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Majorcan in Spain

Language

Language designations:

  • In the language itself: Mallorquí
  • ISO 639-3 standard: Non-existent

Language vitality according to:

UNESCO Ethnologue Endangered Languages Glottolog
n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.

Linguistic aspects:

  • Classification: Indo-European → Romance. For more information, see Mallorquí at Glottolog
  • Script: Latin

Mallorquí, or Majorcan in English, which is spoken in the Spanish island of Mallorca, is an archaic variety of Catalan 1), with influence from Occitan, Italian 2) and French 3) 4). This is due to the origin of the conquerors of Mallorca in 1229 and language contact due to trades and immigration 5) 6) 7)).

It is worth noting that Majorcan is sometimes included under the broader term 'Balear', which encompasses all Catalan varieties spoken in the Balearic Islands 8). However, each island has its unique dialect, with the exception of Eivissa and Formentera, which share the same variety known as Eivissenc (or Ibizan in English) 9). The variety spoken on Menorca is called Menorquí (or Minorcan) 10).

Nonetheless, Majorcan may well be the variety with the most different variety from all the islands, Catalonia and Valencia (where the variety is known as Valencià or Valencian). The reasons behind this are that it presents different morphology, grammar, lexicon, phonetics, phonology and prosody. However, it does share the same definite article form with the rest of the Balearic Islands, denominated article salat (es, sa, so s’, es/ets, ses, sos’; en, na and n’), which contrasts to the article literari (el, la, l’, els, les), characteristic from the Catalan spoken in Catalonia and in the Comunitat Valenciana 11).

Some examples of its distinctive features are the following: Concerning grammar and morphology, quantifiers tend to be followed by the preposition de (‘of’) and there are many differences in verbs, like vendré or tendré, instead of vindré or tindré 12), as well as in verbal morphemes, such as the suffixes -am and -au for the first and second person plural in present indicative of the first conjugation (ending in -ar), as opposed to -em and -eu, respectively, or the 0 inflectional morpheme for any verbs in first person singular in present indicative, like in compr, instead of compro ‘(I) buy’ 13).

In terms of vocabulary, the lexical differences are countless. Nevertheless, an example that clearly shows the broad linguistic richness of all Catalan varieties can be the next one: al·lot ‘boy’ (Mallorca), fiet (Menorca), boix (Eivissa and Formentera), xic (Valencia) and noi (Catalonia) 14).

Regarding phonetics and phonology, Standard Catalan presents has seven vowels (/i e ɛ a o ɔ u/), whilst Majorcan includes eight, adding the schwa sound or /ə/ to the previous list 15) 16) 17). It is also characterised by the elision of final /ə/ after /i/ in words with stress on the antepenultimate syllable (such as histori instead of història ‘history’) 18).

As for prosody, it stands out for its particular interrogative intonation and its stressed postverbal pronominals or clitics, which are unstressed in the other varieties) 19) 20).

Language standardisation

Is there a standardised spelling in use? Which institution maintains this?

Demographics

Language Area

Give a short description of the area where the language is spoken, and which varieties exist. If available, upload an image of a map, illustrating where the language is spoken. See Adding audio, video or pictures for more information.

Balearic-Islands

Balearic Islands in Spain

all Balear varieties

Only Majorcan, with its three subvarieties

Describe what the map shows, and give credits to the creator of the map.

Speaker numbers

If you wish to provide many data concerning speaker numbers, please consider presenting these in tables. Refer to Creating tables for more information.

Education of the language

History of language education:

Please describe the history of the language's presence in:

  • the country's school system;
  • published, broadcasted, or online learning resources.

Legislation of language education

Please describe legislation concerning education of the language.

Feel free to add points, or to structure your information using chapter headings, e.g.:

Legislation on European level

Questions that may be discussed in this section:

  • Is the language protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages?
  • Is the minority, as a group, protected by the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities?
  • What consequences are there because of this (lack of) recognition?

Legislation on national level

Questions that may be discussed in this section:

  • Does the law allow for the language to be taught in school?
  • Does the law allow for the language to be used as medium of instruction in school?
  • Does the law state that teaching the language or using it as medium of instruction is compulsory?

Legislation on local level

Questions that may be discussed in this section:

  • is there any legal acts, recognition, or language policy on the local level?

Bodies controlling enforcement on education on the language

  • In which ways is the quality of language education is inspected and stimulated?

Support structure for education of the language:

If information is available, please discuss whether:

Institutional support

e.g.:

  • Is language education promoted by an institution/ several institutions?
  • What is their role?

Financial support

  • is there financial support for the education, e.g. employment of teachers, (the development of) teaching materials, or the promotion of language education?

Language learning materials:

e.g.:

  • Are there learning materials being developed?
  • Are these materials sufficient and of good quality?
  • Are these materials commissioned or their development subsidized by the regional or national government?

Teacher support

e.g:

  • Is there training available for language teachers?
  • Are there sufficient teachers and they are competent?
  • Is a teacher's union present, or an institution where teachers can get advice or additional training?
  • Is teacher training subsidised by the regional or national government?

Education presence

To what extent is language education available in the area under scrutiny:

Can you say anything about to what extent education of the language helps to preserve it:

  • Does learning the language at school stimulate the its use outside school, or perhaps quite the opposite?
  • Does the fact that the language is being taught in school add to its prestige, and the speakers' self-esteem?

Feel free to structure your information using chapter heading, e.g.:

preschool education

  • Is the language used as medium of instruction in school?
    • for how many hours per week?
    • to how many children / what percentage of the population?
    • are language skills being evaluated in any way?
    • what level of competence do students reach?

primary education

e.g.:

  • Is the language being taught in- or outside of school?
  • If the language is taught during school hours,
    • in which grades is it being taught?
    • for how many hours per week?
    • to how many children / what percentage of the population?
    • are language skills being evaluated in any way?
    • what level of competence do students reach?
  • Is the language used as medium of instruction in school?
  • What school systems with respect to multilingualism are there (bilingual, trilingual)?

secondary education

e.g.:

  • Is the language being taught in- or outside of school?
  • If the language is taught during school hours,
    • in which grades is it being taught?
    • for how many hours per week?
    • to how many children / what percentage of the population?
    • are language skills being evaluated in any way?
    • what level of competence do students reach?
  • Is the language used as medium of instruction in school?
  • What school systems with respect to multilingualism are there (bilingual, trilingual)?

vocational education

e.g.:

  • Is the language taught or studied at vocational level?
  • Which types of study programmes or courses are these?
  • How many students are there, taking these?

higher education/university education

e.g.:

  • Is the language taught or studied at university level?
  • Which types of study programmes or courses are these?
  • How many students are there, taking these?

adult education

e.g.:

  • Are there courses available for adults?
  • which types of courses are these?
  • How many participants are there?

Online learning resources

Please provide links to online learning resources. Feel free to add points, and to structure your information using chapter heading, e.g.:

https://safundacio.es/es/cursos/

https://www.17-minute-languages.com/es/aprender-mallorqu%C3%ADn/

Organisations

Online resources

1)
Dols, N. (2022). Hypercorrection as a symptom of language change: Majorcan Catalan Standard Pronunciation. Languages, 7(1), 57.
2) , 13)
Amengual, M. (2011). Verbal morphology and identity in Majorca: the manifestation of attitudes in writing. A: MICHNOWICZ, Jim.
3)
Cifre, A. Q. (2008). Les conseqüències culturals i socials de l’emigració a França. El cas de Sóller (1880-1936). Cercles. Revista d'Història Cultural, (11.
4)
Llompart, M. (2013). La «r francesa» en Sóller (Mallorca) y su relación con la adquisición de L1 y L2 en hablantes bilingües catalanodominantes. Estudios de fonética experimental, 193-232
5)
Bernat i Roca, M. & Serra i Barceló, J. (2015). Italianos en la colonización de Ciutat de Mallorca 1230-1315. Societat Arqueològica Lul·liana, 25, 39-73
6)
Blanco, J. (2016). Presencia italiana en la milicia española. Revista Internacional de Historia Militar, 94, 1-260
7)
Cifre, A. Q. (2008). Les conseqüències culturals i socials de l’emigració a França. El cas de Sóller (1880-1936). Cercles. Revista d'Història Cultural, (11
8)
(Amengual, M. (2015). The acoustic realization of the/a/-/ə/alternation in Majorcan Catalan
9) , 10)
Amengual, M. (2015). The acoustic realization of the/a/-/ə/alternation in Majorcan Catalan
11)
Moll, A. (1990). La nostra llengua. Moll.
12)
Wheeler, M., Yates, A., & Dols, N. (2002). Catalan: A comprehensive grammar. Routledge
14)
i Marí, E. R. (2003). El Vocabulari de les Pitiüses al Diccionari català-valencià-balear. In Jornades de la Secció Filològica de l'Institut d'Estudis Catalans a les Illes Balears: any Francesc de B. Moll:(4 i 5 d'octubre de 2002) (pp. 85-92). Secció Filològica.
15)
Amengual, M. (2015). The acoustic realization of the/a/-/ə/alternation in Majorcan Catalan.
16)
Mut, J. L. S. (2023). Catalan learners of English as a Second Language: perception and production of the Schwa.
17)
Simonet, M., & Amengual, M. (2020). Increased language co-activation leads to enhanced cross-linguistic phonetic convergence. International Journal of Bilingualism, 24(2), 208-221
18)
Llompart, M., & Simonet, M. (2018). Unstressed vowel reduction across Majorcan Catalan dialects: Production and spoken word recognition. Language and speech, 61(3), 430-465.
19)
del Mar Vanrell, M. (2007). A tonal scaling contrast in Majorcan Catalan interrogatives. Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 6(1).
20)
Nadeu, M., Simonet, M., & Llompart, M. (2017). Stressed postverbal pronominals in Catalan. Probus, 29(1), 119-162.
languages/majorcan_in_spain_under_construction.txt · Last modified: 2024/10/06 00:18 by carlagarciaclar