Teach Yourself Catalan - 2 Audio CDs and Book
Brand New (still shrink wrapped) 2 CDs and Book
*learn how to speak, understand and write Catalan
*progress quickly beyond the basics
*explore the language in depth
Summary:
Catalan is a member of the Romance family of languages, which includes French, Castilian Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, and is the mother tongue of approximately 10.5 million people. In Spain, it is spoken in Catalonia, Valencian, the Balearic islands, the
eastern part of Aragon and El Carxe (in Murcia). These areas are much-visited by English-speaking tourists and travellers, particularly Barcelona and the Balearic Islands. Within these Spanish territories, Catalan has joint official status with Castilian Spanish. Outside Spain, Catalan is spoken in Andorra, north Catalonia in the south of France and in L'Alguer in Sardinia. More people speak Catalan than speak Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Irish.
Using a book and CD combination, the current edition of Teach Yourself Catalan has been completely rewritten and updated for beginners in Catalan who are planning to visit a Catalan-speaking area or who are starting a course in the language. New vocabulary and structures are introduced step by step through interesting dialogues which are also on the accompanying recording. There are plenty of exercises to practise each point as you learn it and to help reinforce your new language. The course covers all the language you will need for your next business trip or holiday, including getting to know people, making arrangements, shopping, ordering a meal, giving opinions and using the telephone. There are comprehensive bilingual vocabularies and a 'taking it further' section to direct you to further sources of Catalan.
The accompanying recording consists over two hours of listening material on CD and contains all the dialogues from the book, exercises in listening and speaking, and a comprehensive pronunciation guide.
This course contains everything you need to start speaking Catalan with confidence and appreciate the culture of Catalan speakers.
Easy to use - the new page design and introduction of artwork make this edition more attractive and easier to use.Comprehensive - a thorough introduction to Catalan, this book contains everything you need for your next holiday or business trip.Accessible - new vocabulary and structures are introduced step by step through dialogues.Up to date - this new edition has been completely rewritten to reflect current teaching methods and the Catalan language as it is spoken today.Contains over two hours of accompanying listening material on CD.
About the Author(s):
Alan Yates is a former Lecturer in Catalan at the University of Sheffield and well-respected author of the current edition. He has recently received a prize for his services to the teaching of the Catalan.
Anna Poch is a native speaker of Catalan and an experienced teacher of Catalan and Spanish. She has been teaching at universities and schools in France and England since 1996.
About the Language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community (where it is known as Valencian) and in the city of Alghero in the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, although with no official recognition, in the autonomous communities of Aragon (in La Franja) and Murcia (in Carche) in Spain, and in the historic Roussillon region of southern France, roughly equivalent to the current département of the Pyrénées-Orientales (Northern Catalonia).
The Catalan language developed by the 9th century from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the eastern part of Pyrenees mountains (counties of Roussillon, Empúries, Besalú, Cerdanya, Urgell, Pallars and Ribagorça). It shares features with Gallo-Romance and Ibero-Romance, and started as a dialect of Occitan (or of Western Romance).
As a consequence of the Catalan conquests from Al-Andalus to the south and to the west, it spread to all present-day Catalonia, Balearic Islands and most of Valencian Community.
During the 15th century, during the Valencian Golden Age, the Catalan language reached its highest cultural splendor, which was not matched again until La Renaixença, 4 centuries later.
See also History of Catalonia
After the Treaty of the Pyrenees, a royal decree by Louis XIV of France on April 2, 1700 prohibited the use of Catalan language in present-day Northern Catalonia in all official documents under the threat of being invalidated. Since then, Catalan language has lacked official status in that Catalan-speaking region in France.
On December 10, 2007, the General Council of Pyrénées-Orientales officially recognized Catalan language as own one of the department and seek to further promote it in public life and education.
After the Nueva Planta Decrees, administrative use and education in Catalan was also banned in the territories of the Spanish Kingdom. It was not until the Renaixença that use of the Catalan language started to recover.
In Francoist Spain (1939–1975), the use of Spanish over Catalan was promoted, and public use of Catalan was discouraged by official propaganda campaigns. The use of Catalan in government-run institutions and in public events was banned. During later stages of the Francoist regime, certain folkloric or religious celebrations in Catalan were resumed and tolerated. Use of Catalan in the mass media was forbidden, but was permitted from the early 1950s in the theatre. Publishing in Catalan continued throughout the dictatorship. There was no official prohibition of speaking Catalan in public or in commerce, but all advertising and signage had to be in Spanish alone, as did all written communication in business.
Following the death of Franco in 1975 and the restoration of democracy, the use of Catalan increased partly because of new affirmative action and subsidy policies and the Catalan language is now used in politics, education and the Catalan media, including the newspapers Avui ("Today"), El Punt ("The Point") and El Periódico de Catalunya (sharing content with its Spanish release and with El Periòdic d'Andorra, printed in Andorra); and the television channels of Televisió de Catalunya (TVC): TV3, the main channel, and Canal 33/K3 (culture and cartoons channel) as well as a 24-hour news channel 3/24 and the TV series channel 300; there are also many local channels available in region in Catalan, such as BTV and Td8 (in the metropolitan area of Barcelona), Canal L'Hospitalet (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat), Canal Terrassa (Terrassa), Televisió de Sant Cugat TDSC (Sant Cugat del Vallès), Televisió de Mataró TVM (Mataró).
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