West Iberian is a branch of the

Ibero-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 ...

that includes the

Castilian languages The Castilian languages are Castilian (Spanish) and its closest relatives. Besides derivatives of Spanish such as Judaeo-Spanish and Amazonic Spanish, this refers principally to Extremaduran, a partially mutually intelligible language that is ...

( Spanish,

Judaeo-Spanish Judaeo-Spanish or Judeo-Spanish (autonym , Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew script: , Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: ), also known as Ladino, is a Romance languages, Romance language derived from Old Spanish language, Old Spanish. Originally spoken in Spain ...

, Extremaduran (sometimes) and Loreto-Ucayali),

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 ...

( Asturian, Leonese,

Mirandese The Mirandese language ( mwl, mirandés, links=no or ''lhéngua mirandesa''; pt, mirandês or ) is an Astur-Leonese language or language variety that is sparsely spoken in a small area of northeastern Portugal in Terra de Miranda (made up of ...

, Extremaduran (sometimes) and Cantabrian),UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
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 Astu ...

. and the descendants of

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 Romance language spoken in the Middle ...

( Portuguese, Galician, Eonavian, Fala, Minderico, Cafundó, and

Judaeo-Portuguese Judaeo-Portuguese, or Judeo-Lusitanic, is said to be the extinct Jewish language that was used by the Jews of Portugal. See also * History of the Jews in Portugal * Spanish and Portuguese Jews * Lusophone * Lusitanic * Pallache family "Pa ...

). Pyrenean–Mozarabic ( Aragonese and Mozarabic) may also be included. Until a few centuries ago, they formed a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...

covering the western, central and southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula—excepting the Basque and

Catalan-speaking Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as ''Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spa ...

territories. This is still the situation in a few regions, particularly in the northern part of the peninsula, but due to the differing sociopolitical histories of these languages (independence of

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 ...

since the early 12th century, unification of

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") , ...

in the late 15th century under the Catholic Monarchs, who privileged Castilian Spanish over the other Iberian languages), Spanish and Portuguese have tended to overtake and to a large extent absorb their sister languages while they kept diverging from each other. There is controversy over whether the members of the modern Galician-Portuguese and Astur-Leonese sub-groups are languages or dialects. A common, though disputed, classification is to state that Portuguese and Galician are separate languages, as are Asturian, Leonese, and Mirandese. Cantabrian and Extremaduran are considered codialects of the Leonese language for UNESCO, whereas the latter is a Castilian dialect in the ISO codes.

Papiamento Papiamento () or Papiamentu (; nl, Papiaments) is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken in the Dutch Caribbean. It is the most widely spoken language on the Caribbean ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao), with official status in Arub ...

is a West Iberian creole language spoken in the Dutch West Indies and believed to be derived from Portuguese,

, Spanish and

Classification

Bold indicates

language families A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hi ...

. Daggers indicate extinct languages. *West Iberian ** Asturleonese *** Asturian *** Leonese ***

*** Extremaduran *** Cantabrian ** Barranquenho ** Castilian *** Extremaduran ***

*** Loreto-Ucayali *** Spanish **

*** Eonavian *** Fala *** Galician ***

*** Portuguese **Pyrenean–Mozarabic ***

Andalusi Romance Mozarabic, also called Andalusi Romance, refers to the medieval Romance varieties spoken in the Iberian Peninsula in territories controlled by the Islamic Emirate of Córdoba and its successors. They were the common tongue for the majority of ...

*** Aragonese ***

Judaeo-Aragonese Judaeo-Aragonese (Aragonese: ''Chodigo-Aragonés'') was a Judaeo-Romance language, a Jewish language that was derived from Aragonese. It was used by Spanish Jews in north-central Spain from the mid-8th century to the 1492 Alhambra Decree, wh ...

***

Navarro-Aragonese Navarro-Aragonese is a Romance language once spoken in a large part of the Ebro River basin, south of the middle Pyrenees, although it is only currently spoken in a small portion of its original territory. The areas where it was spoken might have ...

Notes and references

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:West Iberian Languages