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What are the differences between Valencian and Spanish?
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 |
http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valenci%C3%A0
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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. |
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.
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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] |
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What is the language that you will study out? |
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Wow, I can't believe that worked. |
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I mean in last post. What will be the language that you want study in Spain? |
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A word of well-intentioned advice, avoid calling Valenciá and Catalá 'dialects', they are very proud of their language, with a unique etymology, grammar and literature. Call it a dialect at your peril! |
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I suspect the former to be more close to the truth, but as I understand neither my opinion's not worth a lot! |
Well, this is more a question of nationalism than a question of language. Valencià is a dialect from català from a linguistic and historical point of view. However, due to the administrative division of the State in Regions (Comunidades Autónomas), they compare their right to label valencià as a language, with the right the Portuguese have with their language, being the same language as Galician.
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