EL CATALÀ! The Catalan Language is Fascinating

[@Langfocus]

Hi everyone! I hope you like the new video! Check out Pablo's channel "Dreaming Spanish", he deserves more subs! kzbin.info/door/ouyFdE9-Lrjo3M_2idKq1A (He's the guy saying the Catalan sentences in the video). Also: ►Learn a language with native teachers online using italki: go.italki.com/1Ojye8x --► My favorite way to practices languages!

[@AndyMoonKR]

Great job!

[@Laekaja]

His voice is melts like butter. So smooth

[@marccarrerasv]

I'm sorry to point this out, but as a native Catalan speaker, the sentence "M'ha donat els diners aquest matí" does not mean the same as "M'ho ha donat aquest matí". The correct substitution would be "M'els ha donat aquest matí", since "els diners" is a definite masculine object.

[@dustgreylynx]

Oh yes, and also would be cool to quenya/sindarin video :)

[@maghraouimehadji2412]

Of course, I like it as usual 😊😊

[@laiaferran9727]

i'm catalan and honestly i'm so surprised by the accuracy of this video. really great job !

[@UncleMichaelable]

This guy is well studied when he speaks about any language.

[@keatkhamjornmeekanon7616]

He forgets Catalan spoken in Pepignan, France.

[@erwinedditya9854]

Hi Laia, are you interested in exchanging language with Indonesian?

[@2011nbn]

No you’re not!

[@laiaferran9727]

@@erwinedditya9854 hi, i'm actually not learning indonesian but i would still love to help you with your catalan !!

[@marialuizadeoliveira5916]

When I first watched Merlí, I thought "It's Portuguese, no, it's Italian, no, it's Spanish. But I don't understand what they say! Why???". I'm a Brazilian Portuguese native speaker and I understand very well Italian and Spanish. Catalan is an amazing and beautiful language. Great job, Paul.

[@endrewtkm]

Estou assistindo Merlí tbm

[@Ronaldo-rt7hl]

Same when I first watch Merlí I kept asking asking myself why wasn’t I understanding 😅😂

[@blaznfattyz]

it has a little of all romance languages in it. so thats why people would be confused.

[@juandiegovalverde1982]

Lola, but you are Spanish.

[@joret9814]

@@juandiegovalverde1982 or from andorra, or perpignan, or from alguero you don't know.

[@Mr._Lechkar]

I love the way how you decipher languages Paul. Keep up the good work 😉

[@juanbaez4955]

CANADA HAS GIVEN A GENIUS IN LANGUAGES AND IS PAUL OF LANG FOCUS.

[@davidrosner6267]

Paul, you do a great job explaining the mechanics of languages to the masses! Having studied Latin in secondary school, I am intrigued by your videos!

[@amadorluque7112]

Te olvidas del Aranes , idioma también oficial en Catalunya

[@ElinT13]

I am half German half Italian, and I speak French and learned Latin. I find Catalan in some ways very similar to Italian, and I once conversed with a Catalan in Italian while he answered me in Catalan. That worked well and was very fun!

[@antoni-olafsabater9729]

Sure !

[@carlescastellollopis5855]

In the Alger a Island of Italy continue speaking catalan, due to the expansion of Corona d’Aragó that happend on the XV century by Alfons V el Magnànim.

[@francescch]

Yes! It's easy for catalan speakers to understand italian people (each one in its own language).

[@amanitecaesar3892]

Italian has a dialect called Tarantino that is brutally similar to catalan.

[@cadian101st]

According to ethnologue Italian is the most similar major Romance language to Catalan in terms of shared vocabulary. Probably the maritime connections across the western Mediterranean mutually influencing word usage

[@xMarcoMax]

Great video, but I have only a little thing to add: I'm from Alghero and here we don't exactly speak Catalan, but what we could call a Catalan dialect, the Algherese (what a surprise). In fact, our dialect is basically the Catalan language of the 14th-15th century, so we can say that it is the "arcaic" version of modern Catalan, mixed a little bit with Sardinian and Italian, so some words are not the same; because of that, we can have an almost perfect conversation with Catalans. I just wanted to add this little information :)

[@tenienteramires4428]

Realment l'Alguerés és molt paregut al meu dialecte del català. Jo soc del d'una zona on també diem "lo pare" i "los hòmens" :)

[@sissi9367]

Wow *-* so if i talk to you in Catalan (I'm from Barcelona) you would understand me?

[@pipocalavera]

és bo saber-ho :)

[@xMarcoMax]

@@sissi9367 Yes, more or less. When I was a child I went to Barcelona with my school and my teacher always talked with the receptionist of the hotel in dialect with total underatanding between them 😁

[@danigonzalez4299]

Visca els germans algueresos!

[@nikobellic570]

Surprisingly good natured comment section. No political flame wars here that i can see. Just language enthusiasts!

[@ekx5120]

Topic was not abandoned and dealt with like adults. That's the kind of KZbin commenters they are. Kudos.

[@jpferraz4000]

Escreveu pouco e "disse" tudo! Greetings from Brazil!

[@aplicacionsaranya4241]

I'm Catalan. I love any language. My pitty it's not to have enough lifetime to learn all of them. Just a language enthusiasts. Thanks a lot.

[@johngower2086]

I had to laugh at his social warnings. It is true, don’t fall for the Valencian trap. I did get an Andorran passport stamp and teased my Catalan friends that I was the only one of us with Catalan in my passport.

[@gigieinaudi24]

Giusto ci penso io...Espanya merda sempre visca Catalunya lliure 🎗☺️

[@jake_oliver]

I'm a native speaker of portuguese and I can understand 100% of written catalan but 0% of spoken catalan

[@Lara-fx4ex]

hahaha I am catalan and the samee with portuguese

[@NothingFunnyAboutTheseCarpets]

Hahaha this is so accurate

[@bwuwohk.o2016]

Specially with the accents😅

[@llagona]

AS a Native speaker of south Catalan (Valenciano) I could not understand the very first months of Catalan TV back when it started broadcasting here in Valencia (Valencia and Cataluña are different regions). There's a town 4 km south of mine where they pronunciate some letters in some words weirdly for us

[@paum2]

That’s because people speak very fast, but you can read it as slow as you want to understand it

[@111mckenzie]

As a Catalan speaker, it’s great how easy it is for us to learn French or Italian for us compared to other people, even Spaniards. It’s crazy how much closer it is

[@spiguy]

As a French speaker, Catalan seems more gentle than Italian and more intelligible than Spanish.

[@Ennio444]

I am a Catalan native speaker and I took a course of Occitan while I was living in Montpellier. My experience was that Occitan was ridiculously close and easy to learn. The teacher even told me that I should not try to mimic her pronunciation because her family, like most Occitan speakers, skipped a generation and she had a thick French accent with stress on the last vowels, gutural rolling r's and all; instead, she said I should just use my own Catalan pronounciation with some Mistralian extra rules (like the A's at end of feminines pronounced O's, which was hard to pull out, especially because Aranese Occitan speakers in Catalonia don't do it). All in all, it was like learning a different dialect more than a new language. Very similar to going to Mallorca, where a combination of thick, different accent (weak vowels in stressed syllables, for instance, is natural to a Balearic speaker but counter inutuitive to a central Catalan speaker) and new vocabulary makes for very confusing "I though we spoke the same language!" moments. By the way, kudos for the way you lampshaded the quagmire of politics embroiled in the language discussion ;)

[@kanut5493]

Amazing to see some strangers learning occitan :) And yes Catalan is like a sibling language for us occitans :)

[@kanut5493]

@Macuahuitl the french are usually horribly bad with their accent... They do no effort. That's the same when a french person start speaking in English...

[@familhagaudir8561]

Do you want some bonus irony for the accent recomendations from the Occitan teacher? The traditional variety of Occitan spoken in and around Montpelhièr maintains the final -a. It did not shift to -o as in most other varieties.

[@PainterVierax]

Well, it's the same with the Breton language taught in Diwan schools : teachers aren't native speakers and it sound weird compared to elder's speaking. I don't know if it's a French particularity but we suck in language learning/teaching :D I had an English teacher with Ch'ti accent and another with Congolese accent… my German teachers were better.

[@PainterVierax]

thanks Sylvana but I guess speaking English is most challenging for native speakers of Roman languages than writing it. ;) In France particularly, our language courses are more based on reading, writing and listening than oral expression and we're generally not very flexible and tolerant in comprehension : average Frenchs don't understand Québec dialects or even their own regional language, and creoles are often gibberish even if some of those overseas' places are still parts of France. Since the third Republic, French medias and institutions tends to crush language diversity and in the meantime are very conservative regarding English language (almost all movies/series are dubbed). Even if it gets a bit better now with internet and regionalism, Metropolitan Frenchs are still bad at languages.

[@Vulcanwoman]

"Warning! Abandon topic Abandon topic!"

[@taimark3286]

Yoo nice profile picture man

[@David280GG]

Deez

[@NazriB]

Lies again? Ezlink Card Euro Currency

[@David280GG]

@@NazriB what

[@hortalissa]

Hey, as a Catalan myself, it’s a great surprise to see this video! I enjoy this channel a lot, thanks!

[@annarr5543]

Same here!

[@judna1]

Força! 😊💪🏽

[@schiarazula]

Since Andorra is an independent country, Catalan can be considered an official language at the national level.

[@Abanico751]

Yes, it is.

[@ARCPolus]

Andorra also speaks French unofficially. Technically you can consider Catalan an official language at the national level but it's a micronation with 77 thousand inhabitants, so it barely counts for anything.

[@Abanico751]

@@ARCPolus French is not unofficial in Andorra. Both, Catalan and French are official and Catalan is also a national language in Catalonia, part of France and Alghero in Sardinia.

[@ARCPolus]

@@Abanico751 Catalan is the only official language in Andorra. It is also the historical and traditional language of the country used by government, television, radio, and other national media and is the main language of all the people living in the territory of Andorran nationality, who constitute 33% of the total population. Spanish is the second most spoken language due to Spanish immigrants going to live in the principality. Meanwhile only 7% of the population is French and most speak Catalan.

[@Abanico751]

@@ARCPolus Oh, my God! That's not true at all. Official languages in Andorra are French and Catalan. That's because State Government is divided between la Seu bishop and France President. Numbre of speaking people is just another question but school is bilingual in both languages. Please, visit the country and inform yourself.

[@noemidiaz6817]

Sóc l'única catalana que ha vist el vídeo per curiositat? Hahaha, no he pogut trobar a ningú als comentaris provinent de Catalunya. Em sembla una llengua molt tendre i bonica. Visca el català i visca la terra!

[@Trollcar]

No, yo soc catala

[@Trollcar]

Visca el catala i la terra

[@relleno24]

Una llengua molt tendra.

[@Samaruk]

Jo soc de Castelló i també ho he vist per curiositat.

[@Ishkar]

No pas, hi ha prous catalans per aquí xD

[@wisdon]

I'm from a city in the center of Italy is very similar to Catalan and when I went Barcelona I spoke my dialect and we understood each other

[@montimuros2837]

Are you from La Gàrdia?

[@guilvg]

What you speak is not a dialect, is a language.

[@pallll12r]

Di dove sei

[@relleno24]

Vaig estar a Roma . I allí feien una campanya per a recollir la merda dels gossos. Al cartell deia RECULLA-LI-LA. Així és com ho diria un valencià. Roma té influència dels Borja.

[@deadoralive923]

Yes, im from the north coast of Girona(gerunda)In L'empordà (emporio) and we speak a dialect thats really similar to the Italian spoken in Rome. I understand more Roman italian than the Oficial. When i was living there i learned Roman dialect cause was reallt similar and if i speak in catalan was easy to understand each other, and more if i use some antic catalan words. Lenguage is a Joy

[@salvadoralvarezbonet3783]

I'm catalan (central dialect, but not the barceloní) and I think that Occitan and the northern Italian languages are the closest to the catalan, and by pronunciation I think the Portuguese is very close to us too. Greetings from the Penedès region

[@KirillTheBeast]

I'm from Barcelona and I've grown to hate my own dialect because of how dry it feels, bro. The cool thing is that having lived in Zaragoza for a couple of years and then moving to Lleida for a decade, now nobody can guess where I'm from but everybody knows I'm not from around.

[@krampus3556]

I often thought it sounds kind of Portuguese when I heard an interview in catalan. Interesting that a native agrees with that.

[@Rafael36967]

I'm portuguese and I'm currently living in Barcelona. I don't think that both languages are similar, except the pronunciation of the "Bom dia" that its almost the same thing ahaha

[@goodlife6277]

Sou português e de facto a pronúncia catalã tem uma forte semelhança com a nossa língua.

[@botelladeagua4750]

Simply not true for Italian. I'm Catalan

[@tcbbctagain572]

As a portuguese speaker 🇵🇹, that lived in Catalonia for 15 months i have to say that when it comes to pronunciation and phonology Catalan feels like it's closer to Portuguese than to Spanish. When i heard people speaking Catalan from the distance, it literally felt like they were speaking Portuguese

[@Rafael36967]

Estou a viver em Barcelona já há alguns meses, e pelo menos a mim parece me tudo menos parecido ao Português, exceto no típico "bon dia" que aí é praticamente igual, mas de resto acho-a uma lingua muito particular e muito diferente das outras, o mais parecido ainda me parece o Italiano mas mesmo assim existe uma diferença bem grande.

[@jeanlundi2141]

@@Rafael36967 Se achas o catalão mais proximo em som do italiano que do português, só posso concluir que tás bêbado.

[@Rafael36967]

@@jeanlundi2141 Poderia ser o caso, mas após 4 meses do meu comentário e de conviver diariamente com catalães há já praticamente um ano, continuo a achar o mesmo 😂 E pelo menos os Catalães com quem já falei sobre isto também não acham que Português-Catalão sejam linguas parecidas.

[@jeanlundi2141]

@@Rafael36967 Em termos de escrita e algumas expressões têm algumas parecenças com o francês e italiano, por razões óbvias. Mas fonéticamente, em termos de como a lingua soa falada, a parecença com o português PT é bem notória. Se calhar os teus amigos também tão bêbados ;)

[@jw-ws8dz]

Are you from Portugal? To me Catalan sounds more like Spanish than Portuguese (especially European Portuguese). Catalan has much less complicated phonology than Portuguese and has a more similar vowel inventory to Spanish. However, it could be that the Catalan I'm used to hearing (i.e. from young people) has been"corrupted" by Spanish. More "pure" Catalan (for example, when spoken by my partner's dad, who's in his 70s) sounds like a hybrid between Spanish and French.

[@caioalmeida7452]

I'm a native speaker of Portuguese, and I didn't have lots of complications learning Catalan, I'm not a native in Catalan, but I started to understand better Italian, Occitan and a little French. I'm just in love for Catalan, and I recommend to learn because Catalan is a very beautiful language!

[@josemaj.5ona989]

Eso que dices es justo lo que me pasa a mí, hablo español y catalán y debido a ello entender el occitano y el italiano me resulta fácil tanto si es hablado como escrito, pero con el francés sólo lo entiendo bien cuando es escrito. Por cierto, el portugués de Portugal nunca lo he estudiado pero lo entiendo bien tanto si es hablado como escrito. En cambio le portugués de Brasil sólo lo entiendo si es escrito. ¿A qué crees que se puede deber eso?. Saludos desde España :-)

[@aplicacionsaranya4241]

@@josemaj.5ona989 No soy lingüista pero creo que el parecido que todos notamos entre Portugués, Catalán, Occità, Italiano y Español y ya no tanto con el Francès es porque el francés tuvo mucha influencia de los francos (el nombre mismo viene de ellos) y franco era el famoso Carlomagno de l'imperio germano con capital en Aachen (niederdeutsch). Bueno más o menos. Me disculpo por posibles generalizaciones.

[@josemaj.5ona989]

@@aplicacionsaranya4241 , yo tampoco soy lingüista, y de este tema hablo por hablar, que quede claro :) , pero si se piensa bien, germanos como eran los francos, también eran los visigodos, que se asentaron por casi toda la Península Ibérica, así como los suevos, que crearon el primer reino independiente en lo que ahora es Galicia y parte de Portugal, tras la caída del Imperio Romano de Occidente, o los ostrogodos, que se asentaron por casi toda la Península Itálica. No sé, yo he oído teorías, para explicar el porqué de esa pronunciación del francés tan peculiar, que van desde que en Francia se mantuvo la manera de pronunciar que tenían los celtas, pese a haber sido romanizados por Julio César, a que esa manera de pronunciar se debe a que los francos tenían un acento germano muy cerrado. Supongo que nunca quedará claro el porqué de esa manera tan peculiar de pronunciar que tienen los franceses, porque en el caso de los rumanos se sabe a ciencia cierta que pese a venir del latín tb su idioma, éste ha sido muy influido por las lenguas eslavas que tiene alrededor. El caso de la pronunciación del francés es un misterio.

[@aplicacionsaranya4241]

@@josemaj.5ona989 Ostres m'has fet sentir altre cop com gaudia amb tots aquests grups de pobles que has esmentat. Això del misteri. Hipòtesi personal no per solucionar-ho però poder sí , poder acostar-nos més. Actualment som humans aquí amb els nostre ordinadors, .... No crec que per això tinguem més CI o les nostres mans funcionin millor, ... No vull dir que ens fem vestits de l'època i agafem un cavall però ja que tenim força informació, posar-nos en el seu lloc, fer proves amb les possibles evolucions. No sé, segurament una bestiesa. T'agraeixo els mots que has compartit amb mi.

[@cuylerotsuka]

The first Romance language I studied was Spanish, followed by French, then Portuguese and now Catalan. I have known about Catalan since I studied Spanish ten years ago, but hadn't begun studying the actual language until very recently. What strikes me are the similarities to French in terms of vocabulary (matí-matin, gaire-guère, finestra-fenêtre, semblar-sembler, netejar-nettoyer), but the pronunciation is very much similar to Spanish or Italian with the trilled r, or Portuguese with the open and closed vowels. Actually, one of the features that stand out to me as unique wasn't mentioned in this video--the "eix" infix when conjugating -ir verbs (llegeixo, tradueixes, existeix, protegeixen). A phonological feature that stands out to me is the prominence of "ll" and "ny" in final positions (lluny, Llull, any, pertany, vall) since Spanish never has "ll" or "ñ" at the end of words. El català em sembla una llengua molt bonica! Bona feina, Paul!

[@lluiscalvet329]

Hiii I can help you with the catalan I you want :D

[@AriiAR]

Qué maco veure gent que vol aprendre el català! Moltes gràcies!

[@lilylarkspur1424]

Cuyler Otsuka catalan is like spanish, italian, french and portuguese in one

[@rocmiraclepallares7504]

Això es deu a que els catalans històricament som més propers al francès que al castellà.

[@gunnercanhampla4498]

Estudiar catala es una perduda de temps,tots els catalans/valencians/mallorquins parlem espanyol.Millor estudia un altre llenguatge que et siga util de veritat

[@torsora]

As native Catalan speaker, I feel Occitan is the closest to our language, I also can understand some Italian and French, we share a lot of words, sometimes more than we do with Spanish. Visca el català i l'occità!

[@eb.3764]

they are part of the same family tree and used to be a part of catalonia so

[@IzquierdoFogued]

I am from Valencia and I agree with the video almost in its entirety. Good job.

[@20thReality]

You shouldn't have done this. I have a shower to take. Now I have to watch this video. Keep up with the good work btw :)

[@Ketler47]

Showers can wait. Languages can't.

[@200555280]

I put my phone on window panel when I shower so far no drown accident happened yet

[@frostedflame]

I use a waterproof bluetooth speaker. I have been known to listen to LangFocus vids in the shower with it.

[@Helgi105]

You can't hear him in the shower.

[@1987Marineta]

I'm a Catalan speaker, and I've just been to Italy (Milan). It was surprisingly so easy to understand, even spoken. As for written, I'd say French is very similar to Catalan in loads of expressions and ways to say things. As a fun fact, I speak the Balear dialect, and the pronounciation is pretty different in a lot of cases. Just to show an example of how different the dialects are: "The dog is looking for its toy" Western Catalan "El gos està buscant la seva joguina" Balearic Catalan "Es ca cerca sa seva jogueta" Great vid!

[@ricardandres2883]

És que realment s'assemblen bastant. Nosaltres vam estar per tota Itàlia fa un any i parlàvem en català sense problemes! :)

[@pnkcnlng228]

I'm from Lombardy too (Como), do you know that the Lombard, the lenguage of the Lombard people is very similar to catàlan, I can understand Catàlan because I speak Lombard very well

[@ilikedolphins3059]

Tens rao

[@artuurgarmau__5625]

A les illes balears parlen com nosaltres pero amb ainonims de paraules que a catalunya no sutilitzen per exempla ca es correcte amb catala i cerca tambe pero nosaltres no utilitzem mai aquestes paraules

[@ulfurkarlsson5885]

I was in Valencia and saw street signs in local language . Something closely related to Catalan and the islands languages .

[@mr08tsx]

Portuguese is my mother language. I find Catalan an intriguing and interesting language. Just returned from vacationing on the island of Menorca; 11 days were not enough. I was in paradise. I've been watching MERLI, on Netflix, and I'm in love with the language.

[@diogorodrigues747]

But it's a very hard language to understand, despite the common sounds and word order.

[@mr08tsx]

Diogo Rodrigues Agree. But in “love” with it, nonetheless. 😎

[@euricofonseca8514]

I'm Portuguese too and catalan is more similar to in speaking than the galego.

[@diogorodrigues747]

@@euricofonseca8514 Acho que estás errado, pois o galego que tu ouves é "mascarado".

[@euricofonseca8514]

@@diogorodrigues747 Estou a falar da pronúncia em exclusivo, que se assemelha imenso ao português de Portugal. De resto, o galego é bem mais semelhante como óbvio, no entanto o galego tem uma pronúncia semelhante ao espanhol.

[@pkate2199]

I’m russian and I can speak catalan a little. As for me it’s the most interesting Romance language. I can speak also Italian and Spanish but Catalan definitely is my favorite

[@gaborodriguez1346]

As a romance speaker, Spanish is my first language, I also find interesting Catalan. Although it's not the most interesting for me.

[@theknightswhosay]

I bet you’d have an easy time with Romanian

[@FutbolDePasillo]

Wow! És bonic llegir això

[@homoshomos4566]

why ? I wanna know why Catalan is the most interesting Romance language for you, Please .

[@pkate2199]

@@homoshomos4566 First of all because it’s not mainstream, you know 🙂 then I just adore Catalan phonetics. In Russian we have a lot of similar sounds but some Catalan words is such a struggle for a non native Catalan speaker. I remember when my classmates tried to conjugate the verb “llegir”, like «llegeixo”, “llegeixes” etc. l think I’ve never laughed so hard in my life😅 but I do like the way Catalan sounds. For me it sounds like Spanish, French, Portuguese, Latin and a bit of Italian combined...or like Spanish spoken in reverse 🙂 oh, and of course els pronoms febles - still have no idea how this stuff works 🤯 In short, I like Catalan cause it’s very unique. Btw I also like Catalan literature and “algo muere cada día” by Susana March is one of my favorite books ever 🙂

[@GaryBickford]

Paul, my friend from Romania, who speaks several languages, recently traveled to Barcelona. He discovered that he could understand and speak Catalan quite well. He opined that Catalan is nearly identical to classical Romanian from the early 1800s. What are your thoughts?

[@TradingNirvana]

Gary Bickford Well, that is, to put it mildly, a wild exaggeration. I’m a Romanian, living in Valencia for 3 years. There are a few very similar words and expressions, but it definitely isn’t anything like Classical Romanian overall. It’s rather a weird mix of French and Spanish.

[@fasca100]

I speak romanian and I found a lot of similarities

[@alexsasplu]

@@fasca100 I'm Catalan, and I find romanian really close to catalan sometimes, we have more than 2,000 identic words in common, and you can find texts like for example the national anthems of both nations and you'll be able to understand some of their meanings. Brother nations🥰. És un lucre molt bo cercar similituds entre les nostres llengües, car aquestes similituds fan donar compte que al final som tots germans.

[@alexeiderperezhernandez461]

They say that catalan and romanian both have a lot of vocabulary in common.

[@gabytrifoy7012]

am romanian for me catalan it s sound like a weird spanish and a little bit of french in it 😆😆🤷🏻‍♂️

[@pllm684]

As a Valencian I was waiting for this video some time ago. You never disappoint, Paul. The video is GREAT.

[@maneliquet]

Ja som dos :)

[@nadie8553]

Tres!!! 😂

[@fvg6242]

Quatre :v

[@eezack1]

Cinc O_O

[@lvtn23]

Sis

[@jokybody]

As a French speaker from Quebec, Catalan sounds a bit like a mix of French and Spanish to my ears. What was the most surprising and funny when I visited a friend in Girona is that sometimes I mistook what the Catalans were saying for some French with a strong Quebec accent. Example: the sentence "What is that?", which is "Què és això?" in Catalan, sounds just like "Qu'essé ço?" which is "Qu'est-ce que cela?" in colloquial Quebec French! :P

[@BassDat33]

my head hurts

[@lauraaa277]

That's amazing!

[@Odisher7]

Native speaker here, i've always thought that same thing :D. Also, i think "Qu'essé ço?" Would sound exactly like "Que es eso?"

[@tenienteramires4428]

"Qu'essé ço" sounds more like "què és açò", which is a dialectal variation of "què és això"

[@Mpe898]

The accent of at least this speaker reminds me of a French from Quebec accent . From what I’ve heard 🤔

[@hnavarro9504]

I'm from Valencia, and my native language is catalan. Some people insist catalan and valencian are two different languages, they are not, valencian is only the name we have here for our common language.

[@gaborodriguez1346]

Si,es como el Rumano y el Moldavo,son la misma lengua,pero por razones políticas de proclaman lenguas separadas.

[@xellosxellos4457]

they are not different languages, but VALENCIAN was born before catalan, so catalan would be a dialect of valencian.

[@j.m2742]

@@xellosxellos4457 exactly, thats the point

[@ripoll6156]

@@xellosxellos4457 THANKS, that’s exactly the thing, the catalan didn’t existed until 1600

[@robertin_5643]

El valenciano es un dialecto del castellano

[@atrece175]

Hey Lang, I just wanted to congratulate you, as a catalan, for the research that must've been made for the making of this video. I'm impressed by the level of detail you put in, specially for a non-speaker. Keep it up!

[@oldaccount14]

Hey! A catalan guy here! Really appreciated this video. We're a small territory, not a big language. I find it cool people actually know what catalan is lol Great video :b Visca Catalunya!

[@laurencec09]

I'm English and want to learn Catalan, seems like a cool language :)

[@mrloxicoz9353]

Y viva españa

[@iwanttoliveinsoutheastasia2952]

People know what it is because you, m'da fuckers cry so loud that everyone in the left thinks that Spain is a facist state.

[@ImYourHuckleberry_29]

@@iwanttoliveinsoutheastasia2952 I bet you're not from some occupied territory right asswipe?

[@iancampion6979]

I want to live in Southeast Asia hahah

[@bmi9198]

The Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula are super fascinating to me, thanks for covering this one!

[@rafaelmelo2576]

But Catalan descends from Provençal, a Romance language from Gaul.

[@LuisAldamiz]

True. He should probably have treated Catalan and Occitan as a single unit, because Catalan is only the most widespread dialect of Occitan.

[@LuisAldamiz]

On the other hand, who says Iberia ends in the Pyrenees and not maybe as far North as the Loire. Ethnolinguistically the Pyrenees are not a border, at least not historically.

[@Enric.]

Catalan doesn't descend from Provençal. It's the native language of Catalonia, it's the direct evolution of Latin language in the territory. It's similar with Occitan and part of the same branch mainly because they are neighours, but it wasn't brought by immigrants from Provence or anything like that. This is the main rule regarding Romance languages in the former Western Roman Empire.

[@mallaanimations130]

I grew up in Sweden so my native language is Swedish. Then in school we’re taught English early in life. Then I started studying Icelandic at age 10 (bc my mom is from Iceland). When I turned 15 my family moved from Göteborg to Jokkmokk where I made a Sámi friend. And I wanted to learn Northern Sámi after that. Then when I turned 19 I moved to Vaasa in Finland. So I started learning Finnish. Now I live in Iceland. And after watching this video I want to learn Català. Thank you 🙏

[@bledanevada4799]

you'll make it! força :)

[@mallaanimations130]

@@bledanevada4799 thank you! 🙏 😊

[@jeanlundi2141]

Don't do it!!!! Do you find you can remember each language just fine? :)

[@vboyz21]

English: To Whisper Spanish: Susurrar Catalan: Xiuxiuejar 😂

[@abba07150]

in French : chuchoter

[@deadoralive923]

@@abba07150 really similar to catalan. occitan mother lenguage

[@AmorXcatalunya7]

[@alia-fj7bs]

Olivier Dardalhon c'est pas plutôt susurrer

[@musatvio1301]

în română : șușoti@@abba07150

[@mashinglesboutons6220]

As a Spanish speaker (eastern Andalusia dialect) the most striking thing about Catalan is the emphasis on M and L sounds and the way words tend to end with consonant so often. Waiting eagerly for a video covering Galician :)

[@catvideos777]

The "M" sound? What do you mean? I can understand that you say the "L" sound, which is different from the Spanish one, but the "M" sound?

[@mashinglesboutons6220]

@@catvideos777 IDK if it's particular to a specific dialect, but the people I know from there (mostly from Girona) use M with emphasis.

[@aplicacionsaranya4241]

@@catvideos777 mashing les boutons is right. We catalans are very conscious of that focus on L and M so in our jokes about ourselves we pronounce the L or the M exaggerating them even though a lot more than in normal speaking. Thank you.

[@catvideos777]

@@aplicacionsaranya4241 That's total nonsense... The Catalan "M" is pronounced exactly the same than the Spanish "M", so I honestly doubt you are really a Catalan if you agree with such nonsense.

[@aplicacionsaranya4241]

@@catvideos777 Sóc catalana del nord. No és cap collonada o ovariada. Cap lletra no es pronuncia exactament que en espanyol basicament perquè tota l'articulació catalana és velar o fins i tot més endarrerida i en canvi l'espanyola es gairebé a tocar de les dents. Aquesta articulació velar és nota més en les consonants que per elles mateixes ja són més cap a velars com ara la L i la M.

[@zafi8993]

Like when you're actually catalan but watch this video anyways

[@gerardlopezcarrion6444]

zafi tan identificat jajaj

[@noragonzalezmir3781]

Iguals jajaj me fa gracia que ells canvien tots els noms Jaume es Jameees jajajaj no puc

[@shaide5483]

What’s Catalonia like? I imagine it’s very calm & it’s actually filled with chill people

[@zafi8993]

@@shaide5483 *laughs hysterically* im sorry bud but rn it feels like a war in Barcelona, a literal one.

[@shaide5483]

I thought Catalonia was its independent state from Spain

[@daniwis24]

I'm from Catalonia and I find this type of video fascinating, thx! 🔥

[@Langfocus]

It’s my pleasure, and I’m happy to hear that! 👍🏻

[@jwchavez]

I am mexican, and as such, a native mexican-spanish speaker. Catalan sounds for us (mexicans) something half way between french and iberian spanish. Some sentences can be pretty understandable, but other ones are not so. In fact, sometimes i can say that even italian may be more understandable. Great video as always, regards to you and the catalan speaking people!

[@Nacho2002b]

At some point it was said that Visigoths though of Catalans as Franks and Franks thought about Catalans as Visigoths. Bonus item. Catalan and Castilian mean the same thing: castle dweller.

[@Kongorlobo]

Well, Ancient Catalans were Visigoths, actually. They just were under Frank administration.

[@Nacho2002b]

@@Kongorlobo The end result was that the visigoths thought of them as franks, and the franks thought of them as visigoths. Which is what is going to happen with anybody at the divide of two clearly differentiated groups....

[@Kongorlobo]

@@Nacho2002b Yeah, I guess that would lead to that kind of situation. Anyway, they were always more Visigoth than anything, it seems there always was a clear differentiation between the frankish rulers and the native counts. Something that probably lead to their independence.

[@Nacho2002b]

@@Kongorlobo Oh, yes. Toulouse in France was originally a visigothic city. Catalans were more Gothic than Frankish. But, as we seem to agree, there is all this Frankisher than thou, Visigothiker than thou mentality with the people inbetween. In the end they went south, and James the First of Aragon actually boasted that his was the best kingdom in the Spains. Because in the middle ages the people in Spain had the perception that there were many Spains. Shame the notion was lost.

[@Guitarristandgoats]

Ey the fact that Catalonian is the official language in Andorra should already exclude it from the category "Non-state languages". It's the state language of Andorra.

[@Guitarristandgoats]

Very good video, just like everything you make :D

[@karibui494]

Andorra is not in the European union, maybe he ment that?

[@wheeliebeast7679]

@@karibui494 Also consider that the vast majority of Catalan speakers live outside Andorra

[@Odisher7]

Guitarristandgoats #1 catalonian lol #2 so it's a state language outside the country it comes from... Never realized it.

[@aaronmarks9366]

@Ignasi Planas Villalba I feel like "Catalonian" should be an accepted English name for the language, since it means the same thing as "Catalan" originally.

[@juanfernandoechavarneramon1838]

I am a Catalan and Spanish speaker and since I have gone to Italy many times I noticed that it was easier for me to communicate with italians in catalan rather than Spanish. I speak the Valencian dialect and I have noticed that the Valencian doesn't have a strong accent and it sounds mor soft just like italian, that's why I think that the valencian is the closest catalan dialect to italian.

[@bernatmallenalberdi1111]

Jo sóc català i també crec que el valencià s'hi assembla més, no només en pronunciació. Eixir/uscire, per exemple.

[@Ignasimp]

Saying Catalan has a stronger accent than Valencian makes no sense. The accent is different. As a catalan speaker your accent sounds stronger to me. It's a matter of what are you used to.

[@PedroUR]

Yes, Valencian is closer to Italian because it's old Roman language, not Catalan. The same language that Roman settlers brought from Rome 2157 years ago when they founded Valentia. Why else would it be more similar to Italian if, as bribed linguists say, the Catalans tought us how to speak (yes, those illiterate soldiers and peasants did, can you believe it?).

[@juanfernandoechavarneramon1838]

@@PedroUR what u say makes sense, but Valencian and Catalan are essentially the same language just two different regional dialects to speak the catalan language.

[@dragonsud1648]

@@juanfernandoechavarneramon1838 same language yes, but the discussion is about the name. Llemosí was a french dialect that people named both Catalan and Valencian for distinguishing themselves from the arabs.

[@gabrielamelo5377]

as a brazilian french student who speaks spanish and is familiar with italian my mind just blew up when I first heard this language. I’ve got amazed and definitly wanna learn it in a close future. Thx for the amazing content! ✨

[@tatidossantos935]

I had no idea Catalan was so similar to other romance languages, I'm amazed. I'm from Cape Verde and Portuguese is our official language, so I noticed the similarities between these two languages. I have to learn more about Catalan 😊

[@jlaf1969]

Valenciano no es catalán, fascistas

[@manuelx]

No os cansareis de hacer el ridículo nunca.

[@mickybcn7453]

@@jlaf1969 , En todo el mundo el catalán es enseñado en docenas de universidades (excepto en Españistan) me puedes decir en cuantas universidades es enseñado el valenciano?, es que mas tontos i no naceis.

[@jlaf1969]

@@mickybcn7453 en las mismas que no se enseñaba islandes hasta que se independizo de Groenlandia, en las mismas que decían que los negros eran subhumanos, etc, etc, etc. Las univerisdades e basan en la autoridad no en la inteligencia. Por cierto el "padre", Pompeu Fabra,· del catalán era filólogo??? Creo que no, amor

[@jlaf1969]

@@mickybcn7453 mas que tu si, dado que tengo capacidad critica cosa que tu no. Yo se quienes son mis padres y de donde vengo, y tu? Supongo que prefieres ser un esclavo complaciente, os quejáis de lo "español" pero bien que le laméis el culo a los pankatalanistas. Por cierto cuando se acabe el dinero a quien vais a robar con las subvenciones?

[@eduardpuiggarcia6584]

9:34 pronoms febles, the nightmare of all teens that study Catalan in school

[@jordijulve3572]

Els temuts durant molts anys..... Pronoms febles....

[@FerranLorenteV]

Aquests que tothom possa sense saber perquè

[@thepooh6727]

Estic d'acord amb tu amic meu

[@alexeiderperezhernandez461]

Però per què tan complicats? L'euskera té 13 declinacions i el polonès, una de les llengües més difícils que hi ha, a part de 30 declinacions té conjugacions i les saben utilitzar, sabent com d'enrevessat és el sistema de declinacions, què passa? No tenim prou inteligència aquí com per poder parlar bé la nostra llengua o què? Els pronoms febles són quatre parauletes auxiliars, no sabeu el que és utilitzar 30 declinacions o el sistema xinès de caracters.

[@FerranLorenteV]

@@alexeiderperezhernandez461 Són facils d'utilitzar, però quan la profe et posa dos o tres junts i et pregunta que fa cadascun t'ha fotut.

[@AntonioBarba_TheKaneB]

As an Italian I must say that I find it a bit difficult to hear, the pronunciation is somewhat in the middle between italian and spanish but the accent sounds to me like a strange variety of Sardinian. It's definitely much easier to understand in written form, since it shares an incredible amount of vocabulary with Italian, especially if you know southern dialects like Neapolitan or Sicilian which had Catalan influence in the past. Very informative video as always, thanks for sharing!

[@jmundi2002]

Im sorry but sardinian is a variant of catalán because the kingom of aragon rule it for 280 years.

[@Jormone]

+Joan Salas emm...sorry dude but it's don't true....

[@jmundi2002]

@@Jormone Emm... Sorry study a little bit of history

[@Jormone]

@Joan Salas Man...I'm sardinian...belive me what you say isn't in heaven or on earth....

[@Jormone]

@Joan Salas And don't be so arrogant about giving me this shit for true ಠ_ಠ

[@larrydirtybird]

When I first visited Catalonia, the only romance language I spoke was Spanish. I could understand a good deal of what was written in newspapers, but I could understand almost nothing of what was said. Now I also speak Italian fluently, and I am semi-fluent in French. With my Italian and French knowledge added to my Spanish, Catalan is so incredibly easy for me to read now. I can read it almost as easily as I read English. But still, when they speak it’s really hard, easier, but still for me to understand. It seems like they eat half of their words.

[@juancarlosrivera1151]

Spanish speaker, I couldn’t understand a thing for 2-3yr until I studied the phonetic rules. 1-2 hours and the puzzle was clear

[@Aurora-oe2qp]

Yep, as Juan said, it has some quirky rules for pronunciation. One is that consonant clusters, a sequence of two or more consonants, are often reduced word-finally. So for example "molt" is pronounced "mol", but "moltes" is pronounced "moltes". Another thing is vowel reduction, which happens especially in Central Catalan, which has seven vowels in stressed positions: u, ó, ò, a, i, é, è, but in unstressed positions these are reduced to only three. É and è merges with a, ó and ò merges with u, and i remains unmerged. What makes it even harder is that the diacritics over the o and e are not written out very often, unless, of course, the stress would mandate it, like in Spanish. In Spanish this is fine, but in Catalan this means you kinda just have to know which vowel the word has. Molt, for example, is pronounced mólt, but it's not written like that, so you kinda just have to know it. I'm sure there's other things that might make it a bit hard to understand in speech, but really, I don't know too much about Catalan and this is just soke observations I have made while casually learning it.

[@juancarlosrivera1151]

@@Aurora-oe2qp to be fair, Catalan is one of the easiest languages a Spanish speaker can learn. Many other languages, like Portuguese, French or English have quirky, or not trivial phonetics. Italian has trivial phonetics, but catalan is one of the easiest once you relax constraints on basicality

[@patocarlos1631]

@@Aurora-oe2qp mmmm i'll make your brain explode :P MOLT is pronounced mÓlt in "much", but it's pronounced mÒlt if reffered to "grind" (verb "moldre" - to grind and i almost assure that the last 't' is somehow pronounced in "mòlt", maybe comes from "moldre"? I dunno ) :P anyway, all depend in the dialects, the Central (Barcelona's) one is the crappiest jejejeje

[@jmiquelmb]

Man thank you for talking about the Catalan-Valencian topic in a civil and academic approach despite risking criticism. It's political nonsense basically. My favorite instance of this was when using the train ticket machines in Spain where you could choose all the different languages that are official: Spanish, Basque, Galician, Catalan AND Valencian. Yeah, they put a Valencian option separate from Catalan DESPITE the fact that every damn word used was the same (yeah I bothered trying both options). I just found hilarious howfar you can go pretending that it's not the same language, despite how obvious it is

[@ferranmateo4803]

If this rule of 3 is followed, Andalusian or American dialects should not be considered as Spanish either, but as a different language. The Balearic dialect should also be a language like Valencian. Unfortunately, and for a long time, there has been a great hatred in Valencia towards everything Catalan, so they cannot bear that there is a part of their population that speaks the same language.

[@jmiquelmb]

@@ferranmateo4803 Exactly. In fact, neither Catalan, Valencian, Andalusian or American would be languages either, since they have different smaller dialects on their own region. It wouldn't make any sense

[@kyomademon453]

@@ferranmateo4803 valencians hate catalans because catalunya went on its spread of denying other cultures in the "" paisos catalanes""

[@servusdei2332]

los valencianos no quieren denominar su lengua catalan porque no son catalanes, los catalanes tienen que denominar su lengua valenciano, pero nunca van a hacerlo. La misma situación es en Balcanes - el croato, el serbo, el bosniano y el montenegrino son la misma lengua

[@jmiquelmb]

@@servusdei2332 Y los americanos hablan inglés. Y los austriacos alemán. Y los argentinos español. A mí me da igual lo que se sientan ellos. Pero por favor que no hagan el ridículo con niñadas de ese estilo. Decir que no hablan catalán es un insulto a la inteligencia. Los Balcanes no me parecen un gran ejemplo de convivencia nacional por cierto.

[@rogerfernandezescude3431]

First of all, as Catalan native speaker: the video is great; perfect; fantastic. You avoided political quastions in a very elegant way (you talk about linguistics, not politics so, well avoided). While I was watching the video, I was thinking: "let's see if Paul will talk about the (for me) main curiosity about catalan..." And yes: you explained very well the "weak pronouns". Unfortunately, the spanish presence on media is making young people using uncorrectly these pronouns (I'm always correcting my son... he's gonna hate me!). So, again, congratulations! It was fun after having seen all of your videos and how you analyse languages, to watch this being done to my language!

[@IapetusRetroStuff]

Força desde Portugal :)

[@manfrevanderland9333]

Definitely, at the Batxillerat I learnt how to use the “pronoms febles” correctly, we speak it very bad and schools do teach in catalan but forget to teach catalan on a propper way... (t’ho escric en anglès per si algú ho llegeix que ho pugui entendre😂)

[@YangSing1]

Roger Fernàndez Escudé Why would you put an article before names?

[@rogerfernandezescude3431]

Why? I really don't know. But it helps also to define formality. You don't put the article to historical or famous people. For example, I would say "Quim Torra ha dit....." (Quim Torra has said....) and I don't put the article because he is the Catalan Prime Minister. Or I would say "Lluís Companys va morir..." (Lluís Companys died...) because he is an historical personage. Instead, I would say "En Pere ja vingut" (Pere has come) because he is a friend or somebody that I know. It's a slight difference, but sometimes is hard for foreign catalan speakers

[@Monkeywe]

@@rogerfernandezescude3431 una amiga tuvo la fortuna de ganarse una beca a Barcelona, en México es muy mal visto que pongas un articulo definido antes de un nombre propio, por ejemplo "La Frida irá conmigo al concierto" pero es muy común entre comunidades indígenas (y pequeñas cosas como esta se transfieren al dialecto o acento local). Por lo tanto es mal visto porque se considera que nunca tuviste la educación de "hablar bien". Pero por lo que me contó mi amiga fue que es muy común entre catalanes mientras hablan español utilizar el artículo definido antes de un nombre. Mi duda es, ¿allá también es mal visto o simplemente no lo notan?

[@taimunozhan]

Some Catalan varieties (mostly those spoken in the Balearic islands) have a different set of articles known as 'salty articles' (Cat: articles salats) which has "es" and "sa" rather than "el" and "la". These articles are interesting because they are descended from Latin ipse and ipsa rather than from Latin ille and illa as in nearly all other Romance languages. The only other Romance language with articles derived from ipse is Sardinian, the traditional language of Sardinia, in Italy. There might also be some Occitan varieties with the same feature but they are either extinct or nearly extinct.

[@surtidocuetara]

I think Paul should prepare a video about Sardinian (and maybe another one about the definite articles in the Balearic Islands!

[@miotony1]

Salty articles comes originally from the coast of Girona, so the video should begin there and not in Baleares (I'm from Mallorca btw).

[@mki8306]

miotony1 jo tambe

[@Alan-xe4st]

@@miotony1 I thought they were from the Balearic Islands and they just moved to Girona from speakers of Catalan from the Balearic Islands.

[@alexvila6611]

As a Catalan native I feel that, even though we all can speak Spanish since we are bilingual, the closest Romance languages to Catalan are Romanian and Italian. Especially with Romanian, it is incredible the amount of exact coincidences in vocabulary and in pronunciation or accent.

[@求主指引]

The closest language to Catalan is Occitan.

[@Jay-uu5lu]

You should try galacian

[@alvaroberenguerberenguer6101]

as bilingual valencian, I feel despite catalan looks way more to

[@alvaroberenguerberenguer6101]

French and Italian, is way easy to learn Spanish, and RN is the language I always use

[@danieltudor1312]

@@alvaroberenguerberenguer6101 valencian is catalan

[@ricardoa.gonzalezedwards782]

There is a mistake in the example "M'ha donat els diners aquest matí" in the minute 11:30. The verb "donat" doesn't stands for "donado" in Spanish (which means donated), it stands for the verb "dado" (which means given)

[@Langfocus]

I wanted to give the cognate word, even though the meaning is slightly different in Spanish. That was in order to focus on the phonological difference between the two.

[@edmossbb]

This isn't a mistake. "Donar" in Spanish also means "to give" so, "me ha donado el dinero" would be correct.

[@v4nadium]

I think it is meant to be a cognate like Adéu and French Adieu. Adieu is not used in the same context as adéu but it fits better as an example here

[@GoGreen1977]

Thank you for this explanation. As as a student of Spanish, I was a bit confused since I think of "dar" and "donar" differently. But I can see how donar could be used in this instance.

[@santib94]

Eduardo Moreno But in spoken Spanish nobody says that.

[@KillerFlorin007]

Hi! As a ROMANIAN speaker, CATALAN seems to me more easy to learn and close to me than the SPANISH. Best regards!

[@bex1335]

I speake both and Catalan is harder :D

[@lsismico-3242]

trust me, catalan is a lot harder than spain, it has more strange things and signs

[@antoanetaroman9747]

I also speak both, and I'm Romanian. We have 3000 common words with Catalán (joc, foc, ou, nou, bou, un moment, tot, adaptat, ocupat, etc) But the grammar is tricky, knowing both Spanish and French previously helped a good deal.

[@antoanetaroman9747]

I've been to Jamaica - Ocho Ríos, when working on cruise ships. Very nice people, good food and amazing nature. Best of luck!

[@turkeysamwich00]

hell yeah, I've been waiting for this since you did Basque

[@nike_trap8716]

So do you want to speak spanish, italian or french? Cataluña: yes

[@oier2995]

No funciona así crack

[@edgarmaestre6622]

So do you want speak spanish, italian or french? Catalonia: NOPE Now its ok

[@BrianDeParma]

Best sentences to get a Catalan speaker very mad at you: 1- "Catalan is a dialect of Spanish" 2- "Catalan is a mix of Spanish, Italian and French".

[@nike_trap8716]

@@BrianDeParma obvio no es un derivado de estos idiomas pero tiene características de cada uno, no pq ellos se las pasaron si no porque así se desarrolló el catalan, independiente de otras lenguas romances. Tampoco se enojen capos

[@A_Kravitz]

@@nike_trap8716 el catalan tiene cosas parecidas a otras lenguas latinas, como pasa con todas, pero nadie dice que el castellano sea una mezcla de portugués y catalan. Es igual de absurdo que decir que el catalan es mezcla de castellano y francés. Ninguna de las lenguas romances es mezcla de las otras, cada una evolucionó del latín a su manera.

[@IapetusRetroStuff]

I live in the south of Portugal and for years I have been very interested in Catalan. We have a phenomenon in the Algarve region of Portugal where we usually drop the last vowel of masculine words or words ending in 'e'. So it gets even closer to Catalan: examples :Friends: Amig/Amigs, bombêr/bombêrs,gat/gats and in Catalan these are Amic/s, Bomber/s, gat and many more. Regarding that phrase 'fa dos anys' here would be "faz dôs ans". This phenomeon is slowly getting lost here as young people want to speak 'proper' portuguese and not be seen as unlearned, poor or rustic. Thank you for the video it is very interesting, keep up the good job Paul.

[@judna1]

Olá! Des de Catalunha, para-bens por querer aprender o catalão! Eu aprendi o português numa escola de idiomas durante um mes antes de morar dois meses em Lisboa, gostem muito da experiença. Portugal e um bonito país. 😊👏🏽

[@desanipt]

As a Portuguese native speaker, Catalan sounds a lot like Spanish with the ending of words not pronounced, like they were abbreviating the ending of words. I find some of the sounds (particularly some vowels) to be closer to Portuguese, though. It's not so easy to understand, when compared to Spanish, but generally I can catch some words or whole parts of sentences here and there and get the main content of what's being said. I never got too exposed to it so maybe that's why. Oh and of course it helps if it is spoken slower.

[@annarr5543]

No it doesn't! As a Catalan and Spanish speaker i know they are fairly similar but a Spanish speaker can only have an idea of what a Catalan person is saiyng and not understand more or less what he is saying

[@desanipt]

Anna RR Maybe I didn't explain exactly what I meant, I'm sorry. What I meant is that its intonation make it sound like Spanish at first glance. Like, if a Catalan and Spanish native speakers were to speak another language they would have a similar accent, I guess. But that's just what I feel when I hear it. But if one pays a bit of attention when listening to Catalan he/she can clearly say its not Spanish.

[@unclepodger]

Doesn't the Portuguese language have a guttural R or the French R too?

[@395leandro]

I see more similarities with Portuguese. The D sound changes similarly to Brazilian Portuguese (but we change it to a 'dj' sound before the vowels e and i). The many pronouns also look very similar to Portuguese pronouns. I think spoken Catalan is hard to understand but written is completely intelligible to me, just like how it happens with French. Spanish, however, is understandable even spoken, as long as it's not too fast nor full of slangs.

[@desanipt]

@@unclepodger In Portuguese, when an R is in the beginning of a word or there's a double R in the middle the word it is in fact pronounced a lot like the French R. But that's mainly in Portugal (a thrilled R, the one you find in SPanish and Catalan, also exists in Portugal, but it is slowly becoming less frequent). In Brazil it tends to be closer to the English H.

[@saliagas5]

As a Catalan native speaker, I must say that this video is just perfect. You explained every tiny peculiarity of the language in a way that fascinated me: well organised, clear and interesting! Regarding the final question of the video, the language with which whose speakers I have more facilities comunicating with is Italian. I don't know whether is the grammar, the vocabulary or the pronunciation of particular vowels and sounds, but most of them understand quite well when I speak Catalan, even though they never had listened to it!

[@Goreuncle]

He did a great job, as always, but the weak pronoun tables were a bit messed up.

[@valeriacao510]

For me, I am Italian (Sardinian not from the Alghero area), Catalan sounds like an ancient version of Spanish/French. Documents redacted here in Sardinia during the Aragona reign are written in ancient Catalan, even in the south of Sardinia. I really enjoyed watching an entire series I found on Netflix in Catalan, with the help of subtitles. In time I got used to the pronunciation and it became easier for me to understand without reading them. Great video, thank you!

[@peremartin6043]

Disculpa Valeria, em podries comentar quines sèries has vist al netflix en català?

[@bennettjoseph9970]

@@peremartin6043 It was probably "Welcome to the Family", which was the first Catalan-language series Netflix aired, beginning in 2018. In March the website ePrimeFeed reported that 70 series and/or movies in Catalan are coming to Netflix soon. So far I can see a few more now: "Merlí: Sapere Aude", "The Hockey Girls", "If I Hadn't Met You", and "The Next Skin".

[@cesbarbosacesb]

I haven't had any contact with catalan until I began watch the TV series "Merlí" and I got surprised with how easy it was for me to understand it, me being a Brazilian-Portuguese speaker. The phonology sounds closer to Portuguese than Spanish and I got so familiar with that language that I almost didn't need to read the subtitles.

[@marccluet3873]

As a native Catalan speaker I have no major issues understanding Brazilian Portuguese speakers, I've hard conversations in which I spoke Catalan and the other person spoke Brazilian Portuguese and we wouldn't have too many issues :)

[@mikicerise6250]

Catalan is pretty close to a 'midway' language for the Romance family, I think. It is just about midway between all of them, so very familiar to speakers of any of the others. :) Maybe Occitan is even more.

[@bubblebeep1592]

You should check the TV series "polseres vermelles", they made some remakes in countries like the US but the original catalan version of the show is the best and it's great.

[@msjaladreips]

I speak Catalan but I’m not a native speaker (I learned it). I can understand Occitan very well in written form but not spoken. I can perfectly understand Aranes and of course Valencian. I can also understand a lot of Italian (without learning it) both spoken and written. I am native slavic speaker. Records a tots els Catalans aqui, m’agraden molt Català i cultura catalana! ❤️

[@angelinabetty]

How long did it take you to learn Catalan ?

[@BlitzOfTheReich]

Aranese is not Catalan.

[@ledues3336]

Good job mate!

[@dunagarceran789]

El catalán es una lengua indoeuropea descendiente del latín que forma parte de la familia de las lenguas románicas occidentales como el francés, el occitano, el retorrománico, el castellano, el gallego o el portugués. Como lengua románica occidental, el catalán ocupa un lugar intermedio entre el grupo galorrománico (francés, occitano) y el iberorrománico (castellano, gallego y portuguès).

[@dunagarceran789]

@@angelinabetty El catalán es una lengua indoeuropea descendiente del latín que forma parte de la familia de las lenguas románicas occidentales como el francés, el occitano, el retorrománico, el castellano, el gallego o el portugués. Como lengua románica occidental, el catalán ocupa un lugar intermedio entre el grupo galorrománico (francés, occitano) y el iberorrománico (castellano, gallego y portugués).

[@Lenve]

There is a small mistake about the weak pronouns around minute 11:55 If I were to elide "els diners" in the sentence "M'ha donat els diners aquest matí" I would say "Me'ls ha donat", never "M'ho ha donat". Thats because you know the given thing is a plural masculine noun. If the noun was a singular masculine one, then it would be "Me l'ha donat". It would only be "M'ho ha donat" if the object given was undefined, e.g. "alló" (that thing).

[@magnvsctv]

"Me'l ha donat" or "Me l'ha donat" ?

[@borisnot]

The latter, "me l'ha donat". The appostrophe always goes to the most right position available :)

[@Lenve]

@@borisnot Sure, my bad, it is now fixed

[@fortuny911]

Putus pronoms febles de merda😂

[@borisnot]

xD

[@PowerUpJohn]

I was a Spanish major in college and can remember having to study the writing of Christopher Columbus for my Spanish and Latin American history classes. As Spanish is not my main language, I was surprised how hard some parts were to understand. I later learned much of his work was written in Catalán.

[@monicamolla3988]

I am Valencian and the reason they want to call it Valencian instead of Catalan is because they don't want to have something to do with the independence. I am a lingust so I call it Catalan, my mother tongue

[@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014]

Oh, thats why? The only reason?

[@fabiolimadasilva3398]

Valencian and Catalan proper can be compared to Brazilian and European Portuguese in my point of view.

[@iRaYm0n]

Denominació científica català, denominació geogràfica valencià, però que tens raó és el mateix i és català

[@tempo1530]

A vegades penso que la gent catalanoparlant a València és més conscient a València que a Catalunya. “Visca la terreta”!

[@jordiserrabravo2]

Sorry but you are wrong. This differentiation is made just in order to break any common identity between catalonia, valencia and Balears, the regions of the former crown of Aragon. Com bé sabràs, una llengua és un element identitari potent, i l'únic objectiu d'espanya és fer aquestes identitas prou petites com per absorbir-les una a una. A valència ho ha aconseguit el PP tants anys, i ja vas veure el discurs de l'amic Casado l'altre dia dient que no parlen català a balears, que parlen mallorquí, eivissenc, formenterè... Però després a Mèxic i argentina es parla espanyol oi? doncs això. No té res a veure amb la independència, ser catalano parlant no implica voler la independència, simplement volen evitar tenir una identitat diferent a la castellana prou forta dins el seu país. Salut!

[@PATRICKSMITH1]

As a Brit who studied at university in Barcelona, I find it interesting that valencians insist on calling the language Valencian, not Catalan. Valencian is more similar to the language spoken in Catalonia than in the Balearic Islands. Balearic natives however are quite happy to say that they are Catalan speakers.

[@kojisan1]

There's a historical reason behind it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Catalan_language

[@aitortilla5128]

I'm Valencian and we call it Valencian and not Catalan because of tradition. There were many great Valencian writers in the Middle Ages. All of them referred to the language as Valencian. We kept doing that. Today it has become a political tool. Personally I don't use it anymore because of that. I'm amazed by the fact that many people are quite ignorant when it comes to Valencia and Valencian language.

[@andrescastrerosanchez2210]

The thing is that Valencians have been calling their language Valencian for some 500 years. Many languages have more than one name, but of course it doesn't mean we speak different languages.

[@IrEnEjUdIt14]

You'd be surprised about all the Majorcan people who don't want to be called Catalan speakers 😂😂

[@raulm5794]

Because it is used with political arguments. People use the excuse of the language to link all the territories (Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia) as the "Països catalans/ Catalan countries". In other words it's a form to add more support for the catalan nacionalist ideology. People doesn't have any problem to recognise that all three main dialects are probably the same language but they didn't want to be used by catalan interests. That's the reason in most of Baelaric and Valencian lands try to keep away these comparisons. One thing is to support an ideology and other different is to defend your language. We only want to defend our language out of political reasons and to be recognised our importance (culture, language,etc) without being absorbed by catalan culture. If you stop and think, Catalan people usually atacks the idea of Spain as a country because their language is so influenced by Spanish and they feel it like an atack for their identety. Well, it makes sense and I can understand it but ... they don't realised that they do the same with Valencian and Balearic territories just to get a little of support in their ideologies against the "spanish language". PD: I'm sorry for the mistakes, I'm still learning English but I wanted to explain you the point of view about it out of Catalonia bacause this opinions are not made visible in there.

[@marithenar.8507]

I always wondered about Catalan. Thank you!

[@judna1]

Benvinguda a l'aventura que és la llengua catalana, un cop comences, no pots parar! (Welcome to the adventure that is the catalan language, once you start, you can't stop!)

[@johndeleon8741]

@@judna1 how so?

[@judna1]

@@johndeleon8741 Nothing really it was just a matter of speak. Saying catalan is an interesting language, cause it is.

[@zoebells767]

It's literally every Romance language combined.

[@KirillTheBeast]

I'm a born and raised catalonian from Barcelona; you're absolutely right. The standard dialect is a little bit dryer than the others, but if you analyse those from Lleida or Girona, you'll literally feel like you're looking at an arbitrary mix of Italian, French and Spanish or (how my teacher used to put it) "you get five parts of Spanish and start subtracting the Arab influence until you're left with just four tenths of a language, then call France and Italy and have them duke it out to see who gets to fill in the remaining gaps".

[@KirillTheBeast]

​@@Annnto Alright, good points were made, but there's a lot to unpack here: 1.- There was a fair degree of hyperbole in my teacher's meme-worthy claim, which was made in a very tongue-in-cheek tone, even though... 2.- Yes, Catalonia's education system is very heavily politicised and biased in favor of nationalism. It's a tragedy. 3.- The whole discussion about the degree to which languages influence each other is very unscientific and very politically biased. One blatant example of this is precisely the degree of Arabic influence in modern Spanish: On one hand, you can track down the volume of vocabulary that's rooted in Arabic, and you'll come up with a very dry and scientific claim entirely based on data, and that is JUST FINE, but rarely useful. On the other I've never seen anyone aside from that one teacher (who, by the way, was a Spanish teacher from Valladolid which is where the standard Spanish dialect is supposed to be spoken) speak about influence in terms of negative space. Just think about how much Spanish DIDN'T change under the caliphate's rule. The consolidation of a bunch of the language can be atributed to Arabic influence, which is exactly what my teacher meant with his high tier mememancery. Every change in proto-Catalan rooted in Provençal/Occitan lexic that didn't happen in the then proto-Spanish would then be considered Arabic influence, which becomes an even more reasonable claim when you consider the fact that the early muslim occupation put some serious effort into peaceful coexistence and the conservation of local culture. That entire topic needs a serious cathegorical revamp in order to get rid of the politisation. "Influence" doesn't just mean "volume of vocabulary rooted in X's lexical forms". Cheers

[@_Executor_]

De hecho pienso lo mismo. Ellos incluso tienen una buena universidad para los traductores. Aunque no recuerdo el nombre, pero definitivamente creo que su idioma es una buena base para aprender otros fácilmente y pues la mayoría de ellos son bilingües.

[@KirillTheBeast]

@@_Executor_ Crecer hablando castellano y catalán a nivel nativo aporta ciertas ventajas a la hora de aprender otras lenguas romances. El castellano de por si ya tiene al menos un par de sonidos consonánticos casi exclusivos (como la jota o la erre), mientras que el catalán tiene otros tres o cuatro más además de las inflexiones vocálicas o la vocal neutra. Si uno quiere aprender francés, italiano o rumano habiendo crecido en Cataluña, el esfuerzo a llevar a cabo es trivial. Dicho esto, lenguas germánicas como el alemán, holandés, o el inglés no se ven tan afectadas, ya que a penas comparten raíces léxicas no importadas, además de tener su propia sintaxis casi totalmente aislada del latín. Edit: me olvidé de la vocal neutra xD

[@Ricard25J]

@@KirillTheBeast Seguisc sense comprendre per què has dit que el català és un put-purri de llengües barrejades, però bé. Podríem dir el mateix del portugués, compartix r franceses i tal, però és un destrellat. Cada llengua que deriva del llatí és normal que tinga connexions amb certes llengües romàniques. Parlar de 'si açò i allò' és una barreja de tal llengua és infravalorar-la. Cap persona parla del portugués com una barreja de cap llengua, per què ho fem de la nostra?

[@joanlapeyra]

Referring to the question of the day, as a Catalan speaker I find occitan especially close to Catalan. As a Spanish speaker (as well) I find Portuguese very close to Spanish but I would say that being a Catalan speaker enables me to understand some words in Portuguese that I wouldn't understand if I only knew Spanish. In addition, I don't find Italian as close to Spanish as Portuguese but I can partly understand it. On contrast, I find French very hard. Finally, I think that Catalan-Spanish similarity is minor than Catalan-Occitan or Spanish-Portuguese similatity but major than Catalan-French or Spanish-French similarity. My apologies if I made some mistakes in English

[@alexestremar7840]

Joan Lapeyra I think written French is quite similar to Catalan but spoken French is when changes a lot

[@mariboni516]

Your English is wonderful! I speak Spanish as it is my native tongue. I find French to be easy to read and speak but undertanding it by native French speakers is so difficult for me. I can do the same with Portuguese and Italian. I think a lot has to do with the inflections or regional dialects. I was told that formal instruction varies greatly from the daily spoken language. Maybe that's why?

[@georgezee5173]

Due to knowing Catalan I find easier to understand Italian at times that that language differs a lot from Spanish.

[@antoanetaroman9747]

Busca't coses en rumanes, hi há tantes paraules comunes :) Joc, foc, ou, nou, bou, tot :)

[@nostalgiakarlk.f.7386]

Well, Português, Français, and Català are all Romance languages that developed among originally Celtic peoples.

[@gabriels287]

The first time I listened to Catalan was watching Merlí. My mind blew! My native language is Portuguese and I’m from the state of São Paulo, Brazil. To me Catalan sounded like a mix of European Portuguese and French. I think it happens because of the several words ending in consonants.

[@ericgonzalez3641]

To me it sounded like a mix between French and Spanish

[@andersonandrade6336]

Gabriel, é exatamente como nós percebemos o catalão. A semelhança com o português de Portugal tem a ver com as vogais, enquanto as consoantes finais lembram o francês.

[@JoseGoncalves-io5xn]

@@ericgonzalez3641 Sounds português and French

[@sebasnavarro5]

I am catalan and my girlfriend speaks valencian and we have never used a translator to talk each other, good news by the way

[@魚山-d2o]

U r talking the same language after all

[@ferrrawr537]

Es q son dialectos, yo vivo en Valencia y hablo con mis amigos catalanes, sin problema

[@jlaf1969]

@@ferrrawr537 y yo hablo sin problemas con mis amigos portugueses e italianos,

[@ferrrawr537]

@@jlaf1969 no entiendo tu comentario me lo podrías explicármelo

[@jlaf1969]

@@ferrrawr537 todas son lenguas romances, con un tronco básico en el latín. Si hasta entiendo el francés y el rumano ( este último cuesta un poco más). Las lenguas no son definidas lingüísticamente, sino políticamente, mira el caso islandés que no fue reconocido hasta los años 30 del S. XX o el noruego con dos grafías distintas y nadie se rompe las vestiduras. El problema del catalán es que no es catalán es un idioma probeta creado en el S. XIX por la burguesía catalana a partir del barceloni con una visión imperialista y racista. Solo tienes que leer los informes del IEC, que busca la homogeneización de la gran lengua catalana y la creación del gran Imperi Catala, llamado "Paissos Catalans" porque lo de Imperi a los nazionalsocialistas les chirría. Sufrí en la Universidad el adoctrinamiento ideológico y racista de los autoproclamados portadores de la verdad, ante los que cualquier crítica su respuesta era "feixista", una palabra que carece de una base etimológica real; en el resto de lenguas romances la base etimológica de fascitas proviene de fascies, pero feixista proviene de feixa o haza que es un bancal. Y podía seguir. No te fíes de la Wikipedia ni de las Universidades españolas (sic) en general, que están controladas Pol el politburo del pensamiento homogéneo

[@a3dr2]

Catalan is so beautiful

[@zigi5432]

I am a Ukrainian who now lives in Andorra. I currently study Spanish which everyone speaks perfectly here. The situation here with Catalan and Spanish is almost identical to what we have with Ukrainian and Russian respectively in Kyiv. So I got used very quickly. I have plans to study Catalan right after mastering Spanish. So far I am simultaneously picking some Catalan as well. Lots of stuff come automatically because of the similarity with Spanish, some other stuff I just memorized because I encounter it frequently. What I noticed is that Catalan is much more difficult than Spanish first of all because of the orthography and pronunciation.

[@robertovalverde9573]

Phonology in catalan is more similar to french, while phonology in spanish is sometimes different to another romance languages and close to basque, an aglutinant, very antique and non indoeuropean language.

[@SenyorCapitàCollons]

Why did you learn Spanish first? I mean. I do not support Euromaidan but I mean if I went to Ukraine I would learn Ukrainian first, not Russian.

[@zigi5432]

​@@SenyorCapitàCollons Well, I took example from Russians who live in Ukraine! They are like: "Why the hell I should learn Ukrainian if everyone speaks Russian here?" And here they are, living for decades in the country not able to speak or write the official language properly) In fact, I new some Spanish before I came to Andorra so I've decided to finish it first. It seemed more logic as learning two related languages simultaneously is not the best idea. As I said I will definitely proceed with learning Catalan after I succeed with Spanish. And hey, what's wrong with Euromaidan?

[@johndeleon8741]

@@SenyorCapitàCollons Probably because he's not a separatist douchebag and just choose the most useful language.

[@alfonsvet]

@@robertovalverde9573 Depende del dialecto, Roberto. El dialecto de Andorra es del bloque occidental i la fonología tiende más hacia el español o el italiano.

[@hugo_fc0454]

Please talk about Gallician! It's not soooo important but also it's very similar to Portuguese!

[@yasminekhrismaansri4078]

It is as important as Catalan since it's a co-official language in Galicia as well! A Galician-themed video would be a great idea :)

[@l.u.c.a.s.]

Yasmine Khris Maansri Catalan has more speakers inside and outside of Spain, and it's Andorra's official language. Galician is quite beautiful but I wouldn't say it's "as important", not like that is an appropriate measure for a language anyways.

[@unanec]

Te sorpendera que en filologia (la ciencia de las letras) se consideran el gallego y el portugues como la misma lengua. De hecho se dice que portugal significa "Puerto Gallego" siendo la capital "El Puerto" (Oporto) Aclaración: la primera capital de portugal fue oporto, ya que lisboa era de dominio musulman

[@mawee1034]

@@unanec En realidad hay dos filologias gallegas, están los lusitanistas que consideran el gallego y el portugues como la misma lengua y aceptan la gramática portuguesa para el estandard gallego, y el "Gallego Normativo" que declara al gallego como lengua ibero-romance occidental propia con una gramática basada en la castellana. Curiosamente el primer modelo lo apoyan los portugueses y los nacionalistas gallegos y el segundo los nacionalistas españoles. Igualmente me parecería genial un video sobre el gallego y sobre las otras lenguas ibero-rommances occidentales como el asturiano y el leonés.

[@unanec]

@@mawee1034 la reconquista fue de norte a sur, obviamente el portugues deriva del gallego, que al haber tenido pais propio, ademas de imperial, pued algo si se han distanciado. Filologicamente es engloban en el galaico-portugues

[@kojisan1]

The problem in Catalonia about the Catalan-Valencian issue is that people when asked will quickly blurt out that "Valencian is a dialect of Catalan" without stopping to think that the Catalan they speak is *also* a dialect of Catalan. Fact: Catalan in Catalonia has two main dialects (western and eastern) and a gazillion of subdialects or regionalisms in each of those two main groups. So, instead of looking at Valencian as a "dialect of Catalan" (incidentally, Valencian has other dialects too), they should look a it for what it really is: another name to call the same language; a freaking synonym, just like Dutch and Flemish are.

[@rao803]

Right. Most people usually think incorrectly that a dialect is a language with a minor rangue, something completely stupid. I love the Valencian accent.

[@josefatorrespallardo5455]

El valenciano no es dialecto del catalán para nada es una lengua aurea con dos siglos de oro ,cuántos tiene el dialecto barceloni inventado por Fabra en 1906

[@rao803]

@@josefatorrespallardo5455 Això no ho decideixes tu.

[@teresairanzo1721]

No, eso se decide desde Cataluña por supuesto 😂

[@geneberrocal3220]

Correct. It's like Galician and Portuguese, they're both dialects of the same language.

[@rngnv4551]

My family immigrated to Guatemala from Barcelona and still speak Spanish with a heavy Calatan accent 400 years later. Until we dove into our family history we had no idea that we were still using loan-words from Catalan sounding more Portuguese or Italian than Central American Spanish speakers. It's so cool and also made Catalan easier to pick up than say Mexican-Spanish. Learning Latin in school also helps with a lot of the tenses as well as grammatical structure.

[@enriquetaborda8521]

What kind of loan-words? That´s very interesting

[@martinapinazo4489]

Como que tu familia emigró a Guatemala hace 400 años , pa eso di que tus ancestros emigraron porque madre mía 😂

[@hyperion3145]

My family had the same but colonized Puerto Rico and Florida, but kept the accent and loan words.

[@rngnv4551]

They did. We have the records. Bless your heart summer child. @@martinapinazo4489

[@96spr]

I'm a Catalan native speaker. Regarding occitan language, there is some degree of similarity, but usually they have a strong french accent which makes it a bit difficult to understand when hearing it (the same applies for those catalan speakers from the Northern Catalonia region, which is in France), but when reading it, I can understand the most part of it. Aragonese (spoken in the Pyrenees zone of the Aragon Autonomous Comunity) is also quite close to Catalan, it sounds like a mix between Catalan and Spanish, so for Catalan speakers in Spain it is quite easy to understand, both speaking and written form. I'm glad that you made a video of the Catalan language, love your channel and languages! Thanks!

[@askadia]

Catalan, to my Italian ears, simply sounds like one of the dialect of Northern Italy. The first example sentence in an Italian dialect would be 'El Giuse l'è 'n bon profesoro'. Basically, the same 😮

[@sestoscemo]

I'm italian too, same for me! My catalan collegue sometimes says something I recognise 100% as my dialect (north marche).

[@askadia]

Yeah, we all speakers of Romance languages really are a big family 😋

[@danny50582]

From a broad perspective, all Romance languages are just different forms of the same language (latin).

[@judna1]

I'm catalan, but I do speak italian. And speaking both catalan and spanish plus english helped me learn italian. Examples of that are: Finestra means window in both catalan and italian and computer in italian is exactly the same as it is in english. Oh! And speaking about romanic languages, italian was helpful as well when I learnt portuguese, for instance I can (it: Io posso, pt: Eu posso) dog (it: cane, pt: cão)... I've just learnt portuguese recently and still it's a bit tough for me to speak in italian without saying anything in portuguese, but I'm getting better with time, and one day I'll be able to speak italian perfectly again, or at least that's what I hope😅

[@judna1]

By the way, I just made a comment in this video with a lot of catalan muisc from different regions, maybe you'll find it interesting, cause it's a nice way to appreciate the different catalan dialects through music.

[@Vyrlokar]

At last you do this video! As a Valencian and native speaker of Catalan, I will say that Valencian and Catalan are just two dialects of the same language. to think otherwise would require you to accept that south american dialects of Spanish are different languages too. I won't touch on the rest of the politics of this though, and well, you sumarized very well what would be the reaction to your videos among some people. Now, for the question at the end, I will say that the phonology of Catalan is probably closest to Italian, but since I don't speak it, I can't really say for sure. On the other hand, I speak French as my 3rd language, and well, once you get past the different phonological system, French is really close to Catalan, much more than Spanish, which isn't surprising since "la langue d'Oc" (Occitan/Provencal) is one of the ancestors of modern French

[@MrRostit]

French ancestor is the Langues d'Oïl though.

[@Robin-zf5wt]

En realitat l’occitan es una amassada de dialèctes (o lengas) intercomprenesibles entre eles (a diferents nivèls) e lo francés ven pas de l’occitan mas pertanh a la familha de las lengas “d’oïl”: solament son de lengas sòrres. Çaquelà e subretot al sud de França, fòrça de mots o d’estructuras del francés d’aquí venon de l’occitan. L’occitan se pareis mai al catalan qu’al francés mas las realitats socioculturalas an fach que l’occitan a manlevat de nombroses mots franceses mentre que lo catalan los a manlevats al castelhan. Ieu, per exemple, parli occitan e castelhan, e pòdi aver una conversacion amb d’amics de Barcelona sens parlar una mica de catalan! Çò que càmbia mai es solament la prononciacion de las paraulas ;) T’inviti a escotar de cançons o de vidèos en occitan (subretot lengadocian) per qu’o pòscas constatar per tu meteis e espèri que m’aguèsses comprengut! Bona nit amic valencià!

[@Raven-Winter]

The langues d'oc are not really the ancestors of the standard french we speak. Because it comes from the parisian french, the dialect which was spoke in Paris, which has been forced into the whole country. So it's a language from the north, it belongs to the family of "les langues d'oil". (there use to be 3 big families of languages in France, langues d'oil in the north, langues d'oc in the south, and franco-provençal/arpitan in the south-est)

[@Vyrlokar]

Occitan (Langue d'Oc) is not the primary ancestor of modern French, sure, but it's ONE of the ancestors. Sure, modern French is mostly Langue d'Oïl descended, but really, there's some influence from the otherss

[@Raven-Winter]

I am not sure, do you have exemples ? (i'm going to do researches now)

[@sergiboschraga2416]

From a native catalan speaker: I find catalan very similar to portuguese and italian. I am really amazed how you explained how this language works. I'm native and I realized how complicated, complex but also beautifoul our language is. I wish catalan was known around the world so if you like this video share it, us, the catalan speakers, would aprecciate it. (sorry for any gramatical errors, I try to do my best when I have to talk or speak in english)

[@dunagarceran789]

El catalán es una lengua románica de la rama occidental. Presenta dos variedades dialectales fundamentales: la oriental y la occidental, que contienen diferencias léxicas, fonéticas y gramaticales.

[@citadelofwinds1564]

I recently started to study Catalan (languages are my hobby) and it is indeed a fascinating and beautiful language. I live in Australia, so wish granted, all the way from the southern hemisphere.

[@theEtch]

Molt be! As a French speaker I can understand the majority of written Catalan, but not spoken.

[@joanllurba8749]

Catalan speaker here, it's the same for me with French!

[@Xitus81]

@@joanllurba8749 For me too

[@skirtchaser7766]

Try to understand catalan insults

[@itsbritney1013]

Sameee as a catalan speaker 😂

[@Casper-fv8td]

I'm Flemish (Belgian), and sorta speak French as a second language. I have been living in Girona, Catalunya for more than 4 months and I must say: I am very happy that I learned French! Although I never followed Catalan lessons, it was quite easy for me to understand basic written Català. Thanks to being exposed to another roman language since the age of 10.

[@pescairedelua5276]

Now you can do occitan!

[@davlmt]

Yes please.

[@jossarch367]

Soi d'acordi ! I have wanted to study Occitan for a long time but it is hard to find media and resources for it. I probably will learn Catalan in the near future instead.

[@vicenterivera188]

@@jossarch367 Duolingo has Catalan. It's a good start.

[@pescairedelua5276]

@@jossarch367 yeah, sadly the occitan language is always less spoken

[@kanut5493]

@@pescairedelua5276 that's a shame actually. But you totally can start to learn it, because that's the only way we can increase the number of speakers ;)

[@italymadeeasy]

Great video, as usual! As an italian native speaker I can add that Catalan often sounds like the dialect spoken in the Veneto region (Venezia)

[@judna1]

I'm catalan and I learnt italian living two months in Rome. While I was there I worked in a "Centro Diurno per Anziani Fragili", and once I put a catalan song from a group that was from tarragona to an old lady from the "Centro Diurno" and she said that for her it sounded genovese, so been both catalan and italian romanic languages and both having different dialects, it's normal to have some similarities between each other. By the way, I've just added a comment in this video with several catalan songs, from different catalan regions, this way you can appreciate the different dialects through music, I think you'll enjoy it.

[@JordiBabot]

I'm catalan and I had an intalian flatmate from Veneto. I can assure you that he learned catalan in 2 weeks fluently!

[@CDamo88]

Dear, Venetian is not a dialect from Italian language but a roman language itself. As other languages in the Italic peninsula.

[@judna1]

@@CDamo88 Does it have a own grammar? Does it have a normative or it just have the own lexic and phonetic? To be considered a language it must have it all. I mean, I don't have any problem considering all italian dialects as languages (in fact, the exact opposite, there would be more languages in the world, it would be richer), but to do so, they need an estructure, grammar, rules, dicconaries, that difference them selfs from italian.

[@judna1]

@@CDamo88 Ok, I won't doubt it, I just said that to be considered a language it must have some concrete things, I considered to be a dialect of italian, but if I was wrong an it's from latin actually I think I'm proud to be wrong, cause that would mean that latin is still spoken nowadays, it isn't just the mother tongue of many romanic languages. So that's cool! Cause they teach ancient latin and ancient greek in high school, and it's kind of tough to thing that you can't use them nowadays. So knowing that latin can be useful some how, of course without been the same, but at least is close enough to Venetian for example is cool.

[@huangec]

I used to live in Venice, and was very surprised when I visited Barcelona that I had very little trouble understanding the people. They sounded like they were speaking a strange form of Venetian!

[@zappaloui]

I find it quite interesting that as a Brazilian-Portuguese native speaker, I can relate more closely to Català than to Spanish. Its lexicon and pronunciation are amusingly similar to Portuguese, only coming 2nd closest after Galician. Very good job as always, Paul!

[@jmiquelmb]

That's because Spanish has a very particular pronunciation compared to the rest of the Romance languages. Most words that start with f in Catalan or Portuguese start in h in Spanish. Same with other sounds. Follas (port)-Fulles (cat)-Hojas (esp).

[@neuromancerES]

That's because Portuguese it's a derivative of Galician language (a long, long time ago...)

[@KSchwarz]

More like both languages drifted apart. Today's Galician is not the same as the Galician-Portuguese of the middle ages.

[@LuisAldamiz]

@Morgana: Castilian (Spanish) is Basque-influenced like Gascon and Aragonese, therefore it has only five vowels, makes a marked difference between "ser" (to be = have persistent or essential attributes) and "estar" (to be = to have temporary attributes), pronounces the "v" as /b/, lost initial "f" and incorporated some Basque vocabulary like "chico" (from txiki = small) or "aldea" (from aldea = the zone). On the good side some ancient Roman said ancient Basques (Aquitanians) spoke a very good Latin, which incidentally only has five vowels (although both short and long, plus some odd diphtongs like ae and oe that I believe give the extra vowels to Italian, otherwise with similar pronunciation in many aspects). So maybe Castilian is "better Latin" after all, less celticized maybe? Honestly I have no idea why other Romances insist on having so many extra vowels, they are "vowel-inconsistent" somehow.

[@alexbl109]

zappa loui There are some words that are practically the same. Look at e.g. cadira (chair - cadera), ovella (sheep - ovelha) o porta (door - porta).

[@luisrpa123]

I'm from Valencia and most educated people are totally aware that Valencian is just another name for our dialect of Catalan. The concept of a separate Valencian language is only adopted by a sector of far-right politics. As a Catalan speaker, I feel that Catalan is the intersection of Spanish, French and Italian in most aspects. I have not encountered any Occitan speaker, but I can read Occitan with extreme ease.

[@herman1francis]

I lived in Toulouse and found some occitan speakers. It's very close but it sounds archaic.

[@altergreenhorn]

Interesting I dont speak any roman language but this game around dialects, language... are very simmilar as in former yugoslavia where you have a few recogized slavic languages not one but you could feel the pressure from the nation of major speaking language in yugoslavia to melt your language in to their language. After the yu wars and independence of all nations all backfired now all ex yu nations try to differ their language as much as possible from another ones even by forcing some new words

[@maneliquet]

Hi Paul! I'm from València and i speak the Valencian dialect of Catalan. In my region is usually to find people who says the valencian and the catalan are saparated languages, but they were influenced by one corrupt political party in the transition period from the dictatorial era of Franco to the democratical era. Before this, all people in València said that valencian and catalan were the same language. Fortunately, the actual government of València is trying to keep the language alive, but there are people calling them "catalanistes" (catalanists) because they think the government wants to convert València in Catalonia and It is false. They only want to keep the Valencian dialect alive. Sorry for my mistakes, I've studied english for a while but i don't think i'm good at all.

[@liamgalaga5625]

If you think Valencian is a dialect of Catalan, you should answer this questions: -Why Valencian has a Golden age of its literature (Jordi de Sant Jordi, Joanot Martorell, Ausias March...) and Catalan doesn't? es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siglo_de_Oro_valenciano -Why classical authors of Valencian literature considered they wrote in Valencian centuries ago? Were they anti-Catalan? -Why those books used to be translated into Catalan (and viceversa) centuries ago? -Why classical books written in Valencian, which are located at he National Library, where cataloged since the begining as 'written in Valencian' until a CATALAN writter (Rosa Regas, director of that institution) changed that denomination and said that they are NOW written in CATALAN? www.abc.es/hemeroteca/historico-26-05-2005/abc/Valencia/la-biblioteca-nacional-catalogara-las-obras-en-valenciano-como-catalan_202717846580.html --Why the Catalan Government finances Valencian institutions and urge them to teach Catalan to the detriment of Valencian at schools in the Valencian Community and in the Balearic Islands?

[@Elsenoromniano]

I can answer most: Why the Golden age of Arab literature was written msotly by Persian and Egyptian authors and not ones from the Arabic Peninsula. That's because a language is not defined by were their msot famous authors are, but from the region it originated. Catalan originated in Catalonia, so the question is very irrelevant. -Porque el mismo motivo que hay autores que dicen escribir en flamenco y otros que dicen escribir en neerlandés, (A pesar de que está claro que neerlandés y flamenco son la misma lengua) distintas concepciones socioculturales. -Hubo traducciones de la Biblia de Lutero a por ejemplo otros dialectos medios del alemán (no hablo de Boarisch ni de Platt). Eso no lo ahce distinto, la traducción interlingüística existe. -Por que la AVL (La Academia Valenciana de la Lengua) dictaminó que según todos los estudios filológicos el valenciano forma parte del sistema lingüístico catalán. O sea es un cambio que se hizo en base a criterios académicos y lingüísticos. -Por el mismo motivo que se pide que las zonas de Cataluña que no hablan catalán estándar, que está fuertemente basado en en el catalán central (Como Lleida) hablen el estándar. Personalmente, si quieren aplicar un estándar distinto basado en su dialecto, me parece genial. Como si en Andalucía deciden aplicar un estándar distinto y escribir el español como se pronuncia allí. Pero eso no hace que el español y el andaluz sean dos idiomas distintos, Por cierto te has dado cuenta de que 0 de los argumentos que has dado han sido lingüísticos (literarios y políticos), a pesar de que estos deberían ser los principales para la defensa de que el catalán y el valenciano son distintos idiomas.

[@dariomartinez459]

Corrupt like Pujol?

[@miotony1]

Great answer. Catalan is the ''mother'' of valencian or balear, that's all

[@bemascu7087]

Catalan is not the "mother" of Valencian or Balear. Valencian and Balear ARE Catalan. It's the same as when you say "Andaluz" to refer to a regional variety of Spanish spoken in Andalucía. You don't say that Spanish is the "mother" of Andalucian. Andalucian IS Spanish. What you could say is that Vulgar Latin is the "mother" of Catalan, among the other Romance Languages. The following goes more for @Liam Galaga than you: I might be very wrong about what I'm going to say, becaus it's been a long time since I studied sociolinguistics in High School, and It'll be also difficult to translate many terms in English; but I was taught that a language is the combination of the dialects (geographic, personal and chronological dialects). And if you think about it it makes sense: what would you say is Catalan? Or Spanish? Or English? The three of them change (sometiems not much and sometimes a lot) depending on where they're spoken. And every person has his or her own way of speaking it, whith very tiny variations between individuals, or not so tiny if they are from different generations. All of them are what form the language.

[@FrightfulAccountant]

I am a native Dutch speaker that learned in school French as a second language and on holiday in Barcelona I found the Catalan information text more easy to read then the Spanish, the Catalan is more recognisable in vocabulary most of all, quite much like Italian that is in written form often a simular word of the French word. Spanish words are harder to recognize.

[@renatofigueiredo603]

Moltes gràcies Paul! m'encanta massa/molt la llenga catalana, i parlo una mica. Greetings from Brazil.

[@aelitasemis2]

Demasiado=massa; lengua= llengua

[@alexgiron9199]

takeoutfir no es portuguese, es catalan.

[@ferranmateo4803]

Juraria que "demasiat" no es correcte. El més correcte seria "m'encanta massa la llegua" o "m'encanta molt la lllengua", tot i que potser el més correcte seria "m'agrada molt la llengua catalana". Es un gran orgull per molts catalans que hi hagui gent que no es d'aqui que facin l'esforç d'apendre la nostra llengua. Sabem que no som molts parlants, però això no justifica la desparició de la nostra llengua, com intenten molts des d'España...

[@renatofigueiredo603]

Gràcies. Ja he corregit.

[@blacshairon]

Thanks Renato for loving the catalan language ^^ Obrigado!!

[@atravesdelacerradura5633]

¡Que bárbaro! Que buen canal te montaste. Te estoy descubriendo con este video y de plano capturaste mi atención. Historia, lingüística, un guión claro y muy bien conseguido, tu locución muy amena y sacando mucho provecho de tu persona, es decir, con el gusto de esforzarse en hacer televisión doméstica de calidad... ¡Justo la clase de canales que me gustan! Saludos desde la mística Xaman Ha

[@Tadas_rackauskas]

Labas, I’m Lithuanian and I would absolutely love if you did a video about the Baltic Languages!!!! No one talks about them, and they are amazing

[@chrisr8159]

Theodore L. Rackauskas why don’t you make a video and educate us bud!

[@k.z.3646]

I'm Polish and when I went to Vilnius everybody talked in Polish as a second language. But I think Lithuanian and other Baltic languages are quite interesting especially the differences between extinct Prussian and modern Baltic languages

[@fabiolimadasilva3398]

In Portuguese, when someone knows a person well, in the sense of intimacy, the definitive article is used before a given name: "O José é um bom professor".

[@Augusto.Siciliani]

In the north and northeast of Brazil, definite articles are never used before proper names.

[@valeriacao510]

Also in Italy, in the Lombardia region, but I think also someplace else, they use the article before a given name.

[@fabiolimadasilva3398]

@@valeriacao510 Bom dia, Valeria. De fato falamos formas diferentes de latim. Saudações do Brasil!

[@fabiolimadasilva3398]

@@Augusto.Siciliani bom dia! Sou do Rio e o uso do artigo é um indicativo bastante comum do grau de proximidade.

[@valeriacao510]

@@fabiolimadasilva3398 Saluti dalla Sardegna!

[@SergioCanovasS]

I'm Spanish and I understand most Catalan sentences because now Catalonia is everyday on the news and politicians from there use mostly Catalan

[@angyliv8040]

Sergio C. S. Jajajaja al menos sirve de algo...

[@unanec]

Jajaja que cutre por favor😂😂😂😂

[@itsbritney1013]

Jajajaja me muero. La verdad es que sin darse cuenta, las noticias están dando clases de catalán. Yo como ya soy catalana, pues ya tengo aprendido el cuento sabes

[@pepiluci75]

Yes, we are becoming all fluent in Catalan hahaha, i am an expert in understanding the debates from the catalan parliament

[@aplicacionsaranya4241]

@@pepiluci75 No m'ho crec ja que no s'entenen ni ells.

[@arealnowhereman8255]

i am slavic and i learn french for short time, but i understood all this example sentences just from my little knowledge of french, so catalan looks for me like really simple language and it's not hard to understand when you speak other romance languages for me it also sounds somehow noble, idk why lol, but i surely would like to learn it once i will manage french and spannish

[@monicabadia362]

I'm Catalan and I find it easier to communicate with Italian people more than French or Occitane

[@Quarkshell]

Most Spanish people would find it easier to communicate with Italians than with French indeed.

[@the_demiurg]

As a Sardinian and, of course, Italian speaker, I find Catalan quite simple to understand in writing and even when I listen to someone who's speaking Catalan, it's not as hard as French or Portuguese, and I think it is even easier than Spanish, but with the latter we have more passive exposure.

[@alexmood6407]

I spoke with a guy from Valencia and he was very offended when I said Valencian and Catalan are different names for the same language. But then again, same happens in Croatia when you tell them that Croatian and Serbian are the same language based on the same Stokavian dialect. And why is Norwegian Bokmal different language from Danish exactly? It’s always fun when languages are politicised.

[@dunagarceran789]

el catalan es un idioma que viene del latin

[@sxxrpientes5512]

i'm from Valencia, and yes, they are the same language, people here are not pissed off by that fact, but because politicians and media imposed on public opinion and even in the education system here that Valencian comes from Catalan and it's just a dialect, fomenting fake histories and saying Valencian autors are from Catalunya etc... The reality is that Valencian was the first one to be written and had a "golden century", meanwhile, catalan did not.

[@sybilvachaudez1873]

As a native Portuguese and french speaker Catalan is VERY understandable!

[@eldeterrassa]

As a Catalan speaker I can say that italian and portuguese are "relatively easy" to understand for us. Because we all know catalan and spanish since we have 3 years old. French is a little bit difficult. But thx to Catalan we can speak with our parners from the Catalunya nord. Why? We dont know french, and they dont know spanish, but both speak catalan :DDD

[@eduardpuiggarcia6584]

Es nota que no has estat a Perpinyà, el govern francés no ha deixat que el català sigui oficial ni que l´aprenguin a les escoles aixi que al Roselló avui dia és casi impossible trobar algú que sàpiga parlar català desgraciadament.

[@eldeterrassa]

that's what i say

[@eldeterrassa]

desgraciandament és cert, esperem que en un futur no sigui aixi, al Alguer per exemple s'esta impulsant als joves parlar catala per poder venir a estuidar/viure a Catalunya

[@eduardpuiggarcia6584]

no te pinta que la cosa canviÏ, de fet a Catalunya li espera el mateix, cada dia es parla menys català i com no es fagi algu la nostra llengua es substituirà pel castellà.

[@ignaerium487]

Si pases aixo seria una merda la veritat, some el llenguatje sense nació més parlat de europa i no vull que li pasi el mateix al catala que al gales, Escoces y Irlandes.

[@MarioBecerraC]

I remember I was once in Barcelona and an old guy in a bus was saying "tanqueu la porta, tanqueu la porta" (or something similar). And in my brain I was just thinking like "What kind of weird Spanish accent is this?" (I'm a native Mexican speaker). Then it finally dawned on me that he was speaking Catalan, and it all made sense.

[@deadoralive923]

ahah , Si vas por Girona escucharias ''Tanca sa porta cullons!''

[@redtempo5644]

Significa "cerrad la puerta"

[@PianoMeSasha]

that's funny since Mexican spanish sounds like a really wierd accent to Puerto Ricans....

[@doloresdelcastillo252]

Mexicans find that Puerto Ricans do not pronounce the ends of their words, and talk to fast.

[@kame9]

@@deadoralive923 a mallorca diriem " tanca sa puta porta" jajajajaja

[@miguelangelescalantegonzal5146]

Great job to explain the catalán similarities and differences with other romance languages, specially spanish, french and italian. I lived in Barcelona from 1996 to 2000. And during that time I studied catalán. I reached a fluency of about 80%. I am mexican and my native language is spanish (castilian). I also speak English with a 95% fluency. I also studied french when younger and reached a fluency of 80%. As I returned to my native Mexico in 2002, it's difficult for me to practice both french and catalán, so my fluency in both has decreased unfortunarely because of lack of practice. I must say that another important aspect that makes catalán different to other similar romance languages áre its sayings and slangs. Cheers!

[@Me2Lancer]

Thanks for sharing this post on Catalan. In the early 1990s I worked with a former merchant marine sailor who worked in the Mediterranean for years. He made it known that Catalan was his favorite region, it and its people.

[@Drusille]

i'm catalan and i thin portuguese french and italian are easy to understand for catalans, italian even more than french :) thanks for the video , you explained catalan history pretty well :)

[@davidtice4972]

Paul, I was going to school in Perugia, Italy. I speak both Italian and Spanish. I met some Catalan speakers from Barcelona in Perugia. I was talking to them in Italian when I forgot or thought I was speaking in Spanish. I switched to Spanish and they said that they already understood me speaking Italian.