Have you heard of the vulgar-latin? That’s Catalan.
In other words a “vulgar”, non Latin, or “bad” Latin language. Because, of course, all languages are mixes of previous languages. We wrote a 600 pages book about the evolution of languages where we explain in detail how there is no such thing as Spanish, Catalan, English and so forth. Languages are in a constant movement and are comprised, just like those “sarmale” food, of many kinds of flavors. Catalan, French, Romanian, Italian and so forth, are languages that have evolved from Latin. And Latin evolved from other language(s).
To my Catalans readers, to put it simply, the Catalan language (and this applies for every single language) is this:
ONE:
A “bad” version of another language that over time mutated into its own language.
By “bad” I mean people will start to speak an official language (like Latin) in different ways (accents, new words, new ways to write it, etc.) and in the beginning this is considered as “bad” since it deviates from the “rules of the current language”.
But this “bad” will become the “rule”, just as the “rule” was also “bad” at some point. That’s how languages evolve.
TWO
A language that stole words from other languages. Directly, shamelessly, and constantly.
Do you know how Catalans call the “Internet”? Well, “internet”. Inter-Net. Borrowed from the Americans.
Catalan, like all languages, is full of these stolen words, expressions, and meanings.
THREE
A language that is vastly different from its own origins.
The Catalan that was spoken hundreds of years ago is vastly different from the one spoken today.
That’s the case with every single language.