Asturian is the historical language of Asturias, portions of the Spanish provinces ofLeón andZamora and the area surroundingMiranda do Douro in northeastern Portugal.[11] Like the other Romance languages of the Iberian peninsula, it evolved fromVulgar Latin during theearly Middle Ages. Asturian was closely linked with theKingdom of Asturias (718–910) and the ensuing Leonese kingdom. The language had contributions from pre-Roman languages spoken by theAstures, an IberianCeltic tribe, and the post-RomanGermanic languages of theVisigoths andSuebians.
The transition from Latin to Asturian was slow and gradual; for a long time they co-existed in adiglossic relationship, first in the Kingdom of Asturias and later in that of Asturias and Leon. During the 12th, 13th and part of the 14th centuries Astur-Leonese was used in the kingdom's official documents, with many examples of agreements, donations, wills and commercial contracts from that period onwards. Although there are no extant literary works written in Asturian from this period, some books (such as theLlibru d'Alexandre and the 1155Fueru d'Avilés)[12][13] had Asturian sources.
Castilian Spanish arrived in the area during the 14th century, when the central administration sent emissaries and functionaries to political and ecclesiastical offices. Asturian codification of the Astur-Leonese spoken in the Asturian Autonomous Community became a modern language with the founding of the Academy of the Asturian Language (Academia Asturiana de la Llingua) in 1980. TheLeonese dialects andMirandese are linguistically close to Asturian.
Efforts have been made since the end of theFrancoist period in 1975 to protect and promote Asturian.[14] In 1994 there were 100,000 native speakers and 450,000[15][better source needed] second-language speakers able to speak (or understand) Asturian.[16] However, the language is endangered: there has been a steep decline in the number of speakers over the last century. Law 1/93 of 23 March 1993 on the Use and Promotion of the Asturian Language addressed the issue, and according to article four of the Asturias Statute of Autonomy:[4] "The Asturian language will enjoy protection. Its use, teaching and diffusion in the media will be furthered, whilst its local dialects and voluntary apprenticeship will always be respected."
However, Asturian is in a legally hazy position. TheSpanish Constitution has not been fully applied regarding the official recognition of languages in the autonomous communities. The ambiguity of the Statute of Autonomy, which recognises the existence of Asturian but does not give it the same status as Spanish, leaves the door open to benign neglect. However, since 1 August 2001 Asturian has been covered under theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages' "safeguard and promote" clause.[3]
A 1983 survey[17] indicated 100,000 native Asturian speakers (12 percent of the Asturian population) and 250,000 who could speak or understand Asturian as a second language. A similar survey in 1991 found that 44 percent of the population (about 450,000 people) could speak Asturian, with from 60,000 to 80,000 able to read and write it. An additional 24 percent of the Asturian population said that they understood the language, making a total of about 68 percent of the Asturian population.[18]
At the end of the 20th century the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (Academy of the Asturian Language) attempted to provide the language with tools needed to promote its survival: agrammar, adictionary andperiodicals. In addition a new generation of Asturian writers has championed the language. In 2021 the first complete translation of the Bible into Asturian was published.[19]
Although some 10th-century documents have the linguistic features of Asturian, numerous examples (such as writings bynotaries,contracts andwills) begin in the 13th century.[20][21] Early examples are the 1085Fuero de Avilés (the oldest parchment preserved in Asturias)[22] and the 13th-centuryFuero de Oviedo and theLeonese version of theFueru Xulgu.
The 13th-century documents were the laws for towns, cities and the general population.[21] By the second half of the 16th century, documents were written in Castilian (i.e.Spanish), backed by theTrastámara dynasty and making the civil and ecclesiastical arms of the principality Castilian. Although the Asturian language disappeared from written texts during thesieglos escuros (dark centuries), it survived orally. The only written mention during this time is from a 1555 work byHernán Núñez about proverbs andadages: "...in a large copy of rare languages, as Portuguese, Galician, Asturian, Catalan, Valencian, French, Tuscan..."[23]
The first Asturian dictionary (Diccionario de algunas voces del dialecto asturiano) was written in 1788 by Carlos González de Posada.[25][26]
Although the complete Bible was not translated until 2021, the Gospel of Matthew was translated to Asturian inLondon in 1861 by priest Manuel Fernández de Castro y Menéndez Hevia (who also translated papal bulls to Asturian) and published byLouis Lucien Bonaparte (who had also published aGalician translation of the Gospel).[27]
First page ofLlos Trabayos de Chinticu (1843) in Junquera's peculiar orthographyComic strip in Asturian published in issue 2922 ofLa Prensa: diario independiente in 1930 by Aurelio IbasetaFront page of issue 43 ofIxuxú (7 September 1902)
The first book in Asturian printed and published wasLlos Trabayos de Chinticu byJuan Junquera Huergo, published in Gijón in 1843 composed of 372 satirical verses.[28][29] Junquera Huergo, former mayor of Gijón, also wrote the first Asturian grammar in 1869, using a writing standard invented by himself, but was left unpublished due to lack of funds after Junquera's death,[30] and two dictionaries, aDiccionario del dialecto asturiano in 1867 and a Spanish-Asturian dictionary that was left uncompleted (only up to the letter "E").[26][31] In 1880 another very small dictionary would be written (Pequeño vocabulario de voces en bable), the writer is unknown,[26] but it's attributed to José Fernández-Quevedo y González-Llanos alias "Pepín Quevedo".[32]
The first newspaper written completely in Asturian language,Ixuxú, was created by poetFrancisco González Prieto in 1901 inGijón. It was a conservativeultracatholic weekly newspaper.[35] He also created another newspaper in Asturian,L'Astur in 1904.[36]
In 1974, a movement for the language's acceptance and use began in Asturias. Based on ideas of the Asturian associationConceyu Bable about Asturian language and culture, a plan was developed for the acceptance and modernization of the language that led to the 1980 creation of the Academy of the Asturian Language with the approval of the Asturias regional council.El Surdimientu (the Awakening) authors such asManuel Asur(Cancios y poemes pa un riscar),Xuan Bello(El llibru vieyu),Adolfo Camilo Díaz(Añada pa un güeyu muertu),Pablo Antón Marín Estrada(Les hores),Xandru Fernández(Les ruines),Lourdes Álvarez,Martín López-Vega,Miguel Rojo andLluis Antón González broke from the Asturian-Leonese tradition of rural themes, moral messages and dialogue-style writing. Currently, the Asturian language has about 150 annual publications.[37] The Bible into the Asturian language was completed in 2021 after over 30 years of translation work, beginning in September 1988.[19]
Conceyos (municipalities) whose traditional place names have been codified
Conceyos which have applied for approval
Conceyos which have not applied
Traditional, popular place names of the principality's towns are supported by the law on usage of Asturian, the principality's 2003–07 plan for establishing the language[38] and the work of theXunta Asesora de Toponimia,[39] which researches and confirms the Asturian names of requesting villages, towns,conceyos and cities (50 of 78conceyos as of 2012).
Asturian dialects: western, central and easternCurrent extent of the dialects of the Asturleonese variants, including Asturian
Asturian has several dialects. They are regulated by the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana and mainly spoken in Asturias (except in the west, whereGalician-Asturian is spoken). The dialect spoken in the adjoining area ofCastile and León is known asLeonese. Asturian is traditionally divided into three dialectal areas, sharing traits with the dialect spoken in León:[20] western, central and eastern. The dialects are mutually intelligible. Central Asturian, with the most speakers (more than 80 percent), is the basis for standard Asturian. The first Asturian grammar was published in 1998 and the first dictionary in 2000.
Western Asturian is spoken between the riversNavia andNalón, in the west of the province of León (where it is known as Leonese) and in the provinces of Zamora andSalamanca. Feminine plurals end in-asand thefalling diphthongs/ei/ and/ou/ are maintained.
Central Asturian is spoken between theSella River and the mouth of the River Nalón in Asturias and north of León. The model for the written language, it is characterized by feminine plurals ending in-es, themonophthongization of/ou/ and/ei/ into/o/ and/e/ and theneuter gender[40] in adjectives modifying uncountable nouns (lleche frío,carne tienro).
East Asturian is spoken between the River Sella,Llanes andCabrales. The dialect is characterized by thedebuccalization of word-initial/f/ to[h], written⟨ḥ⟩ (ḥoguera,ḥacer,ḥigos andḥornu instead offoguera,facer,figos andfornu; feminine plurals ending in-as (ḥabas,ḥormigas,ḥiyas, except in eastern towns, where-es is kept:ḥabes,ḥormigues,ḥiyes); the shifting of word-final-e to-i (xenti,tardi,ḥuenti); retention of the neuter gender[40] in some areas, with the ending-u instead of-o (agua friu,xenti güenu,ropa tendíu,carne guisáu), and a distinction between direct and indirect objects in first- and second-person singular pronouns (directme andte v. indirectmi andti) in some municipalities bordering the Sella:busquéte (a ti) y alcontréte/busquéti les llaves y alcontrétiles,llévame (a mi) la fesoria en carru.
Asturian forms adialect continuum withCantabrian in the east andEonavian in the west. While this dialect continuum is for the most part smooth, a number of isoglosses cluster together parallel to the River Purón, linking the dialects of easternLlanes,Ribadedeva,Peñamellera Alta, andPeñamellera Baja with those of Cantabria and separating them from the rest of Asturias.[41] Cantabrian was listed in the 2009UNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger.[42] The inclusion of Eonavian (spoken in western Asturias, bordering Galicia) in theGalician language is controversial, since it has traits in common with western Asturian.
Asturian distinguishes five vowel phonemes (these same ones are found inSpanish,Aragonese,Sardinian andBasque), according to three degrees of vowel openness (close, mid and open) and backness (front, central and back). Many Asturian dialects have a system ofmetaphony.
When occurring as unstressed, close vowels/iu/ can become glides[jw] in the pre-nuclear position. In the post-nuclear syllable margin, they are traditionally transcribed as non-syllabic vowels[i̯u̯].[43]
The phenomenon of-umetaphony is uncommon, as are the falling diphthongs/ei,ou/, usually in the west.
Asturian has always been written in theLatin alphabet. Although the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana published orthographic rules in 1981,[44] different spelling rules are used inTerra de Miranda (Portugal).
Although they can be written,ḷḷ (che vaqueira, formerly written "ts") and the easternḥ aspiration (also written "h." and cooccurring withll andf) are absent from this model. Asturian has triple gender distinction in theadjective, feminine plurals with-es, verb endings with-es, -en, -íes, íen and lackscompound tenses[44] (orperiphrasis constructed with "tener").
Asturian dictionary, published by the Academy of the Asturian Language
Asturian grammar is similar to that of other Romance languages. Nouns have threegenders (masculine, feminine and neuter), twonumbers (singular and plural) and nocases. Adjectives may have a third, neuter gender, a phenomenon known as matter-neutrality.[45] Verbs agree with their subjects inperson (first, second, or third) and number, and are conjugated to indicatemood (indicative, subjunctive, conditional or imperative; some others include "potential" in place of future and conditional),[45]tense (often present or past; different moods allow different tenses), andaspect (perfective or imperfective).[45]
Asturian is the only western Romance language with three genders:masculine,feminine andneuter.
Masculine nouns usually end in-u, sometimes in-e or a consonant:el tiempu (time, weather),l’home (man),el pantalón (trousers),el xeitu (way, mode).
Feminine nouns usually end in-a, sometimes-e:la casa (house),la xente (people),la nueche (night).
Neuter nouns may have any ending. Asturian has three types of neuters:
Masculine neuters have a masculine form and take a masculine article:el fierro vieyo (old iron).
Feminine neuters have a feminine form and take a feminine article:la lleche frío (cold milk).
Pure neuters arenominal groups with an adjective and neuter pronoun:lo guapo d’esti asuntu ye... (the interesting [thing] about this issue is...).
Adjectives are modified by gender. Most adjectives have three endings:-u (masculine),-a (feminine) and-o (neuter):El vasu ta fríu (the glass is cold),tengo la mano fría (my hand is cold),l’agua ta frío (the water is cold)
Neuter nouns are abstract, collective and uncountable nouns. They have no plural, except when they are used metaphorically orconcretised and lose this gender:les agües tán fríes (Waters are cold).Tien el pelo roxo (He has red hair) is neuter, butTien un pelu roxu (He hasa red hair) is masculine; note the noun's change in ending.
TheAcademy of the Asturian Language has published a grammar describing the Asturian language.[45] It is a comprehensive manual that can be used in schools to facilitate learning.
Additionally, a translator that can translate English, French, Portuguese and Italian, among a few other languages, into Asturian and vice versa is offered online.[46] This software is funded and maintained by members of the University of Oviedo.[46]
As with other Romance languages, most Asturian words come fromLatin:ablana, agua, falar, güeyu, home, llibru, muyer, pesllar, pexe, prau, suañar. In addition to this Latin basis are words which entered Asturian from languages spoken before the arrival of Latin (itssubstratum), afterwards (its superstratum) andloanwords from other languages.
Although little is known about the language of the ancientAstures, it may have been related to twoIndo-European languages:Celtic andLusitanian. Words from this language and the pre–Indo-European languages spoken in the region are known as the prelatinian substratum; examples includebedul, boroña, brincar, bruxa, cándanu, cantu, carrascu, comba, cuetu, güelga, llamuerga, llastra, llócara, matu, peñera, riega, tapín andzucar. Many Celtic words (such asbragues, camisa, carru, cerveza andsayu) were integrated into Latin and, later, into Asturian.
Asturian's superstratum consists primarily ofGermanisms and Arabisms. The Germanic peoples in the Iberian Peninsula, especially theVisigoths and theSuevi, added words such asblancu, esquila, estaca, mofu, serón, espetar, gadañu andtosquilar. Arabisms could reach Asturian directly, through contacts with Arabs oral-Andalus, or through the Castilian language. Examples includeacebache, alfaya, altafarra, bañal, ferre, galbana, mandil, safase, xabalín, zuna andzucre.
Asturian has also received much of its lexicon from other languages, such asSpanish,French,Occitan andGalician. In number of loanwords, Spanish leads the list. However, due to the close relationship between Castilian and Asturian, it is often unclear if a word is borrowed from Castilian, common to both languages from Latin, or a loanword from Asturian to Castilian. Some Castilian forms in Asturian are:
Pá nuesu que tas nel cielu,santificáu seya'l to nome.Amiye'l to reinu,fágase la to voluntá,lo mesmo na tierra que'n cielu.El nuesu pan cotidianu dánoslu güeiya perdónanos les nueses ofenses,lo mesmo que nós facemos colos que nos faltaron.Nun nos dexes cayer na tentación,ya llíbranos del mal.Amén.
Noso Pai que estás no ceo:santificado sexa o teu nome,veña a nós o teu reinoe fágase a túa vontadeaquí na terra coma no ceo.O noso pan cotián dánolo hoxe;e perdóanos as nosas ofensascomo tamén perdoamos nós a quen nos ten ofendido;e non nos deixes caer na tentación,mais líbranos do mal.Amén.
Pater noster, qui es in caelis,Sanctificetur nomen tuum.Adveniat regnum tuum.Fiat voluntas tua,Sicut in caelo et in terra.Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie.Et dimitte nobis debita nostra,Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.Et ne nos inducas in tentationem:Sed libera nos a malo.Amen
Although Spanish is the official language of all schools in Asturias, in many schools children are allowed to take Asturian-language classes from age 6 to 16. Elective classes are also offered from 16 to 19. Central Asturias (Nalón andCaudalcomarcas) has the largest percentage of Asturian-language students, with almost 80 percent of primary-school students and 30 percent of secondary-school students in Asturian classes.[50]Xixón,Uviéu,Eo-Navia andOriente also have an increased number of students.
Development of Asturian-language education[51][52]
According to article six of theUniversity of Oviedo charter, "The Asturian language will be the object of study, teaching and research in the corresponding fields. Likewise, its use will have the treatment established by the Statute of Autonomy and complementary legislation, guaranteeing non-discrimination of those who use it."[53]
Asturian can be used at the university in accordance with the Use of Asturian Act. University records indicate an increased number of courses and amount of scientific work using Asturian, with courses in the Department of Philology and Educational Sciences.[54] In accordance with theBologna Process, Asturianphilology will be available for study and teachers will be able to specialise in the Asturian language at the University of Oviedo.
^González-Quevedo, Roberto (2001). "The Asturian Speech Community". In Turell, Maria Teresa (ed.).Multilingualism in Spain: Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Aspects of Linguistic Minority Groups. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. pp. 165–182.doi:10.21832/9781853597107-009.ISBN1-85359-491-1.
^ab"Asturian in Asturias in Spain".Database for the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Public Foundation for European Comparative Minority Research. Archived fromthe original on 26 April 2013. Retrieved19 June 2013.
^Álvarez, Román Antonio (26 December 2009)."El Fuero de Avilés, recuperado" [The Fuero of Avilés, recovered].El Comercio (in Spanish). Retrieved16 March 2021.
^Llera-Ramo, F. (1994).Los asturianos y la lengua asturiana: Estudio sociolingüístico para Asturias [Asturians and the Asturian language: Sociolinguistic study for Asturias] (in Spanish). Uviéu: Conseyería d’Educación and Cultura del Principáu d’Asturies.
^abInstitut de Sociolingüística Catalana (29 May 1998)."Asturian in Spain". uoc.edu. Archived fromthe original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved19 March 2018.
^Madroñal, Abraham (2002)."LosRefranes oProverbios en Romance (1555), de Hernán Núñez, Pinciano".Revista de Literatura.64 (127): 16.doi:10.3989/revliteratura.2002.v64.i127.188. This document has got a unique reference, supposedly in Asturian: "Quien passa por Ruycande y no bebe, o muere de hambre, o no ha sede" Who passes through Ruycande Village and do not drink, or starves or don not have thirst", Hernán Nunez, Refranes o Proverbios en romance que coligio y gloso el comenadador Hernán Nunez, professor de retorica y griego en la Universidad de Salamanca, Lerida, año 1621, p. 81.
^About the character of this literature the Swedish philologistÅke W:son Munthe on 1868 notes the following:"it seems to subsist in this literature an arbitrary mixture of Castilian language elements. This literary production -after a long century of copy and paste and finally because of the editor's final review- seems to be shown in nowadays in a very confusing way. For that reason, we must appoint to Reguera as the author of this literature, that I could call 'bable'. All the later authors, at least from a linguistic point of view, all of them come from his literature archaizing. Naturally, some of these authors take elements of their respective local dialects, and often, also, with others languages, that in some way or another, could have got in contact, as well as of a Spanish language mixture, affected by the 'bable' or not. This literature in 'bable' cannot be considered as a literary language, because have not got any unified body, at least from a linguistic point of view... what in any case, as in whatever other dialects, seems doomed to extinction". Ake W:son Munthe,Anotaciones sobre el habla popular del occidente de AsturiasUpsala 1887, reedition, Publisher Service of the Oviedo University, 1987, p. 3.
^abAcademia de la Llingua Asturiana (2012) [First edition 1981].Normes ortográfiques(PDF) (in Asturian) (7th revised ed.). Uviéu: Academia de la Llingua Asturiana.ISBN978-84-8168-532-9.
^Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001).Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas (in Spanish). Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto.ISBN978-84-7485-754-2.
^Seminario de Lexicografía (1990).Diccionario da lingua galega (in Spanish). A Coruña: Real Academia Gallega.ISBN978-84-600-7509-7.
^Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000).Diccionariu de la llingua asturiana (in Asturian). Uvieu: Academia de la Lengua Asturiana.ISBN978-84-8168-208-3.
^"Información de la asignatura".directo.uniovi.es (in Spanish). Archived fromthe original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved22 March 2013.Conocimiento global de la realidad la lengua asturiana, de su unidad e independencia al margen de los fenómenos de variación interna y de su integración en el marco hispano-románico, a partir de un enfoque esencialmente histórico y diacrónico.
^see"Inicio".Gobiernu del Principáu d'Asturies (in Asturian). Archived fromthe original on June 23, 2021. Retrieved14 April 2022.
Bauske, Bernd (1995).Sprachplanung des Asturianischen : die Normierung und Normalisierung einer romanischen Kleinsprache im Spannungsfeld von Linguistik, Literatur und Politik (in German). Berlin: Dr. Köster.ISBN978-3895740572.
Llera Ramo, Francisco (1994).Los asturianos y la lengua asturiana : estudio sociolingüístico para Asturias, 1991 (in Spanish). Uviéu [Spain]: Principau dʼAsturies, Conseyería dʼEducación, Cultura, Deportes y Xuventu.ISBN84-7847-297-5.
Wurm, Stephen A. (ed) (2001)Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing. UnescoISBN92-3-103798-6.
(in English) M.Teresa Turell (2001). Multilingualism in Spain:Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Aspects of Linguistic Minority Groups.ISBN1-85359-491-1
(in English) Mercator-Education (2002): European Network for Regional or Minority Languages and Education. "The Asturian language in education in Spain" ISSN 1570-1239
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