Mirandese language
Encyclopedia
The Mirandese language (autonym: mirandés or lhéngua mirandesa; or ) is a Romance language belonging to the Astur-Leonese linguistic group, sparsely spoken in a small area of northeastern Portugal
, in the municipalities of Miranda do Douro
, Mogadouro
and Vimioso
. The Portuguese Parliament
granted it co-official recognition (along with the Portuguese language
) for local matters on 17 September 1998 with the law 7/99 of 29 January 1999.
Mirandese has a distinct phonology
, morphology
and syntax
, and has been distinct at least since the formation of Portugal in the 12th century. It has its roots in the spoken Latin
of the north of the Iberian Peninsula
(Portuguese developed in the northwest). It is a descendant of the ancient Astur-Leonese language
of northern Iberia
, the last remnant of the ancient language of the Kingdom of León
, and closely related to the modern Astur-Leonese languages in Spain
. However, these amalgamations in the Spanish territory did not affect Mirandese, which preserves distinct linguistic differences in relation to both Portuguese
and Spanish
. It shares a great deal of lexicon with regional Portuguese dialects.
, described it as "the language of the farms, of work, home, and love between the Mirandese". Since 1986/1987 the language has been taught to students between the age of 10 and 11, and the language is recovering.
Today Mirandese retains fewer than 5,000 speakers (but the number can be up to 15,000 if counting second language speakers) in the villages of the Municipality of Miranda do Douro
and in some eastern villages (i.e. Vilar Seco & Angueira; in Caçarelhos, it is considered recently extinct) of the Municipality of Vimioso
, and some linguistic influence can be observed at other villages of the municipality of Vimioso and the municipalities of Mogadouro
, Macedo de Cavaleiros
and Bragança.
of the Mirandese language exist: Border Mirandese (Mirandés Raiano), Central Mirandese (Mirandés Central) and Sendinese (Sendinés). Most speakers of Mirandese also speak Portuguese; some of these speak Spanish as well.
The main differences between Mirandese in Portugal and the Astur-Leonese languages in Spain
are caused by the dominant languages in each region. Mirandese has been influenced phonetically and in lexicon by Portuguese and the Astur-Leonese languages in Spain
by Spanish (Castilian). All have distinctive orthography that phonetically reflects the respective main national languages. Another difference is that Mirandese and Leonese remain very conservative, while Asturian has undergone a greater amount of change.
rather than Spanish
:
Traits different from Portuguese:
Then a comparison of the previous text in three modern languages of the Astur-leones group:
. The first volume of the The Adventures of Asterix
, named Asterix, L Goulés (Asterix the Gaul
), was published in a Mirandese translation by Amadeu Ferreira in 2005, and sold throughout Portugal. Amadeu Ferreira also translated into Mirandese the epic poem by Camões, Os Lusíadas
(Ls Lusíadas), under his pseudonym Francisco Niebro and published it in 2009.
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, in the municipalities of Miranda do Douro
Miranda do Douro
Miranda do Douro or Miranda de l Douro , is a city in Miranda do Douro Municipality, district of Bragança, Portugal.The city has a population of 1,960.-General information:...
, Mogadouro
Mogadouro
Mogadouro is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 760.65 km² and a total population of 10,792 inhabitants. The seat is the town of Mogadouro.-History:...
and Vimioso
Vimioso
Vimioso is a municipality in the northern part of Portugal with an area of approximately 481.6 km² and population of 5105 inhabitants.-Geography:The municipality is composed of 14 parishes and is located in the district of Bragança....
. The Portuguese Parliament
Assembly of the Republic
The Assembly of the Republic is the Portuguese parliament. It is located in a historical building in Lisbon, referred to as Palácio de São Bento, the site of an old Benedictine monastery...
granted it co-official recognition (along with the Portuguese language
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
) for local matters on 17 September 1998 with the law 7/99 of 29 January 1999.
Mirandese has a distinct phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
, morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
and syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
, and has been distinct at least since the formation of Portugal in the 12th century. It has its roots in the spoken Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
of the north of the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
(Portuguese developed in the northwest). It is a descendant of the ancient Astur-Leonese language
Astur-Leonese language
Astur-Leonese is the generic name for a group of closely related linguistic varieties included in the West Iberian branch of the Romance languages...
of northern Iberia
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
, the last remnant of the ancient language of the Kingdom of León
Kingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
, and closely related to the modern Astur-Leonese languages in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. However, these amalgamations in the Spanish territory did not affect Mirandese, which preserves distinct linguistic differences in relation to both Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. It shares a great deal of lexicon with regional Portuguese dialects.
Speakers
In the 19th century, José Leite de VasconcelosJosé Leite de Vasconcelos
José Leite de Vasconcelos Cardoso Pereira de Melo was a Portuguese ethnographer and prolific author who wrote extensively on Portuguese philology and prehistory...
, described it as "the language of the farms, of work, home, and love between the Mirandese". Since 1986/1987 the language has been taught to students between the age of 10 and 11, and the language is recovering.
Today Mirandese retains fewer than 5,000 speakers (but the number can be up to 15,000 if counting second language speakers) in the villages of the Municipality of Miranda do Douro
Miranda do Douro
Miranda do Douro or Miranda de l Douro , is a city in Miranda do Douro Municipality, district of Bragança, Portugal.The city has a population of 1,960.-General information:...
and in some eastern villages (i.e. Vilar Seco & Angueira; in Caçarelhos, it is considered recently extinct) of the Municipality of Vimioso
Vimioso
Vimioso is a municipality in the northern part of Portugal with an area of approximately 481.6 km² and population of 5105 inhabitants.-Geography:The municipality is composed of 14 parishes and is located in the district of Bragança....
, and some linguistic influence can be observed at other villages of the municipality of Vimioso and the municipalities of Mogadouro
Mogadouro
Mogadouro is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 760.65 km² and a total population of 10,792 inhabitants. The seat is the town of Mogadouro.-History:...
, Macedo de Cavaleiros
Macedo de Cavaleiros
Macedo de Cavaleiros is a municipality in northeastern Portugal, in Bragança District.-History:During antiquity, the region was occupied by the Celts, then Romans and finally the Arab forces of the Umayyad Caliphate, who dominated the region until the Christian Reconquista...
and Bragança.
Variants
Three variantsVariety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
of the Mirandese language exist: Border Mirandese (Mirandés Raiano), Central Mirandese (Mirandés Central) and Sendinese (Sendinés). Most speakers of Mirandese also speak Portuguese; some of these speak Spanish as well.
The main differences between Mirandese in Portugal and the Astur-Leonese languages in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
are caused by the dominant languages in each region. Mirandese has been influenced phonetically and in lexicon by Portuguese and the Astur-Leonese languages in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
by Spanish (Castilian). All have distinctive orthography that phonetically reflects the respective main national languages. Another difference is that Mirandese and Leonese remain very conservative, while Asturian has undergone a greater amount of change.
Phonology
A number of historical traits link Mirandese to PortuguesePortuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
rather than Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
:
- Mirandese keeps the initial /f/ from Latin, like Portuguese, CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
, FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and most Occitan dialects (vs. Spanish /h/ > nothing). - The Latin initial consonant clusterConsonant clusterIn linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word splits....
s /pl/, /kl/, /fl/ evolve into ⟨ch⟩ (vs. Spanish ⟨ll⟩). - Proto-Romance medial clusters and became medieval /ʎ/ (vs. medieval Spanish /dʒ/, modern /x/).
- The cluster /-mb-/ is kept (vs. Spanish /mb/ > /m/).
- Proto-Romance becomes /m/ (vs. Spanish /mbr/): > lume (Spanish lumbre).
- Falling diphthongs /ei/, /ou/ preserved (vs. Spanish /e/, /o/).
- Final -o becomes /u/.
- Voiced sibilants are still maintained (whereas in Spanish they merged with the voiceless sibilants).
Traits different from Portuguese:
- Intervocalic /l/, /n/ not dropped.
- Western Romance /ɛ/,/ɔ/ diphthongize to ⟨ie⟩,⟨ue⟩. This happens even before palatals (as in AragoneseAragonese languageAragonese is a Romance language now spoken in a number of local varieties by between 10,000 and 30,000 people over the valleys of the Aragón River, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza in Aragon, Spain...
), but before nasals. - Like in CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
, /l/ is palatalized word-initially. - Mirandese maintains distinct reflexes of all seven medieval Ibero-Romance sibilants: ⟨ch⟩ /tʃ/, ⟨x⟩ /ʃ/, ⟨g/j⟩ /ʒ/, ⟨c/ç⟩ /s/, ⟨z⟩ /z/, ⟨s/-ss-⟩ /ṣ/, -⟨s-⟩ /ẓ/. /ṣ/ and /ẓ/ indicate apico-alveolar sibilants (as in modern Catalan and northern/central peninsular Spanish), while /s/ and /z/ are lamino-alveolar sibilants (as in modern Portuguese, French and English). Portuguese spelling still distinguishes all seven, and is identical to Mirandese spelling in this respect, but in pronunciation has reduced them to four: /s z ʃ ʒ/. Northern/central Peninsular Spanish has also reduced them to four, but in a quite different way: /tʃ θ ṣ x/. Andalusian SpanishAndalusian SpanishThe Andalusian varieties of Spanish are spoken in Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla and Gibraltar. They include perhaps the most distinct of the southern variants of peninsular Spanish, differing in many respects from northern varieties, and also from Standard Spanish...
and Latin American Spanish have further reduced them to three: /tʃ s h/.
Morphology
As in conservative Portuguese, Mirandese still uses the following synthetic tenses:- Synthetic pluperfect in -ra.
- Future subjunctive in -r(e).
- Personal infinitive in -r(e). This has the same endings as the future subjunctive but differs in many cases because the personal infinitive always uses the infinitive stem while the future subjunctive uses the past-tense stem.
Sample text
The following is a sample text of the Mirandese language, written by Amadeu Ferreira, and published in the newspaper Público, on the 24th 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 are proud of their ancient scrolls, of the literature written hundreds of years ago and of famous writers, today flags of those languages. But others can't be proud of that, as is the case of the Mirandese language. |
Then a comparison of the previous text in three modern languages of the Astur-leones 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. |
National attention
Mirandese, given its status as second official 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 writer Amadeu Ferreira, appears in the daily Portuguese national newspaper PúblicoPúblico
Público is a Portuguese daily national newspaper.It began publication on March 5, 1990. The newspaper is known as a publication of the French school, with extensive texts and few illustrations...
. The first volume of the The Adventures of Asterix
Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...
, named Asterix, L Goulés (Asterix the Gaul
Asterix the Gaul
Asterix the Gaul is the first volume of the Asterix comic strip series, by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo .-Plot summary:...
), was published in a Mirandese translation by Amadeu Ferreira in 2005, and sold throughout Portugal. Amadeu Ferreira also translated into Mirandese the epic poem by Camões, Os Lusíadas
Os Lusíadas
Os Lusíadas , usually translated as The Lusiads, is a Portuguese epic poem by Luís Vaz de Camões ....
(Ls Lusíadas), under his pseudonym Francisco Niebro and published it in 2009.
External links
- Mirandese as an Endangered Language (PDF, in English) Orthographic Convention for Mirandese Language (PDF)
- Mirandés na Net Lhéngua i Cultura Mirandesa (Mirandese Language & Culture)
- Excerpt of The Lusiads in Mirandese
- L Mirandés: Ũa Lhéngua Minoritaira an Pertual Mirandese: A minority language in Portugal (PDF, in Mirandese) Piece of legislation which officially recognizes Mirandese as a language of Portugal