Barcelona Local Custom Tips by gasca

Catalonia Bilingualism Language Review

In Barcelona (and an area comprising Catalonia, comunitat Valenciana, Illes Balears and some other parts) there's a bilingualism so Catalan and Spanish are spoken in the same way. Everybody understands Spanish although in some towns and villages Catalan is the only language spoken (not common).

Catalan is very similar to Spanish (70%) and it has some similarity to French and Italian.

There's a strange situation with Catalan too: as it is very similar to Spanish and many people from Catalonia traditionally came from southern regions of Spain (Andalucia, Extremadura) Catalan is not correctly written and spoken even in the media.

Catalan is spoken in a variety of dialects and places (it's spoken in l'Alguer, a Sardinian town of 20.000 inh.).