Floridan Menorcan

Floridan
St. Augustine, Mahonese
menorquí
Native toUnited States
RegionSt. Augustine, Florida
EthnicityFlorida Minorcans
Extinctlate 19th century[1]
Early forms
Catalan
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
GlottologNone

Florida Menorcan (also known as Mahonian or St. Augustine Menorcan)[2][3] was the linguistic variety of the Menorcan dialect of Catalan spoken in the city of St. Augustine, Florida,[4] in the United States, in the late 18th and throughout the 19th centuries, brought by a colony of people from Mahón.[5][6]

In 1768, a large number of Menorcans, along with other Italians and Greeks workers, left for Florida to establish an agricultural colony, at a time when Menorca and Florida were still under British rule, maintaining their own culture ever since.

Economically, the project was a disaster, but the Menorcan immigrants did not abandon Florida, nor did they abandon their language, which survived up until the 19th century. Linguist Philip Rasico, who studied it, still found a good number of words and surviving elements. Catalan was the language of the homes, streets, and workshops of the city of St. Augustine.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ Catalan is also classified as an Iberian Romance language.

References

  1. ↑ Philip D. Rasico (1986). "A Nineteenth-Century Traveler's Notes on the Minorcan Dialect and Customs of St. Augustine, Florida". Catalan Review. 1 (2): 99. Retrieved 29 April 2026.
  2. ↑ "maonès | enciclopèdia.cat". www.enciclopedia.cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 2026-04-29.
  3. ↑ Rasico, Philip D. (1988). Aproximació a la història del parlar menorquí de la Florida (in Spanish). Abadia de Montserrat: Actes del Cinquè Col·loqui d'Estudis Catalans a Nord-América: (Tampa-St. Augustine, 1987), 1988, ISBN 84-7826-001-3, págs. 69-83. pp. 69–83. ISBN 978-84-7826-001-0. Retrieved 2026-04-29.
  4. ↑ "Quan als Estats Units es parlava català". ElNacional.cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 2026-04-29.
  5. ↑ "Se cumplen 250 años del viaje de los menorquines a Florida". menorcaaldia.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2019-08-21. Retrieved 2026-04-29.
  6. ↑ "Els menorquins de la Florida". VilaWeb.cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 2026-04-29.
  7. ↑ "Los catalanes de Florida se separan de los Estados Unidos". ElNacional.cat (in Spanish). 2020-01-10. Retrieved 2026-04-29.
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