Can a Spanish person understand Catalan?

Can a Spanish person understand Catalan?

Many people ask me, for example, if I speak Spanish, do I also speak Catalan? The answer is no. Catalan is mutually unintelligible with Spanish. Most Catalan speakers know Spanish because they studied it at school, but Spanish speakers, who haven’t learned Catalan, are unable to comprehend any Catalan.

Is it easy to learn Catalan if you speak Spanish?

Catalan is not difficult to learn – especially if you already speak another Romance language. Many people think Catalan is a dialect of Spanish and that’s not true at all. It’s as different from Spanish as is Portuguese or Italian. Like these languages, it did come originally from Latin.

What is the difference between Catalan and Castilian?

Some of the Catalan speakers speak it as a first language, and Castilian Spanish to them is considered a “second language”. Some Catalan speakers consider Spanish their first language, and Catalan the second. In a very small number of cases, Catalan speakers speak no other languages at all, not even Spanish.

Is Catalan or Spanish harder?

I’ve found that, in general, Catalan grammar is about as easy as Spanish grammar (and easier than French grammar).

Where is Occitan most spoken?

Occitan is a language that is spoken across the Occitania region — mainly in southern France but also in northern Spain, in Monaco (and along the French Riviera towards Marseille) and also in the Occitan Valleys in Italy.

Is Catalan closer to Italian than Spanish?

Catalan is closer to Italian and Sardinian than it is to Spanish or French. Catalan is closer to French, to Spanish, to Italian and to all the romance languages. Andorra have Catalan as official language and Spanish and French as main business languages. So, they are, usually, interesting on be threelingual speakers.

Does knowing Spanish help you to understand Catalan?

But yes, it helps a lot knowing Spanish in order to understand Catalan. I’m pretty sure a native Spanish speaker from Spain would have an advantage over me, because I’m not even used to the accent when speaking Spanish, now imagine in another language. I am Spanish and I lived in Barcelona for two years.

What is the difference between Catalan and Castilian Spanish?

And the origins of Castilian Spanish vs Catalan are already diverse. The center of Spain (Castilia) was more in touch with Iberian and Celtics, whereas Catalonia was more open to the Mediterranean sea and connected to the Occitan world beyond the Pyrenees.

Where is Catalan spoken?

Catalan is a co-official language in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia. It is also the sole official language in the tiny country of Andorra. And it is also spoken in the Pyrénées Orientales area of the South of France, as well as in the town of Alghero in Sardinia.

What are the cousin languages of Catalan?

Catalan and Spanish but also Portuguese, Italian, French and Romanian are all cousin languages. And the origins of Castilian Spanish vs Catalan are already diverse.