Catalan Retail & E-Commerce Translation

About the Catalan Language

Catalan is a Western Romance language derived from Vulgar Latin and named after the medieval Principality of Catalonia, in northeastern modern Spain. It is the only official language of Andorra, and a co-official language of the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia (where the language is known as Valencian).

The word Catalan derives from the territory of Catalonia, itself of disputed etymology.

Catalan shares many traits with the other neighboring Romance languages (Italian, Sardinian, Occitan, and Spanish). However, despite being spoken mostly on the Iberian Peninsula, Catalan has marked differences with the Iberian Romance group (Spanish and Portuguese) in terms of pronunciation, grammar, and especially vocabulary; showing instead its closest affinity with Occitan and to a lesser extent Gallo-Romance (French, Franco-Provençal, Gallo-Italian). According to Ethnologue, the lexical similarity between Catalan and other Romance languages is: 87% with Italian; 85% with Portuguese and Spanish; 76% with Ladin; 75% with Sardinian; and 73% with Romanian.

Catalan Translation Expertise

Catalan occupies a unique space between Spanish and French, sharing features with both but being distinct from either — translators must resist the temptation to substitute Spanish equivalents, as this produces unnatural results. The language has a rich system of pronominal clitics (weak pronouns) that combine in specific ways and change form depending on the verb, a feature that requires careful attention in formal documents. Catalan also distinguishes between two past tenses (periphrastic past and simple past) with regional usage differences between Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands.

Catalan uses the Latin alphabet with several special characters including the middle dot (l·l) used in the geminated L, the cedilla (ç), and accented vowels (à, é, è, í, ó, ò, ú). The interpunct in "l·l" (ela geminada) is unique to Catalan among Romance languages and must not be omitted or replaced with a regular period.

Common Catalan Documents

Catalan documents commonly requiring translation include the certificat de naixement (birth certificate), certificat de matrimoni (marriage certificate), títol universitari (university degree), and certificat d'antecedents penals (criminal record certificate). Documents from Catalonia may be issued in Catalan only or bilingually in Catalan and Spanish, while Andorran documents are exclusively in Catalan.

NAATI does not currently offer specific Catalan certification — the language falls outside NAATI's standard language list due to low demand in Australia. Translations may need to be provided by a qualified translator with a statutory declaration, or clients may be directed to Spanish-certified translators who also hold Catalan qualifications.

About the Catalan Language

Catalan is spoken by around 10 million people, making it more widely spoken than several EU official languages including Danish, Finnish, and Croatian — yet it is not an official EU language. The language is the only one in the world to use the ela geminada (l·l), a geminated L written with a raised dot called an interpunt, which distinguishes it from all other Romance languages. Catalan has a rich medieval literary tradition predating both Spanish and French literature, with Ramon Llull (1232–1316) considered one of the first major European writers to use a vernacular language instead of Latin.