Catalan Phonology - Dialectal Variation

Dialectal Variation

The differences in the vocalic systems outlined above are the main criteria used to differentiate between the major dialects: Wheeler (2005) distinguishes two major dialect groups, western and eastern dialects; the latter of which only allow, and to appear in unstressed syllables and include Northern Catalan, Central Catalan, Balearic, and Alguerese. Western dialects, which allow any vowel in unstressed syllables, include Valencian and North-Western Catalan.

Regarding consonants, betacism and fricative–affricate alternations are the most prominent differences between dialects.

Other dialectal features are:

• Vowel harmony with /ɔ/ and /ɛ/ in Southern Valencian; this process is progressive (i.e. preceding vowels affect those pronounced afterwards) over the last unstressed vowel of a word; e.g. hora /ˈɔɾa/ → . However, there are cases where regressive metaphony occurs over pretonic vowels; e.g. tovallola /tovaˈʎɔla/ → ('towel'), afecta /aˈfɛkta/ → ('affects').
• In Southern Valencian subvarieties, especially in Alicante Valencian, the diphthong /ɔu/ (phonetically in Valencian) has become : bous ('bulls').
• In regular speech in both, Eastern and Western Catalan dialects, word-initial unstressed /o/ – or – may be diphthongized to (Eastern Catalan) or (Western Catalan): ofegar ~ ('to drown, suffocate').
• In Aragonese Catalan (including Ribagorçan), /l/ is palatalized to in consonant clusters; e.g. plou 'it rains'.
• In Alguerese and Ribagorçan word-final /ʎ/ and /ɲ/ are depalatized to and, respectively; e.g. gall ('rooster'), any ('year').
• Varying degrees of L-velarization among dialects: /l/ is dark irrespective of position in Balearic and Central Catalan and might tend to vocalization in some cases. In Western varieties like Valencian, this dark l contrasts with a clear l in intervocalic and word-initial position; while in other dialects, like Alguerese or Northern Catalan, /l/ is never velarized in any instance.
• Iodització (also known as iesme històric "historic yeísmo") in regular speech in most of Majorcan, Northern Catalan and in the historic comarca of Vallès (Barcelona): /ʎ/ merges with in some Latin derived words with intervocalic L-palatalization (intervocalic /l/ + yod (-LI-, -LE-), -LL-, -CVL-, and -GVL-); e.g. palla ('straw'). An exception to this rule is initial L-palatalization; e.g. lluna ('moon').
• The dorso-palatal may occur in complementary distribution with, only in Majorcan varieties that have dorso-palatals rather than the velars found in most dialects: guerra ('war') vs sa guerra ('the war').
• In northern and transitional Valencian, word-initial and postconsonantal /dʒ/ (Eastern Catalan /ʒ/ and /dʒ ~ ʒ/) alternates with intervocalically; e.g. joc 'game', but pitjor 'worse', boja 'crazy' (standard Valencian /ˈdʒɔk/, /piˈdʒoɾ/; /ˈbɔdʒa/; standard Catalan /ˈʒɔk/, /piˈdʒo/ and /ˈbɔʒə/).
• In northern Valencia and southern Catalonia /s/ has merged with realizations of /ʃ/ after a high front vocoid; e.g. terrissa ('pottery'), insistisc ('I insist') vs. pixar ('to pee'), deixar ('to leave'). In these varieties /ʃ/ is not found after other vocoids, and merges with /tʃ/ after consonants; e.g. punxa ('thorn').
• Intervocalic /d/ dropping (particularly participles) in regular speech in Valencian, with compensatory lengthening of vowel /a/; e.g. vesprada ('evening').
• In northern Catalonia and in the town of Sóller (Majorca), a uvular trill or approximant can be heard instead of an alveolar trill; e.g. córrer ~ ('to run').