It's "la jubilació" on the Spanish side of Catalan and "la retreta" (la retraite) to say what the English would call "retirement" after your working life.
People with French education will have many more franciscms than peasants with little education or Northern Catalan speakers with a high fluency in Standard or Literary Catalan.
This said, Central Standard Catalan hasn't always taken the same solutions as Castilian (95% of the Catalan-speakers live in Spanish territory). Since the 19th century and during the 20th century many "classical" Catalan words have come back into common use. I'll just put an example.The classical Catalan "bústia" has been adopted again to say a mail box. Older speakers will often say the Castilian "busó" (adaptacion of Castilian "buzón") but everybody under 50 will now say "bústia" again and many of the older speakers are also saying this. Another example would be "gespa" (cesped in Spanish, gazon or pelouse in French, lawn or grass in English). "Gespa" was a mediaeval literary word and almost everybody says it now although it had been long forgotten.
This is why I say that the unity of a language often depends on political factors. Although younger speakers (all over the world) tend to have "a more basic" vocabulary than their grand-parents since agriculture is less and less important they will, on the other hand, have a more pure vocabulary.
For most of the new vocabulary I would say almost everybody depends on English. What I feel is that contemporary European French is borrowing anglicisms in traditional fields. That isn't so much the case in the Iberian peninsula. Nobody here would say "le weekend" and it's absolutely "el cap de setmana" in Catalan and "el fin de semana" in Castilian. Since I speak very Standard Literary French I'm often looked on my other Frenchman. One French scholar was delighted once and he told me: "mais vous parlez du français pur". My French first cousins are convinced I'm some kind of weirdo and they usually tell me "persone (ne)parle comme ça". Why on earth can't I say "le linge" to the clothes I wear inside?
When a linguistic community is divided into two countries or empires they will be very interested in making them believe they have always spoken differently. If that goes on for many generations it usually leads to the the death of these small languages. There can also be a political and geographical interest in keeping those languages as different as possible. Why hasn't English evolved into a different language in South Africa whilst Afrikaans has? An interesting question indeed.
Obviously, popular northern Catalan has taken most 19th and 20th century concepts sharing them with French whilst Catalan spoken on the Spanish side often shares those concepts with Castilian Spanish. Over 90% of French Catalans cannot write their language because it hasn't been taught in French schools. Nowadays there is quite a movement and several thousand children are learning either at Bressola Primary Schools or Catalan as a subject in quite a few public primary schools. It is a major problem because, as you know, French is the only language of the French according to French laws.
I'll put just an example: In Catalan we say "cotxe" (Castilian "coche" pronounced the same way) whilst popular Northern Catalan will say and pronounce (French spelling) "baitoura" (voiture). Since there is no "v/b" difference in many Catalan dialects and the French and Occitan "ü" doesn't exist they just adopt the French word to their phonetic habits.
To say P.O. Box we say Apartat de Correus in Standard Central Catalan (Spanish: Apartado de Correos) whilst northern popular Catalan will say "Bouata Postala" (Boite Postale).
Northern Catalan has a few traditional Occitanisms (feda for general Catalan "ovella" to say sheep) and also keeps some mediaeval archaic forms which have been forgotten in Central Catalan. Another example. It's "la jubilació" on the Spanish side of Catalan and "la retreta" (la retraite) to say what the English would call "retirement" after your working life.
People with French education will have many more franciscms than peasants with little education or Northern Catalan speakers with a high fluency in Standard or Literary Catalan.
This said, Central Standard Catalan hasn't always taken the same solutions as Castilian (95% of the Catalan-speakers live in Spanish territory). Since the 19th century and during the 20th century many "classical" Catalan words have come back into common use. I'll just put an example.The classical Catalan "bústia" has been adopted again to say a mail box. Older speakers will often say the Castilian "busó" (adaptacion of Castilian "buzón") but everybody under 50 will now say "bústia" again and many of the older speakers are also saying this. Another example would be "gespa" (cesped in Spanish, gazon or pelouse in French, lawn or grass in English). "Gespa" was a mediaeval literary word and almost everybody says it now although it had been long forgotten.
This is why I say that the unity of a language often depends on political factors. Although younger speakers (all over the world) tend to have "a more basic" vocabulary than their grand-parents since agriculture is less and less important they will, on the other hand, have a more pure vocabulary.
For most of the new vocabulary I would say almost everybody depends on English. What I feel is that contemporary European French is borrowing anglicisms in traditional fields. That isn't so much the case in the Iberian peninsula. Nobody here would say "le weekend" and it's absolutely "el cap de setmana" in Catalan and "el fin de semana" in Castilian. Since I speak very Standard Literary French I'm often looked on my other Frenchman. One French scholar was delighted once and he told me: "mais vous parlez du français pur". My French first cousins are convinced I'm some kind of weirdo and they usually tell me "persone (ne)parle comme ça". Why on earth can't I say "le linge" to the clothes I wear inside?
When a linguistic community is divided into two countries or empires they will be very interested in making them believe they have always spoken differently. If that goes on for many generations it usually leads to the the death of these small languages. There can also be a political and geographical interest in keeping those languages as different as possible. Why hasn't English evolved into a different language in South Africa whilst Afrikaans has? An interesting question indeed.