by Max Wheeler
Except in this case, the position of secondary stress is not indicated in compounds written without a hyphen: contrasentit ‘contradiction’, fisicoquimic ‘physico-chemical’, hispanoamericà ‘Hispano-American’, rarament ‘rarely’.
When an accent (acute) and a diaeresis are both justified on the same vowel, the accent takes precedence, thus giving rise to alternations between í and ï, as in:
país països country, countries
veí veïns veïna neighbouring(m.sg., m.pl., f.sg.)
Both a diaeresis and an accent can occur on the same word on different vowels, as in traïció ‘treason’, aïllàvem ‘we isolated’ (imperfect), lingüística ‘linguistics’.
37.5.2 Dialect Differences in Written Accents
In western dialects (Northwest Catalan, Valencian) there are a considerable number of words that are pronounced with Id where eastern dialects have /ε/. Consequently, writers from these regions may use an acute accent on words where the eastern-based norm requires a grave: hence W: conèixer Ε: conèixer ‘know’, W: alè Ε: alè ‘breath’, W: anglès Ε: anglès ‘English’, W: encès E: encès ‘lit’, W: setè E: setè ‘seventh’. Some western writers and publishers stick to the eastern accentuation conventions despite their own pronunciation.
37.5.3 Diacritic Accents
While the major function of the acute and grave accents is to indicate the position of stress in words that do not follow the general stress rules, they have a second function of distinguishing between homographs (different words with the same spelling). The list of words with diacritic accents runs to about fifty; it includes several rare words, as well as a good number of common ones. Many other pairs of homographs are not distinguished with a diacritic accent (e.g. sa ‘healthy’, sa ‘his/her/its/their’; sou ‘wage’, sou ‘you pl..) are’; moll ‘marrow’, moll ‘quay’, moll ‘mullet’, moll ‘soft’, molls ‘tongs’). The following list is of the most common words bearing a diacritic accent, alongside the words they are distinguished from:
bé well be lamb, letter B
béns goods bens lambs
bóta, bótes cask, vat bota, botes boot
Déudéu, déus Godgod(s) deu ten, must (3sg.), spring
also adéu, semidéu,etc deus must (2sg.), springs
dóna, dones give (2sg., 3sg. present) dona, dones woman, wife
és is es (reflexive clitic pronoun 3rd person), (definite article)
féu make (3sg. preterite) feu make (2pl. present), fief
alsoreféu, satisféu,etc.
fóra would be(ser3sg.conditional) fora out, outside
joc, jócs roost(s) joc, jocs game(s)
mà hand (pl. mans) ma my (f.)
més more mes month, but, put (m.sg. participle of metre), my (f.pl.)
mòlt, mòlta, mòlts, mòltes(participle ofmoldre‘grind’) molt, molta, molts, moltes many, much
mónalso rodamón world(pl. mons)globetrotter mon my (m.sg.)
móra, móresMóra blackberry/-ies(place name) mora, mores Muslim(f.sg., fpl.)
nét, néta, néts, nétesalsobesnét,etc. grandchild net, nets, neta, netes clean
ós, óssos Bear os, ossos bone
óssa, ósses she-bear ossa, osses skeleton
pèl, pèls also repèl,etc. hair pel, pels (contraction of per + el, els)
què what (also stressed relative pronoun after preposition: amb què,etc.) que which, that (unstressed relative pronoun or complementizer)
sé I know se (reflexive clitic pronoun 3rd person)
sí, sis yes(ses) si (reflexive pronoun 3rd person), if, bosom, sinus, Β (note of scale)
sóc I am soc stump, clog
sòl, sòls soil sol, sols (3sg., 2sg. present soler),sun, alone (m.), G (note of scale)
té has (3 sg. present of tenir) te (2sg. pronoun), tea, letter Τ
ús use (pluralusos) us (2pl. pronoun)
véns, vénen(vénga/véngui, véngues/ vénguis, vénguen alsorevéns,etc. come (2sg., 3pl.present of venir)Bal. 1sg./3sg., 2sg., 3pl. present subjunctive of venir) vens, venenvenga/vengui, vengues/ venguis, venguen sell (2sg., 3pl. present of vendre) 1sg./3sg., 2sg., 3pl. present subjunctive of vendre)
vés go (2sg. imperative) ves see (2sg. imperative)
véu saw (3sg. preterite of veure) veu sees (3sg. present of veure),voice
vós you (stressed polite form) vos (2pl unstressed pronoun)
37.6 HYPHEN
The official Diccionari de la llengua catalana published by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans in Barcelona in 1995 significantly reduced the number of compound words which were to be written with a hyphen. Generally speaking a hyphen is now required only when both parts of the compound are independent Catalan words (and not always then). A hyphen is no longer used in words like arximilionari ‘multi-millionaire’, exministre ‘exminister’, vicepresident ‘vice-president’, grecollati ‘Greco-Latin’, ‘classical’, democratacristià ‘Christian democrat’, audiovisual ‘audiovisual’. It is used in reduplicative forms like bum-bum ‘rumble’, fer la gara-gara ‘suck up to’, ziga-zaga ‘zigzag line’ despite the elements involved not being independent words.
The hyphen is used:
(i) In numbers from twenty-one to twenty-nine: vint-i-un … vint-i-nou, and the related ordinals vint-i-unè … vint-i-novè;
in numbers from 31 to 99: for example, trenta-dues, quaranta-quatre, noranta-vuit, and the related ordinals trenta-dosè, etc.;
in compounds involving -cents, -centes ‘hundred’, dos-cents, dues-centes, tres-cents … nou-cents. The ordinals likewise have a hyphen: set-centè ‘seven-hundredth’, but other derived forms do not: thus la música setcentista ‘seventeenth-century music’.
(ii) When an unstressed pronoun, containing a vowel letter (a, e, i, o, u), follows a verb: retireu-vos ‘withdraw’, dóna-me-la ‘give me it (f.)’, enviant-hi ‘sending there’, veure-les ‘to see them (f.)’. (Pronouns consisting of one or more consonants have an apostrophe: treure’n ‘to take some away’, menja’l ‘eat it’; see 12.1.2. Note -us [-ws], as in veure-us ‘to see you’, with a hyphen because the pronoun contains a vowel letter u, despite its being pronounced as a semiconsonant.)
(iii) In compounds including a compass point: nord-est ‘northeast’, sudafricà ‘South African’.
(iv) In nouns containing the element no ‘non-’: no-violència ‘non-violence’, no-alineament ‘non-alignment’, no-res ‘nothing’. Before an adjective, however, no is written separately: no violent ‘non-violent’, els països no alineats ‘non-aligned countries’.
(v) In a small group of irregularly derived compounds, for example: a corre-cuita ‘in a hurry’, fer suca-mulla ‘dunk’, abans-d’ahir ‘the day before yesterday’, despús-demà ‘the day after tomorrow’, qui-sap-lo ‘tremendously, enormously many’.
(vi) In a compound composed of Catalan words, when there is an element that begins with r-, s-, or x-. The point of this exception is to avoid mispronunciations of these letters, which, internally, might be taken as representing /ɾ/, /z/, or /gz/ respectively, instead of /r/, /s/, and /ʃ/ as required. Hence guarda-robes ‘cloakroom’, pit-roig ‘robin’, busca-raons ’troublemaker’, penya-segat ‘cliff’, gira-sol ‘sunflower’, cul-de-sac ‘dead end’, cara-xuclat ‘hollow-cheeked’. (Note the presence of the first hyphen in cul-de-sac; as the second hyphen is required because of the following s, the first is required to avoid the strange or confusing *culde-sac.)
(vii) In a compound when the first element has a written accent, for example: pèl-curt ‘short-haired’, més-dient ‘highest bidder’. Exceptions: adesiara ‘every now and then’ (from adés i ara), usdefruit ‘usufruct’ (from ús de fruit).
Compound words like the following have no hyphen: guardaespatlles ‘bodyguard’, capicua ‘palindrome number’, pocavergonya ‘cad’, setciències ‘know-all’.
37.7 PUNCTUATION
The majority of Catalan punctuation conventions are the same as those in English. There are a few differences, though. (On conventions relating to commas af
ter long relative clauses and after conditional clauses, see 31.1.2 and 34.1.) Cometes baixes « … » are a form of double inverted commas, quite often used to mark titles of works, or phrases used as proper names, as in, el bar «El Molino» ‘the "El Molino" bar’. In texts containing dialogue, it is usual to set off the quoted speech with a dash, rather than inverted commas; a dash closes the speech only when an indication of saying, replying, etc. follows:
-Què proposes, doncs?
-El que hauríem de fers’atreví a suggerir és anar a …
‘What do you propose, then?’
‘What we should do,’ she ventured to suggest, ‘is to go and …
Until recently the inverted question mark ¿ was widely used to indicate the beginning of a direct question, particularly if it did not begin with a question word, or if it extended over more than one line of print (27.1.1), e.g. ¿És Blanes aquella vila que surt al darrere d’aquest sorral, entremig d’aquells dos penyals arramats d’heura i arbrissam? ‘Is it Blanes, that town which appears behind that sandbank, between those two crags covered with ivy and bushes?’ Some writers and publishers used ¿ consistently before all direct questions, including short ones with question words ¿Què vols? ‘What do you want?’ In 1993 the Institut d’Estudis Catalans recommended that, in line with the rest of the world’s languages (other than Spanish), the inverted question mark should no longer be used in Catalan in any circumstances.
FURTHER READING
Atrian i Ventura, S., et al. (1982–83) Som-hi! Català per a adults, 2 vols, Barcelona: Barcanova.
Brumme, J. (1997) Praktische Grammatik der katalanischen Sprache, Wilhelmsfeld: Egert.
Busquets, L. (1988) Curs intensiu de llengua catalana, Barcelona: Abadia de Montserrat.
Cavaller, R. (1984–85) Anem-hi tots!: textos i exercicis de català fàcil, 2 vols, Palma de Mallorca: Moll.
Gili, J. (1993) Introductory Catalan Grammar, (5th edn), Llangrannog: Dolphin.
Poole, S. (1995) Catalan in Three Months, Woodbridge: Hugo.
Puig, G. et al. (1984) Sempre endavant: català per a adults no catalanoparlants, Barcelona: Barcanova.
Tió, J. (1986) Curs de català per α estrangers, Vic: Eumo.
Yates, A. and Ibarz, T. (1992) A Catalan Handbook: Working with ‘Digui, digui’, Sheffield: Botifarra (with subsequent 1993 edition (Barcelona: Departament de Cultura) of this companion to Curs de català per α estrangers, adaptation of the multimedia ‘Digui, digui 9 method by Mas et al).The above titles are all tried and tested familiar tools for the teaching of Catalan as a second language. Many other language-teaching and study materials, produced for the Catalan educational market, are available and complement substantially the items listed. The range is constantly being extended. A convenient (although incomplete) guide to these materials is provided in the Bibliografia per aprendre català (5th edn, 1997) issued by the Departament de Cultura of the Generalitat de Catalunya.Several English-Catalan/Catalan-English dictionaries are available. Oliva & Buxton (2 vols) is the largest.
Català-Anglès/English-Catalan, Mini (1996) Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana.
Catalan Dictionary, English/Catalan–Catalan/English(1994) London: Routledge.
Diccionari Oxford Pocket, Català-anglès anglès-catal#x000E0; (1997) Oxford: University Press.
Oliva, S. and Buxton, A. (1983) Diccionari anglès-català, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana.
Oliva, S. and Buxton, A. (1986) Diccionari català-anglès, Barcelona: Enciclopédia Catalana.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Badia i Margarit, A. M. (1962) Gramàtica catalana, 2 vols, Madrid: Gredos.
Badia i Margarit, A. M. (1995) Gramàtica de la llengua catalana. Descriptiva, normativa, diatòpica, diastràtica, Barcelona: Proa.
Butt, J. and Benjamin, C. (1988) A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish, London: Arnold.
Cuenca, M. J. (1988–91) L’oració composta, 2 vols, València: Universitat de València.
Fabra, P. (1956) Gramàtica de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Teide.
Fabra, P. (1968) Introducció a la gramàtica catalana, Barcelona: Edicions 62.
Hualde, J. I. (1992) Catalan, London: Routledge.
Institut d’Estudis Catalans (1990–96) Documents de la Secció Filològica, I–III, Barcelona: IEC.
Institut d’Estudis Catalans (1995) Diccionari de la llengua catalana, Barcelona/Palma de Mallorca/València: Enciclopèdia Catalana.
Institut d’Estudis Catalans (1997) Documents normatius 1962–1996, Barcelona: IEC.
Lacreu, J. (1992) Manual d’ús de l’estàndard oral, València: Institut de Filologia Valenciana, Universitat de València.
Mascaró, J. (1986) Morfologia, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana.
Mestres, J. M., Costa, J., et al. (1995) Manual d’estil La redacció i l’edició de textos, Vic: EUMO.
Moll, F. de B. (1982) Gramàtica catalana referida especialment α les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca: Moll.
Morant, R. and Serra, E. (1987) Els modificadors intraoracionals i interoracionals, València: Universitat de València.
Payrató, L. (1990) Català col·loquial (aspectes de l’ús corrent de la llengua catalana), València: Universitat de València.
Pérez Saldanya, M. (1988) Els sistemes modals d’indicatiu i de subjuntiu, València: Institut de Filologia Valenciana/Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat.
Ruaix i Vinyet, J. (1986) El català, 3 vols, Moià: Ruaix.
Ruaix i Vinyet, J. (1989) Punts conflictius de català. Deu estudis sobre normativa lingüística, Barcelona: Barcanova.
Ruaix i Vinyet, J. (1994–95) Observacions crítiques i pràctiques sobre el català d’avui, 2 vols, Moià: Ruaix.
Solà, J. (1972–73) Estudis de sintaxi catalana, 2 vols, Barcelona: Edicions 62.
Solà, J. (1987) Qüestions controvertides de sintaxi catalana, Barcelona: Edicions 62.
Solà, J. (1990) Lingüística i normativa, Barcelona: Empúries.
Solà, J. (1994) Sintaxi normativa: estat de la qüestió, Barcelona: Empúries.
Vallduví,E.. (1990) The informational component’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania.
Valor,E.. (1977) Curs mitjà de gramàtica catalana referida especialment al Pais Valencià, València: 3 i 4.
Yates, A. (1975, 12th impression 1998) Teach yourself Catalan, London: Hodder & Stoughton.
INDEX
English words as main entries are in italics and Catalan words are in bold. References are to chapters and sections, not pages. Reference to a main section generally subsumes all subsections within: e.g. 14.3 refers to 14.3.1–14.3.3, etc. Irregular verbs are not listed separately here: see Chapter 16.
a (atonic preposition)
a vs. en, forming verbal complements 14.1.1.4, 20.3.1.1; in expressions of place 14.1.1.3; in time expressions 14.1.1.5, 20.4
contraction with definite article 3.1.1, 14.1
forming idioms with the infinitive 14.1.1.6, (requests) 28.4, (conditional) 34.8ii
introducing direct objects 14.1.1.1, 23.2.5,25.3
introducing indirect objects 14.1.1.2
introducing infinitive complement of venir and sentir 20.3
abans que (no) 19.4.7, 33.2.2.5
acabar de + infinitive 18.2.1
Accents see Written accents, Diaeresis, Diacritic accents
açò 6.5
Address forms 11.3
Adjectives Chapter 4
agreement 4 para 1, 8.1; with coordinated nouns 4.2.3; with nouns of fixed gender 1.1.6
comparison of Chapter 5
complements of 4.2.4
compound 4.1.7
demonstrative 6.2–3
diminutive, augmentative and evaluative suffixes 4.1.5
formation by conversion 4.1.6
indefinites 8.3
morphology 4.1
negative prefixation 4.2.5
nominalization of 9.1, (abstraction) 9.2.1
order of multiple adjectives 4.2.2
plural form
s 4.1.4
position with noun 4.2.1
possessive 4.1.2.6, 7.1–2
quantifiers (degree adjectives) 8.2
relative 31.9
singular forms ‘with two endings’ 4.1.1–2.7; ‘with one ending’ 4.1.3
syntax and usage 4.2
synthetic comparative forms 5.2.2
used adverbially 4.2.5, 13.1.2
with ser/estar 30.5
Adjuncts (adverbial or prepositional phrases) 25.7, 36.1
adonar-se 23.9iv
adormir (-se) 23.10.8
Adverbial adjuncts (adverbial/prepositional phrases) in sentence patterns 20.3.1.2, 25.7, 36.7–8
Adverbial clauses Chapter 33
subjunctive in 19.4.1–7
Adverbial pronouns 12.6–7
Adverbs and adverbials Chapter 13
adjectives used adverbially 4.2.5, 13.1.2
adverbs ending in -ment 13.1.1, 13.4
articles in adverbial phrases 3.1.4 i(b)
comparison of Chapter 13 introd., Chapter 5
degree 13.6
of manner 13.4
of place and direction 13.2
of qualification and inclusion 13.5
of time 13.3
prepositions used ‘adverbially’ 11.5.2iii
quantifying 8.2.2, 13.6
sentence adverbs/adverbials 13.7
sentence position of 17.2.1.2, 36.8
(short adverbials) 36.1
with compound tenses 17.2
Agent, passive 29.1.2
with ‘reflexive passive’ 29.1.3iv, 29.2.1i
ago 13.3, 33.2.2.4i
agradar 3.1.4.3, 25.4
Agreement see Adjectives, Numerals, Past participle, Possessives
això 6.5, 9.2.1, 12.5
i això que (concessive conjunction) 33.3.3
ajeure’s 23. l0 viii
ajudar a 25.5
algo (non-standard) 8.6 v
aigú 8.5
algun 8.3, 8.6
alhora que (= al mateix temps que) 33.2.2.2
allò 6.5, 9.2.1, 9.2, 12.5
Alphabet 37.1
