Languages in Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain. It is the capital city of Catalonia. As the capital of Catalonia, Barcelona is the seat of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Commonwealth of Catalonia) and its three branches: the Executive Government, the Parliament of Catalonia and the Supreme Court of Catalonia. Barcelona is located on the northeastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula that faces the Mediterranean Sea. There are two legends that state the origin of Barcelona. The first attributes the origin of the city to Hercules 400 years before Rome was built, and that it was rebuilt by the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named the city Barcino after his family, in the 3rd century BC. According to the second legend the foundation of Barcelona is directly attributed to Hamilcar Barca. The majority of the population are Catholic Christians but there are also a number of other communities that constitute a substantial percentage. The other group involves Evangelist (71 locations, mostly professed by Roma), Jehovah's Witnesses (21 Kingdom Halls) and Buddhists (13 locations). There are two official languages spoken in Barcelona: Catalan, generally spoken in all of Catalonia, and Castillian Spanish.

Almost everyone understands the Catalan language. The percentage is as high as 95%. 74.6% of the population can speak this language while 75% can read it and another 47.1% can write it. Catalan is the national language of Andorra. Spain has the majority of Catalan speakers. Catalan is spoken and understood by approximately 10 million people. Though only half of them have it as their mother language. The Catalan language resembles the Occitan language. Although Catalan is often considered as a transitory language between the Iberian Romance languages (such as Spanish) and Gallo-Romance languages (such as French), this classification is not appropriate. Say for instance Catalan is more similar to Italian than Spanish or French phonologically.