Valencian

Valencian
valencià
Pronunciation	[valensiˈa]
Native to	Spain
Region	Valencia, Murcia (Carche) See also geographic distribution of Catalan
Native speakers	2.4 million (2004)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Romance Occitano-Romance Catalan Western Catalan Valencian
Writing system	Catalan orthography (Latin script)
Official status
Official language in	In Spain: Valencia
Regulated by	Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
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Valencian (/vəˈlɛnsiən/ or /vəˈlɛnʃən/; endonym: valencià,llengua valenciana, or idioma valencià) is the variety of Catalan as spoken in the Valencian Community, Spain. In the Valencian Community, Valencian is the traditional language and is co-official with Spanish. It is considered a distinct language from Catalan by a slight majority of the people from the Valencian Community; however, linguists consider it a dialect of Catalan. A standardized form exists, based on the Southern Valencian dialect.

Valencian belongs to the Western group of Catalan dialects. Under the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, the Valencian Academy of the Language (Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, AVL) has been established as its regulator. The AVL considers Catalan and Valencian to be simply two names for the same language.