Catalan phonology differentiates between stressed and unstressed syllables. In unstressed position, vowels are usually and systematically reduced in all dialects.
Stress Catalan contrasts stressed and unstressed syllables. Stress most often occurs on any of the last three syllables of a word (e.g., () / () 'compass'; ( / ) 'punishment'; () / () 'fool').
In Catalan, word stress follows predictable default rules based on a word's ending, and written accent marks are used when a word breaks those patterns. Depending on where the emphasis falls, Catalan words fall into three main groups: (Oxytones): The stress falls on the last syllable. An accent is written on an if it ends in a vowel, a vowel + , , or (e.g., 'airplane', 'after'). Otherwise, no accent is written 'to fly'). (Paroxytones): The stress falls on the second-to-last syllable (penultimate). An accent is written on a if it does not end in a vowel, a vowel + , , or (e.g., 'plastic', 'graphic'). Otherwise, no accent is written (e.g., 'house'). (Proparoxytones): The stress falls on the third-to-last syllable or earlier. always carry an accent mark (e.g., 'eagle', 'gun powder').
Minimal pairs Minimal pairs where stress change the meaning: 'factory' 'he/she makes' 'he/she made'
Accent marks and vowel quality In Catalan, accent marks also indicate whether a mid-vowel is open or closed:
Acute accents (é, ó) indicate a closed-mid sound (): 'church' and 'formula'.
Grave accents (è, ò) indicate an open-mid sound (): 'science' and 'logic'.
Further contrast in vowel quality is found in monosyllabic words with diacritical accent and without (examples in Eastern Catalan):
('hand') vs. ('my', []) ('I know') vs. ('itself') ('hair') vs. ('for the', []) ('world') vs. ('my', [])
Secondary stress Compound words and adverbs formed with may have a syllable with secondary stress (e.g., () / () 'lightning conductor', () / () 'willingly') but every lexical word has just one syllable with main stress.
Vowel reduction Most dialects contrast at least seven stressed vowels (/, , , , , , /), an exception is most Balearic dialects, which contrast eight (the formers, plus ). In unstressed position, and depending on the dialect, vowels are reduced to the followings:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |+ class="nowrap" | General Eastern Catalan ! Term ! ! Gloss
| rowspan="2" | | 'speech'
| 'back'
| 'lily'
| rowspan="2" | | 'iron'
| 'mutual' |} Mallorcan Balearic [Eastern Catalan] Term Gloss 'speech' 'back' 'lily' 'iron' 'mutual' General Western Catalan Term Gloss 'speech' 'back' 'lily' 'iron' 'mutual'
Notes:
In Eastern Catalan, vowels in unstressed position reduce to three: , , → (also phonetically in Barcelona); , → , and and remain unchanged. So the unstressed vowel inventory in Eastern Catalan is essentially [, , ]. However, there are some dialectal differences: Algherese merges , and with ; and in most areas of Mallorca, can appear in unstressed position (that is, and are usually reduced to ). (The unstressed phones and can also be found in the Balearic dialects instead of and ).
Unstressed : It may be elided in contact with rhotics (e.g., → 'but', → 'orange', → 'true'), this is partially reflected in the orthography: (Standard Catalan) vs. (Standard Valencian) ('snail'). It is also observed in three combinations with the preposition (usually meaning 'for', 'by', 'per'): → ('because of this'), → ('around here') and → ('around there'). This also occurs in ('for'), which in speech can be reduced to ( → ), which can cause ambiguity. can also be omitted in rapid speech in the verb → ('to go'); e.g., ? → ('do you want to go?'), in the word → ('goodbye') and in contact with other vowels (e.g., ? → 'what time is it?', → 'what we have said'). Unstressed (stays mostly unchanged): In some Eastern Catalan accents unstressed is pronounced as a semivowel () before after another vowel with the digraph : , this is akin to many Western Catalan dialects. In Standard Eastern Catalan it is silent (). Unstressed (stays mostly unchanged): It may be elided in the expression → ('please'). Unstressed , and appear only in some words (often due to vowel harmony, see Central Catalan vowel harmony), especially in learned terms from other languages (e.g., 'allegro', 'oceans', 'ego') and in the unstressed diphthong , which varies with in informal speech (e.g., or 'I will move'). In other cases, they merge with and ().
Other cases: Stressed may rarely undergo univerbation if accompanied by another word and be pronounced as a single oxytone word, causing the reduction of to in Eastern dialects (e.g., → 'of course'). Similar cases occur with stressed being reduced to (e.g., → 'more or less'). In Balearic and some Central Catalan accents, unstressed initial can diphthongize to , similar to RP ; e.g., ) 'smell' (). This is regarded as non-standard.
In Western Catalan (which includes Valencian and North-Western Catalan), vowels in unstressed position reduce to five: , → ; , → ; (except in some cases), , remain unchanged, those vowels are [, , , , ] (the phone is now more frequent in Western dialects, and the phones , can be found instead of , in southern varieties, like Valencian). In many Western dialects reduced vowels tend to merge into different realizations in some cases, sometimes unpredictably (the following examples are in Valencian): Unstressed : It is usually close to (without assimilation). In some Western accents may occur. Post-tonic final unstressed becomes and/or (phonetically lower and/or centralized) when preceded by a syllable with stressed and/or ; e.g., → 'cloth', 'fabric'; → 'hour'. For further detail see Valencian vowel harmony. In a wider sense, vowel assimilations can occur in further instances (that is all or most instances of final unstressed , regardless of the preceding sounds and involving palatalisation and/or velarisation): or ('girl'). This is considered non-standard. A characteristic feature of the pronunciation of some North-Western speakers is the pronunciation of the unstressed final as , regardless of the preceding sounds; e.g., Lleida ('Lleida'), pronounced (or broader ) in General Western Catalan and in Eastern Catalan. It is accepted in Valencian the pronunciation of the suffix as in the masculine form, thus 'artist' () is pronounced . Unstressed : It may merge with before a nasal or sibilant consonant (e.g., 'you understand', 'to listen'), in some environments before any consonant (e.g., 'clod (of earth)', 'lump'), and, sometimes, in monosyllabic clitics. It may merge into when in contact with palatal consonants (e.g., 'lord'). Rarely initial can become ; e.g., ('summer'), and it may alternate with the more frequently sequence : . In Standard Valencian, → () is only accepted in terms with the suffix : ('birth'). Unstressed (stays mostly unchanged). Unstressed : It may merge with before a bilabial consonant (e.g., 'covered', 'cutlery'), before a stressed syllable with a high vowel (e.g., 'he/she sighs'). Furthermore, in some rare cases, it can also be reduced in contact with palatals (e.g., Josep 'Joseph'), and, sometimes in some local dialects, in monosyllabic clitics. Note in some colloquial speeches (similar to Eastern Catalan dialects) initial unstressed can diphthongise to (phonetically ); e.g., ) 'smell' (). This is regarded as non-standard. Unstressed (stays mostly unchanged). The phones () and (): Besides vowel harmony or vowel assimilation, unstressed and (i.e., phonetically lower and/or centralized) may be found sporadically in compounds like () 'seventeen' and (or ) (or ) () 'nineteen'.
See also Catalan phonology Catalan vowel harmony Dialectal variation in Catalan phonology
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