CATALAN. It is generally assumed that Catalan was im ported from Roussillon into Spain during Carolingian times; the contrary view has, however, been put forward, namely that Cat alan originally developed in Spain and was introduced into Cer dagne and Roussillon by Catalan immigration. Whatever the truth may be, philologically Catalan is to be regarded as pertain ing to the Provençal rather than to the Hispanic branch. Like Hispanic it changes L. ü into a and L. au into o, cf., L. ynurum, Cat. mur, Hisp. muro (Prov.' Fr. mur) ; L. aurum, Cat. and Hisp. oro (Prov. aur, Fr. or). Unknown to Catalan, however, are the characteristically Hispanic diphthongizations of open e and open o in position, cf., L. terra, Hisp. tierra, but Cat. terra; L. fortem, Hisp. fuerte, but Cat. fort (as in Prov. and Fr.) . Moreover Catalan and Provençal both change proparoxytones into paroxytones, whereas in Hispanic the proparoxytones are preserved, e.g., L. anima, Cat. and Prov. alma, arma.
Catalan is nowadays spoken in the major part of the department of the Pyrenees Orientales, in Andorra, at Alghero (Sardinia) whither it was brought by the Aragonese in the second quarter of the 14th century but where it is steadily succumbing to the dis ruptive influence of Italian and Sardinian ; in the provinces of Huesca, Saragossa, Ternel; in the greater part of the provinces of Castellon de la Plana and Alicante; in much of the province of Valencia ; and in the Balearic islands and Pithyusae, conquered by Jaime I. of Aragon (122g-34). The territory occupied by Cat alan contains in Spain 4,486,000 inhabitants, in France some 200,000.
Catalan embraces two groups, viz., (A) continental, subdivided into (a) oriental, (b) occidental, (c) Valencian, (d) Roussillon nais; (B) insular, subdivided into (a) dialects of the Balearic islands and Pithyusae, (b) dialect of Alghero. All these idioms present only minor phonetic differences. In the Balearic islands es, sa constitute the definite article (as also in the sub-dialect of oriental Catalan termed for this reason, salat) instead of el, la.
The outstanding difference between the Catalan of Spain and that of Roussillon, is that whereas the former is a real language with a flourishing literature, the latter is a mere patois.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-P. Fouche, Chronique philologique des parlers prevBibliography.-P. Fouche, Chronique philologique des parlers prev- encaux anciens et modernes (Bibl.) in Revue de linguistique romane T. II. (Janvier-Juin, 1926) p. 113-136; A. Griera, Le domaine Catalan (compte rendu retrospectif jusqu'a 1924) in Revue de linguistique ro mane T. I. (Janvier-Juin, 1925) p. 35-113. These bibliographical ar ticles will be continued in the following volumes. (L. B.)