Abstract

This paper is the official presentation, since the project was first started in 1978, of the forthcoming «Atles Lingüístic del Valencià Meridional i Alacantí» (ALVA) (Linguistic Atlas of Southern Valencian and Alacantí), which so far had not been explicitly publicized. This paper, divided in two sections, includes the background of the author, the birth of the Atlas, the original questionnaire and its evolution, the network of towns studied, the aims of the project, the research method, the present questionnaire, the findings beyond the questionnaire, the cartographic representation and a brief set of maps and comments showing the importance that microatles with a very specific questionnaire may have in reduced contexts in certain peripheral areas.

Abstract

Traditionally, the Catalan language has been divided into two great dialectal area: West and East. It was Milà i Fontanals who first established in 1861 such classification of Catalan dialects, based on the criterion of unstressed vowels: the Western dialects keep a, e and o in unstressed syllables, whereas Eastern dialects have evolved into the neutral vowel. Once these criteria have been applied, it has been found that the isoglosses built on the three phonetic phenomena described above are not superimposed, and therefore do not coincide. As the differences in isoglosses increase if we consider the criteria proposed by Veny in «Els parlars catalans», we may infer that the transition from one set of dialects to the other takes place without any sudden change of features; in other words, there are no clear boundaries between the two dialectal areas. This paper intends to supply data on the southern transition area between the Western and Eastern dialects, covering the areas of Ribera d'Ebre, Priorat, Baix Camp and Conca de Barberà.

Abstract

This paper describes, from an intra-dialect point of view, the phonological traits of pronoun clitization in Algherese. The approach is based on the restrictions upon the syllabic structure of this variety, which tends to avoid the coda between clitics and verbs and between one clitic and another, It almost does not allow any type of coda in cases of clitization, which are solved through rules of assimilation and simplification, through the insertion of an epenthetic [a] between the verb and the clitic, or by modifying the ending, which leads to a wide range of homophonic sequences. The study also presents an update on the syntactic restrictions upon pronoun combinations and the phonetic peculiarities of some clitic combinations, more specifically those including ne and se, with a wealth of examples.

Abstract

A review of the various sub-dialect classifications of Catalan in the north of the Pais Valencià, together with a proposal distinguishing northern Valencian, with two subdialects, and southern Tortosí in the eastern border with Catalonia, provide an introduction to an elaborate summary of the main dialectal research on the area. This is followed by the features characterizing these subdialects and a description of the area involved. There are seven phonetic phenomena: an unpalatalized production of /tS/, the survival and loss of intervocalic /d/, the opening of initial /e/, the disappearance and survival or/r/and some plosives at the end of words; in addition, the paper contains six sections on morphology, noun flexion, the masculine definite article, the degrees of demostratives and locatives, the allomorphic varieties of first and third person of indicative present, subjunctive present and subjunctive imperfect in first conjugation verbs. The paper ends with some comments on lexis, whose footnotes include the situation of the same features by the 18th century, according to the documents of the time.

Abstract

This study attempts an approach to a linguistic description of the Valencian area nort of the La Nau cape. The paper tries to analize the highest number of variables in order to ascertain the dialectal adscription of this area, which shows a number of common features with Majorcan. In fact, the great migration of islanders into the Marina Alta in the early 17th century was the historical event influencing the dialectal variety of the towns analyzed. However, a number of features specific to this area can be identified which do not belong to Balearic varieties. The paper includes ten maps showing the most interesting phonetic, morphological and lexical traits of the areas; the last map also establishes a number of subareas depending on the degree of Balearic influence, as a result of a preestablished scale. The conclusion is that the speech of the towns studied reflects a rich, varied and highly conservative linguistic variety.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze a sample of verb morphology belonging to the speech of the Valencian area of Baix Vinalopó, in order to ascertain the effect of Catalan standard forms upon traditional spoken tendencies, once Catalan has been present at school or in the mass media for more than twelve years. More specifically, there is an ongoing morphological change, affecting a number of infinitives, future and conditional tenses of the «naixtre», «ixtrà» or «convenstre» type, as different from the general forms in Catalan «nàixer», «eixirà» and «convèncer».