Astur-Leonese languages
| Astur-Leonese | |
|---|---|
| Asturllionés: asturianu, llionés, mirandés | |
| Spoken in | Spain (in the autonomous communities of Asturias, northwestern Extremadura, northwestern Castile and León and western Cantabria) and small pockets in northeastern Portugal. |
| Native speakers | 300,000-450,000[1] (date missing) |
| Language family |
Indo-European
|
| Writing system | Latin |
| Official status | |
| Official language in | In Portugal: Co-official (as Mirandese) in Miranda do DouroIn Spain: Given special protection (as Leonese) in Castile and León, and (as Asturian) in Asturias |
| Regulated by | Academy of the Asturian Language, Institute of the Mirandese Language |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | [[ISO639-3:ast – Asturian ext – Extremaduran mwl – Mirandese|ast – Asturian ext – Extremaduran mwl – Mirandese]] |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: ast – Asturian ext – Extremaduran mwl – Mirandese |
| Linguasphere | 51-AAA-c |
Astur-Leonese area
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Astur-Leonese is the generic name for a group of closely related linguistic varieties included in the West Iberian branch of the Romance languages. The linguistic varieties or languages in the group are assigned different names:
- Asturian, asturianu or bable, in the Spanish province of Asturias;
- Leonese language, llionés, in western parts of the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca, and until recent times in the border towns of Rio de Onor (Rionor) and Guadramil, in the District of Bragança (Portugal);[2] [3] and
- Mirandese, mirandés, in villages around the border town of Miranda do Douro (Portugal).
In addition:
- Astur-Leonese dialects closer to Spanish are spoken in Cantabria, where they are called Cantabrian, cántabru or montañés. There are different positions about whether these speech forms are to be considered dialects of the Spanish language, varieties of Astur-Leonese or independent languages on their own right.
- The Extremaduran language, estremeñu, spoken in northwestern Extremadura is more distantly related to the group.
- The Astur-Leonese Eonavian dialects, eonaviegu or gallego-asturianu, spoken between the Eo and Navia rivers in Asturias are closer to Galician and are sometimes considered as the westernmost varieties of Asturian, although this is not universally met with many scholars preferring to consider them as Galician dialects or as independent languagues.
Leonese language (as a denomination for the whole linguistic group) was once considered an informal dialect (basilect) of Spanish, or Castilian, but, in 1906, Ramón Menéndez Pidal showed it was the result of Latin evolution in the Kingdom of León.[4][5][6] Leonese language 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, being widely studied.[7] 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 covering the areas where Mirandese is natively spoken. Initially thought to be a basilect, José Leite de Vasconcelos studied Mirandese and concluded it was a language different from Portuguese.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] Asturian
Much effort has been made since 1974 to protect and promote Asturian.[8] In 1981 Asturian, or Bable, as the language is officially named,[9] was recognized as a subject of specific 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.[10] However, the situation of Asturian is 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 made efforts to provide the language with most of the tools needed by a language to ensure its survival: a grammar, a dictionary, and periodicals. A new generation of Asturian writers have championed the language. These developments give the Asturian language a greater hope of survival.
[edit] Leonese
Leonese was probably spoken in a much larger area in the Middle Ages, roughly corresponding to the old Kingdom of León. As the Spanish language became the main language in Spain, the linguistic features of Leonese progressively retreated westwards.
In the late 90s 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 most important villages of León, Zamora and Salamanca provinces.
The situation of Leonese as a minority language has driven Leonese to an apparent dead end, and it is considered as a Seriously Endangered Language by UNESCO. There are some efforts to gain acceptance among the urban population (the Leonese Council has made campaigns for young people in the Leonese language). Some reports claim that it will be dead in two generations.
In spite of all the difficulties, the number of young people learning and using it (mainly as a written language) has substantially increased in recent years. Leonese City Council uses Leonese language in its own website and there are Leonese language courses for adult people. Leonese language is taught in sixteen leonese schools.
Leonese language has a special status in the Statute of Autonomy of Castile and León.[11]
[edit] Mirandese
In the 19th century, José Leite de Vasconcelos, described it as "the language of the farms, of work, home, and love between the Mirandese" distinguishing it from Portuguese. Since 1986/1987 the language has been taught to students between the age of 10 and 11, and the language is recovering. Today Mirandese retains fewer than 5,000 speakers (but the number can be up to 15,000 if counting second language speakers).
Portugal has taken a further step in protecting Mirandese, which is closely related to Asturian and specially to Leonese language, and it can be studied. Mirandese was officially recognised by the Portuguese Republic in 1999. It is administrated by the Anstituto de la Lhéngua Mirandesa.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www10.gencat.net/pres_casa_llengues/AppJava/frontend/llengues_detall.jsp?id=43&idioma=5
- ^ El dialecto leonés y el Atlas lingüístico de Castilla y León (Spanish)
- ^ Maia, Clarinda de Azevedo (1996-10-1). "Mirandés". In Alvar, Manuel (in Spanish). Manual de dialectología hispánica. El Español de España. Barcelona: Editorial Ariel, S.A.. "En la provincia de Tras-os-Montes . . . aparte del habla trasmontana (con sus diferentes variantes) existen algunos dialectos estructuralmente próximos a los dialectos leoneses . . . La zona oriental de esta provincia portuguesa, que linda con tierras leonesas de Zamora, aparte de algunas modalidades regionales marcadamente individualizadas presenta algunos dialectos caracterizados, en diferente grado, por soluciones de tipo leonés. Estos dialectos parecen constituir dos núcleos distintos, no solo de acuerdo con su posición geográfica, sino, sobre todo, en virtud de los diferentes grados de predominio del leonesismo que presentan: por un lado, el grupo formado por los dialectos del rincón nordeste de la provincia, especialmente el de Rio de Onor y Guadramil, a los que se asocian, ya muy diluidos, los dialectos de otras dos poblaciones de la raya: Petisqueira y Deilão; por otro, en la zona oriental, hablado en la Terra de Miranda, el mirandés, el mas marcadamente leonés de todos los dialectos de factura leonesa hablados en territorio portugués, en el que conviene enmarcar como dialecto suyo, el sendinés, hablado en la población de Sendim . . ."
- ^ Menéndez Pidal 1906:128-141
- ^ UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger.
- ^ Ethnologue report for Spain.
- ^ Euromosaic report, Lexikon der romanitischen Linguistik 6.I:652-708
- ^ Bauske 1995
- ^ http://www.asturias.es/Asturias/DOCUMENTOS%20EN%20PDF/PDF%20DE%20SITUACIONES/Estatuto.pdf
- ^ Llera Ramo 1994
- ^ "Art. 5/2. Statute of Autonomy of Castile and León". February 10, 2010. http://narros.congreso.es/constitucion/estatutos/estatutos.jsp?com=70&tipo=2&ini=1&fin=6&ini_sub=1&fin_sub=1. Retrieved February 10, 2010.
- (German) (Spanish) Bauske, Bernd (1995) Sprachplannung des Asturianischen. Die Normierung und Normalisierung einer romanischen Kleinsprache in Spannungsfeld von Linguistik, Literatur und Politic. Berlin, Köster (There's also a Spanish translation: (1998) Planificación lingüística del asturiano. Xixón, Vtp ISBN 84-89880-20-4)
- (German) (Spanish) Lexikon der Romanitischen Linguistik, Bd. 6.I: Aragonesisch/Navarresisch, Spanisch, Asturianisch/Leonesisch. Tübingen, Max Niemeyer, ISBN 3-484-50250-9.
- (Spanish) Llera Ramo, F. (1994) Los Asturianos y la Lengua Asturiana: Estudio Sociolingüístico para Asturias-1991. Oviedo: Consejería de Educación y Cultura del Principado de Asturias ISBN 84-7847-297-5.
- (Spanish) Menéndez Pidal, R (1906): "El Dialecto Leonés", Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos 2-3:128-172, 4-5:294-311 (There's a modern reimpression: (2006) El Dialecto Leonés. León, El Buho Viajero ISBN 84-933781-6-X)
- Wurm, Stephen A. (ed) (2001) Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Unesco ISBN 92-3-103798-6.
[edit] External links
- Academia de la Llingua Asturiana – Academy of the Asturian Language – Official website
- Asturian grammar in English
- Xunta pola Defensa de la Llingua Asturiana – Committee for the Defense of Asturian Language
- Oficina de Política Llingüística del Gobiernu del Principáu d'Asturies – Bureau of Asturian Linguistic Politics (Government of the Principality of Asturias)
- Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos – Royal Institute of Asturian Studies (RIDEA or IDEA), founded 1945.
- Asturian–English dictionary
- El Fueyu – Leonese Language Association, Llión
- El Toralín – Leonese Language Association, Ponferrada
- Cuentos del Sil – Leonese Language written Book
- Plataforma puntuLLI – Campaign for a TLD for the Leonese Language
- Entry on José Leite de Vasconcelos at the Folclore Português website
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