# different spanish languages which is the most used?



## tommy t (Aug 22, 2013)

was considering a move to spain and looking into learning Spanish but notice there are several different forms of spanish one of them being catalan which ui believe is spoken in Mallorca, which is the most commonly spoken form of Spanish??


----------



## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

tommy t said:


> was considering a move to spain and looking into learning Spanish but notice there are several different forms of spanish one of them being catalan which ui believe is spoken in Mallorca, which is the most commonly spoken form of Spanish??


If you told a Catalan that his native tongue was a form of Spanish, you'd be fixin' for a fight! There are several different languages spoken in Spain: _castellano_ (what you might call "Spanish"), _catalán_, _gallego_(related to Portuguese), _valenciano_, and a couple of others, I think. _Castellano_ is the most widely spoken.


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Isla Verde said:


> If you told a Catalan that his native tongue was a form of Spanish, you'd be fixin' for a fight! There are several different languages spoken in Spain: _castellano_ (what you might call "Spanish"), _catalán_, _gallego_(related to Portuguese), _valenciano_, and a couple of others, I think. _Castellano_ is the most widely spoken.


you're right 

Castellano, commonly known as Spanish, is the national language & is spoken throughout the country

there are other local languages spoken in various areas - but as a foreigner you're best learning the national language

For the past 10 years I've been living in an area where Valenciano is very strong, it's the official language in the schools & is almost always spoken in the homes of the vast majority of 'locals' - indeed the parents of some of my daughters' friends seem to have forgotten how to speak Castellano

however - I don't speak Valenciano & I manage just fine because I speak Castellano - the locals might talk to each other in Valenciano but they don't expect us foreigners to speak it, although they are always delighted if you try

I've just started thinking about learning it - my daughters both speak it because most of their education is in Valenciano, I've never really studied it but I can read it & understand most of what is said to me

I just need to start speaking it - well I don't actually _need _to - I want to


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

tommy t said:


> was considering a move to spain and looking into learning Spanish but notice there are several different forms of spanish one of them being catalan which ui believe is spoken in Mallorca, which is the most commonly spoken form of Spanish??


you mean _Mallorquín - _which is actually a dialect of Catalán - & only spoken on Mallorca, so not much good to you anywhere else .......


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Here's some info about different languages in Spain

Languages of Spain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Here's some info about different languages in Spain
> 
> Languages of Spain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


although wiki doesn't seem to have noticed - the Spanish govt has accepted Valenciano as an official language




> Spanish is the official language of Spain, but it is not the only language spoken. Catalan (in Catalonia and the Balearics), Valencian (in the Community of Valencia), Galician (in Galicia) and Euskera (in the Basque Country) are Spain’s other official languages. Together with Spanish, they are also the languages of the universities in these Autonomous Communities.


Other co-official languages | Universidad.es


----------



## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

xabiachica said:


> you mean _Mallorquín - _*which is actually a dialect of Catalán* - & only spoken on Mallorca, so not much good to you anywhere else .......


As is Valenciano. Given they are both Catalan dialects I assume that if you know one of these dialects then you can communicate with speakers of other dialects pretty easily, and indeed learn the other dialects. So I guess speaking Mallorquín or Valenciano would be quite useful in Cataluña for example.


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Chopera said:


> As is Valenciano. Given they are both Catalan dialects I assume that if you know one of these dialects then you can communicate with speakers of other dialects pretty easily, and indeed learn the other dialects. So I guess speaking Mallorquín or Valenciano would be quite useful in Cataluña for example.


You may think it's a dialect, but it is officially recognised as a language, as xabia pointed out!


----------



## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Pesky Wesky said:


> You may think it's a dialect, but it is officially recognised as a language, as xabia pointed out!


There's no accepted definition of what what a dialect is, so we could go on about this for pages and pages, but it is generally accepted that Valenciano is a dialect of Catalán. If the Spanish government classifies it as a different language then I suspect it is for political reasons rather than linguistic ones. The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (who I guess have more linguistic authority than a bunch of politicians playing power games) considers Valenciano and Catalán to be two different names for the same language. I'm sure there are other institutions that argue differently. I suspect the proof lies in what happens when a Valenciano speaker talks to a Catalán speaker, and how well they understand each other. My guess is they'd understand each other pretty well.


----------



## Navas (Sep 2, 2012)

Fascinating! I'd never heard of Fala before!


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Chopera said:


> There's no accepted definition of what what a dialect is, so we could go on about this for pages and pages, but it is generally accepted that Valenciano is a dialect of Catalán. If the Spanish government classifies it as a different language then I suspect it is for political reasons rather than linguistic ones. The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (who I guess have more linguistic authority than a bunch of politicians playing power games) considers Valenciano and Catalán to be two different names for the same language. I'm sure there are other institutions that argue differently. I suspect the proof lies in what happens when a Valenciano speaker talks to a Catalán speaker, and how well they understand each other. My guess is they'd understand each other pretty well.


Yes, I'm sure they would understand each other, if they wanted to!
I really have little interest in Valenciano and whether it's a language or not, and I'm sure there are people who can argue the case for each side, but it matters not because it's been recognised as a language _officially_, by _official_ organisations, and that makes some people very happy


----------



## GallineraGirl (Aug 13, 2011)

Chopera said:


> There's no accepted definition of what what a dialect is, so we could go on about this for pages and pages, but it is generally accepted that Valenciano is a dialect of Catalán. If the Spanish government classifies it as a different language then I suspect it is for political reasons rather than linguistic ones. The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (who I guess have more linguistic authority than a bunch of politicians playing power games) considers Valenciano and Catalán to be two different names for the same language. I'm sure there are other institutions that argue differently. I suspect the proof lies in what happens when a Valenciano speaker talks to a Catalán speaker, and how well they understand each other. My guess is they'd understand each other pretty well.


I have been told that the differences are only in some vocabulary, not in grammar.


----------



## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

We live in a very Valencian area, it's kind of difficult at first because we are trying to learn Castellano but then lots of signs and the language spoke in the shops is Valenciano so occasionally if you try and mimic the person in front of you you are probably asking in Valenciano without noticing it.

I don't know a great deal about the history of it all here but there does seem to be some conflict between the two, street signs are constantly being painted over, presumably nationalist graffiti around and everyone knows the town for being very Valencian.
I'm not sure what it is but we seem to have a knack of moving into disputed areas like this, seems wholly peaceful though as we are a bit out of town.


----------



## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Yes, I'm sure they would understand each other, if they wanted to!
> I really have little interest in Valenciano and whether it's a language or not, and I'm sure there are people who can argue the case for each side, but it matters not because it's been recognised as a language _officially_, by _official_ organisations, and that makes some people very happy


Yes my comment was really in response to which languages are most used, and the op referred to Mallorquín in particular. XabiaChica claimed that it's of little use outside of Mallorca and I think in practical terms it is more useful than that because if you know Mallorquín you can easily communicate with Catalans and Valencianos. I'm sure some people are very happy that Spain has declared Valenciano a separate language, it means another level of bureaucracy for the funcionarios to get their teeth into, more work for the translators, and more taxes for everyone else.


----------



## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

I went to Mallorca a year or two ago and all the road signs were in Welsh.................


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Chopera said:


> As is Valenciano. Given they are both Catalan dialects I assume that if you know one of these dialects then you can communicate with speakers of other dialects pretty easily, and indeed learn the other dialects. So I guess speaking Mallorquín or Valenciano would be quite useful in Cataluña for example.


it might have been considered such at some point - though in this area they'd insist that Valenciano came first....

but now it is an official language separate to Catalán

I agree though that they are as similar to each other as British English is to American English - just don't tell them I said so :nono:


----------



## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Navas said:


> Fascinating! I'd never heard of Fala before!


Neither had I. I'll hazard a guess that it's related to Portuguese and _gallego_.


----------



## tommy t (Aug 22, 2013)

so is the difference of languages like say geaordies to londoners or english to scottish or are they totally different , whats the most commonly spoken in mallorca?


----------



## mickbcn (Feb 4, 2013)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Here's some info about different languages in Spain
> 
> Languages of Spain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


This information is very very old.. now Spain have 47.000 000 milions of people. and catalan language(catalan,valencian and balearic islands) is spoken by 10.000 000 people aprox.


----------



## mickbcn (Feb 4, 2013)

Pesky Wesky said:


> You may think it's a dialect, but it is officially recognised as a language, as xabia pointed out!


Valenciano is catalan too with very few differences of the catalan central. is very similar with the catalan spoken in Lleida area . One catalan from Barcelona or Girona can understand very well one valencian or one mallorcan when speak. However the PP (popular party ) in the power now, try to separate valencian and mallorcan from the catalan the have horror to see catalonia valencia and balearic islands united again.
For me is very funny to see when one foreigner go to Andalucia to learn spanish because here in Catalonia we speak catalan.(and spanish too!!!!!) and we say (in spanish) "Jose saca el saco al sol para que se seque" not "Ozee zaca er zaco ar zó pa que ze zeque"


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

tommy t said:


> so is the difference of languages like say geaordies to londoners or english to scottish or are they totally different , whats the most commonly spoken in mallorca?


geordies, Londoners, English & Scottish all speak English - they have different accents & some different vocabulary (words for things) 

but essentially they are the same language


Catalan, Valenciano, Galician, Basque & the other official languages are all _totally _different to Castellano (Spanish) - & none are anything like it - totally different words, structure etc - as different as French is to English 

Catalan & Valenciano are pretty much the same as each other, & Mallorqíun is a dialect of Catalan, so is a bit like geordie is to English - the same language essentially, but a few differences with vocabulary - if you speak one, you _should_ understand the other


----------



## Navas (Sep 2, 2012)

xabiachica said:


> geordies, Londoners, English & Scottish all speak English - they have different accents & some different vocabulary (words for things)
> 
> but essentially they are the same language
> 
> ...


I'd say that Catalan does have some similarities with Castellano, but also with French. It is a separate language though. Basque is unlike anything else and is an ancient language which I think predates Castellano etc!

Isn't Galician something of a cross between Castellano and Portuguese? I don't know for sure - I've never been into that corner, but my daughter had a Galician boyfriend for several years.


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

xabiachica said:


> geordies, Londoners, English & Scottish all speak English - they have different accents & some different vocabulary (words for things)
> 
> but essentially they are the same language
> 
> ...


I think you'll find that the only language that has no similarity to Castellano (Spanish) is Basque.
For example Where do you live translated to (from Google translate so not to be taken as 100% correct)
Spanish = ¿Dónde vives/ vive?
Gallego= onde vostede vive
Euskera = non bizi zara


----------



## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

xabiachica said:


> geordies, Londoners, English & Scottish all speak English - they have different accents & some different vocabulary (words for things)
> 
> but essentially they are the same language
> 
> ...


Agree with Navas. The only language that is totally different is Basque.

For example, here are 4 translations for "what are you doing tomorrow?":

French: "Que faites-vous demain?"
Catalán: "Que vas a fer demà?"
Castellano: "¿Qué vas a hacer mañana?"
Gallego: "Que vai facer mañá?"

(I needed google translate for the Catalán and Gallego)

When you bear in mind that in Castellano the "f" drifted to become a silent "h" over the centuries, and that it would once have been "¿Qué vas a facer mañana?" you can see some pretty obvious similarities. That's not to say they are the same language, they are not, but they are not totally different.

Here's Portuguese and Italian:

Portuguese: "Que você vai fazer amanhã?"
Italian: "cosa fai domani?"

In my experience it's the accents that throw you. I can follow Italian and Catalán to an extent. I can't follow Portuguese at all.


----------



## Navas (Sep 2, 2012)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I think you'll find that the only language that has no similarity to Castellano (Spanish) is Basque.
> For example Where do you live translated to (from Google translate so not to be taken as 100% correct)
> Spanish = ¿Dónde vives/ vive?
> Gallego= onde vostede vive
> Euskera = non bizi zara


For "Good morning!"
Spanish = ¡Buenos días!
Catalan = Bon dia!
Gallego = Bo día!
Portuguese = Bom dia!
Euskera (Basque) = Egun on!


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I think you'll find that the only language that has no similarity to Castellano (Spanish) is Basque.
> For example Where do you live translated to (from Google translate so not to be taken as 100% correct)
> Spanish = ¿Dónde vives/ vive?
> Gallego= onde vostede vive
> Euskera = non bizi zara


yes, similarities, & of course there are similarities between all the latin-based languages- but being able to speak & understand Castellano doesn't mean you can do the same with Valenciano - some words are similar, but some are also similar to French & English, and the structure is very different

for example, if you put _va a_ before a verb in Castellano, he's _going to _do something

put _va _before a verb in Valenciano & he already did it....

it can help, but as you see, it can also be a hindrance - & the main reason I can't _speak _it, although I can read & understand it, is that the pronunciation is very different, too, & I always want to pronounce it 'Spanish'


----------



## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

xabiachica said:


> yes, similarities, & of course there are similarities between all the latin-based languages- but being able to speak & understand Castellano doesn't mean you can do the same with Valenciano - some words are similar, but some are also similar to French & English, and the structure is very different
> 
> for example, if you put _va a_ before a verb in Castellano, he's _going to _do something
> 
> ...


That's interesting - I didn't know that


----------



## whitenoiz (Sep 18, 2012)

Solwriter and I indulged in a Spanish (Castilian) course before moving out here to the Granada Campo area of Andalucia. We very quickly realised that in this area at least it was almost a waste of time... the local dialect and the machine gun speed of speech made conversation difficult if not nigh on impossible. Even now, several years later, I really struggle to understand mis vecinos...
This was particularly noticeable when S. had to go into hospital in Granada for an emergency op requiring much pre and post op use of Morphine and other painkilling drugs. Believe me when I say that any knowledge of recently acquired language skills go straight out of the window under these circumstances...!


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Navas said:


> For "Good morning!"
> Spanish = ¡Buenos días!
> Catalan = Bon dia!
> Gallego = Bo día!
> ...


Plus Western Andalus = ¡Adio!


----------



## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

whitenoiz said:


> Solwriter and I indulged in a Spanish (Castilian) course before moving out here to the Granada Campo area of Andalucia. We very quickly realised that in this area at least it was almost a waste of time... the local dialect and the machine gun speed of speech made conversation difficult if not nigh on impossible. Even now, several years later, I really struggle to understand mis vecinos...
> This was particularly noticeable when S. had to go into hospital in Granada for an emergency op requiring much pre and post op use of Morphine and other painkilling drugs. Believe me when I say that any knowledge of recently acquired language skills go straight out of the window under these circumstances...!


I have an English friend who grew up near Seville and then got sent to an English public school. His English accent is impeccable upper class, but he speaks Spanish with a very strong Andalucian accent (somewhat to the amusement of my Madrileño friends). I'm sure there are quite a few like him.


----------



## tommy t (Aug 22, 2013)

so if my son is in an international school in Mallorca which language would he be learning?


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

tommy t said:


> so if my son is in an international school in Mallorca which language would he be learning?


if you mean one which teaches the UK curriculum he'll be taught in English

He'd be taught Castellano as a foreign language, just as if he was in a school in the UK

he might well have Mallorquín/Catalán lessons as well - I know in my area the International schools have to teach Valenciano as a language, so I'd be very surprised if that wasn't the case with a Catalán area


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

tommy t said:


> so if my son is in an international school in Mallorca which language would he be learning?


Well, you would need to get a list of schools and contact each school individually to know this for sure. Anything here, or on internet might not be accurate.
Here is info about the private schools in Mallorca, but who knows how up to date it is.
Schools in Spain - International Schools in Mallorca
If you have young children (under 10) and are thinking of a long stay, state school may be an alternative. My daughter, (Spanish) went through state school relatively unscathed and is at uni here now


----------

