Asturian (; ,Art. 1 de l
Ley 1/1998, de 23 de marzo, de uso y promoción del bable/asturiano [Law 1/93, of March 23, on the Use and Promotion of the Asturian Language
/nowiki>] formerly also known as ) is a West Iberian languages, West Iberian Romance languages, Romance language spoken in the Principality of Asturias, Spain. Asturian is part of a wider linguistic group, the

Asturleonese languages Asturleonese ( ast, Asturlleonés; es, Asturleonés; pt, Asturo-leonês; mwl, Asturlhionés) is a Romance language spoken primarily in northwestern Spain, namely in the historical regions and Spain's modern-day autonomous communities of Asturi ...

. The number of speakers is estimated at 100,000 (native) and 450,000 (second language). The

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

s of the Astur-Leonese language family are traditionally classified in three groups: Western, Central, and Eastern. For historical and demographic reasons, the

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

is based on Central Asturian. Asturian has a distinct

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...

, and

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...

. It is regulated by the

Academy of the Asturian Language The Academia de la Llingua Asturiana or Academy of the Asturian Language (ALLA) is an Official Institution of the Government of the Principality of Asturias that promotes and regulates the Asturian language, a language of the Spanish autonomous ...

. Although it is not an

official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...

of Spain it is protected under the Statute of Autonomy of Asturias and is an elective language in schools. For much of its history, the language has been ignored or "subjected to repeated challenges to its status as a language variety" due to its lack of official status.

History

Asturian is the historical language of Asturias, portions of the Spanish provinces of León and Zamora and the area surrounding

Miranda do Douro Miranda do Douro () or Miranda de l Douro in Mirandese () is a city and a municipality in the district of Bragança, northeastern Portugal. The population in 2011 was 7,482, in an area of 487.18 km². The town proper had a population of 1,9 ...

in northeastern Portugal. Like the other Romance languages of the Iberian peninsula, it evolved from

Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve ...

during the

early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

. Asturian was closely linked with the

Kingdom of Asturias The Kingdom of Asturias ( la, Asturum Regnum; ast, Reinu d'Asturies) was a kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula founded by the Visigothic nobleman Pelagius. It was the first Christian political entity established after the Umayyad conquest of ...

(718–910) and the ensuing Leonese kingdom. The language had contributions from pre-Roman languages spoken by the

Astures The Astures or Asturs, also named Astyrs, were the Hispano-Celtic inhabitants of the northwest area of Hispania that now comprises almost the entire modern autonomous community of Principality of Asturias, the modern province of León, and the ...

, an Iberian

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

tribe, and the post-Roman

Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Engli ...

of the

Visigoths The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is ...

and Suevi. The transition from Latin to Asturian was slow and gradual; for a long time they co-existed in a diglossic 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 the and the 1155 ) had Asturian sources.

Castilian Spanish In English, Castilian Spanish can mean the variety of Peninsular Spanish spoken in northern and central Spain, the standard form of Spanish, or Spanish from Spain in general. In Spanish, the term (Castilian) can either refer to the Spanish langu ...

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 () in 1980. The

Leonese dialect Leonese ( ast-leo, Llionés, ast, Lleonés) is a set of vernacular Romance language varieties currently spoken in northern and western portions of the historical region of León in Spain (the modern provinces of León, Zamora, and Sala ...

s and Mirandese are linguistically close to Asturian.

Status and legislation

Efforts have been made since the end of the Francoist period in 1975 to protect and promote Asturian. In 1994 there were 100,000 native speakers and 450,000 second-language speakers able to speak (or understand) Asturian. 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: "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. The

Spanish Constitution The Spanish Constitution (Spanish, Asturleonese, and gl, Constitución Española; eu, Espainiako Konstituzioa; ca, Constitució Espanyola; oc, Constitucion espanhòla) is the democratic law that is supreme in the Kingdom of Spain. It was e ...

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 the

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. However, th ...

' "safeguard and promote" clause. A 1983 survey 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. 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: a

, a

and

periodicals A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also exampl ...

. 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.

Historical, social and cultural aspects

Literary history

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes - Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos

Although some 10th-century documents have the linguistic features of Asturian, numerous examples (such as writings by

notaries A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems. A notary, while a legal professional, is disti ...

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

s and

wills Wills may refer to: * Will (law) A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the pr ...

) begin in the 13th century. Early examples are the 1085 ''Fuero de Avilés'' (the oldest parchment preserved in Asturias) and the 13th-century ''Fuero de Oviedo'' and the Leonese version of the ''Fueru Xulgu''. The 13th-century documents were the laws for towns, cities and the general population. By the second half of the 16th century, documents were written in Castilian, backed by the Trastámara dynasty and making the civil and ecclesiastical arms of the principality Castilian. Although the Asturian language disappeared from written texts during the ''sieglos escuros'' (dark centuries), it survived orally. The only written mention during this time is from a 1555 work by

Hernán Núñez Hernán Núñez de Toledo y Guzmán (Valladolid, 1475 - Salamanca, 1553) was a Spanish humanist, classicist, philologist, and paremiographer. He was called ''el Comendador Griego'', ''el Pinciano'' (from Pintia, the Latin name of Valladolid) or ...

about proverbs and adages: " ... in a large copy of rare languages, as Portuguese, Galician, Asturian, Catalan, Valencian, French, Tuscan ... ". Modern Asturian literature began in 1605 with the clergyman

Antón González Reguera Antón is a corregimiento in Antón District, Coclé Province, Panama. It is located near the north-western shore of the Gulf of Panama The Gulf of Panama ( es, Golfo de Panamá) is a gulf of the Pacific Ocean off the southern coast of Pana ...

and continued until the 18th century (when it produced, according to Ruiz de la Peña in 1981, a literature comparable to that in Asturias in Castilian). In 1744, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos wrote about the historic and cultural value of Asturian, urging the compilation of a dictionary and a grammar and the creation of a

language academy This is a list of bodies that consider themselves to be authorities on standard languages, often called language academies. Language academies are motivated by, or closely associated with, linguistic purism and prestige, and typically publish pr ...

. Notable writers included Francisco Bernaldo de Quirós Benavides (1675),

Xosefa Xovellanos Xosefa de Xovellanos y Xove Ramírez (1745–1807) was the younger sister of Asturian politician Gaspar Melchor de Xovellanos and prominent writer in Asturian. She was born in Gijón on June 4, (1745) and married to Domingo Gonzalez de Argand ...

(1745), Xuan González Villar y Fuertes (1746), Xosé Caveda y Nava (1796), Xuan María Acebal (1815),

Teodoro Cuesta The name ''Teodoro'' is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish form of Theodore. People Given name * Teodoro Alcalde (1913–1995) * Teodoro Ardemans (died 1726) * Teodoro Borlongan (1955–2005) * Teodoro Buontempo (1946–2013) * Teodoro Cano ...

(1829), Xosé Benigno García González,

Marcos del Torniello Marcos may refer to: People with the given name ''Marcos'' *Marcos (given name) Sports ;Surnamed * Dayton Marcos, Negro league baseball team from Dayton, Ohio (early twentieth-century) * Dimitris Markos, Greek footballer * Nélson Marcos, Portugu ...

(1853),

Bernardo Acevedo y Huelves Bernardo is a given name and less frequently an Italian, Portuguese and Spanish surname. Possibly from the Germanic "Bernhard". Given name People * Bernardo the Japanese (died 1557), early Japanese Christian convert and disciple of Saint Franc ...

(1849), Pin de Pría (1864), Galo Fernández and

Fernán Coronas Fernan or Fernán is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Fernán Blázquez de Cáceres, Spanish nobleman * Fernán Caballero (1796–1877), Spanish novelist * Fernando Fernán Gómez (1921–2007), Spanish actor ...

(1884). In 1974, a movement for the language's acceptance and use began in Asturias. Based on ideas of the Asturian association

Conceyu Bable Conceyu Bable (in Asturian Language, ''Bable Council'' ) was an Asturias, Asturian association legalized in 1976, which objective was the recovery and dignification of Asturian Language. Origin In the final years of Francoist Spain, arose a new g ...

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 as

Manuel Asur Manuel Asur (Manuel Asur GONZÁLEZ GARCÍA) ( Güeria Carrocera, San Martín del Rey Aurelio, Asturias, 1947) is a Spanish essayist and poet in Asturian. He's considered to be one of the first modern poets in this language. He has a PhD degree in ...

''(Cancios y poemes pa un riscar)'',

Xuan Bello Xuan Bello Fernán (born 1965 in Tineo, Asturias, Spain) is a Spanish poet and one of the best-known contemporary Asturian writers. Life and work Poetry In 1982, at barely 16 years old, he published his first book of poems in Asturian, ''N ...

''(El llibru vieyu)'',

Adolfo Camilo Díaz Adolfo Camilo Díaz López (born 1963 in Caborana, Aller (Germany), Aller, Asturias) is a Spanish writer in asturian language. He is specially known as a playwright and author of short novels. He had achieved some of the most important prizes of th ...

''(Añada pa un güeyu muertu)'', Pablo Antón Marín Estrada ''(Les hores)'',

Xandru Fernández Xandru Fernández (born 1970 in Turón, Asturias, Spain) is an Asturian language writer. He is one of the most prolific authors of the second generation of the Surdimientu. His work currently includes seven novels, four books of poetry and two nov ...

''(Les ruines)'',

Lourdes Álvarez Lourdes (, also , ; oc, Lorda ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for the Château ...

, Martín López-Vega, Miguel Rojo and

Lluis Antón González Lluis Antón González (June 13, 1955 in Baíña, Mieres) is an Asturian actor, writer, and director. A member of the theatrical group Telón de Fondo, he participated as an actor, director, and adaptor in many montages by the collective. As a ...

broke from the Asturian-Leonese tradition of rural themes, moral messages and dialogue-style writing. Currently, the Asturian language has about 150 annual publications. The Bible into the Asturian language was completed in 2021 after over 30 years of translation work, beginning in September 1988.

Use and distribution

Astur-Leonese's geographic area exceeds Asturias, and that the language known as Leonese in the

autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

Castile and León Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of the ...

is basically the same as the Asturian spoken in Asturias. The Asturian-Leonese linguistic domain covers most of the principality of Asturias, the northern and western

province of León León (, , ; ; ) is a province of northwestern Spain in the northern part of the Region of León and in the northwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. About one quarter of its population of 463,746 (2018) lives in the cap ...

, the northeastern

province of Zamora Zamora () is a province of western Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of Ourense, León, Valladolid, and Salamanca, and by Portugal. The present-day province of Zamora w ...

(both in Castile and León), western

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

and the Miranda do Douro region in the eastern

Bragança District Bragança District ( pt, Distrito de Bragança ; mwl, Çtrito de Bergáncia) is a traditional political division of Portugal, in the northeast corner bordering on Spain ( Castile and Leon and Galicia), covering 7.4% of the nation's continental l ...

of Portugal.

Toponymy

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 and the work of the ''Xunta Asesora de Toponimia'', which researches and confirms the Asturian names of requesting villages, towns, ''conceyos'' and cities (50 of 78 ''conceyos'' as of 2012).

Dialects

Asturian has several dialects. They are regulated by the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana and mainly spoken in Asturias (except in the west, where

Galician-Asturian Galician–Asturian or Eonavian ( autonym: ; ast, eonaviegu, gallego-asturianu; gl, eonaviego, galego-asturiano) is a set of Romance dialects or ''falas'' whose linguistic dominion extends into the zone of Asturias between the Eo River and N ...

is spoken). The dialect spoken in the adjoining area of

is known as Leonese. Asturian is traditionally divided into three dialectal areas, sharing traits with the dialect spoken in León: 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 rivers Navia and Nalón, in the west of the province of León (where it is known as Leonese) and in the provinces of Zamora and

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Herit ...

. Feminine plurals end in ''-as'' and the falling diphthongs and are maintained. Central Asturian is spoken between the

Sella River The Sella is a river located in northwest Spain. It flows through the region of Asturias from the Picos de Europa to the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean at Ribadesella Ribadesella (Asturian: Ribeseya) is a small municipality in the ...

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'', the

monophthongization Monophthongization is a sound change by which a diphthong becomes a monophthong, a type of vowel shift. It is also known as ungliding, as diphthongs are also known as gliding vowels. In languages that have undergone monophthongization, digraphs ...

of and into and and the

neuter gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nou ...

in adjectives modifying uncountable nouns (''lleche frío'', ''carne tienro''). Eastern Asturian is spoken between the River Sella,

Llanes Llanes (the ''Concejo de Llanes'', ''Conceyu de Llanes'' in Asturian language) is a municipality of the province of Asturias, in northern Spain. Stretching for about 30 km along the coast at the extreme east of the province, Llanes is bound ...

and

Cabrales Cabrales is a municipality in the autonomous community of Asturias, northwestern Spain. It is situated between the Sierra de Cuera and the Picos de Europa, and is a region famous for its Cabrales cheese. Important towns within the municipa ...

. The dialect is characterized by the

debuccalization Debuccalization or deoralization is a sound change or alternation in which an oral consonant loses its original place of articulation and moves it to the glottis (usually , , or ). The pronunciation of a consonant as is sometimes called aspir ...

of word-initial to , written (''ḥoguera'', ''ḥacer'', ''ḥigos'' and ''ḥornu'' instead of ''foguera'', ''facer'', ''figos'' and ''fornu''; 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 neutral gender 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 (direct ''me'' and ''te'' v. indirect ''mi'' and ''ti'') 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 a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

with Cantabrian in the east and

Eonavian Galician–Asturian or Eonavian (autonym: ; ast, eonaviegu, gallego-asturianu; gl, eonaviego, galego-asturiano) is a set of Romance dialects or ''falas'' whose linguistic dominion extends into the zone of Asturias between the Eo River and Na ...

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 eastern

Ribadedeva Ribadedeva (; Asturian language, Asturian and Cantabrian: Ribedeva) is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. To the north is the Cantabrian Sea, while to the south lies Peñamellera Baja, to the west Ll ...

Peñamellera Alta Peñamellera Alta (in asturian: ''El Valle Altu de Peñamellera'') is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It is bordered on the north by Llanes, on the west by Cabrales, on the east by Peñamellera ...

, and

Peñamellera Baja Peñamellera Baja (in Asturian language, Asturian: '' El Valle Baḥu de Peñamellera'') is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It is borderered to the north by Llanes and Ribadedeva, to the west by ...

with those of Cantabria and separating them from the rest of Asturias. Cantabrian was listed in the 2009

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger The UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger'' is an online publication containing a comprehensive list of the world's endangered languages. It originally replaced the ''Red Book of Endangered Languages'' as a title in print after a ...

., where Cantabrian is listed in the

Astur-Leonese linguistic group Asturleonese ( ast, Asturlleonés; es, Asturleonés; pt, Asturo-leonês; mwl, Asturlhionés) is a Romance language spoken primarily in northwestern Spain, namely in the historical regions and Spain's modern-day autonomous communities of Asturi ...

. The inclusion of Eonavian (spoken in western Asturias, bordering Galicia) in the Galician language is controversial, since it has traits in common with western Asturian.

Linguistic description

Asturian is one of the

Astur-Leonese languages Asturleonese ( ast, Asturlleonés; es, Asturleonés; pt, Asturo-leonês; mwl, Asturlhionés) is a Romance language spoken primarily in northwestern Spain, namely in the historical regions and Spain's modern-day autonomous communities of Asturi ...

which form part of the

Iberian Romance languages The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance or sometimes Iberian languagesIberian languages is also used as a more inclusive term for all languages spoken on the Iberian Peninsula, which in antiquity included the non-Indo-European Iberian language. are a ...

, close to

Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian languages, West Iberian Romance languag ...

and Castilian and further removed from Navarro-Aragonese. It is an inflecting,

fusional Fusional languages or inflected languages are a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by their tendency to use a single inflectional morpheme to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features. For e ...

head-initial In linguistics, head directionality is a proposed parameter that classifies languages according to whether they are head-initial (the head of a phrase precedes its complements) or head-final (the head follows its complements). The head is the ...

and

dependent-marking language A dependent-marking language has grammatical markers of agreement and case government between the words of phrases that tend to appear more on dependents than on heads. The distinction between head-marking and dependent-marking was first explored ...

. Its word order is subject–verb–object (in declarative sentences without

topicalization Topicalization is a mechanism of syntax that establishes an expression as the sentence or clause topic by having it appear at the front of the sentence or clause (as opposed to in a canonical position further to the right). This involves a phrasa ...

Phonology

Vowels

Asturian distinguishes five vowel phonemes (these same ones are found in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, Aragonese, Sardinian and

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

), according to three degrees of vowel openness (close, mid and open) and backness (front, central and back). Many Asturian dialects have a system of

metaphony In historical linguistics, metaphony is a class of sound change in which one vowel in a word is influenced by another in a process of assimilation. The sound change is normally "long-distance" in that the vowel triggering the change may be s ...

. * When occurring as unstressed, close vowels can become glides as in the pre-nuclear position. In the post-nuclear syllable margin, they are traditionally heard and transcribed as non-syllabic vowels .

Consonants

* may be

lenited In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...

or sonorized as in certain environments, or word-initially. * is pronounced in coda position. * can have different pronunciations, as a voiced plosive , affricate , or as a voiced fricative .

Writing

Asturian has always been written in the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

alphabet. Although the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana published orthographic rules in 1981, different spelling rules are used in

Terra de Miranda Terra de Miranda ("Land of Miranda") (''Tierra de Miranda'' in Mirandese, ''Terras de Miranda'' in Portuguese) is the historical name of a 500 km² mesa in northeastern Portugal, lying on the border of Spain. It used to be an administrative divi ...

(

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

). Asturian orthography is based on a five-vowel system (), with three aperture degrees. It has the following consonants: . The phenomenon of ''-u''

is uncommon, as are decrescent diphthongs (, usually in the west). Although they can be written, ''ḷḷ'' (''

che vaqueira Che, Ché, Chè or CHE may refer to: People * Ché Ahn, (born 1956), American Christian pastor * Che Guevara (1928–1967), Argentine Marxist revolutionary * Che (surname) (车), Chinese surname * Che Lovelace (born 1969), Trinidadian artist A ...

'', formerly represented as "''ts''") and the eastern '' ḥ'' aspiration (also represented as "''h.''" and corresponding to ''ll'' and ''f'') are absent from this model. Asturian has triple gender distinction in the

adjective In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Tra ...

, feminine plurals with ''-es'', verb endings with ''-es, -en, -íes, íen'' and lacks compound tenses (or

periphrasis In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one i ...

constructed with "''tener''").

Alphabet

(*) also ''zeda'', ''ceda''

Digraphs

Asturian has several digraphs, some of which have their own names.

Dialectal spellings

The letter ''h'' and the digraph ''ll'' can have their sound changed to represent dialectal pronunciation by under-dotting the letters, resulting in '' ḥ'' and '' digraph ḷḷ'' * The "''ḥ''" is common in eastern Asturian place names and in words beginning with ''f''; workarounds such as ''h.'' and ''l.l'' were used in the past for printing. * Besides dialectal words, the "''ḥ''" is also used in some loanwords: ''ḥoquei'' (hockey).

Grammar

Asturian grammar is similar to that of other Romance languages. Nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), two

numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

(singular and plural) and no cases. Adjectives may have a third, neuter gender, a phenomenon known as matter-neutrality. Verbs agree with their subjects in

person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...

(first, second, or third) and number, and are conjugated to indicate mood (indicative, subjunctive, conditional or imperative; some others include "potential" in place of future and conditional), tense (often present or past; different moods allow different tenses), and

aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...

(perfective or imperfective).

Morphology

Gender

Asturian is the only western Romance language with three genders: ''

masculine Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...

, feminine and neuter''. * ''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'' are nominal groups with an adjective and neuter pronoun: ''lo guapo d’esti asuntu ye...'' (the interesting hingabout 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 or concretised and lose this gender: ''les agües tán fríes'' (Waters are cold). ''Tien el pelo roxo'' (He has red hair) is neuter, but ''Tien un pelu roxu'' (He has ''a'' red hair) is masculine; note the noun's change in ending.

Number

Plural formation is complex: * Masculine nouns ending in ''-u'' → ''-os'': ''texu'' (yew) → ''texos''. * Feminine nouns ending in ''-a'' → ''-es'': ''vaca'' (cow) → ''vaques''. * Masculine or feminine nouns ending in a consonant take ''-es'': ''animal'' (animal) → ''animales; xabón'' (soap) → ''xabones''. * Words ending in ''-z'' may take a masculine ''-os'' to distinguish them from the feminine plural: ''rapaz'' (boy) → ''rapazos''; ''rapaza'' (girl) → ''rapaces''. * Masculine nouns ending in ''-ín'' → ''-inos'': ''camín'' (way, path) → ''caminos'', re-establishing the etymological vowel. * Feminine nouns ending in ''-á'', ''-ada'', ''-ú'' → ''-aes'' or ''-úes'', also re-establishing the etymological vowel: ''ciudá'' (city) → ''ciudaes; cansada'' (tired eminine → ''cansaes; virtú'' (virtue) → ''virtúes''.

Determiners

Their forms are: ^*Only before words beginning with ''a-'': ''l’aigla'' (the eagle), ''l’alma'' (the soul). Compare ''la entrada'' (the entry) and ''la islla'' (the island).

Resources

The

has published a grammar describing the Asturian language. 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.see https://eslema.it.uniovi.es/comun/traductor.php This software is funded and maintained by members of the University of Oviedo.

Vocabulary

As with other Romance languages, most Asturian words come from

: ''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 (its

substratum In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...

), afterwards (its superstratum) and

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...

s from other languages.

Substratum

Although little is known about the language of the ancient

, it may have been related to two

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

and Lusitanian. Words from this language and the pre–Indo-European languages spoken in the region are known as the prelatinian substratum; examples include ''bedul, boroña, brincar, bruxa, cándanu, cantu, carrascu, comba, cuetu, güelga, llamuerga, llastra, llócara, matu, peñera, riega, tapín'' and ''zucar''. Many Celtic words (such as ''bragues, camisa, carru, cerveza'' and ''sayu'') were integrated into Latin and, later, into Asturian.

Superstratum

Asturian's superstratum consists primarily of Germanisms and Arabisms. The Germanic peoples in the Iberian Peninsula, especially the

and the Suevi, added words such as ''blancu, esquila, estaca, mofu, serón, espetar, gadañu'' and ''tosquilar''. Arabisms could reach Asturian directly, through contacts with Arabs or

al-Andalus Al-Andalus DIN 31635, translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label=Berber languages, Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, ...

, or through the Castilian language. Examples include ''acebache, alfaya, altafarra, bañal, ferre, galbana, mandil, safase, xabalín, zuna'' and ''zucre''.

Loanwords

Asturian has also received much of its lexicon from other languages, such as

, French,

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

and Galician. 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: ::

Lexical comparison

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

Education

Primary and secondary

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 and Caudal

comarcas A ''comarca'' (, or , or ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term ''marca'', meaning a "march, ...

) 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. Xixón, Uviéu, Eo-Navia and Oriente also have an increased number of students.

University

According to article six of the

University of Oviedo The University of Oviedo ( es, Universidad de Oviedo, Asturian: ''Universidá d'Uviéu'') is a public university in Asturias (Spain). It is the only university in the region. It has three campus and research centres, located in Oviedo, Gijón ...

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." 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. In accordance with the Bologna Process, Asturian

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

will be available for study and teachers will be able to specialise in the Asturian language at the University of Oviedo.

Internet

Asturian government websites, council webpages, blogs, and entertainment webpages exist.

Free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

is offered in Asturian, and

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...

offers Asturian as an operating-system language. Free software in the language is available from Debian, Fedora,

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current ...

Thunderbird Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to: * Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture * Ford Thunderbird, a car Birds * Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...

LibreOffice LibreOffice () is a free and open-source office productivity software suite, a project of The Document Foundation (TDF). It was forked in 2010 from OpenOffice.org, an open-sourced version of the earlier StarOffice. The LibreOffice suite co ...

, VLC, GNOME, Chromium and

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-known products include the ...

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java (programming language), Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made pub ...

also has an Asturian translation.

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

offers an Asturian version of itself, with 100,000+ pages as of December 2018.

References

Bibliography

* * * * Wurm, Stephen A. (ed) (2001) ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing''. Unesco . * M.Teresa Turell (2001). Multilingualism in Spain: ''Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Aspects of Linguistic Minority Groups''. * Mercator-Education (2002): European Network for Regional or Minority Languages and Education. "The Asturian language in education in Spain" ISSN 1570-1239

External links

Academia de la Llingua Asturiana
nbsp;– the official Asturian language academy
Dirección Xeneral de Política Llingüística del Gobiernu del Principáu d'Asturies
nbsp;– Bureau of Asturian Linguistic Policy (Government of the

Principality of Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...

)
Asturian grammar in English

Asturian–English dictionary

Xunta pola Defensa de la Llingua Asturiana

nbsp;– Royal Institute of Asturian Studies (RIDEA or IDEA), founded 1945.
A short Asturian–English–Japanese phrasebook
incl. sound file
Aconceyamientu de Xuristes pol Asturianu
The Advisory Council of Lawyers for Asturian
II Estudiu Sociollingüísticu d'Asturies (2002)

Diccionariu de la Academia de la Llingua Asturiana / Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Asturian Language

Diccionario General de la lengua asturiana (Asturian — Spanish)

Eslema, Asturian online translator

Dirección Xeneral de Política Llingüística del Gobiernu del Principáu d'Asturies

Proyecto Eslema
"Eslema" Project for the creation of corpus Asturian language domain

Dictionaries and translators

* ttp://www.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu/index.php Diccionariu de la Academia de la Llingua Asturiana / Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Asturian Language
Diccionario General de la lengua asturiana (Asturian — Spanish)

Eslema, Asturian online translator
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asturian Language