Local name:	Català
Language family:	Indo-European > Italic > Romance > Italo-Western > Gallo-Iberian > Ibero-Romance > Occitano-Romance
Native speakers:	~7.2 millions (Ethnologue.com, 2013)
Script:	A modified version of the Latin alphabet
Official in:	Andorra, Spain (Catalonia, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands)
Spoken mostly in:	Eastern Spain, Andorra, SW France, Italy (Sardinia)

Catalan is the second biggest language in Spain, and is co-official in three of its eastern provinces – Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and also the Valencian Community, where the language is referred to as Valencian, even though Valencian authorities consider Valencian and Catalan to be the same language. The language is also traditionally spoken in adjacent areas of France and in a town on the Italian island of Sardinia.

Despite its geographical position on the Iberian peninsula, Catalan shares more of its lexicon with French, Italian and Sardinian, than with the other Iberian languages like Spanish or Portuguese. The closest relative of Catalan is Occitan, a minor language in southern France. Catalan was forbidden in Spain during the Franco dictatorship from 1940, but after democracy was reintroduced in the 1970s, the popularity and the status of Catalan has steadily grown.

Standard Catalan: “La tramuntana i el sol”
Speaker: Laura Age at recording: 23 (2013) Geographical reference: Tarragona, Catalonia, ES (Google Map)


La tramuntana i el sol discutien qui dels dos era el més fort, quan de sobte, van veure un viatger que s'acostava embolicat en una gran capa.
Van acordar que qui aconseguís primer que el viatger es tragués la capa, seria considerat el més fort.
La tramuntana va començar a bufar amb tota la seva força; però com més bufava, més s'abrigava el viatger amb la seva capa.
Finalment, va deixar-ho córrer.
Aleshores el sol va començar a brillar, i al cap de poca estona, el viatger, ben acalorat, es va treure la capa.
Així doncs, la tramuntana va haver d'admetre que el sol era el més fort.