Catin
| Catine | |
|---|---|
| Selis | |
| Selis | |
| Pronunciation | [Selisl], Spanish pronunciation: [Catin] |
| Region | Spain and Online(see below) |
Native speakers | 2k (2021) 1.9k as a second language 2 total |
| Latin (Catin alphabet) Catin Braille | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | None officially recognizes the language |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
Catin (Catin: Selis, pronounced "Se-li-s", IPA: /selis/), also called Universal Catin, is a Romance language. It is the least spoken Romance language in the world. As of December 2019, under 20 people in the world spoke Catin as their first language. The language was originally found in Barcelona but went extinct. Language historians then rebuilt the language with the original grammar plus new words derived from Spanish, French, and Italian.
Usage
The language is primarily used in multicultural chat rooms as a universal language. Language historians also speak the language as a hobby. The language is being brought back from extinction nowadays as a universal Romance language. Because the language has roots in Latin, Spanish, Italian, and French, many people from those countries speak the language.
Related languages
The language seems to be closer to Castilian than Modern Spanish. The pronunciation of words is strikingly similar to Spanish, which can make it easy for a Spanish speaker to learn. In terms of grammar, the language is more simple with only one way of conjugation and no strictness around gender. Some words were borrowed from French, such as "oui," which means sure. The language looks related to Italian with the repetition of the vowel i, although it has the least resemblance to Italian.
Name
Catin has many names but in its own language its name is Selis or "speech chat" in English. The name Selis seems to come from the Castilian-based word sonar which means to dream or to sound. It got the name Catin by language historians who remarked that it sounds like Latin, hence the new name Catin.
History
The language first started as a dialect of Castilian in 1162. Although it was a dialect of Castile, it was mostly spoken in Aragon or old Barcelona. The language at this time was very close to Castile in almost every form other than spelling. In old texts 200 years later, historians could see that the language started getting loan words from French, such as oui. The pronunciation also started to change in the way vowels were said. Later, just before the fall of Aragon in 1479, the language died out with all the speakers moving to the Spanish language. In the 90s, language historians discovered these old Catin texts and then rebuilt most of the language in order to translate more texts that are found in the language. The Catin international dictionary was made in 2004 at a Madrid historical center and ever since the language grew in popularity with hopes of becoming a better universal language than Esperanto. The differences between old Catin and modern Catin are quite different, with classical Catin being closer to modern Spanish.
Other websites
This article "Catin" is from Simple English Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Catin.
