Fala (Jalama Valley)

Poster sign written in Spanish and skirt.

The fala (fala) is a Romance language of the Galician-Portuguese subgroup spoken in the municipalities of San Martín de Trevejo, Eljas and Valverde del Fresno, all of them in the Jálama Valley, northwest of the Spanish province of Cáceres, next to the Portuguese border and the provincial limit of Salamanca.

It is also named in various ways: fala de xálima, xalimés, xalimegu, mañegu, a fala d'acá, a nossa fala and chapurráu (in Valverde) or, by supporters of the theory of the relationship between fala and the Galician language, Galician from Extremadura or Galaic-Extremadura. Note that it borders on the surrounding Alto Extremadura, including the speech of El Rebollar in Salamanca, often considered Leonese.

In each town there are particular dialects (so etymologically the more generic denomination of as falas would be more correct), although they are sufficiently intelligible among themselves and with respect to Galician or Portuguese. These variants are usually called lagarteiru (Eljas), manhegu/mañegu (San Martín de Trevejo) and valverdeiru (Valverde del Fresno).

Counting all the inhabitants of the three towns, there are an estimated 6,000 speakers, although other sources raise the figure to 10,000, due to the natives who work outside the town but many of whom return to the valley in summer.

Hypotheses and philological news

One of the first written references to "A fala" It is found in the Madoz Dictionary (1844):

Madoz's dictionary includes two very interesting evaluations of this language. Thus, about the manego, in 1848, he writes:

Their hab. they use an intelligible dialect, formed of Castilian and Portuguese words, all adulterated.

The word Eljas in the same dictionary reads:

The habs (of Eljas) use a particular dialect, such as those of Valverde and San Martín, which consists of a mixture of Portuguese, ancient Spanish and expressions that they only understand

Federico de Onís visited the area in 1909 when he was looking for materials to complete his studies on the Leonese fueros. The results of his research were published in 1930 and regarding these talks he opined that:

San Martín, Eljas and Valverde offer the remarkable particularity of speaking a dialect fundamentally Portuguese [...] despite that very profound difference [between the Mañego and the East Lioness], there are common traits among the Portuguese-speaking peoples and those who speak Leonés

Certain common features with the Alto Extremadura spoken in surrounding areas do not go unnoticed due to its influence, such as the closing of the postonic vowels -e and -o in -i and -u respectively, except in interjections and vocatives (exception shared with the hablas altoextremeñas), the conversion of the final r into l, the neutralization of l and r syllable trabants (in decline, but clearly manifest and systematic in the ALPI surveys for Eljas/as Ellas in the 1930s) or the conversion of the medieval sonorous z into a d sound > interdental in the Lagarteira and Mañega variants, a trait that is preserved in these two towns with more vitality and systematicity than in the surrounding Serragatino Alto Extremaduran languages.

The opinion of linguists is varied: many of them postulate that fala is either a transition speech between Portuguese and Astur-Leonese or a Galician-Portuguese dialect with clear influences from Astur-Leonese. These two positions tend to be the most accepted (supported by the fact that most of the vocabulary is of Portuguese or Galician-Portuguese origin), but in any case there are varied positions:

• For Fritz Krüger (1925), the skirt would be Portuguese dialectal, opinion shared by Oskar Fink (1929) and José Leite de Vasconcelos. The latter author, announced Viudas Camarasa in 1982, "sugges that the first language spoken in that region was the Portuguese language, having been imposed on it the regional language (the Western Lion) for political reasons". Agudas are his observations on the sociolinguistic situation of the Sanmartiniego: "This obvio that you inhabitants das três povoações falam espanhol concomitantemente com o sanmartinhego, e o mesmo. This usam-no entre si; quando tratam com pessoas de gelidade, ou com forasteiros, servem

• Lindley CintraA linguagem dos Foros de Castelo Rodrigo,...1959 and then 1974) and Xosé Henrique Costas (Breve characterization das falas (fundamentally galegas) do Val do Rio das EllasCadernos da Lingua 6, 1992) say that this is an archaic Galician with lionisms.

• Alonso Zamora Vicente (1967) and Rafael Lapesa (1980) in their " Manual Respectives, perhaps following Federico de Onís and Leite de Vasconcelos, include mañega speaking in Portuguese" (Viudas Camarasa, 1982, p. 70).

• Clarinda de Azevedo en Os falares fronteiriços (1977) postulates that the skirt is either a discourse of transition between Portuguese and Asturleon, or a galaxy-Portuguese dialect with clear influences of Asturleon.

• Antonio Viudas Camarasa (1982) in "A Talk of Transition: the dialect of San Martín de Trevejo" Lletres, Asturianes, 4, pp. 54 and following postulates that "...is a dialect of transition that is characterized by having common traits with the Galician-Portuguese and with the ancient Astur-Leonés, and especially with the Western" and at the same time affirms that it has "a linguistic personality of its own" and bases its argument with the inventory and analysis of a) characteristic and individualizing traits, b) common traits with the Galician-Portuguese and c)

• José Luis Martín Galindo (1993), although a supporter of Portuguese or Galaic-Portuguese theory, has suggested that it might be a native speech of Celtic substrate, arguing for this reason that numerous words, as well as some of the main toponyms, are originating in that language (so, Eljas/Elhas would proceed Herliaswhile Jálama/Xálima of Salamati). In Extreme Universe 1 (2006), pp. 44, considers that it is "a variant of the archaic Portuguese of the area of the Riba-Côa [...], a falar fronteirizu [...]. [...] a way of speaking Portuguese in Extremadura, just as there are several ways of speaking Spanish [...]".

• José Enrique Gargallo Gil speaks of Galician-Portuguese border and arcais.

• Juan Manuel Carrasco González (1996) believes it would be the third variety of the galaico-Portuguese, whose common trunk would evolve Galician, Portuguese and skirt by taking different paths.

• In 1999, the first congress on the skirt, in which there was a disparity of criteria concerning the origin of this peculiar speech, since it is debated about its galaxy-Portuguese, astur-leoness or even Mozarabic roots.

In addition, there is another language known as fala in La Alamedilla (Salamanca), a town also on the border with Portugal, which apparently bears a great resemblance to the language of the Jálama Valley. According to some philologists, there would be a strong relationship between these two falas and the Portuguese language of Concelho do Sabugal.

Sociolinguistic surveys

Plate in lagarteiru, in the town of Eljas.

In 1992, a survey carried out by José Enrique Gargallo Gil (professor at the University of Barcelona) among schoolchildren offered the following data regarding the use of Spanish in family conversation:

• 4 out of 29 San Martín respondents use Spanish when talking to their family (13.8 %)
• in Eljas the figure drops to only 3 out of 54 respondents (5.6%)
• in Valverde, 25 out of 125 respondents employ Spanish in this context (20 %)

In September/December 1993, a survey was published in number 30 of the Revista Alcántara, carried out by José Luis Martín Galindo, which showed the following percentages of self-identification in San Martín de Trevejo:

• Spanish Dialecto13 %
• Dialecto del Portuguese20%
• Autonomous language: 67 %

It should be noted that only twenty people (out of 960 residents) participated in said survey, and there was no alternative to answering Galician or a variety of Galician. It is argued that the absence of this option was logical, since the theories about the possible relationship of the fala with Galician were hardly known.

In 1994, a new study reveals that 80% of those surveyed learned to speak Spanish at school, with the percentage of use of the fala in the family environment being as follows:

• 100 % of Eljas' parents claim to speak the indigenous language by talking to their children
• 85% in San Martín
• 73 % in Valverde

History

Origins

In the Middle Ages, mixed Portuguese-Leonese variants are found along the border between León and Portugal, represented in texts such as the Forum of Castelo Rodrigo (Fuero de Castel-Rodrigo, 13th century); and although there is no documentation related to the colonization and repopulation of this area in the 13th century, the hypothesis of Galician subjects sent to defend the borders under Muslim domination as a punishment imposed by the Leonese king, or to the delivery of territories to various military orders by Fernando II and Alfonso IX.

Generally, philologists in favor of the Galician theory base themselves on the conjecture that the valley was an isolated region and, therefore, the Galician colonizers maintained an almost "pure" his way of speaking in the absence of external influences (from Portugal). This thesis is usually refuted when contrasted with other historical data:

• It is considered that before the Galician-Leonian repopulation, this enclave was already inhabited by Portuguese, and even after the colonization a close relationship was maintained with the neighboring realm (commercial and matrimonial, fact that it is evident that many surnames have been chaplained just two centuries ago)
• From the 12th century to the 17th, both Portugal and Leon and Castile had ambition of the territory given the importance of its border character, which would change from monarch to so much, so that the locals swore fidelity to the Luso king or to the Spanish or Lion kings.
• On the other hand, it is contradictory that the orders given to the lands (Order of Alcántara and Order of Hospital of St John of Jerusalem), being rivals among themselves, repopulate the region with locals of the same origin.
• Another notable factor to deny the "insulation theory" is the considerable number of inhabitants, superior to other important cities of the region at the time: in the mid-16th century they had nearly 3000 inhabitants in front of Coria, with just 2400, being the most populous enclave in the entire Sierra de Gata.

Recent history

Señal bilingüe fala-español in San Martín de Trevejo

On August 3, 1992, the association Fala i Cultura was founded, among whose purposes is the elaboration of a common grammar (based on Galician), as well as the commemoration of u día da nosa fala ("day of our speech") celebrated once a year since 1992 in Eljas, 1993 in Valverde and 1994 in San Martín.

It would not be until six years later, in 1998, when the first literary work in a fala would be published, Seis sainetes valverdeiros, written by Isabel López Lajas, and published in 1998 by Positive Editions of Santiago de Compostela. It was on that date when the Cabinet for Cross-Border Initiatives began to seriously worry about the fala and to promote its study, publishing in 1999 a dozen scientific treatises; and celebrating in the month of May a Congress on "a fala".

Several more years would elapse until on June 14, 2000, the Ministry of Culture of the Junta de Extremadura recognized the language of the Jálama Valley as an Asset of Cultural Interest, in order to protect and preserve it; being, in 2001, declared by the Junta de Extremadura as an Asset of Cultural Interest.

Currently, although the inhabitants of the Jálama Valley can speak Spanish (this being the language of common use in schools and administrative environments), and they often presume to do so more "correctly" Unlike their neighbors from Cáceres or Salamanca, the vast majority are bilingual, since the local language continues to be used at home, as well as in various extracurricular activities.

However, such has been the rise and rise of the Spanish language in recent years (verified by the loss of numerous localisms, replaced by the Spanish version), that some philologists consider that this language could evolve to become a lucky Castilian-Extremaduran dialect full of abundant Galician and/or Portuguese terms.^{[citation required]}

In 2021, Miroslav Valeš, a Czech linguist, published the first A Fala dictionary containing more than 13,000 words.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Political controversy

Based on the study of some linguists who postulate that fala is a dialect of Galician, in recent years a controversy has arisen on the part of certain Galician sectors, this being mainly of a political nature. This position has received strong criticism from the Junta de Extremadura, which officially rejects the desire of some Galician institutions to implement linguistic measures regarding this Extremadura language.

The intention (and implementation) of the local councils has also been criticized for separating any possible relationship between the Portuguese language and the fala, replacing some words with the Galician spelling until their pronunciation is distorted original (e.g.: use the "x" to represent the "j" prepalatal voiced fricative (Ajuntamentu -Axuntamentu), as in Portuguese).^{[citation required]}

The Galician position is supported by some speakers of fala, such as Domingo Frades Gaspar, poet in fala and president of Fala i cultura (an entity that seeks the standardization of the fala using Galician regulations) and corresponding member of the Royal Galician Academy.

On the other hand, the defenders of the non-relationship of fala with the Galician language affirm that most of its characteristics can be understood as a conjunction of the aforementioned linguistic domains, without need to resort to Galician hypotheses.