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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Spanish dialects or are they languages?
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Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 15:42:58 GMT
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In article <33310103.6287@etlxdmx.ericsson.se>,
Neil Millner  <etlnlmr@etlxdmx.ericsson.se> wrote:
>Greetings all,
>
>Forgive me for I am not a linguist, 

"my last dissertation was over X months ago..."

That's okay; we don't bite on this group (for the most part).

>but I need to know a little about the Spanish language. I am led to
>beleive that the Spanish language differs so much between regions that
>dialects are so distinct that they are actually separate languages, is
>this true?

In the sense that many speakers will turn purple if you call their native
speech a "dialect", yes, they are different languages.

>To be specific I actually need to know about five different Spanish
>languages; Castellano, Catalan, Gallego, Euskera and Valenciano. If
>possible I would like to know what regions of Spain these different
>languages are spoken, what percentage of the population use them, and in
>what way they vary from one to the other (probably difficult to 
>quantify).

I'm sure that Miguel Vidal (a regular poster to this newsgroup) will soon
reply in his interesting-to-read, highly-detailed way and answer
practically all your questions.  In the meantime, let me give some easy
answers:

"Castellano" (in English, "Castilian") originated, as the name suggests,
as the dialect of Castile.  By virtue of being the official language of
the country for so long, it is spoken everywhere today.  The difference
between it and Latin American Spanish is comparable to the difference
between British and American English or Parisian and Quebecois French.  It
has several regional dialects, including Asturian (which some people are
trying to standardise into a language on par with the others you mention),
Aragonese (ditto), Monta~nes [Santander], Castuo [Extremadura], Murcian,
Canarian, and Andalucian.  (The last two are closer in many respects to
Latin American, especially Caribbean, Spanish than most other dialects of
Peninsular Spanish.)

Catalan is the language of Catalonia in the northeast.  It is also spoken
in parts of Aragon, in the Balearic Islands (where it is called
"Mallorqu/i"), and the Levant (where it is called "Valenci\a").  Now I
know some people are going to get up in arms about my lumping Majorcan and
Valencian together with Catalan, but the difference between these three
varieties--especially between the last two--is very small, much smaller
than that between most dialects of Spanish proper.  According to recent
estimates, Catalan has at least 6 million speakers and is very vigourous.

"Gallego" (in English, "Galician"; in Galician "Galego") is often
considered a northern variety of Portuguese.  Indeed, it is very similar
to the Portuguese spoken in most of northern Portugal (Galicia is just
north of Portugal, in the northwest corner of Iberia).  Although Catalan,
Castilian, and Portuguese (or Gallaico-Portuguese, to be PC Galego-wise)
are all Romance dialects (i.e. modern descendents of Latin, like French
and Italian), the latter two are generally considered closer to each other
than either is to Catalan.  Provenc,al and other varieties spoken in
southern France (collectively called "Occitan") are usually considered
Catalan's closest relatives.  I believe the Galician population is about
four million.

Unlike these, "Euskera" (or "Basque") is a language isolate.  That is, no
other language in the world has been shown to be related to it at all.  It
is spoken in north central Spain, at the western end of the Pyrenees.
(Like Catalan, it also has some speakers across the border in France.)
I'm pretty sure the number of active Basque speakers has dipped below
100,000, but I don't have any figures handy.

English is spoken here.
Aqu/i se hablan castellano.
Aqu/i es parlen catal\a.
Aqu/i es parlen valenci\a. (Funny.  It looks almost just like Catalan!)
Hemen euskaraz mintzatzen da.

(Sorry, no Galician example.)

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
