the Challenge Ciclista Mallorca

the Challenge Ciclista Mallorca | T. AYUGA

Andrew EdePollensa22/05/2021 11:40
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Such innocent things as a Facebook post about the Challenge Ciclista Mallorca can have repercussions if you’re not careful. Pollensa’s mayor, Tomeu Cifre, was in the photo alongside the one-two-three cyclists who first made it to the Colomer mirador last weekend. Nothing controversial about this, but then there was the text that went with the photo on the town hall’s Facebook page. There had been a “spectacular arrival” of the cyclists at Mirador d’És Colomer. What? És Colomer?

The opposition Junts Avançam responded to this by pointing out that the “salat article” used in Mallorquín (Mallorcan) is not characteristic of Pollensa, where the Catalan article is traditionally spoken. The town hall, Junts observed, has a councillor with responsibilities for linguistic standards, and so the town hall should get it right. It should be el, and specifically “del Colomer” because there is no apostrophe.

So there you are, and I would also query the accent on és. Is it not just es? Meanwhile, don’t let’s go down the route of the Pollensa eu; it’s complicated enough as it is.
It’s surprising that the town hall did use the salat article, as the mayor has come to the defence of the Catalan article in the past. This was at the time when Rafa Nadal was getting married and there was debate as to whether the venue was Sa Fortalesa or La Fortalesa. Most definitely la, pronounced the mayor.