Co-official recognition. Special protection status inMiranda de l Douro,Portugal. Statutory language of provincial identity in 4 municipalities, northeast Portugal (1999, Law No. 7-99 of 29 January).[2]
The language is a descendant of the Asturleonese variety spoken in theKingdom of León and has botharchaisms and innovations that differentiate it from the modern varieties of Asturleonese spoken in Spain. In recognition of these differences, and due to its political isolation from the rest of the Asturleonese-speaking territory, Mirandese has adopted a different written norm to the one used in Spain for Asturleonese.
Mirandese is a descendant of theOld Leonese language spoken in theKingdom of León in medieval Iberia. In the early 16th century, Old Leonese began to split, alongsideGalician–Portuguese, into the varieties existing today, one of them being Mirandese.
Rough geographical distribution ofOld Asturleonese (in light purple) in northeastern Portugal and surrounding areas, in comparison to its modern descendants, including Mirandese (in dark purple).
Qĭêm dirĭê q'antre 'ls matos èiriçados / Las ourrĭêtas i 'ls ríus d'ésta tĭêrra / Bibĭê, cumo l chaguárço de la ſĭêrra / Ũṅa lhêngua de ſóuns tã bariados? / Mostre-ſe i fále-ſ' éssa lhêngua, filha / D'um póbo qe tĭêm néilha 'l chóro i 'l canto! / Nada pur çĭêrto mus câutíba tânto / Cumo la fórm' am qe l'idéia brilha. (...)
Quiên dirie qu'antre ls matos eiriçados / Las ourriêtas i ls rius desta tiêrra / Bibie, cumo l chaguarço de la siêrra / Ũa lhéngua de sons tan bariados? / Mostre-se i fale-se essa lhéngua, filha / Dun pobo que ten neilha l choro i l canto! / Nada por ciêrto mos cautiba tanto / Cumo la forma an que l'eideia brilha. (...)
Quien dirie qu'antre ls matos eiriçados / Las ourrietas i ls rius desta tierra / Bibie, cumo l chaguarço de la sierra / Ũa lhéngua de sons tan bariados? / Mostre-se i fale-se essa lhéngua, filha / Dun pobo que ten neilha l choro i l canto! / Nada por cierto mos cautiba tanto / Cumo la forma an que l'eideia brilha. (...)
Who would say that amongst the bristle bushes / The valleys and the rivers of this land / There lived, like the plants of the mountain range / A language of such varied sounds? / Let this language be heard and spoken, daughter / Of people that have in it the cry and the song! / Nothing certainly captivates us as much / As the way in which this idea shines. (...)
In the 19th century, Leite de Vasconcelos described Mirandese as "the language of the farms, of work, home, and love between the Mirandese". Since 1986–87, it has been taught optionally to students at the primary and lower secondary level, and has thus been somewhat recovering.[8] By Law 7/99, Mirandese was given official recognition by theAssembly of the Republic alongside Portuguese. The law provides for its promotion and allows its usage for local matters inMiranda de l Douro.
In 1999, Mirandese gained its first official orthography, which was later tweaked in 2000. Today Mirandese retains speakers in most of the villages of the municipality ofMiranda de l Douro and in some villages ofBumioso (such as Vilar Seco andAngueira); and some linguistic influence can be observed at other villages of the municipality of Bumioso and the municipalities ofMogadouro,Macedo de Cavaleiros andBragança.
A 2020 survey by theUniversity of Vigo, carried out in Miranda de l Douro, estimated the number of speakers of the language to be around 3,500, with 1,500 of them being regular speakers. The study observed strong decline in the usage of the language in younger people.[9]
Three primaryvariants of the Mirandese language exist: Border Mirandese (Mirandés Raiano), Central Mirandese (Mirandés Central) and Sendinese (Sendinés). Most speakers of Mirandese also speak Portuguese.
Map demonstrating the dialectal variations of the word “street” in Mirandese:rue / ruga.
Despite there being a singular writing system for Mirandese, there is onephoneme that is written differently in different dialects. In the Sendinese dialect, many words that in other dialects are said with/ʎ/⟨lh⟩, are said with/l/⟨l⟩: examples includealá foralhá'over there';lado forlhado'side';luç forlhuç'light'.
The main orthographical differences between Mirandese in Portugal and the Asturleonese languages inSpain are caused by the dominant languages in each region. And while Mirandese has been influenced phonetically and in lexicon by Portuguese and the Asturleonese languages in Spain by Spanish, they retain more similarities among themselves than to the main languages of each country. Another difference is that Mirandese and Leonese remain very conservative, while Asturian has undergone a greater amount of change.[11]
Some historical developments in Mirandese are the following:
Mirandese maintains distinct reflexes of all sevenIbero-Romance sibilants:
Proto–Ibero-Romance
Mirandese
Portuguese
Northern/Central Spanish
/t͡ʃ/
/t͡ʃ/ ⟨ch⟩
/ʃ/ ⟨ch⟩
/t͡ʃ/ ⟨ch⟩
/ʃ/
/ʃ/ ⟨x⟩
/ʃ/ ⟨x⟩
/x/ ⟨j⟩
/ʒ/ or/d͡ʒ/
/ʒ/ ⟨g⟩ /⟨j⟩
/ʒ/ ⟨g⟩ /⟨j⟩
/x/ ⟨g⟩ /⟨j⟩
/t͡s/
/s̻/ ⟨c⟩ /⟨ç⟩
/s̻/ ⟨c⟩ /⟨ç⟩
/θ/ ⟨c⟩ /⟨z⟩
/d͡z/
/z̻/ ⟨z⟩
/z̻/ ⟨z⟩
/θ/ ⟨c⟩ /⟨z⟩
/s̺/
/s̺/ ⟨s-⟩ /⟨-ss-⟩
/s̻/ ⟨s-⟩ /⟨-ss-⟩
/s̺/ ⟨s⟩
/z̺/
/z̺/ ⟨-s-⟩
/z̻/ ⟨-s-⟩
/s̺/ ⟨-s-⟩
/s̺/ and/z̺/ indicateapico-alveolar sibilants (as in modern Catalan, northern/central peninsular Spanish and coastal northern European Portuguese), while/s̻/ and/z̻/ are dentalized laminal alveolar sibilants (as in most modern Portuguese, French and English). The unrelatedBasque language also maintains a distinction between/s̺/ and/s̻/ (Basque has no voiced sibilants), which suggests that the distinction originally was anareal feature acrossIberia.
Portuguese spelling still distinguishes all seven sibilants and is identical to Mirandese spelling in this respect, but in pronunciation, Portuguese has reduced them to four/s,z,ʃ,ʒ/ except in northern hinterlandEuropean Portuguese dialects, including those in the area where Mirandese is also spoken. Northern/central Peninsular Spanish has also reduced them to four but in quite a different way:/t͡ʃ,θ,s̺,x/.Western Andalusian Spanish andLatin American Spanish have further reduced them to three:/t͡ʃ,s̻,x/.
Retention of the initial/f/ fromLatin, like nearly all dialects of Western Romance but unlike Spanish, which underwent the sound change/f/>/h/>/∅/.
As stated above, the laminal dental sibilants correspond to Portuguese/s,z/. These are spelledc/ç andz. The corresponding alveolar sibilants are apical and are spelleds(s) ands. Furthermore, there is an additional palatal affricate/tʃ/ch that is distinct from the fricative/ʃ/, spelledx. The voiced/ʒ/ is spelledj org, as in Portuguese. Standard Portuguese has reduced all these sounds to just four fricatives:/s,z,ʃ,ʒ/.
The "hard" or "long" R is an alveolar trill/r/, as in other varieties of Asturleonese and in Spanish. The Portuguese uvular fricative[ʁ] is not found in Mirandese. The "soft" or "short" R is an ordinary alveolar tap[ɾ] commonly found in the Iberian Peninsula. As in other languages spoken in the region, the two contrast only in word-internal position.
Voiced stops/b,d,ɡ/ may be lenited as fricatives[β,ð,ɣ].[13]
Personal infinitive [d] in-r(e), which has the same endings as the future subjunctive but often differs as the personal infinitive always uses the infinitive stem, whereas the future subjunctive uses the past.
Mirandese was formerly spoken in the general area of the district ofBragança (Bergáncia in Mirandese), that speaks the Transmontano dialect of Portuguese. Although Mirandese has been lost in this region, it left some words and phonetic influences behind.
Words used in eastern Trás-os-Montes of (likely) Mirandese origin
The following measures have been taken to protect and develop Mirandese:
Allow primary teaching staff in the district ofMiranda de l Douro to teach in Mirandese, since 1986/1987, thanks to the ministerial authorisation published on 9 September 1985.
Publish books in Mirandese and about the Mirandese language, promoted by the Council ofMiranda de l Douro.
Facilitate annual celebrations in the city as well as a literary competition, promoted by the Council ofMiranda do Douro.
Use Mirandese in town celebrations, official commemorations and, occasionally, on social media.
Develop studies by research centres in Portugal, such as"Atlas Linguístico de Portugal", by theCentro de Linguística atUniversity of Lisbon, and"Inquérito Linguístico Boléo", by theUniversity of Coimbra.
The following is a sample text of the Mirandese language, written by Amadeu Ferreira and published in the newspaperPúblico on 24 July 2007.
Mirandese
Portuguese
English
Muitas lhénguas ténen proua de ls sous pergaminos antigos, de la lhiteratura screbida hai cientos d'anhos i de scritores hai muito afamados, hoije bandeiras dessas lhénguas. Mas outras hai que nun puoden tener proua de nada desso, cumo ye l causo de la lhéngua mirandesa.
Muitas línguas têm orgulho dos seus pergaminhos antigos, da literatura escrita há centenas de anos e de escritores muito famosos, hoje bandeiras dessas línguas. Mas há outras que não podem ter orgulho de nada disso, como é o caso da língua mirandesa.
Many languages take pride in their ancient scrolls, their centuries-old literature, and in famous writers, today standards of those languages. But there are others which can't boast of any of this, as in the case of Mirandese.
Then a comparison of the previous text in three modern languages of the Asturoleonese group:
Mirandese
Leonese
Asturian
Muitas lhénguas ténen proua de ls sous pergaminos antigos, de la lhiteratura screbida hai cientos d'anhos i de scritores hai muito afamados, hoije bandeiras dessas lhénguas. Mas outras hai que nun puoden tener proua de nada desso, cumo ye l causo de la lhéngua mirandesa.
Muitas llinguas tien arguyu de los sous pergaminos antiguos, de la lliteratura escrita van cientos d'annos y d'escritores bien famosos; guei bandeiras d'eisas llinguas. Peru hai outras que nun pueden tener arguyu de nada d'eisu, cumu ye'l casu de la llingua mirandesa.
Munches llingües tienen arguyu de los sos pergaminos antiguos, de la lliteratura escrita hai cientos d'años y d'escritores enforma famosos, güei banderes d'eses llingües. Pero hai otres que nun pueden tener arguyu de nada d'eso, como ye'l casu de la llingua mirandesa.
When Mirandese was first officially recognised and a writing system was established, it used⟨ê⟩ and⟨ô⟩ (like Portuguese) to represent[e] and[o] respectively in the diphthongs⟨uô⟩ and⟨iê⟩. These have since fallen in disuse because this rendering was only accurate in the Central and Raiano dialects, where these diphthongs read[wo] and[je], unlike in the Sendinese dialect, where they had been reduced to[u] and[i].[16]
In 2000, the"purmeira adenda" (''first addendum'') was made to the Mirandese orthography, quickly followed by a second one two years later,[17] but only the first was put to use officially, removing the glyphs⟨ê⟩ and⟨ô⟩ and allowing Sendinese speakers to spell their unpalatalised pronunciation of words using⟨l⟩ instead of⟨lh⟩, among other small changes.[18]
Bilingual sign in the village ofPruoba (Póvoa), with the glyph⟨ô⟩ used in the superseded orthography; the sign readsDius bos l pague pula buôssa besita i buôna biaige, orThank you (lit.'God bless you') for your visit and bon voyage.
Mirandese, given its status as a recognised language in Portugal after Portuguese, has been the subject in recent years of some publicity and attention in other parts of Portugal. A monthly chronicle in Mirandese, by researcher and writerAmadeu Ferreira, appears in the daily Portuguese national newspaperPúblico. The first volume of theAdventures of Asterix, namedAsterix, L Goulés (Asterix the Gaul), was published in a Mirandese translation byAmadeu Ferreira in 2005, and sold throughout Portugal.Amadeu Ferreira also translated into Mirandese the epic poem byCamões,Os Lusíadas (Ls Lusíadas), under his pseudonym Francisco Niebro, and published it in 2009.[23] In 2011, the fourGospels of theBible'sNew Testament were translated into Mirandese, and in 2013 the entire Bible was translated into the language by Domingos Augusto Ferreira.[24]
^The voiced velar nasal[ŋ] only appears intervocalically in the wordũa ('a/one' in the feminine singular), contractions including it (such asdalgũa orcũa) and their respective plurals. Therefore,[ŋ] does not have its own letter or digraph in these words,⟨ũ⟩ representing[ũŋ] or[ʊ̃ŋ]. One could argue that[ŋ] does not even have any symbol representing it,⟨ũ⟩ representing[ũ] or[ʊ̃] and the reader is supposed to know that the voiced velar nasal exists in said word.
^Pera, Goreti (18 December 2016)."'Buonos dies'. Aqui fala-se Mirandês, a língua dos avós e das crianças" ['Good luck'. Mirandese is spoken here, the language of grandparents and children].Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese). Retrieved12 September 2021.No concelho, são cerca de 300 os estudantes que frequentam a disciplina opcional de língua mirandesa. Esta é lecionada exclusivamente no Agrupamento de Escolas deMiranda do Douro desde 1986 [In the municipality, there are around 300 students taking the Mirandese language as an optional subject. This has been taught exclusively at theMiranda do Douro School Group since 1986]
^Alves, António; Barros, Anabela (2015). "Mirandês, leonês, português e castelhano: glotocídio e conciliação". In Macedo, Ana Gabriela; Sousa, Carlos Mendes de; Moura, Vítor (eds.).Conflito e Trauma: XVI Colóquio de Outono (in Portuguese). V. N. Famalicão: Húmus; Centro de Estudos Humanísticos da Universidade do Minho. pp. 413–434.
^Alves, António Bárbolo; Castro, Ivo; Fernandes, Marcolino; Ferreira, Manuela Barros; Gonçalves, Valdemar; Martins, Cristina; Marquilhas, Rita; Mourinho, António Maria; Pires, Moisés; Raposo, Domingos; Raposo, José Augusto (1999).Convenção Ortográfica da Língua Mirandesa [Orthographical Convention of the Mirandese Language] (in Portuguese). Miranda de l Douro: Câmara Municipal de Miranda do Douro/Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa. p. 18.
^Ferreira, Amadeu; Alves, António Bárbolo; Raposo, Domingos; Ferreira, Manuela Barros (5 March 2002).Segunda Adenda a la Cumbençon Ourtográfica de la Lhéngua Mirandesa/Segunda Adenda à Convenção Ortográfica da Língua Mirandesa [Second Addendum to the Orthographical Convention of the Mirandese Language] (in Portuguese).
^Barros Ferreira, Manuela; Marquilhas, Rita (1 February 2000).Purmeira Adenda a la Cumbençon Ourtográfica de la Lhéngua Mirandesa/Primeira Adenda à Convenção Ortográfica da Língua Mirandesa [First Addendum to the Orthographical Convention of the Mirandese Language] (in Portuguese). Lisbon: self-published. pp. 1–5.
Ferreira, Manuela Barros; Raposo, Domingos, eds. (1999).Convenção Ortográfica da Língua Mirandesa [Orthographic Convention for Mirandese Language](PDF) (in Portuguese). Miranda do Douro and Lisboa: Câmara Municipal de Miranda do Douro and Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 29 June 2003.
Quarteu, Reis; Frías Conde, Xavier (2001)."L Mirandés: Ũa Lhéngua Minoritaira an Pertual" [Mirandese: A Minority Language in Portugal](PDF).Ianua: Revista Philologica Romanica (in Mirandese).2:89–105. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 21 March 2006.
