Mirandés (Asturleone from Tierra de Miranda)

Mirandés is the gluttony used to refer to the traditional language spoken in Miranda de Duero (Portugal), belonging to the Astur-Leonese subgroup, which also includes traditional languages (Leonese and Asturian) from León, Zamora and Asturias in Spain.

Mirandese is officially recognized throughout the Portuguese province of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro by virtue of Law No. 7/99 of January 29, 1999 of the Portuguese Republic (" Official recognition of linguistic rights of the Mirandesa community"). It is spoken by around 15,000 people in the municipalities of Miranda de Duero and Vimioso, in the area of Trás-os-Montes, in the northeast of Portugal. International associations such as SIL International have given it its own code, and others such as Unesco frame it within the Leonese language.

Mirandés is spoken mainly in the council of Miranda do Duero, and in two villages in the council of Vimioso, Angueira, and Vilasseco, the inclusion of the village of Caçareilhos in the latter council being discussed.

Linguistic Landscape

The linguistic landscape of the Asturian-Leonese domain is expanded in Portugal by three dialects: Mirandés (including the Sendinés sub-dialect), Riodonorés and Guaramílés. All of them are spoken in the so-called Tierra de Miranda, a region of about 500 square kilometers, in localities no further than five kilometers from the border with Zamora and which were located within the historical territory of the Kingdom of León. These are the only languages that do not belong to the Galician-Portuguese area within the Republic, and therein also lies their reason for curiosity. In Portugal, the others are not even considered different dialects, using as reasoning the fact that "a peasant from the north of Portugal understands one from the south without difficulty". This idea is based on the models of Italy, Switzerland or France, although it is well known that an Italian from the north could not understand one from the south without using the standard language and for this reason in Portugal they are not considered true dialects, rather diatopic varieties. Leite de Vasconcelos, one of the most distinguished Portuguese linguists, as well as an archaeologist and ethnographer, discovered this language in 1882 and made it known to the public in his essay O dialecto mirandês, with which he won the award of the Society of Romance Languages of Montpellier. Vasconcelos described the language as "the language of the field, work, home and love among the Mirandeses" and recognized that Portuguese was not the only language spoken in his country, but that there was also another language (co-dialect he called it at the time) that belonged to Spanish rule due to its proximity to Leon. Studies on this language were later expanded with the work of the eminent Spanish linguist Menéndez Pidal when he published his work El dialecto leonés (1906) and developed a linguistic map of the entire Iberian Peninsula.

Evolution

The reasons why a dialect of the Asturian-Leonese group is spoken in Portugal ceased to be a mystery long ago. In 297 AD C. the administrative division of the Peninsula ended definitively after the period of Roman expansion. Tierra de Miranda was linked to the Conventus Iuridicus of Asturica Augusta, and not to that of Bracara Augusta, like the rest of Trás-os-Montes. In this way, the area of Miranda did not belong from the beginning to the later Portucalense County, and therefore it was located within the Asturian-Leonese area, instead of the Galician-Portuguese one. The Christianization of this area was carried out by missionaries from present-day Astorga.

Between the VII-VIII and XII centuries, the current council of Miranda do Douro belonged to the diocese of Astorga, and not to that of Braga, and as explained by the Inquisitions of Alfonso III^{[citation required]}, Tierra de Miranda was repopulated between the 12th and 14th centuries by people from Leon. The repopulation was carried out by the Cistercian monastery of Santa María de Moreruela, the monastery of San Martín de Castañeda, the monastery of Castro de Avellas and by the Order of the Temple of Alcañices. This privileged relationship with León lasted at least until the s. XIV and the language of the Conventus de Asturica Augusta, western Leonese, was effectively implanted and later developed in Portuguese territory.

The reasons that have led to the conservation of this border language, despite the fact that on the other side of the border the Leonese language has practically disappeared, in the district of Braganza it is maintained with astonishing vitality due to the distance that separates this area of the main urban centers of the Portuguese coast. In the province of Zamora, contact with Spanish caused the recession to begin at the end of the XIX century. The "tyranny" of the officialdom had different consequences, in addition to taking into account the most relevant geopolitical aspects. The point is that despite the fact that the León language disappeared in Spain, it continued to be alive in Portugal. Some linguists have tried to attribute the conservation of Mirandés to the dynamism of Spanish compared to Portuguese, a theory that is widely rejected today. Rafael Lapesa maintained this theory in his work Historia de la lengua española and considered that the stagnation of Leonese and Aragonese was mainly due to this supposed dynamism and to the fact that all the neighboring dialects "were in doubt for a long time". The current consideration of the speakers of Mirandés in front of their language, especially in the smaller villages, is that their way of speaking differs from Portuguese, and that they have a "falar mal, charro". Already in the 17th century there was evidence of the divergence between the border languages of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Miño. Mr. Jerónimo Contador de Argote commented in his book Regras da língua portuguesa that "there are some local dialects (...) that are very barbaric and can hardly be called Portuguese...". Despite not being a definition with too linguistic criteria, it may be that it is an allusion to Mirandés. This scholar's view of the language he describes is similarly simplified by the term "rustic falar."

Phonetic aspects

Tonic vocalism

The tonic vowel system of Mirandés, as in the rest of the Castilian and Asturian languages, is based on the existence of five vowels differentiated by three opening degrees and two anterior and posterior locations, but unlike those, it recognizes by exception the existence of a fourth degree of opening due to interference from velar or palatal sounds.

Thus, in the case of diphthongs, the effect of the yod or the wau, depending on the case, will determine the regression or ascent of the adjacent vowel through the appreciation of a fourth degree of opening. In the case of the rising diphthong -jɛ, the interference of the palatal sounds will determine the regression also in a degree e > ɛ (fièrro ([fjɛro], pièdra [pjɛdra], tièrra [tjɛrra], etc). If it is also affected by velar vocalism, equalization will occur (thus bui 'buey', leather &# 39;leather', nuite 'night'). ], source [fwɔte], bridge [pwɔte].

This effect is also observed in the case of interference of palatal consonant sounds, in which the original solution of the romance present in the dialects of Northern Portugal and Galician is maintained, see:

The solution reached differs from that reached in the rest of the Asturian domain in which the influence of palatal consonantism will transform the closed Latin vowel Ō into the diphthong -ue. In these cases, therefore, the same evolution is followed as for the open vowel Ŏ, (a solution that, as is known, separates it from the solution reached in Spanish in which the general rule is followed and the diphthong is excluded). In Galician and throughout the north of Portugal the same material result is maintained as in Mirandés, but its etymological evolution is rather similar to that achieved in the Astur-Leonés group to the extent that the result for the Latin vowel Ŏ will be the same as for the Ō sounds affected by a palatal phoneme.

Leite de Vasconcelos extends this phenomenon to the interference of nasal codas, picking up cònta, fònte, pònte... in front of the exposed cuònta. fuonta, fuonta Such solutions are unknown in modern Mirandés except in the localities most exposed to the influence of the neighboring Portuguese dialects, and what is unquestionable is that the ALPI questionnaire includes in all cases the diphthong -wɔ- in this context.

According to what was previously indicated, Vasconcelos means the evolution of the Latin vowels in modern Mirandés, pointing out the solutions reached in the Galician-Portuguese, Astur-Leonese and Spanish languages:

Professor Aurelia Merlán estimates that these four degrees of opening would not be allophones of the vowel system, but a stable vowel system of seven sounds that would, however, present a very different character not only with respect to Portuguese but also from the rest of the peninsular languages. Such a statement, which in principle lacks any phonetic explanation, would be an unusual event within the context of western Romania, and certainly does not conform to the solutions that the Alpi questionnaire gives for the area, nor to the vowel system described by Vasconcelos..

Unstressed vocalism

Mirandés presents, like most peninsular languages, an unstressed vocalism of five units, which are reduced to three in initial and final position. In these languages, as well as in Astur-Leonese and Castilian Spanish, there is a marked tendency to close these sounds, although the solutions reached in Mirandés differ surprisingly from the neighboring dialects. Thus, compared to the system of marked distancing of Portuguese and Western Asturian i-a-u, Mirandese adopts a more relaxed position e-a-o similar to Galician and in a certain sense to Castilian. According to the professor at Aurelia Merlán, in Mirandés, this tendency manifests itself in both pretonic and postonic positions, regardless of the character of the stressed vowel: a unstressed is pronounced as [å], e unstressed as [´] and o unstressed as [u ]: love [å»mar], stop [på»rar], faca [»fakå], bertude [b´r»tud-´], mill [mu»linu]. In Galician, it is the vowels /i/, /u/ and the diphthong /ej/ in tonic position that can produce the closure of the pretonic vowel: espido [es»pid-o] becomes pronounced as [is»pid-o ], food [ko»mid-a] as [ku»mid-a], peteiro [pe»tejro] as [pi»tejro], costume [kos»tume] as [kus'tume] etc. Also in Asturian, the closure of non-final unstressed is conditioned by the character of the stressed vowel, which must be /i/ or /u/.

Consonant system

The Mirandés presents the following typical characteristics of the Astur-Leonese group, such as:

• The conservation of the Latin initial f: FAMEN
• The palatalization of the Latin initial: LUNA verbalhuna, LUPUM verbalhobu, LINGUA
• Maintenance of the nasal and lateral consonants in intervocálica position, unlike the Portuguese: LUA verbalhuna, MAU
• Palatization of double consonants ll/nn/mn: CASTELO rigidcastiêlho, ANO censoanho, DANO rigiddanho

The morphological continuity with respect to Northern Portuguese is presented in the following characteristics:

• Africada sorda ch from cl-, pl- e fl- latinos: chabe, chuba, chama...
• Consonante palatal sonora proveniente de ly e c’l latinos: abeilha, mulhier...
• Deaf and sound palatals: written x e j, ge, gi:xara, hoije, gilada...

A characteristic feature of Mirandés is the number and extension of the sibilants that faithfully preserve the medieval consonantism that has currently been greatly simplified in the rest of the Ibero-Romance languages:

The phonemes /ṣ/ and /ẓ/ described show apico-alveolar sibilants (as in Catalan or Northern Castilian), while the phoneme /s/y /z/, lamino-alveolar is similar to the corresponding sounds in Portuguese. Written Portuguese maintains the distinction of these seven sounds, resulting in this being similar to Mirandés, but its pronunciation, except on the border margins of Northern Portugal with Galicia, has been reduced to four /s z ʃ ʒ/. Such a scheme is reduced in the Asturian languages to /tʃ θ ṣ ʃ/ and in Spanish to /tʃ θ ṣ x/. In the dialects of some parts of southern Spain and the language used in Latin America this scheme has been reduced to three: /tʃ s x /.

Common characteristics with the rest of the Asturian linguistic varieties

Bilingual plaque in Mirandés and Portuguese in Picote, Portugal

The Astur-Leonese languages of Portugal belong to the western Astur-Leonese linguistic variety, which shares some isoglosses with Galician-Portuguese. Some of them are the conservation of the initial Latin /f/, the palatalization of the initial Latin clusters of Ĕ and Ŏ from the Latin clusters PL-, FL- and CL-. With Spanish it shares the diphthongization in tonic position, the maintenance of the intervocalic /l/ and /n/ and the palatalization in /λ/ and of the intervocalic /ll/ and /nn/. In the initial position it is preserved, and it is a characteristic unique to Astur-Leonese. Depending on the dialect, these properties are preserved to a greater or lesser extent, but they are common characteristics of Astur-Leonese in Portugal. There is also a more common characteristic of other areas of the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula: the existence of the diminutive -ico, which is not typical of any of the linguistic groups to which Mirandés is exposed, except in other areas, of his same Asturian linguistic domain, from the south of León and from Zamora, which also share this characteristic.

Influence of Portuguese and its regional varieties

Despite falling within the Astur-Leonese linguistic domain, Mirandés and the other variants are strongly influenced by Standard Portuguese and the Trasmontano regional dialects. The dialectological map of Portugal published by Vasconcelos in 1901 subdivided the Transmontano dialect into three: the border subdialect (the language of Maceda and Mogadouro), the Altodurian subdialect (between Corgo and Tua) and the western one, which have exerted influence over Mirandese language. The official nature of Portuguese already assumed, at the time Vasconcelos completed his studies, that this was the language with which to address foreigners in Miranda. Daily life was expressed in Mirandés, however there were curious facts resulting from officialdom, such as the Mirandéses using Portuguese for their prayers and prayers, and not their own language as one would expect for religious matters. It shares a large part of the lexicon derived from progress and industrialization. Common words with current Portuguese: autocar, municipal chamber, computer, bilhataria, flake...

The following is a comparison made by ALPI (Linguistic Atlas of the Iberian Peninsula) at various border points between Spain and Portugal taken around the 1930s:

Official recognition

Official recognition of this language came to the Portuguese Parliament on November 19, 1998 when a decree-law was promulgated (Law no. 7/99, of January 29, 1999 of the Portuguese Republic. " Official recognition of linguistic rights of the Mirandesa community") that recognizes the right of the Mirandeses to use their secular language. After this act, the Mirandesa Orthographic Convention took place, proposing alternatives and solutions for the challenges that this language faces today: reduction of orthographic variation, continuity of the graphic tradition, the problem of neologisms, clarity, simplicity and flexibility. In 1999 the municipality of Miranda do Douro and the University of Lisbon developed an orthographic standard based on that of Portuguese. Its normalization and promotion are in charge of the Mirandesan Language Institute, created on January 1, 2003.

Vitality

Plaque in mirandés at the foot of the old cathedral of Miranda explaining its history.

Mirandese is spoken by about 15,000 people (if second language speakers are included) and about 5,000 if only first language speakers are taken into account. It is spoken in the entire municipality of Miranda do Douro except for two villages and in another three in the municipality of Vimioso. Mirandés has been taught in schools since the 1986/87 academic year. The teaching of the language is carried out in all the schools of the villages and towns of the municipality of Miranda, as well as in the faculty maintained by the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro in Miranda do Douro. In the freguesia of Picote (also in the land of Miranda) an exceptional case occurs within the Republic, due to the fact that it is considered an essentially monolingual site and has been the subject of studies and press articles such as object of curiosity In addition to that, it is framed within the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages for its protection, which Portugal ratified before the EU in 2001. Likewise, some international works have been translated into Mirandés, in particular a book on the Adventures of Asterix, In addition to the existence of toponymic signs in the area since 2006 that are bilingual. The Municipal Chamber of Miranda in turn promotes an annual song festival and a literary contest that are very popular in the area. Mirandés, or Braganza Leonese (as some linguists prefer to call it) also exerts its influence on the speech of other neighboring municipalities such as Vimioso, Braganza, Mogadouro and Macedo de Cavaleiros. In addition, radio Mirandum FM (on 100.1 in the region) carried out broadcasts in this language.

Example

Text in mirandés

L mirandés ye ua lhéngua skirtada ne l stremo nordeste de Pertual, na frunteira cun Spanha, nua region que ten al redor de 450 region (quatro hundreds i cinquenta) km2, formed by quaije to l cunceilho de Miranda de l Douro, i por alguas aldés de l cunceilho de Bomioso, ne l I know it was about 15,000.

In Leon

The mirandés is a llengua skirt nel estremu northeast of Pertual, na llinde with Hespaña, nuna rexón that tien alredor of 450 (four hundred fifty) km2, formed by quasi tol Conceyu Miranda'l Douru and by llugares nu Conceyu Vimiosu, nel distritu Bragancia, rexón de Tres Albidrase qu'hai sobru 15 000 skirts.

In Asturian

The mirandés is a llingua skirt na fastera nordeste of Portugal, na llende with Spain, nuna rexón that tien al rodiu de 450 km2, formed by quaasi tol conceyu de Miranda'l Douru, already by the villages of the conceyu de Vimosu, nel distritu de Bragança, rexón de Tres-os-Montes. Albédriase qu'hai about 15,000 skirts.

In cantabrian

The mirandés is a parlada nel estremu nordesti of Portugal, ina strip with Spain, nuna region that tién alredor of 450 km2, formed by quasi tol conceju of Miranda'l Douru, and by the villages of the conceju of Vimosu, nel distritu de Bragança, region of Tres-os-Montes. Estimate qu'hai about 15,000 parlantis.

In Spanish

The mirandés is a spoken language at the northeastern end of Portugal, on the border with Spain, in a region that has about 450 km2, formed by almost the entire municipality of Miranda de Duero, and by some villages of the council of Bomioso, in the Braganza district, Tras-os-montes region. It is estimated that there are around 15,000 speakers.

In Catalan

The mirandès és una llengua parlada a l'extrem nord-est de Portugal, a border Espanya, in a regió que té al voltant de 450 km2, formada per gairebé tot el consell de Miranda do Do Do Do Do Douro, i per some pobles del consell de Bomioso, al districte de Braganza, regió de Tras-os-montes. S'avalua que hi ha al voltant dels 15 000 parlants.

In Galician

Or mirandés é unha lingua skirtada no estremo nordés de Portugal, na fronteira con España, nunha rexión que ten ten tenrdor de 450 km2, formada por case todo o concello de Miranda do Do Do Do Douro, e por somehas hamlets do concello de Boimoso, no district of Braganza, rexión de Trás-os-montes. Sense that I've got 15,000 skirts.

In xalimegu

Or mirandés e unha lengua falá no estremu nordesti de Purtugal, na fronteira com Espanha, nunha regiom que tem repol de 450 km2, formá por caisxi tó concelhu de Miranda do Do Do Do Do Douro, i por algumhas villages do concelhu de Boimosu, no distritu de Braganza, regiom de Trás-os-montes. You know, you know, it's about 25,000 fakes.

In Portuguese

O mirandês é uma língua skirtada no extrema nordeste de Portugal, na fronteira com Espanha, numa região que tem ao redor de 450 km2, formada por quase todo o concelho de Miranda do Do Do Do Do Douro, e por algumas aldeias do concelho de Vimioso, no district of Bragança, região de Trás-os-Montes. It's very good to have about 15,000 skirts.

In conceit

The mirandes is a luenga palrá nel estremu nordesti of Portugal, nel arrayu with Spain, in a rehion that tenderni alreol of 450 km2, hormá pol quaasi to the concehu of Miranda del Dueru, i pol some villages of the concehu of Vimiusu, nel distritu de Bragança, rehion de Tras-os-Montes. S’estimate ai alreol of 15 000 palrantis.