Astur-Leonese language

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Astur-Leonese Asturllionés, asturianu, llionés
Spoken in:	Spain (the autonomous communities of Asturias, Extremadura, Castile-León and Cantabria).
Total speakers:	100,000 (450,000 total)
Language family:	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Gallo-Iberian Ibero-Romance West Iberian Astur-Leonese
Writing system:	Latin alphabet
Official status
Official language of:	none
Regulated by:	Academy of the Asturian Language
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`ast`
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	`ast`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Astur-Leonese is a Romance language of the West Iberian group, spoken in the Spanish provinces of Asturias (where it is called Asturian, asturianu, or Bable), León, Zamora and Salamanca (where it is called Leonese, llionés). In Extremadura (where it is called Extremaduran, extremeñu) and Cantabria (where it is called Cantabrian, montañés) it is disputed whether this speech is a dialect of the Spanish Language or a variety of Astur-Leonese.

The language was once considered an informal dialect (basilect) of Spanish, but, in 1906, Ramón Menéndez Pidal showed it was the result of latin evolution in the Kingdom of Leon^[1], and nowadays it is considered a separate language^[2]. In Asturias it is protected under the Autonomous Statute legislation, and is an optional language at schools. In Portugal, the related Mirandese language is officially recognized.

1 Language history
2 Status
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Language 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] Status

Much effort has been made since 1974 to protect and promote Asturian^[3]. In 1994 there were 100,000 first language speakers, and 450,000 second language speakers able to speak or understand Asturian^[4]. However, the situation of Asturian is critical, with a large decline in the number of speakers in the last 100 years.

The situation of Asturian or Leonese as minorized languages has driven Asturian and Leonese to an apparent dead end^[5]. Some reports claim that Asturian 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, mainly among intellectual groups and politically active Asturians and Leonese proud of their regional identity.

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 both in Asturias and in León have also championed the language. These developments give the Asturian / Leonese language a greater hope of survival.

Portugal has taken a further step in protecting Mirandese, which is closely related to Astur-Leonese, by recognizing it as a language.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Menéndez Pidal 1906:128-141
^ Etnologue report for Spain, Euromosaic report, Lexikon der romanitischen Linguistik 6.I:652-708
^ Bauske 1995
^ Llera Ramo 1994
^ Wurm 2001:54-55

(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.