Central Valencian

Central Valencian (valencià central), popularly known as apitxat, is a dialect of Valencian spoken around the metropolitan area of Valencia in the Valencian Community, and characterised by the devoicing of voiced sibilants.

Features

Central Valencian features the devoicing of voiced sibilants (e.g. casa [ˈkasa] 'house', joc [ˈtʃɔk] 'game', instead of /ˈkaza/ and /ˈdʒɔk/). Additionally, ieisme, which affects a large part of the Valencian youth, is especially intense in this central zone. It has been heard speakers over 60 years in these comarques that already do not know the lateral articulation of ⟨ll⟩. Another innovation heard here and there is the aspiration of the /s/ before voiceless stops /p, t, k/: escolta [ahˈkolta] ('listen'), espera [ahˈpeɾa] ('wait'). The rest of phonetic features of this dialect are not exclusive to this area, like for example the articulation of the stops in camp ('field'), cent ('hundred') and molt ('very'), which it is extended throughout all the southern coastal zone. Like in certain areas of the Northern dialects, /v/ merges with /b/, that is there is no /v/, in el Camp de Morvedre, el Camp de Túria, l'Horta de València and la Foia de Bunyol. It is in the verbal morphology where Central Valencian has a more differentiated behaviour in regard to the northern and southern dialects. Some of these features are:

• Preservation of the synthetic or simple past: aní ('I went'), anares ('you went'), anà ('he went'), anàrem ('we went'), anàreu ('you went' pl.), anaren ('they went'). Generally, the speakers of el Camp de Morvedre, el Camp de Túria, l'Horta de València and the northern zone of la Ribera tend to preserve the full paradigma of the synthetic past. The zones close to the central dialect, la Costera, la Safor and the south of la Plana (Almenara, Xilxes), have a more limited usage of the synthetic paradigma, that's only kept in the plural (anàrem, anàreu, anaren), with a tendency to use the periphrastic forms (vàrem/vam anar, vàreu/vau anar 'you went' pl., varen/van anar 'they went'). Even in the regions where the synthetic paradigma is still predominant, the usage of the periphrastic is increasingly common, especially for the first person (aní > vaig anar I went, fiu > vaig fer 'I did', viu > vaig viure 'I lived') and the third (cantà > va cantar 's/he sang', digué > va dir 's/he said', feu > va fer 's/he did').
• Another tendency of Central Valencian is the analogical velarisation of the gerunds: beguent (instead of bevent) 'drinking', creguent (creent) 'believing', diguent (dient) 'saying', estaguent (estant) 'being, staying', poguent (podent) 'can', siguent (sent) 'being', etc. Furthermore, the palatalised forms of the present of indicative are analogical including the gerund of vore (< veure) 'to see': vejam, vegent instead of veem ('we see') and veent ('seen'); the participle of viure: vixquent ('lived'); the velarised forms of creure and traure ('take out') in the present of indicative: creguem, traguem, cregueu, tragueu, instead of creem ('we believe'), traem ('we take out'), creeu ('they believe'), traeu ('they take out'); and also the velarised forms of the present of subjunctive of vore and haver: veixca, veigga, haixca or haigga instead of veja ('I see') and haja ('I have'). Actually it is extended, especially in la Ribera (and further south) the voicing of the inchoative forms: partixca > partixga ('s/he suffer'), servixquen > servixguen ('they serve'); these forms are the result of the analogy with the velarised subjunctives like haigga (haja) i veigga (veja).
• Contrary to Castellon's and Southern Valencian, the verb fer ('to do') tends to preserve the etymological forms from the present of indicative jo faç ('I do') and subjunctive faça ('I do'), faces ('you do') (Northern and Southern Valencian tend to use exclusively faig, faja, fages). Additionally, it has been kept the classical desinences -am and -au of the first and second person of the plural of the present of subjunctive and the imperative in the second and third conjugations (batam, digau, vullgam, etc.), which in parts of the south and, especially in Castellon's and Northern tend to be replaced by the analogical forms -em and -eu (batem 'we beat', digueu '[they] say', vullguem 'we want', etc.). About the desinences -am and -au it's been observed that some speakers of el Camp de Morvedre, l'Horta and la Ribera Alta use them also on the present of indicative: no sabeu lo que digau (dieu) ('you don't know what you're saying'); no vejam (veem) res, està molt fosc ('we don't/can't see anything, it's very dark').

Bibliography

• Recasens i Vives, Daniel (1996) [1991], Fonètica descriptiva del català: assaig de caracterització de la pronúncia del vocalisme i el consonantisme català al segle XX, Biblioteca Filològica (in Catalan), vol. 21 (2nd ed.), Barcelona. Spain: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, ISBN 978-84-7283-312-8
• Saborit i Vilar, Josep (2009), Millorem la pronúncia (in Valencian), Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
• Sanchis i Guarner, Manuel (2005), La llengua dels valencians (in Valencian) (20 ed.), Valencia: Edicions 3 i 4, ISBN 84-7502-082-8