Northern Valencian

Northern Valencian (valencià septentrional)[1] is a dialect chain spoken in the north of the Valencian Community and south of Catalonia.

[2] It comprises two main varieties: Transitional Valencian (or Transitional Catalan) spoken around the town of Tortosa, and classified as either a dialect of Catalonia (within the North-Western set of dialects),[1] or a Valencian dialect; and Castellon's Valencian[3] or Northern Valencian.

[1] Subdivisions: The existence of this dialectal zone opposite to Northern Transitional Valencian is founded by a very symbolical feature for the speakers: the -e of the first person of indicative (pense 'I think', parle 'I speak').

If the criteria for the classification of Castellon's Valencian would be based only in the treatment of final -r and the phoneme /d͡ʒ/, would be necessary to circumscribe Castellon's Valencian only to the coastal zone between Benicàssim and Xilxes, since this is the area that maintains final -r (cantar 'to sing', fer 'to do', patir 'to suffer') and do not deaffricate ever /d͡ʒ/ in intervocalic position.

It is believed that, even though the relevance of these two last features, the grouping of l'Alcalatén and el Pla de l'Arc with the northern sector of la Plana is a fact that must take into account the sum of other phonetic features, like the lack of contrast between /ʃ/ and /s/, the palatalisation of /t͡s/ and /d͡z/, the use of the diphthong /wi/ in cuit ('cooked') and huit ('eight') and the model of verbal conjugation.