# Catalan, French, Portuguese



## Ayazid

Olá galera

As the title of my threat suggests, I would like to discuss here mutual intelligibility of French and Catalan dialect both in its written and spoken forms. It´s well-known fact that Catalan dialects are very similar and mutually intelligible with Occitan dialects from Southern France (today near extinct), but their similarity or intelligibility to Standard French from the North of France is much less known.

Since most of people on this forum are obviously Catalans I would like to ask you this question: Do you understand French (spoken and written) well or to some degree?

Except the comparison of Catalan and French, another interesting matter is relation between Catalan and one of its linguistic relatives and "neighbours" on the Pyrenean Peninsula - Portuguese, which is closer to Spanish as for the grammar and vocabulary, but as for its phonetic, it´s very specific and as some people claim closer to Catalan (better said, its European variant) The question for native speakers of Catalan here is the same as in the case of French: Do you understand spoken and written Portuguese to some degree? Do you think that its pronunciation is similar to that of Catalan in some regards?

P.S.: I would be glad if anybody could add some informations about mutual intelligibility of Catalan and Italian também


----------



## Levana

Hi 
I speak fluently catalan and je parle un petit peu du Français. As I was born near to Portugal, I can understand quit well spoken Portuguese, but I don't understand it written. I don't think its pronuntiation is similar to Catalan or French. 

Y, como verás, en inglés hago lo que puedo!


----------



## panjabigator

Maybe this thread will help you.


----------



## betulina

Hi, Ayazid,

To my experience, spoken French is far more difficult to understand that Portuguese and Italian. I might catch some words, but, without notions of it, I cannot follow a French speech at all. Written French is a bit more easy, and I think a Catalan speaker can understand the general issue of a text and catch quite a lot of words.

As for Portuguese, I had the chance to listen to it the other day and I was astonished by the similarity I found with Catalan in some regards. Final "L" sounds just the same and the proliferation of "schwa" vowels made me think of some Catalan accents. It was really a surprise; in some moments it reminded me of some sort of Catalan dialect!, although, of course, I didn't understand it all. But it was easier than I thought. It was European Portuguese, yes. About written Portuguese, it's more or less as for French, I think. Perhaps we can recognise more words and structures because of the closer similarity with Spanish in vocabulary.

And as for Italian, a Catalan without notions can understand spoken standard Italian to some degree (it always depends on how fast, etc. they speak, of course) and I would say the same about written Italian. 

Hope it helps.


----------



## GoranBcn

Ahoj Ayadiz and thanks for starting this thread.  I started almost the same question just some months ago and the moderator closed it... (Coses que passen...)
Anyways, I'm not a native speaker of Catalan but I'm fluent in it. I'm working in a Hotel in Barcelona and I have an everyday contact with people from many countries as well as from those from Portugal, Italy and France and many others. I've been learning Italian and French for two years, but before starting to learn them I could speak with Italian or Portuguese people using Catalan or Spanish but less with French speakers. I guess Portuguese is easier for Catalan speakers in its written form and a bit more difficult when it comes to the spoken language. Italian is also understandable both written and spoken. Maybe the most difficult one to understand if you have not learnt any of them before is French (spoken). Written form is much easier.

And some additional information that I've found here:

Central Catalan has about 90% to 95% inherent intelligibility to speakers of Valencian (R. A. Hall, Jr., 1989). Written Catalan is closest to Barcelona speech. Central Catalan has 87% lexical similarity with Italian, 85% with Portuguese and Spanish, 76% with Rheto-Romance, 75% with Sardinian, 73% with Rumanian. 

Goran


----------



## MarcB

Hi Ayazid,
I can speak Portuguese,French,Spanish and Italian so I can understand a lot of Catalan both written and spoken but I can not speak it. Some words I do not understand but most I can figure out due to their similarity to one or more of the other languages and context. In Perpignan France Catalan is also spoken. Catalan and Occitan are mutually intilligible some would say they are dialects of the same language,though separated for political reasons. Also Catalan is spoken in Andorra and parts of Italy.By the way Occitan is not nearly extinct although a smaller percentage of people speak it now than in the past. Your question about being mutually intelilgible with other related languages remember all of the Catalan speakers here are at least bi if not tri lingual and that makes it easier to understand the other languages. although Catalan is sort of a linguistic bridge between Spanish and French I think the other related languages would be easier to understand than French for a person who has had no exposure to French.


----------



## megane_wang

Hi, Ayazid,

I'm native catalan and spanish. I also speak english and use it regularly for my job. In addition to this, I speak a bit of german and a bit of italian, and have dealt with a few Italian, French, Portuguese and Brazilian people, even though I never took formal lessons in these languages. When I was in secondary school a Latin language course was still mandatory for my curriculum; I don't remember many details, but I learned something that can condition my impressions, for sure. 

I can read a standard text in French but get lost quite easily as the subject becomes specific to anything, unless it deals with subjects I am familiar to. As far as spoken French is concerned, the accent of South is easier for me to listen at, but I need a few days to start understanding anything in Paris. 

On the other side, I can understand Italian rather well. Last year an Italian student came to my studio for some practices. At the beginning she told us that it was easier to understand us talking in catalan than spanish, even though she had learned some Spanish at school. I feel that we could understand her italian better because we could find out similarities with catalan OR spanish, while she only had the Italian reference (she was fluent in German and English, though; not a language dummy). Written italian is close enough to spanish to be read, but it does contain quite a few funny traps for spaniards (phrases that seem to be day clear, but mean the opposite or anything else than expected).

As far as Portuguese is concerned, I think that sounds are more similar to catalan than Spanish. As betulina already pointed out, the "L" sound is definitely close to the catalan one, quite different than the spanish "L". Non-tonic vowels are also different than spanish ones, and (to the ear) seem to include a sort of neutral "a" as catalan does. I mentioned Brazilian people because for some reason I understand their Portuguese better than that spoken in Portugal, but I can't tell you why. 

See you around!


----------



## MarcB

Radio  Occitania


----------



## Little_Little

Hi!!!

As a Catalan speaker, I really think Catalan in in the middle of Frensh, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish... Lexically I would say it's closer to French and Italian, I can more or less understand written ans spoken Italian, and also written French (not so much spoken).

About Spanish, almost all Catalan speakers are also Spanish speakers, and I think this makes that Catalan is quite influenced by Spanish...

About Portuguese, I really would say that is the closest one to Catalan about sounds, their vowel sounds, the "s", the "x", etc. are so close to Catalan!


----------

