Balearic is the collective name for the dialects of Catalan spoken in the Balearic Islands: mallorquí in Mallorca, eivissenc in Ibiza and menorquí in Menorca. At the 2011 census, 861,232 respondents in the Balearic Islands claimed to be able to understand either Balearic or mainland Catalan, compared to 111,912 respondents who could not; proportions were similar on each of the islands.

Dialects

The dialects spoken in the Balearic Islands are mallorquí, spoken on Mallorca, menorquí on Menorca and eivissenc on Ibiza and Formentera.

Features

Distinctive features of Catalan in the Balearic Islands differ according to the specific variant being spoken (Mallorcan, Menorcan, or Ibizan).

Phonology

! ! scope="col" | Front ! scope="col" | Central ! scope="col" | Back ! scope="row" rowspan ="2" | Close ! rowspan="2" scope="row" | Open ! colspan=2 | ! Labial ! Dental/ Alveolar ! Palatal ! Velar ! colspan=2 | Nasal ! rowspan=2 | Plosive ! voiceless ! voiced ! rowspan=2 | Affricate ! voiceless ! voiced ! rowspan=2 | Fricative ! voiceless ! voiced ! rowspan="2" | Rhotics ! trill ! tap ! rowspan=2 | Approximant ! central ! lateral ! colspan="3" | Cluster assimilations ! IPA ! word ! gloss || propdit abduir anècdota maragda || 'before said' 'abduct' 'anecdote' 'emerald' || submarí capmoix admet setmana || 'submarine' 'crestfallen' 'admitted' 'week' || obnoxi apnea adnat cotna || 'obnoxious' 'apnea' 'adnate' 'rind'

Morphology and syntax

Lexicon

Political questions

Some in the Balearic Islands, such as the Partido Popular party member and former Balearic president José Ramón Bauzà, argue that the dialects of Balearic Islands are actually separate languages and not dialects of Catalan. During the election of 2011, Bauzà campaigned against having centralized or standardized standards of Catalan in public education.