Language in Mallorca, Spain

For those of you who have been slogging away at Spanish classes in preparation for a holiday in Mallorca (Majorca), there is good news and bad. Mallorca has two languages Spanish and Mallorquìn (a Catalan dialect). The bad news is that most Mallorcans do speak Mallorquìn amongst themselves and you will see signs, timetables and official documents in Mallorquìn. This is why you come across both Puerto Pollensa (Spanish) and Port de Pollença (Mallorquìn) and various other combinations which are incorrect! The good news is that you will be understood and answered if you speak Spanish (or Castellano as it is known).

Mallorquìn looks like a cross between Spanish and French, so in general it's quite easy to read if you know these languages. Listening to it is a lot more difficult!

Check out this excellent list of Catalan phrases from the Balearics Government web site and 'listen' to how they should be pronounced. Have a look at our suggested Spanish and Catalan phrase books if you would like to take one with you. Checkout the excellent Travlang site where you can find dictionaries and word lists with recorded pronunciations for 74 languages! If you need to translate a paragraph or web page try the amazing Google Translate.