For those of you who have been slogging away at Spanish classes in preparation
for a holiday in Mallorca (Majorca), there is good news and bad. Mallorca has two languages Spanish
and Mallorquìn (a Catalan dialect). The bad news is that most Mallorcans do speak
Mallorquìn amongst themselves and you will see signs, timetables and official
documents in Mallorquìn. This is why you come across both Puerto Pollensa
(Spanish) and Port de Pollença (Mallorquìn) and various other combinations
which are incorrect! The good news is that you will be understood and answered if you
speak Spanish (or Castellano as it is known).
Mallorquìn looks like a cross between Spanish and French, so in general it's
quite easy to read if you know these languages. Listening to it is a lot more difficult!
Check out this excellent list of Catalan phrases from the Balearics Government web site and 'listen' to how they should be pronounced. Have a look at our suggested Spanish and Catalan phrase
books if you would like to take one with you. Checkout the excellent Travlang
site where you can find dictionaries
and word lists with recorded
pronunciations for 74 languages! Quick links to Spanish and Catalan are below. If you
need to translate a paragraph or web page try the amazing Google Translate.