Harman Patil (Editor)

Astur Leonese languages

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Geographic distribution:
  
Spain (in the autonomous communities of Asturias, northwestern Castile and León and Cantabria) and small border areas in northeastern Portugal.

Linguistic classification:
  
Indo-European Italic Romance Western Ibero-Romance West Iberian Astur-Leonese

Subdivisions:
  
Asturian (incl. Leonese) Mirandese Extremaduran Cantabrian

Glottolog:
  
astu1244  (Asturo-Leonese) extr1243  (Extremaduran)

Astur-Leonese is a group of mutually intelligible Romance dialects of the West Iberian branch, including:

Contents

  • Asturian, asturianu or bable, encompassing the vernaculars spoken in the Spanish province of Asturias, except the westernmost ones, which are more often considered dialects of Galician (see Eonavian below). This is the area with most speakers left.
  • Leonese, llionés, encompassing the vernaculars spoken in northern and western parts of the province of León, and a few western areas in the provinces of Zamora and Salamanca, in Spain. The distinction between Asturian and Leonese cannot be made in purely linguistic terms. Leonese was spoken in the past in a much larger area; however, it is now approaching extinction.
  • The now-extinct dialects of the neighbour parishes of Rio de Onor and Guadramil, in the northern border of the District of Bragança, in Portugal;
  • Mirandese, mirandés, in villages around the border town of Miranda do Douro, in the eastern border of the District of Bragança like Angueira, Macedo de Cavaleiros and further south in Sendim, Portugal.

    • In addition:

  • Cantabrian, cántabru, encompassing the vernaculars spoken in Cantabria. Some of them, especially western ones, are further grouped with the traditional name montañés while eastern ones are included in pasiegu. There are different positions about whether these varieties are dialects of the Spanish language, dialects of Astur-Leonese or independent languages on their own right.
  • The Extremaduran language, estremeñu, spoken in northwestern Extremadura (Spain) is more distantly related to the group.

    • Leonese (in the sense of the whole linguistic group) was once regarded as an informal dialect (basilect) of Spanish, but in 1906, Ramón Menéndez Pidal showed it was the result of Latin evolution in the Kingdom of León. As is noted by the Spanish scholar Inés Fernández Ordoñez, Menéndez Pidal always maintained the idea that the Spanish language (or the common Spanish language, "la lengua común española", as he sometimes called it) evolved from a Castilian base which would have absorbed, or merged with, Leonese and Aragonese. In that sense, in his works, "Historia de la Lengua Española" (History of the Spanish language) and especially "El español en sus primeros tiempos" (Spanish in its early times), this author explains the stages of this process, taking into account the influence caused in the first steps of the Spanish language, both by the Leonese dialect and the Aragonese dialect, and finally and in last place by Castilian, which, nowadays, due to the political integration process produced during the last eight centuries, has absorbed almost completely to the other two dialects.

    Leonese is officially recognised by the Autonomous Community of Castile and León (2006). In Asturias it is protected under the Autonomous Statute legislation and is an optional language at schools, where it is widely studied.

    In Portugal, the related Mirandese language is recognized by the Assembly of the Republic as a co-official language along with Portuguese for local matters, and it is taught in public schools in the areas where Mirandese is natively spoken. Initially thought to be a basilect of Portuguese, José Leite de Vasconcelos studied Mirandese and concluded it was a separate language from Portuguese.

    History

    The language developed from Vulgar Latin with contributions from the pre-Roman languages which were spoken in the territory of the Astures, an ancient tribe of the Iberian peninsula. Castilian (Spanish) came to the area later in the 14th century when the central administration sent emissaries and functionaries to occupy political and ecclesiastical offices.

    Asturian

    Much effort has been made since 1974 to protect and promote Asturian. In 1981 Asturian, or Bable, as the language is officially named, was recognized as an area in need of special protection by the local government. In 1994 there were 100,000 first language speakers and 450,000 second language speakers able to speak or understand Asturian. However, the outlook for Asturian remains critical, with a large decline in the number of speakers in the last 100 years. At the end of the 20th century, the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana underwent initiatives designed to provide the language with most of the tools needed to survive in the modern era: a grammar, a dictionary and periodicals. A new generation of Asturian writers has championed the language. These developments have given Asturian greater hope of survival.

    Leonese

    Leonese was probably spoken in a much larger area in the Middle Ages, roughly corresponding to the old Kingdom of León. As the Castilian language became the main language in Spain, the linguistic features of the Leonese language retreated progressively westwards.

    In the late 1990s several associations unofficially promoted Leonese language courses. In 2001 the Universidad de León (University of León) created a course for Leonese teachers, and local and provincial governments developed Leonese language courses for adults. Nowadays Leonese can be studied in the largest towns of León, Zamora and Salamanca provinces.

    Leonese's desperate reality as a minority language has driven it to an apparent dead end, and it is considered a Seriously Endangered Language by UNESCO. There are some efforts at language revival aimed at the urban population (the Leonese Council has made campaign to encourage young people to learn Leonese). Some experts think Leonese will be dead in two generations.

    In spite of all these difficulties, the number of young people learning and using Leonese (mainly as a written language) has increased substantially in recent years. The Leonese City Council promotes Leonese language courses for adults. Leonese is taught in sixteen schools in Leon.

    Leonese language has special status in the Statute of Autonomy of Castile and León.

    Mirandese

    In the 19th century, José Leite de Vasconcelos described Mirandese as "the language of the farms, work, home, and love between the Mirandese," noting that it was a completely separate language from Portuguese. Since 1986/1987 the language has been taught to students between the ages of 10 and 11, and Mirandese is now recovering. Today Mirandese has fewer than 5,000 speakers (but the figure go up to 15,000 if one includes second language speakers).

    Portugal took a further step in protecting Mirandese when the Portuguese Republic officially recognised the language in 1999. It is administrated by the Anstituto de la Lhéngua Mirandesa.

    References

    Astur-Leonese languages Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA