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Mirandese
mirandés, lhéngua/léngua mirandesa
Native to	Portugal
Region	Eastern Tierra de Miranda (Miranda de l Douro and eastern Bumioso)
Native speakers	3,500 speakers, 1,500 common users of the language. (2020)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Latin Romance Italo-Western Western Ibero-Romance West Iberian Asturleonese Mirandese
Early forms	Old Latin Vulgar Latin Proto-Romance Old Leonese
Official status
Official language in	Co-official recognition. Special protection status in Miranda de l Douro, Portugal. Statutory language of provincial identity in 4 municipalities, northeast Portugal (1999, Law No. 7-99 of 29 January).
Regulated by	Anstituto de la Lhéngua Mirandesa
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mwl
ISO 639-3	mwl
Glottolog	mira1251
ELP	Miranda do Douro
Linguasphere	51-AAA-cb
Mirandese speaking area, highlighting its three dialects    Central Mirandese    Sendinese Mirandese    Raiano Mirandese
Mirandese is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Mirandese (mirandés [mi.ɾɐ̃ˈdɛs̺; mi.ɾɐnˈdɛs̺]; lhéngua mirandesa [ˈʎɛ̃.gwɐ/ˈʎɛn.gwɐ mi.ɾɐ̃ˈdɛz̺ɐ/ mi.ɾɐnˈdɛz̺ɐ] in Central and Raiano, and léngua mirandesa [ˈlɛ̃.gwɐ/ˈlɛn.gwɐ mi.ɾɐ̃ˈdɛz̺ɐ/ mi.ɾɐnˈdɛz̺ɐ] in Sendinese) is an Asturleonese language or variety that is sparsely spoken in a small area of northeastern Portugal in eastern Tierra de Miranda (made up of the municipalities of Miranda de l Douro, Mogadouro and Bumioso, being extinct in Mogadouro and present in Bumioso only in some eastern villages, like Angueira). The Assembly of the Republic granted it official recognition alongside Portuguese for local matters with Law 7/99 of 29 January 1999. In 2001, Mirandese was officially recognised by the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages, which aims to promote the survival of the least spoken European languages.

Mirandese has a distinct phonology, morphology and syntax. It has its roots in the local Vulgar Latin spoken in the northern Iberian Peninsula.

Mirandese is a descendant of the Astur-Leonese variety spoken in the Kingdom of León 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

Until 1884, Mirandese was a purely spoken language, but in that year, José Leite de Vasconcelos wrote "Flores Mirandézas" (Froles Mirandesas in modern Mirandese, 'Mirandese Flowers'), a book with his own proposal for a Mirandese writing system, with an excessicivity of diacritics, which have helped to know what Mirandese sounded like in the 19th century.

One of the texts in Flores Mirandézas, "LHÊNGUA MIRANDÉZA" 'MIRANDESE LANGUAGE' (LHÉNGUA MIRANDESA in modern Mirandese), transcribed:

In the 19th century, José Leite de Vasconcelos 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.

Today Mirandese retains speakers in most of the villages of the municipality of Miranda de l Douro and in some villages of Bumioso (such as Vilar Seco and Angueira); and some linguistic influence can be observed at other villages of the municipality of Bumioso and the municipalities of Mogadouro, Macedo de Cavaleiros and Bragança.

A 2020 survey by University of Vigo, carried out in Miranda do Douro, estimated the number of speakers of the language to be around 3,500 with 1,500 of them being regular speakers. The study observed strong decline in the usage of language in younger people.

Variants

Three variants of the Mirandese language exist: Border Mirandese (Mirandés Raiano), Central Mirandese (Mirandés Central) and Sendinese (Sendinés). Most speakers of Mirandese also speak Portuguese.

Despite there being a singular writing system for mirandese, there is one aspect that is written differently in different dialects. In the Sendinese dialect, many words that in other dialects are said with /ʎ/ ⟨lh⟩, are said with /l/ ⟨l⟩ (alá for alhá 'over there', lado for lhado 'side', luç for lhuç 'light', amongst others)

The main orthographical differences between Mirandese in Portugal and the Astur-Leonese languages in Spain are caused by the dominant languages in each region. And while Mirandese has been influenced phonetically and in lexicon by Portuguese and the Astur-Leonese languages in Spain by Spanish, they retain more similarities among themselves than to the main languages of each country. 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 sibilants:

Ibero-Romance	Mirandese	European Portuguese	North/Central Spanish
/t͡ʃ/	/t͡ʃ/ ⟨ch⟩	/ʃ/ ⟨ch⟩	/t͡ʃ/ ⟨ch⟩
/ʃ/	/ʃ/ ⟨x⟩	/ʃ/ ⟨x⟩	/x/ ⟨j⟩
/ʒ/ or /d͡ʒ/	/ʒ/ ⟨g⟩ / ⟨j⟩	/ʒ/ ⟨g⟩ / ⟨j⟩	/x/ ⟨g⟩ / ⟨j⟩
/t͡s/ > /s̻/	/s̻/ ⟨c⟩ / ⟨ç⟩	/s̻/ ⟨c⟩ / ⟨ç⟩	/θ/ ⟨c⟩ / ⟨z⟩
/d͡z/ > /z̻/	/z̻/ ⟨z⟩	/z̻/ ⟨z⟩	/θ/ ⟨c⟩ / ⟨z⟩
/s̺/	/s̺/ ⟨s⟩ / ⟨-ss-⟩	/s̻/ ⟨s⟩ / ⟨-ss-⟩	/s̺/ ⟨s⟩
/z̺/	/z̺/ ⟨s⟩	/z̻/ ⟨s⟩	/s̺/ ⟨s⟩

/s̺/ and /z̺/ indicate apico-alveolar sibilants (as in modern Catalan, northern/central peninsular Spanish and coastal northern European Portuguese), while /s̻/ and /z̻/ are dentalized laminal alveolar sibilants (as in most modern Portuguese, French and English). The unrelated Basque language also maintains a distinction between /s̺/ and /s̻/ (Basque has no voiced sibilants), which suggests that the distinction originally was an areal feature across Iberia.

Portuguese spelling still distinguishes all seven and is identical to Mirandese spelling in this respect, but in pronunciation, Portuguese has reduced them to four /s, z, ʃ, ʒ/ except in northern hinterland European Portuguese 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: /t͡ʃ, θ, s̺, x/. Western Andalusian Spanish and Latin American Spanish have further reduced them to three: /t͡ʃ, s̻, x/.

• Retention of the initial /f/ from Latin, like nearly all dialects of Western Romance (the major maverick being Spanish, where /f/> /h/ > ∅).
• As in Portuguese, the Latin initial consonant clusters /pl/, /kl/, /fl/ evolve into /ʃ/.
• Proto-Romance medial clusters -ly- and -cl- became medial /ʎ/.
• The cluster /-mb-/ is kept.
• Proto-Romance -mn- becomes /m/: lūm'nem > lume.
• Falling diphthongs /ei/, /ou/ preserved.
• Final -o becomes /u/.
• Voiced sibilants are still maintained.
• Retention of intervocalic /l/, /n/.
• Western Romance /ɛ/, /ɔ/ can diphthongize to /jɛ/, /wo/ (as in Italian). That happens not only before palatals, as in Aragonese, but also before nasals.
• /l/ is palatalized word-initially (as in other Astur-Leonese languages and in Catalan).

Consonants

• As stated above, the laminal dental sibilants correspond to Portuguese /s, z/. These are spelled c/ç and z. The corresponding alveolar sibilants are apical and are spelled s(s) and s. Furthermore, there is an additional palatal affricate /tʃ/ ch that is distinct from the fricative /ʃ/, spelled x. The voiced /ʒ/ is spelled j or g, as in Portuguese. Standard Portuguese has reduced all those sounds to just four fricatives: /s, z, ʃ, ʒ/.
• The "hard" or "long" R is an alveolar trill /r/, as in other varieties of Astur-Leonese and Spanish. The Portuguese uvular fricative [ʁ] is not found in Mirandese. The "soft" or "short" R is an ordinary alveolar tap [ɾ] commonly found in the Iberian Peninsula. As in other languages spoken in the region, the two contrast only in the word-internal position.
• Voiced stops /b, d, ɡ/ can be lenited as fricatives .

Vowels

All oral and nasal vowel sounds and allophones are the same from Portuguese, with different allophones:

• /a/ has allophones of , /e/ with , and /o/ with and . And with the addition of nasal vowel sounds and for /ẽ/.
• Vowels /i, u/ can become glides when preceding or following other vowels.

Dialectal variations

The main differences between the three mirandese dialects are in the pronunciation of words.

Morphology

As in Portuguese, Mirandese still uses the following synthetic tenses:

• Synthetic pluperfect 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.

Influence on Transmontano Portuguese

Mirandese was formerly spoken in the general area of the district of Bragança (Bergáncia in Mirandese), that speaks the Transmontano dialect of Portuguese. Although Mirandese has been lost in said region, it left some words and phonetic influences behind.

Words used in eastern Trás-Os-Montes of (likely) Mirandese origin

Protection measures

The following measures have been taken to protect and develop Mirandese:

• allow primary teaching staff in the district of Miranda do Douro to teach in Mirandese, since 1986/1987, thanks to the ministerial authorisation published on 9 September 1985;
• publish books in Mirandese and about the Mirandese language, promoted by the Council of Miranda do Douro;
• facilitate annual celebrations in the city as well as a literary competition, promoted by the Council of Miranda do Douro;
• use of Mirandese in town celebrations, official commemorations and, occasionally, on social media;
• publish two volumes of the Asterix comic books;
• translate all the toponymic signs in Miranda do Douro, promoted by the Council of Miranda do Douro in 2006;
• develop studies by research centres in Portugal, such as "Atlas Linguístico de Portugal", by the Centro de Linguística at University of Lisbon, and "Inquérito Linguístico Boléo", by the University of Coimbra;
• create Biquipédia, a Mirandese Misplaced Pages;
• 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:

Old writing

When Mirandese was first officially recognised and a writing system was established, it had ⟨â⟩, ⟨ê⟩ and ⟨ô⟩ (like Portuguese) to represent , and respectively. These have since fallen in disuse, one of the reasons being that ⟨ô⟩ was utilised in the diphthong ⟨uô⟩, but this rendering was only accurate in the Central and Raiano dialect, where it was read , unlike the Sendinese dialect, where it was read or occasionally .

Comparative tables

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 Niebro and published it in 2009. In 2011, the four Gospels of the Bible's New Testament were translated into Mirandese, and in 2013 the entire Bible was translated into the language by Domingos Augusto Ferreira.

See also

• Asturian language
• Extremaduran language
• Leonese language
• Cantabrian language

• Languages
• Portugal

Notes

1. Rue de la Costanielha is a commonly known street in Mirandese speaking regions, even appearing in some traditional songs like L Pandeiro.

2. the voiced velar nasal only appears in the word ũa (a/one in the feminine singular), contractions including it (such as dalgũa or cũa) and all their respective plurals. Therefore, doesn’t have its own letter or digraph, ⟨ũ⟩ representing or . One could argue that doesn’t even have any symbol representing it, ⟨ũ⟩ representing or and the reader is supposed to know that the voiced velar nasal exists in said word.

References

1. "Mirandês "está numa situação muito crítica" e pode desaparecer". Diário de Notícias. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
2. Mirandese language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
3. "Mirandese in Portugal | UNESCO WAL".
4. "Discovering Mirandese". Terminology Coordination Unit. 26 May 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
5. "Lei 7/99, 1999-01-29". Diário da República Eletrónico (in Portuguese). Retrieved 24 January 2020.
6. Svobodová, Petra. "Mirandese language and its influence on the culture of the municipality of Miranda do Douro". Universidade Palacký.
7. Vasconcelos, José leite de (1854-1941) (1884). Flores Mirandezas (in Portuguese).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
8. Goreti Pera (18 December 2016). "'Buonos dies'. Aqui fala-se Mirandês, a língua dos avós e das crianças". Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa (https://ciberduvidas.iscte-iul.pt) (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 September 2021. No concelho, são cerca de 300 os estudantes que frequentam a disciplina opcional de língua mirandesa. Esta é lecionada exclusivamente no Agrupamento de Escolas de Miranda do Douro desde 1986
9. "Mirandês "está numa situação muito crítica" e pode desaparecer". Diário de Notícias. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
10. Alves, António; Barros, Anabela (2015). "Mirandês, leonês, português e castelhano: glotocídio e conciliação". In Macedo, Ana Gabriela; Sousa, Carlos Mendes de; Moura, Vítor (eds.). Conflito e Trauma: XVI Colóquio de Outono (in Portuguese). V. N. Famalicão: Húmus; Centro de Estudos Humanísticos da Universidade do Minho. pp. 413–434.
11. Vasconcelos, José leite de (1854-1941) (1884). Flores Mirandezas (in Portuguese). p. 33.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
12. ^ Ferreira & Raposo (1999).
13. José Guilherme Fernandes Afonso’s (2022) Dicionário de Camponês (e outras falas do Nordeste Transmontano)
14. Aragonario
15. Dicionario da Real Academia Galega. A Coruña: Real Academia Galega.
16. Ismael Carmona García's dictionary (2005) Izionariu castellanu-estremeñu
17. Miroslav Valeš’s dictionary (2021) DICCIONARIU a fala-castellanu
18. "Oito anos para traduzir "Os Lusíadas" em língua mirandesa". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Lusa. 19 August 2010. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
19. Galvan, Virginia (22 March 2013). "Exposição "Bíblia Sagrada" traduzida em mirandês em Miranda do Douro" (in Portuguese). Local.Pt. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.

Further reading

• Vasconcellos, J. Leite de (1900). Estudos de Philologia Mirandesa (in Portuguese). Vol. I. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional.
• Vasconcellos, J. Leite de (1901). Estudos de Philologia Mirandesa (in Portuguese). Vol. II. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional.
• Ferreira, Manuela Barros; Raposo, Domingos, eds. (1999). Convenção Ortográfica da Língua Mirandesa [Orthographic Convention for Mirandese Language] (PDF) (in Portuguese). Miranda do Douro and Lisboa: Câmara Municipal de Miranda do Douro and Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 June 2003.
• Quarteu, Reis; Frías Conde, Xavier (2001). "L Mirandés: Ũa Lhéngua Minoritaira an Pertual" [Mirandese: A Minority Language in Portugal] (PDF). Ianua: Revista Philologica Romanica (in Mirandese). 2: 89–105. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 March 2006.

External links

• Excerpt of The Lusiads in Mirandese
• (in Portuguese) Lei 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, 17 January 2012

• Mirandese language
• Endangered Romance languages
• Languages of Portugal
• Astur-Leonese languages