Stuff Catalans Do
Welcome to Stuff Catalans Do. Here, for easier reading, I’ve combined all the Stuff Catalans Do posts from April 2017 into one. You can read the Intro here. Do you have any Catalonia stories, anecdotes, clangers, to share? Please do so in the comments at the end of this post. You can also join in […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Yperita
Yperita My hefty (dead-tree) Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana has only one word with Y – yperita (the y is pronounced ‘ee’) It doesn’t even have its own page, but is lumped together with Z. So I could simply miss Y out, especially as I’ve already overshot the ‘official’ April A to Z Blogging 26-day […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Xiuxiueig
Xiuxiueig Did you freak out when you saw this word? People tend to when they see a piece of text in Catalan because of the liberal sprinkling of ‘x’ s, and they tune out thinking that it’s a weird and unpronounceable mish-mash. In fact xiuxiueig is one of Catalan’s most lovely onomatopoeic words. Repeat after […]
Stuff Catalans Do: W
W is not really a ‘native’ letter in Catalan. The only words in the W section of the dictionary are those of foreign origin, from wagnerià through waterpolo and watt to whisky to wulfenita and wurtzita. I misread this last one as wurstita and, thinking it was some kind of sausage, I checked it out […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Verdaguer and Vermut
Verdaguer Maybe the first thing that springs to mind is that metro station in Barcelona whose name you can’t pronounce. The Verdaguer monument is close by, unreachable in the centre of a major road intersection. In fact Catalonia is jammed with streets and squares, schools and other institutions (and monuments) commemorating Jacint Verdaguer. So who […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Ullastret and Ulldecona
Ullastret and Ulldecona From ancient Iberian settlements in the north to rock art and ancient olive trees in the south, the history of Catalonia goes way back. Ullastret (oolyaSTRET), a town in the Baix Empordà region (inland from the Costa Brava), is home to the largest Iberian settlement so far discovered in Catalonia, dating to […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Tombatruites
Tombatruites Making a truita (trooEETeh) de patates (Spanish omelette) is dead easy. You fry the diced potatoes in olive oil till soft. You beat the eggs in a bowl, with salt. You add the eggs to the pan and cook the mixture on one side. And then you flip it over – and end up […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Sant Jordi
Sant Jordi Over the years, I’ve written about Sant Jordi many times, so this is a mash-up of several oldish pieces. El dia de Sant Jordi is a standout day in Catalonia, a not-to-be missed blend of fun and romance, culture and the hard-headed business sense that is said to be so typical of the […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Quatre gats
Quatre gats When I first came to Barcelona, when Spain was still a police state, I taught English at a school in a stately building on Rambla Catalunya, on the floor above what was then the Moroccan Consulate. One evening we heard a commotion outside and stepped out onto the narrow balcony: a handful of […]
Stuff Catalans Do: Pirineus
Pirineus From north to south, from east to west, the Catalans do mountains big time, and Els Pirineus (pronounced PeereeNAYoos) are the biggest of the lot. You probably know that they form a formidable natural barrier between France and Spain, and are jammed with ski slopes, hiking routes, all manner of sports and outdoor activities, […]