Who knows the difference between Catalan and Basque?

Question

are they regional or dialects? close or distant cousins per language rules?

Answer 1

Catalan is spoken on the eastern coast of Spain (as opposed to Castilian, which we just call Spanish, which is spoken elsewhere throughout Spain). It's its own language, and a co-official language in the provinces of Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands. It's an Ibero-Romance language, so it's closely related to Spanish and is a descendant of Latin.

The Basque language is another story, and is not at all related to Catalan, or any Romance language for that matter. It's spoken in a relatively small region on the Atlantic coast in the crutch where Spain and France meet (Navarre and the surrounding areas). They call themselves "Euskara", but the language isn't a descendant of Latin. It's actually a language "isolate", meaning linguists have no idea where the language comes from. It may be a distant cousin to Georgian languages (spoken between Iraq and Russia). You will find some overlapping vocabulary for more modern words that the Basques have borrowed from Spain or France, but there's no relation.

Answer 2

Basque Catalan

Answer 3

No relation whatsoever. Catalan is a romance language (like Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, etc.) and is not really a dialect of Spanish anymore than Dutch is a dialect of German.

When the Spanish royalty moved its capital to Madrid they tried to make the language more uniform to make ruling over the people easier, much like the southern French language Occitan was never French but its own distinct language, and as the modern Southern French Provencal is - a language that existed side by side with French, but which was supplanted in the 18th Century by decree of the Bourbon Kings.

As for the Basque language (or Euskara as they call it), it is the allegedly oldest language in the world and has no connection to any other know language. In fact the Basque are the original inhabitants of Europe, living there continuously for at least 25,000 years, and over time being driven into the Pyrenees by the non-Basque (the Celts, Romans, Etruscans, Parisii, Franks, Lombards, Helvetzi, Sueves, Goths, etc.)

Answer 4

I'm a bit of an exception. I'm half Catalan and half Basque, so I grew up learning Spanish and Catalan simultaneously. Because of this, I think that Catalan and Spanish are closer than Spanish and Portuguese. Honestly, I think it depends on how/when you learn the languages as to which ones are more alike. I can speak a little Portuguese, but I'm fluent in Spanish and Catalan.

Answer 5

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Yes, very much so. Portuguese and Castillian (a more accurate term than "Spanish") developed along side one another, the more westerly Gallego-Portuguese being a little more influenced by the pre-Roman Celtic speach of NW Spain, Castillian rather more influenced by Basque, its neighbour to the East. Basque itself was spoken in Biscay, a large area of Northern Spain completely separating Castillian from Catalan. Catalan's neighbours were Basques and speakers of Provençal. All this happened in a narrow band along the Atlantic coast: to the south the rest of the peninsula was occupied by Arabs, many of whose subjects spoke a very Arab influenced form of Vulgar Latin known as Mozarabic. As the three Christian kingdoms of Portugal, Castile and Aragon (aka Catalonia) pushed south into Arab occupied territory, they eventaully came into contact, but Catalan had by then developed in a direction much more like French than Castillian. Mozarabic was totally repalced by Catalan in the East, by Castillian in the center, and by Portuguese in the west.,

Answer 6

Catalan is spoken on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. The Basques are on the Atlantic coast of Spain. Quite separate cultures.

Answer 7

Catalan is spoken in Barcelona, and Basque in the Basque region ,(pais basco) and i've heard since its so close to France, its a mix of spanish and french..sortof.