Everything about The Mirandese totally explained
The
Mirandese language (autonym:
lhéngua mirandesa;
Portuguese:
língua mirandesa) is a
Romance language sparsely spoken in a small area of northeastern
Portugal, in
Miranda do Douro municipality. The
Portuguese Parliament granted it co-official recognition (along with
Portuguese language) for local matters on
17 September,
1998 with the law 7/99 of
29 January,
1999.
Mirandese has a distinct
phonology,
morphology and
syntax, and has been distinct at least since the formation of Portugal (
12th century). It has its roots in the spoken
Latin of the north of the
Iberian Peninsula (Portuguese developed in the northwest). It is a descendant of the ancient
Leonese language of northern
Iberia, the last remnant of the ancient language of the
Kingdom of León, and closely related to modern
Leonese and
Asturian. However, these
amalgamations in the Spanish territory didn't affect Mirandese, which preserves distinct linguistic differences in relation to both
Portuguese and
Spanish. It shares a great deal of lexicon with regional Portuguese dialects.
Speakers
In the
19th century,
José Leite de Vasconcelos, described it as "the language of the farms, of work, home, and love between the Mirandese". Since 1986/1987 the language is taught to students between the age of 10 and 11, and the language is recovering.
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 and in some eastern villages (for example Vilar Seco & Angueira; in Caçarelhos, it's considered recently extinct) of the Municipality of
Vimioso, and some linguistic influence can be observed at other villages of the municipality of Vimioso and the municipalities of
Mogadouro,
Macedo de Cavaleiros and
Bragança.
Variants
Three variants of the Mirandese language exist: "Border Mirandese", "Central Mirandese" and "Sendinese". Most speakers of Mirandese also speak Portuguese; some of these speak Spanish as well.
The main differences between Mirandese in Portugal and
Asturian or
Leonese in
Spain are caused by the dominant languages in each region. Mirandese has been influenced phonetically and in lexicon by Portuguese and Asturian and Leonese by Spanish. The three also have distinctive orthography that phonetically reflects the respective main national languages. Another difference is that Mirandese and Leonese remain very conservative, while Asturian has changed. The languages are recognized as closely-related (specially Leonese and Mirandese, called also "co-languages"), and in the past they were undoubtedly the same language.
Sample text
The following is a sample text of the Mirandese language, written by Amadeu Ferreira, and published in the newspaper
Público, on the 24th July 2007.
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Muitas lhénguas ténen proua de ls sous pergaminos antigos, de la lhiteratura screbida hai cientos d"anhos i de scritores hai muito afamados, hoije bandeiras dessas lhénguas. Mas outras hai que nun puoden tener proua de nada desso, cumo ye l causo de la lhéngua mirandesa.
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Muitas línguas têm prova dos seus pergaminhos antigos, da literatura escrita há centenas de anos e de escritores muito famosos, hoje bandeiras dessas línguas. Mas há outras que não podem ter prova de nada disso, como é o caso da língua mirandesa.
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Many languages have proof of their ancient scrolls, of the literature written hundreds of years ago and of famous writters, today flags of those languages. But others have no such proofs, as is the case of the Mirandese language.
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National attention
Mirandese, given its status as second official language in Portugal after Portuguese, has been the object, in the last years, of some publicity and attention in the rest of the country. A monthly chronicle in Mirandese, by researcher and writer Amadeu Ferreira, appears in the daily Portuguese national newspaper
Público. The first volume of the
The Adventures of Asterix, named
Asterix, L Goulés (
Asterix the Gaul), was published in a Mirandese translation by Amadeu Ferreira in
2005, and sold all throughout Portugal.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mirandese'.
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