Day #5 - Bon Dia!

Bon dia is the Catalan way of saying, "Good day!" Spain has 4 official languages. Everywhere in the country they speak Spanish or as they would say, "Castellano". In the north central area they speak Basque, in the far north west Gallego or Galician and around Barcelona in the north east the language is Catalan. These are not dialects of Spanish but are distinct languages with their own grammar rules & pronunciations. Spanish, Gallego, and Catalan are Latin based languages but Basque is not. In fact linguists can't pinpoint the origins of the Basque language.

Here's a little example of the 4 languages. In Spanish cheese is queso, in Basque it is gazta, in Catalan it is formatge and in Gallego queixo.

During the years of the dictator Franco, speaking Catalan was against the law so in Barcelona the street names as well as the names of people were switched to Castellano...at least publicly! After Franco's death the proud Catalans were thrilled to be able to again speak their 'mother tongue'. During our years in Barcelona, our church meetings were in Spanish and the members tried hard to remember to speak Spanish to me. It was strange when I'd be in a conversation with a group from church, understanding most of what was said, until suddenly and without warning they would switch to Catalan. They didn't even realize they were making the switch & could never tell me what the trigger was.

I never learned much Catalan except how to read a menu but I did greet people with a polite, "Bon Dia"! I've had people ask me about my email address, wondering what "bondia" means....now you know! I hope you have a 'bon dia'!