What does Catalan sound like to you?

[Comte Arnau]

It sounds like fucked up Castillan, when it really is fucked up Langue d'Oc.

We neither have those horrible Spanish jotas and zetas nor that stupid French/Occitan pinenut-lip ü sound. We are actually an improved version.

[Rêveur]

This is going to sound very cliché, but to me it sounds like a mixture of French and Spanish, spoken with a total Spanish accent. So basically Spanish with different vocabulary. I haven't heard that many people speaking it though, that must be why.

[Comte Arnau]

This is going to sound very cliché, but to me it sounds like a mixture of French and Spanish, spoken with a total Spanish accent. So basically Spanish with different vocabulary. I haven't heard that many people speaking it though, that must be why.

It's very cliché indeed, but it's actually just as stupid as saying that Dutch is a mixture of German and English, or that English is a mixture of German and French.

[Han Cholo]

It's very cliché indeed, but it's actually just as stupid as saying that Dutch is a mixture of German and English, or that English is a mixture of German and French.

It's very hard to describe language in a truly analytical manner if you aren't a linguist. The easiest way for average joes is comparing them to other languages. I don't think too many users will get into "Catalan lexicon seems to be mostly Gallo-Romance with many Ibero-Romance words and subtle atavisms from the ancient Iberian language, with a more analytical inflexion than Spanish and intermediate guttural phonetics" details.

[Comte Arnau]

It's very hard to describe language in a truly analytical manner if you aren't a linguist. The easiest way for average joes is comparing them to other languages. I don't think too many users will get into "Catalan lexicon seems to be mostly Gallo-Romance with many Ibero-Romance words and subtle atavisms from the ancient Iberian language, with a more analytical inflexion than Spanish and intermediate guttural phonetics" details.

I know. I'm not criticizing Reveur, I'm criticizing the cliché, which I've just heard everywhere. It's like when people say that Portuguese is badly spoken Spanish, I know what they feel like. The fact is, Catalan is the most central of all the major Romance languages, so it's not only "between Spanish and French", but also "between them and Italian". Or seen from my point of view, they are northern/eastern/western versions of my language.

[Han Cholo]

I know. I'm not criticizing Reveur, I'm criticizing the cliché, which I've just heard everywhere. It's like when people say that Portuguese is badly spoken Spanish, I know what they feel like. The fact is, Catalan is the most central of all the major Romance languages, so it's not only "between Spanish and French", but also "between them and Italian". Or seen from my point of view, they are northern/eastern/western versions of my language.

I agree. I prefer to say it's a human, clear-throat version of French. Not completely accurate but at least less cliché. I agree it's pretty central sounding, unless you include weirder variants like Romanian.

[Alessio]

Like a crossbreed between a human and a snake who is singing on the European songfestival!

[Comte Arnau]

I agree. I prefer to say it's a human, clear-throat version of French. Not completely accurate but at least less cliché. I agree it's pretty central sounding, unless you include weirder variants like Romanian.

I'm leaving Romanian aside, of course. Romanian is like the 'English' of the Romance languages, in the sense that the non-Romance element on its lexicon is way too heavy.

[Han Cholo]

I'm leaving Romanian aside, of course. Romanian is like the 'English' of the Romance languages, in the sense that the non-Romance element on its lexicon is way too heavy.

It would have been interesting if Iberian and Celtic substratums still made a significant part of Iberian Romance languages lexicon-wise. Romanian has lots of Dacian/Thracian lexicon, which is pre-Latin. Slavic influence is not that significant in Romanian, save certain stuff like vojevoda and things like that, due to Orthodoxy.

[brazuca]

It's very cliché indeed, but it's actually just as stupid as saying that Dutch is a mixture of German and English, or that English is a mixture of German and French.

Portuguese and Spanish are dialects of the same language, like Portuguese could be a badly spoken Spanish?