Murray, everyone in Cataluña speaks Spanish. Most people have Catalan as their mother tongue, but Spanish is still an official language in Cataluña, and most people (if not all) speak Spanish, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to practise your Spanish. And if not, you always have the Spanish-speaking Armada to talk to.
4 thoughts on “Catalan/Spanish”
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Rodrigo,
Hey hey!
Be careful there – the Catalonians would say that Catalan is also “Spanish”, as would the Gallicians and what not.
The best way to distinguish the two may be to call them “Castillian” and “Catalan”, and leave the term “Spanish” alone.
But you know that already… 😉
Have fun in Barcelona!
Duncan, since I’m Catalonian, I can tell you that very few Catalonians will refer to their language as Spanish, and some will not feel comfortable at all with that naming.
Simply, Spanish == Castillian, they are synonyms, as Valencian == Catalan, or Flemish == Dutch (dialectal variations apart).
There can be some political connotations when using one term or the other, as you can read in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_given_to_the_Spanish_language) , but do not worry too much. 🙂
spanish is the language most spoken at cataluña. No problem.
castillian not exist, exists spanish
But be careful, in Catalonia lot of people, specially people you will find at Guadec, denies existence of Spain, and you would be attacked if someone thinks you are not a catalonian nationalist. Recently in catalonia has been started an apartheid of spanish spoken people.