Annals of Language and Literature Volume 3, Issue 2, 2019, PP 9-18 ISSN 2637-5869 The Origins of Catalan, the Valencian: Dialect of Catalan or Autonomous Language? Ana Montaner Bueno, Andrés Montaner Bueno* Department of Language and Literature Didactics, University of Murcia, Spain *Corresponding Author: Andrés Montaner Bueno, Department of Language and Literature Didactics, University of Murcia, Spain, Email:
[email protected] ABSTRACT When we talk about the spread of western Catalan beyond the Principality, we consider Valencian as a dialect of Catalan. This question has been one of the most discussed and controversial has aroused. That is why, we will treat the issue individually. To solve this dilemma, the first thing that we will consider is to define the concepts of language and dialect, to later consider the origins of the Valencian and from them to see if they really coincide with the characteristics that we have defined for the terms language and dialect. Keywords: Catalan; Valencian; language; dialect; autonomy; (in) dependence. THE CATALAN AND ITS DIALECTS Tarragona is divided between the eastern and western dialects. We understand by Catalan the language that for centuries has been spoken as vernacular in the Following its expansion to the south, beyond the Principality of Catalonia (Lérida, Barcelona, Principality, the western Catalan extends to the Tarragona and Gerona), in the valleys of non-Castilian part of the provinces of Castellón, Andorra, in the French department of the Valencia and Alicante, while the eastern branch Eastern Pyrenees, in the eastern part of Aragon, in the Balearic Islands. Following this criterion, in most of Valencia, in the Balearic Islands and we can reach a first dialectal division, which in the city of Alguer located on the northwest includes the following regions coast of the island of Sardinia.