The Mirandese language ( mwl, mirandés, links=no or ''lhéngua mirandesa''; pt, mirandês or ) is an
Astur-Leonese
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 Astu ...
language or language variety that is sparsely spoken in a small area of northeastern
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 th ...
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 di ...
(made up of the municipalities of
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 ...
,
Mogadouro
Mogadouro (, ) is a municipality in Portugal. The population in ''2011'' was 9,542, in an area of 760.65 km2.
History
The history of Mogadouro is evident in the number of castros that dot the landscape of region from the neolithic period. ...
and
Vimioso
Vimioso (, ) is a municipality in the district of Bragança in the northern part of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 4,669, in an area of 481.59 km². It is recognised as having a significant number of Mirandese
The Mirandese languag ...
). The
Assembly of the Republic granted it official recognition alongside
Portuguese for local matters on 17 September 1998 with the law 7/99 of 29 January 1999. In 2001, Mirandese was officially recognised by the
European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages The European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages (EBLUL) was a non-governmental organisation that was set up to promote linguistic diversity and languages. It was founded in 1982 and discontinued in 2010. The organisation had close ties with both the E ...
, which aims to promote the survival of the least spoken European languages.
Mirandese has a distinct
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
,
morphology and
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
. It has its roots in the local
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
spoken in the northern
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
.
Mirandese is a descendant of the Astur-Leonese variety spoken in the
Kingdom of León
The Kingdom of León; es, Reino de León; gl, Reino de León; pt, Reino de Leão; la, Regnum Legionense; mwl, Reino de Lhion was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 when t ...
and has both archaisms and innovations that differentiate it from the modern varieties of Astur-Leonese spoken in Spain. In recognition of these differences, and due to its political isolation from the rest of the Astur-Leonese speaking territory, Mirandese has adopted a different written norm to the one used in Spain for Astur-Leonese.
History
In the 19th century,
José Leite de Vasconcelos
José Leite de Vasconcelos Cardoso Pereira de Melo (7 July 1858 – 17 May 1941) was a Portuguese ethnographer, archaeologist and prolific author who wrote extensively on Portuguese philology and prehistory. He was the founder and the first di ...
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. By Law 7/99, Mirandese was given official recognition by the
Assembly of the Republic alongside Portuguese. The law provides for its promotion and allows its usage for local matters in
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 ...
.
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 () 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 ...
and in some eastern villages (such as Vilar Seco and
Angueira
Angueira is a former civil parish in the municipality (''concelho'') of Vimioso, continental Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Caçarelhos e Angueira. The population in 2011 was 116, in an area of 22.18 km². ); in Caçarelhos, it is considered recently extinct of the Municipality of
Vimioso
Vimioso (, ) is a municipality in the district of Bragança in the northern part of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 4,669, in an area of 481.59 km². It is recognised as having a significant number of Mirandese
The Mirandese languag ...
, and some linguistic influence can be observed at other villages of the municipality of Vimioso and the municipalities of
Mogadouro
Mogadouro (, ) is a municipality in Portugal. The population in ''2011'' was 9,542, in an area of 760.65 km2.
History
The history of Mogadouro is evident in the number of castros that dot the landscape of region from the neolithic period. ...
,
Macedo de Cavaleiros
Macedo de Cavaleiros () is a city and municipality in northeastern Portugal, in Bragança District. The population in 2011 was 15,776, in an area of 699.14 km².
History
During antiquity, the region was occupied by the Celts, then Romans an ...
and
Bragança.
Variants
Three
variants
Variant may refer to:
In arts and entertainment
* ''Variant'' (magazine), a former British cultural magazine
* Variant cover, an issue of comic books with varying cover art
* ''Variant'' (novel), a novel by Robison Wells
* "The Variant", 2021 e ...
of the Mirandese language exist: Border Mirandese (''Mirandés Raiano''), Central Mirandese (''Mirandés Central'') and Sendinese (''Sendinés''). Most speakers of Mirandese also speak Portuguese.
The main differences between Mirandese in Portugal and the Astur-Leonese languages in
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")
, ...
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. 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
Some historical developments in Mirandese are the following:
*Mirandese maintains distinct reflexes of all seven medieval
Ibero-Romance
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 ...
sibilants:
::
: and indicate
apico-alveolar
An apical consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the tip of the tongue (apex) in conjunction with upper articulators from lips to postalveolar, and possibly prepalatal. It contrasts with laminal conson ...
sibilants (as in modern Catalan, northern/central peninsular Spanish and coastal northern European Portuguese), while and are dentalized laminal alveolar sibilants (as in most modern Portuguese, French and English). The unrelated
Basque language also maintains a distinction between and (Basque has no voiced sibilants), which suggests that the distinction originally was an
areal feature
In geolinguistics, areal features are elements shared by languages or dialects in a geographic area, particularly when such features are not descended from a proto-language, or, common ancestor language. That is, an areal feature is contrasted to ...
across
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese language, Aragonese and Occitan language, Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a pe ...
.
:Portuguese spelling still distinguishes all seven and is identical to Mirandese spelling in this respect, but in pronunciation, Portuguese has reduced them to four except in northern hinterland
European Portuguese
European Portuguese ( pt, português europeu, ), also known as Portuguese of Portugal ( Portuguese: português de Portugal), Iberian Portuguese ( Portuguese: português ibérico), and Peninsular Portuguese ( Portuguese: português peninsular), re ...
dialects, including those of the area that Mirandese is spoken. Northern/central Peninsular Spanish has also reduced them to four but in quite a different way: .
Western Andalusian Spanish and
Latin American Spanish
The different varieties of the Spanish language spoken in the Americas are distinct from each other as well as from those varieties spoken in the Iberian peninsula, collectively known as Peninsular Spanish and Spanish spoken elsewhere, such as in ...
have further reduced them to three: .
*Retention of the initial from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, 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 ...
, like nearly all dialects of Western Romance (the major maverick being Spanish, where > > ∅).
*As in Portuguese, the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, 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 ...
initial
consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s , , evolve into .
*
Proto-Romance medial clusters and became medial .
*The cluster /-mb-/ is kept.
*Proto-Romance becomes : > ''lume''.
*Falling diphthongs , preserved.
*Final ''-o'' becomes .
*Voiced sibilants are still maintained.
*Retention of intervocalic , .
*
Western Romance
Western Romance languages are one of the two subdivisions of a proposed subdivision of the Romance languages based on the La Spezia–Rimini Line. They include the Gallo-Romance and Iberian Romance branches. Gallo-Italic may also be include ...
, can
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
ize to , (as in
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, and unlike Spanish , ). That happens not only before palatals, as in
Aragonese, but also before nasals.
* is palatalized word-initially (as in other Astur-Leonese languages and in
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
).
Consonants
* Since is only heard as in Mirandese, the sound from Portuguese is only heard from Portuguese loanwords, and there is an addition of an affricate representing the digraph which in Portuguese represents the sibilant sound , however; the sibilants in Mirandese are pronounced differently (see above).
* Sibilant sounds are phonetically apical when orthographically , or as laminal when orthograpically (see above).
* is heard as an alveolar trill in both initial or geminated positions, instead of a uvular sound from Portuguese. It is heard as a tap when single.
*Voiced stops can be lenited as fricatives .
Vowels
All oral and nasal vowel sounds and allophones are the same from Portuguese, with different allophones:
* has allophones of , with , and with and . And with the addition of nasal vowel sounds and for .
* Vowels can become glides when preceding or following other vowels.
Morphology
As in Portuguese, Mirandese still uses the following synthetic tenses:
*Synthetic
pluperfect
The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, is a type of verb form, generally treated as a grammatical tense in certain languages, relating to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time i ...
in ''-ra''.
*
Future subjunctive in ''-r(e)''.
*
Personal infinitive 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.
Protection measures
The following measures have been taken to protect and develop Mirandese:
* allow primary teaching staff in the district of
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 ...
to teach in Mirandese, since 1986/1987, thanks to the ministerial authorisation published on the 9th September 1985;
* publish books in Mirandese and about the Mirandese language, promoted by the Council of
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 ...
;
* facilitate annual celebrations in the city as well as a literary competition, promoted by the Council of
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 ...
;
* use of Mirandese in town celebrations, official commemorations and, occasionally, on social media;
* publish two volumes of the ''
Asterix
''Asterix'' or ''The Adventures of Asterix'' (french: Astérix or , "Asterix the Gaul") is a ''bande dessinée'' comic book series about a village of indomitable Gaulish warriors who adventure around the world and fight the Roman Republic, wi ...
'' comic books;
* translate all the
toponymic
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
signs in
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 ...
, promoted by the Council of
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 2006;
* develop studies by research centres in Portugal, such as "Atlas Linguístico de Portugal", by the Centro de Linguística at
University of Lisbon
The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...
, and "Inquérito Linguístico Boléo", by the
University of Coimbra
The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The u ...
;
* create
Biquipédia, a Mirandese Wikipedia;
* make sites available in Mirandese, such as Photoblog and WordPress.
* Mirandese music was recorded by
Roberto Leal for his albums "Canto da Terra" (2007) and "Raiç/Raíz" (2010).
Sample text
The following is a sample text of the Mirandese language, written by Amadeu Ferreira, and published in the newspaper ''
Público'', on 24 July 2007.
Then a comparison of the previous text in three modern languages of the Asturo-leonese group:
Recognition
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 writer
Amadeu Ferreira, appears in the daily Portuguese national newspaper ''
Público''. The first volume of 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 and published it in 2009. In 2011, the four
Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
s of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
's
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...
were translated into Mirandese, and in 2013 the entire Bible was translated into the language by Domingos Augusto Ferreira.
See also
*
*
Extremaduran language
*
Leonese language
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
Excerpt of ''The Lusiads'' in MirandeseLei n. 7/99 dre.pt– Piece of legislation which officially recognizes Mirandese as a language of Portugal
*Seth Kugel
"In Portugal, Mirandese spoken here—and only here" ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', January 17, 2012
{{Authority control
Endangered Romance languages
Languages of Portugal
Astur-Leonese languages