What are the differences between Valencian and Spanish?

[mattmc1]

Hello everyone,
I am considering Valencia as a possible place to study Castilian Spanish - I don't want to study in Madrid, but do still want to study in a large city. I have heard that Valencia is not only a great place to study but also a beautiful city with all the associated cultural and social benefits. I want to know how different the 2 dialects of Valencian and Spanish actually are and if Spanish is widely spoken by the locals?
Thanks,
Matt

[Caballero]

http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valenci%C3%A0

Valencià és la denominació històrica, tradicional i estatutària que rep al País Valencià la mateixa llengua que s'anomena oficialment català a Catalunya, les Illes Balears, la Franja de Ponent, la Catalunya Nord, Andorra i l'Alguer. Constitueix, per altra banda, una entitat lingüística pròpia que resulta ser una de les principals variants dialectals de l'idioma (formant part del bloc occidental, igual que la variant nord-occidental i el de transició), juntament amb el català central i el català balear. No obstant això, la gran majoria dels valencians (el 64,4%) considera al valencià una llengua diferent segons l'últim estudi del CIS.[6]

El País Valencià compta amb l'Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL) com a ens oficial encarregat d'elaborar la normativa lingüística de la llengua des de la pròpia modalitat valenciana, juntament amb l'Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC). Aquest ens va ser creat per la Generalitat Valenciana el 1998 amb el consens majoritari de les Corts Valencianes.

El valencià, dialectològicament parlant, no pot considerar-se un dialecte només enquadrat en el marc politicoadministratiu del País Valencià. El fet que els dialectes de la llengua catalana formen un continu fa que molts dels trets valencians arriben més enllà de les terres de l'Ebre catalanes i aragoneses (catalanòfones), fins al Baix Camp i el Baix Cinca, igual que alguns trets típics del català nord-occidental comencen a aparéixer a la Plana Alta i van apareixent-ne més progressivament a mesura que s'avança cap al nord.

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by mattmc1

Hello everyone,
I am considering Valencia as a possible place to study Castilian Spanish - I don't want to study in Madrid, but do still want to study in a large city. I have heard that Valencia is not only a great place to study but also a beautiful city with all the associated cultural and social benefits. I want to know how different the 2 dialects of Valencian and Spanish actually are and if Spanish is widely spoken by the locals?
Thanks,
Matt

Spanish (Castilian) is spoken in ALL of Spain. Provinces that have their own language speak it locally. Maybe you'll be lucky to learn both.

[pjt33]

Valencian and Spanish are not dialects of the same language. Valencian is a dialect of Catalan (specifically, a major dialect of Western Catalan).

However, traditionally valencià hasn't been spoken much in the city of Valencia to anywhere near the extent to which it's spoken in the pueblos. Although official signage is nearly always bilingual, you're unlikely to hear valencià spoken much.

The first two months I was here I studied at a language school called Babylon, and I recommend it. A number of guiris I know have studied at Hispania, and recommend that.

If you have specific questions about Valencia, feel free to PM me.

[Caballero]

While it might not be considered the same language, it is awfully close (see my message above), especially in written form (I can read it just fine and I've never studied it.) So, the more Spanish you understand, the more Valencian you will be able to understand, especially if you ask the person to write it down. Many people think it looks like a cross between French and Spanish, or the halfway point between the two languages.

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by Caballero

I can read it just fine and I've never studied it.

Jo també.

[aleCcowaN]

But most importantly is that everybody in Valencia (the whole region) speaks Spanish (Castillian) and that Spanish is most of the times as good as any in almost every region in the Spanish speaking world.

About Valencian, at least their signals are bilingual. When traveling to Barcelona all signals "salida" became "sortida" (luckily I knew "sortie" in French), but coming back via Valencia all signals became "eixida" and "salida", and it happens that both "eixida" and "exit" come directly from Latin, so, if you know English you can understand a signal in Valencian. Maybe all written languages look alike, what allows the miracle of we being able to read a little in an unknown language departing from another language almost unknown to us.

Champolión no la tuvo tan fácil. [No English version]

[Caballero]

Champolión no la tuvo tan fácil. [No English version]

Champolión didn't have it that easy.

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by mattmc1

Hello everyone,
I am considering Valencia as a possible place to study Castilian Spanish - I don't want to study in Madrid, but do still want to study in a large city. I have heard that Valencia is not only a great place to study but also a beautiful city with all the associated cultural and social benefits. I want to know how different the 2 dialects of Valencian and Spanish actually are and if Spanish is widely spoken by the locals?
Thanks,
Matt

Exactly.

What is the language that you will study out?

[Caballero]

Originally Posted by CrOtALiTo

Exactly.

What is the language that you will study out?

No comprendo.

What is the language that you will study out?

-> Google Translate Spanish:

¿Cuál es el idioma que vas a estudiar fuera?

-> Google Translate English

What language do you go to study abroad?

Ah, ok.

Wow, I can't believe that worked.