Catalan in Different Languages: the Catalan language in 80 languages
Catalan calls itself català; Spanish says catalán, French catalan, German Katalanisch, Arabic القطلونية (al-qaṭalūnīyâ) and Japanese カタロニア語 (kataroniago). The tables give the name in 80 languages and 15 writing systems.
Catalan, català, Valencian
Catalan is a Western Romance language of the eastern Iberian Peninsula. It is the sole official language of Andorra and shares official status with Spanish in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where its name is Valencian; in Alghero on Sardinia it is semi-official.1 The ISO 639 register lists it as “Catalan; Valencian”, codes ca and cat.2
The name of the language and the name of the region are one word in most languages here, and the split between catalan-forms and catalonia-forms runs right through Europe.
Catalan in different languages written in the Latin alphabet
48 rows; languages sharing one spelling share a row. Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Turkmen and Uzbek have a second, Cyrillic row in the next table.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Catalan | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| English, Tagalog · eng, tgl | Catalan | |
| Danish, Norwegian · dan, nor | katalansk | |
| Estonian, Finnish · est, fin | katalaani | |
| Galician, Spanish · glg, spa | catalán | |
| Interlingua, Italian · ina, ita | catalano | |
| Afrikaans · afr | Katalaans | |
| Azerbaijani (Latin) · aze | katalanca | |
| Bosnian (Latin) · bos | katalonski | |
| Breton · bre | katalaneg | |
| Catalan · cat | català | |
| Czech · ces | katalánština | |
| Welsh · cym | Catalaneg | |
| German · deu | Katalanisch | |
| Esperanto · epo | kataluna | |
| Basque · eus | katalaniera | |
| Faroese · fao | katalandskt | |
| French · fra | catalan | |
| West Frisian · fry | Katalaansk | |
| Scottish Gaelic · gla | Catalanais | |
| Irish · gle | Catalóinis | |
| Guarani · grn | kataluñañe'ẽ | |
| Croatian · hrv | katalonski | |
| Hungarian · hun | katalán | |
| Indonesian · ind | bahasa Katalan | |
| Icelandic · isl | katalónska | |
| Latin · lat | catalane | |
| Latvian · lav | kataloniešu | |
| Lithuanian · lit | katalonų | |
| Maltese · mlt | Katalan | |
| Malay · msa | bahasa Catala | |
| Dutch · nld | Catalaans | |
| Polish · pol | kataloński | |
| Portuguese · por | catalão | |
| Romanian · ron | catalană | |
| Slovak · slk | katalánčina | |
| Slovene · slv | katalonščina | |
| Somali · som | katalaan | |
| Albanian · sqi | katalonishte | |
| Swahili · swa | kikatalan | |
| Swedish · swe | katalanska | |
| Turkmen (Latin) · tuk | katalança | |
| Turkish · tur | Katalanca | |
| Uzbek (Latin) · uzb | katalancha | |
| Vietnamese · vie | tiếng Catalan | |
| Xhosa · xho | isi-Calatan | |
| Zulu · zul | isiKhathalani | |
| Sorani Kurdish (Latin) · ckb | katalonî | |
| Uyghur (Latin) · uig | katalanche |
Catalan in Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic, Indic and East Asian scripts
30 rows with romanisations, except for languages whose Latin-alphabet spelling has its own row above. Arabic-script and Hebrew-script names read right to left.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Catalan | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| Azerbaijani (Cyrillic) · aze | каталанҹа | |
| Bosnian (Cyrillic) · bos | каталонски | |
| Turkmen (Cyrillic) · tuk | каталанча | |
| Uzbek (Cyrillic) · uzb | каталанча | |
| Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian · bul, mkd, srp | каталонски | katalonski |
| Belarusian · bel | каталёнская | kataljonskaja |
| Kyrgyz · kir | каталанча | katalanča |
| Mongolian · mon | каталан | katalan |
| Russian · rus | каталанский | katalanskij |
| Ukrainian · ukr | каталанська | katalans'ka |
| Arabic · ara | القطلونية | al-qaṭalūnīyâ |
| Persian · fas | کاتالانی | kātālānī |
| Sorani Kurdish (Arabic script) · ckb | کاتالۆنی | |
| Sindhi · snd | ڪيٽيلين | keṫelen |
| Uyghur (Arabic script) · uig | كاتالانچه | |
| Urdu · urd | کاٹالانین | kāṫālāniyan |
| Amharic, Tigrinya · amh, tir | ካታላንኛ | katalanəña |
| Hebrew · heb | קטלונית | qaṭalōnīt |
| Yiddish · yid | קאַטאַלאַניש | katalaniš |
| Greek · ell | καταλανικά | katalaniká |
| Armenian · hye | կատալոներեն | kataloneren |
| Georgian · kat | კატალანური | katalanuri |
| Hindi · hin | कॅटलन | kèṭalan |
| Nepali · nep | क्याटालन | kǣṭālan |
| Tamil · tam | கட்டாலன் | kaṭṭālaṉ |
| Chinese · zho | 加泰罗尼亚语 / 加泰罗尼亚文 | jiātàiluōníyàyǔ / jiātàiluōníyàwén |
| Japanese · jpn | カタロニア語 | kataroniago |
| Korean · kor | 카탈로니아어 | katalloniaeo |
| Thai · tha | ภาษาคาตะลาน | pʰāsākʰātalān |
| Lao · lao | ພາສາກາຕາລັງ | pʰāsākātālâṅ |
Catalan or Catalonia: two bases for one name
One group builds on the language word with -an: catalán, catalano, katalanisch, katalanska, Katalanca in Turkish, каталанский (katalanskij) in Russian. A second group starts from the country name Catalonia: Polish kataloński, Croatian and Bosnian katalonski, Slovene katalonščina, Latvian kataloniešu, and the Japanese and Korean forms カタロニア語 and 카탈로니아어 (katalloniaeo).
Arabic stands apart: القطلونية (al-qaṭalūnīyâ) writes the name with q and ṭ, while Persian کاتالانی (kātālānī) uses k and t, as in the European word. Chinese renders the region as 加泰罗尼亚 and adds 语 for the spoken and 文 for the written language.
Questions about the name of Catalan
What is Catalan called in Catalan?
català. The spelling with the grave accent is the language’s own; Spanish writes catalán with an acute.
Is Valencian a different language?
The ISO 639 register treats them as one language under the name “Catalan; Valencian” with the codes ca and cat. Valencian is the name used in the Valencian Community.
In which country is Catalan the only official language?
Andorra. In Spain it is co-official with Spanish in three autonomous communities.
- 1Wikipedia, “Catalan language” (native name català; Western Romance; sole official language of Andorra; co-official with Spanish in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian; semi-official in Alghero), checked 28 October 2026. ↑
- 2ISO 639-2 Registration Authority (Library of Congress), Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages, checked 28 October 2026. Catalan; Valencian: cat (ISO 639-2), ca (ISO 639-1). ↑