Catalan

Last Updated: 2020-06-10

COMPROMISED: conflation between /e/ and /ɛ/ and between /o/ and /ɔ/, depending on stress; possible conflation between vowels and glides (/j/ and /w/); some ambiguity pertaining to whether a transcription is underlying or the result of a phonological process

Background

Language Family: Indo-European / Italic / Romance / Italo-Western / Gallo-Iberian / Ibero-Romance / East Iberian

• Catalan is predominantly spoken in eastern Spain, specifically in the regions of Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands. It is also spoken in parts of France and Italy, as well as in Andorra, which is a principality between France and Spain.

Phonology

Consonants

	Place of Articulation
Manner of Articulation	Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar
Stops	p b	t d			k ɡ
Affricates		ts dz	tʃ dʒ
Fricatives	f	s z	ʃ ʒ
Nasals	m	n		ɲ
Flaps		ɾ
Trills		r
Approximants		l		j ʎ	w
Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless and those on the right are voiced. Both palatal approximants are voiced, but the one on the right is lateral.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
High-Mid	e		o
Low-Mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low		a

Alphabet

• Whether ⟨v⟩ transcribes to /b/ or /v/ is a dialectal difference. I opted for /b/ due to it being more reflective of the standardized language (Wheeler 2005, 13).
• Notice that conflation exists between /e/ and /ɛ/ and between /o/ and /ɔ/, when ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩ are transcribed without grave or acute accents (Hualde 1992, xxix). This compromises the language.
• Word-final devoicing is reflected in spelling only when the last syllable is stressed. This creates ambiguity and conflation between voiced and voiceless consonants (Wheeler 2005, 7).
• Grapheme ⟨x⟩ also causes ambiguity. While there are systematic rules to determine its realization, which are generally based on stress, stress is not consistently reflected in the orthography, making transcription difficult. I have defaulted to transcribing ⟨x⟩ as /ks/.

Grapheme	Phoneme	Comment
a	/a/
à	/a/
b	/b/
c	/k/; /s/	/s/: preceding front vowels
ç	/s/
d	/d/
e	/e/; /ɛ/	/e/: default in the rules
è	/ɛ/
é	/e/
f	/f/
g	/ɡ/; /ʒ/	/ɡ/: preceding back vowels; /ʒ/: preceding front vowels
h
i	/i/
í	/i/
ï	/i/
j	/ʒ/
k	/k/
l	/l/
m	/m/
n	/n/
o	/o/; /ɔ/	/o/: default in the rules
ò	/ɔ/
ó	/o/
p	/p/
q	/k/
r	/ɾ/; /r/	/r/: word-initially
s	/s/
t	/t/
u	/u/
ú	/u/
ü	/u/
v	/b/
w	/w/
x	/ʃ/; /ɡz/; /ks/	/ʃ/: word-initially, in onsets following a consonant, and after /i/; /ɡz/: otherwise before stress; /ks/: otherwise after stress
y	/i/; /j/	/j/: following a vowel
z	/z/
Digraph
gu	/ɡ/; /ɡw/	/ɡ/: preceding front vowels; /ɡw/: preceding back vowels
gü	/ɡw/	preceding front vowels
ig	/tʃ/	word-finally
ll	/ʎ/
ŀl	/lː/
ny	/ɲ/
qu	/k/; /kw/	/k/: preceding front vowels; /kw/: preceding back vowels
qü	/kw/	preceding front vowels
rr	/r/	intervocalically
ss	/s/	intervocalically
tg	/dʒ/	preceding front vowels
tj	/dʒ/
ts	/ts/
tz	/dz/
tx	/tʃ/

Lenition Rules

• /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ spirantize in syllable onsets following continuants (Wheeler 2005, 10).
• /ɾ/ deletes word-finally (Mascaró 1972, 94).
• /b/ can sometimes be realized as [w] (Mascaró 1972, 99).
• ⟨ŀl⟩ generally undergoes degemination (Hualde 1992, xxviii).
• /s/ is voiced intervocalically and preceding voiced consonants (ibid.).

Misc. Rules

• /i/ and /u/ (sometimes /o/) are realized as [j] and [w], respectively, through diphthongization (ie. in the vicinity of other vowels) (Hualde 1992, 375).
• /n/ assimilates in place when preceding velar obstruents (Wheeler 2005, 24).
• Word-finally non-strident obstruents undergo devoicing (Wheeler 2005, 7).
• Consonant gemination may occur (Carbonell and Llisterri 1992 , p. 55). It’s specifically noted for /b/, /ɡ/, /l/, /m/, /n/, and /ʎ/, but I have created a rule to account for any duplicate consonant.

References

Carbonell, Joan F., and Joaquim Llisterri. 1992. “Catalan.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association.

Hualde, Jose Ignacio. 1992. Catalan. Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Mascaró, Joan. 1972. “Catalan Phonology and the Phonological Cycle.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://pure.mpg.de/rest/items/item_401169/component/file_401168/content.

Wheeler, Max W. 2005. The Phonology of Catalan. Oxford University Press.