Languagle #57: Catalan
Qui dia passa, any empeny
"Whoever gets through a day pushes the year along."
What it means
Take life one day at a time. Every day that you get through pushes the year along.
How to say it
kee DEE-uh PA-suh, AHNY um-PENY
Unstressed a and e in Catalan are a soft 'uh'. Ny at the end of a word is the ny in 'canyon', so any and empeny rhyme.
Word by word
- Qui kee: whoever
- dia DEE-uh: a day
- passa PA-suh: gets through
- any ahny: year
- empeny um-PENY: pushes along
Where it was written down
A traditional proverb, in Catalan a refrany, passed down by word of mouth.
Similar sayings
- English: One day at a time
How to recognise Catalan
Catalan has its own giveaways: l·l, with a dot in the middle (as in 'col·lecció'), and ny for the sound Spanish writes ñ. It also uses à, è, é, í, ò, ó, ú and ç, and many words end in -ció. Spanish has ñ and ll, and Portuguese has ã and õ, which Catalan never uses.
About the Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language spoken by around 10 million people in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands in Spain, in Andorra, where it is the only official language, and in parts of southern France and the Sardinian city of Alghero. It was a major literary language of medieval Europe. It is written in the Latin alphabet and has its own distinctive letter combination, the l·l with a raised dot, as in 'col·lega'.
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