Bercian is the generic name of the
linguistic varieties spoken in
El Bierzo
El Bierzo (; ; gl, O Bierzo) is a ''comarca'' in the province of León, Spain. Its capital is the town of Ponferrada. Other major towns are Bembibre and Villafranca del Bierzo, the historical capital.
The territory of El Bierzo includes m ...
region, in the
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
of
León,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. They belong to the
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 ...
of Romance languages in northern Spain, linking the
Galician and
Leonese languages. Many of these varieties are on the brink of disappearing.
Written references
The first written references dealing with the local speech like ''Bercian dialect'' correspond to the middle of the 19th century in Isidoro Andrés de Llano's work, ''Remembrance of Puentedeume in Bercian dialect'', 1860, published in the ''Esla'' journal. In 1861, Antonio Fernandez Morales wrote upon Mariano Cubí's (co-author) request, in Bercian dialect: ''Ensaios Poéticos en Dialecto Berciano''.
Nowadays it has almost disappeared, surviving in many expressions of daily use.
[Álvarez Díaz, Alfredo. Cruce de dialectos en el habla de San Pedro de Olleros (León). Journal: ''Lletres Asturianes'' 61 (1996). ISSN 0212-0534.] Local expressions and vocabulary have been gathered in several works, the most interesting ones being those made by Luís A. Pastrana and David Lopez, at the beginning of the 1970s, with a sketch of the morphology and syntax of the dialect and one interesting dictionary of expressions and words, and Manuel Gutiérrez Tuñón's doctoral thesis "The Speech of El Bierzo", published in 1975.
Classifications
El Bierzo has always been considered a bridge between
Galicia and
Leon province; but with salient particular features,
[Pueblos y ríos bercianos: (significado e historia de sus nombres), Jesús García y García, 1994,] which led to defining this speech of El Bierzo as Bercian dialect in the 19th century, being considered part of the Galician linguistic domain by Antonio Fernández Morales in 1861 and part of the Leonese linguistic domain by
Ramón Menéndez Pidal
Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...
, the latter stating that the dividing line between Leonese and Galician should be placed between the basins of the Cúa and
Sil
SIL, Sil and sil may refer to:
Organizations
* Servis Industries Limited, Pakistan
* Smithsonian Institution Libraries
* SIL International, formerly Summer Institute of Linguistics
* Apex Silver Mines (former American Stock Exchange ticker symb ...
rivers. In 1934, Verardo García Rey gathered the vocabulary of the Bercian dialect in the publication: ''Vocabulario de El Bierzo'', where the author makes clear that after his fieldwork, he would re-place the dividing line between the
Asturleonese
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 ...
and the
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 ...
linguistic groups, setting it strictly along the Sil river. Jesús García y García, in 1994, places the mentioned line from the high Cúa river up to a place in
Ponferrada
Ponferrada () is a city of Spain, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Ponferrada, the second most populated municipality of the Province of León, is also the capital city of El Bierzo, the only ''comarca'' recognized as a ...
's municipality (Dehesas, Fuentesnuevas).
References
External links / Further reading
* ''El gallego-leonés de Ancares y su interés para la dialectología portuguesa''. Dámaso Alonso y García Yebra.
''L'Asturianu n'El Bierzu. Apropósitu del ALBI'' Ana Mª Cano en "Lletres Asturianes" Boletín Oficial de la ALLA.
''La Fala de Palacios de Sil'' Roberto González-Quevedo; Academia de la Llingua Asturiana.
''Aspeutos fónicos na fala de Forniella'' Héctor García Xil en Lletres Asturianes, Alla.
''Cruce de dialectos en el habla de San Pedro de Olleros'' Alfredo Álvarez Díaz en "Lletres Asturianes".
Ensayos poeticos en dialecto berciano Autor Antonio Fernandez y Morales, Mariano Cubí y Soler . Google books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bercian Dialect
Leonese language
Galician language