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49-542: Phylogenetically, Asturleonese belongs to the West Iberian branch of the Romance languages that gradually developed from Vulgar Latin in the old Kingdom of León . The Asturleonese group is typically subdivided into three linguistic areas (Western, Central and Eastern) that form the vertical Asturleonese region, from Asturias , through León , to the north of Portugal and Extremadura . The Cantabrian Montañes in

98-547: A Castilian base which would have absorbed, or merged with, Leonese and Aragonese. In his works Historia de la Lengua Española ('History of the Spanish language') and especially El español en sus primeros tiempos ('Spanish in its early times'), Menéndez Pidal explains the stages of this process, taking into account the influence Leonese and Aragonese had on the beginnings of modern Spanish. The Asturleonese language originated from Latin, which began to be transmitted through

147-599: A diglossic relationship. During this time, Asturleonese was used in official documents and held a high legal status, a status that would drastically change within the following centuries. In the period of time between the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries, many linguistic dialects were marginalized within the Iberian Peninsula as well as other parts of Europe. Because of this, many linguistic dialects and minorities were marginalized, making it difficult for some languages, such as Asturleonese, to survive, and resulted in

196-465: A distinct divide between the spoken languages of Spanish and Asturian and the written ones. This being said, diglossia exists today within the region of Asturias. While Spanish is the official language, being used in the government and political spheres, the Asturian language survives as the language mainly used in informal and casual conversation in many rural areas within this community. Additionally,

245-571: A major part of the archdiocese of Braga. Miranda, therefore, became the capital of the Trás-os-Montes, seat of the bishopric (that included the residence of the bishop, canons and ecclesiastical authorities), military governorship and civil centre. In 1762, during the Seven Years' War , the army of Charles III of Spain invaded the Trás-os-Montes. During the course of his invasion, the gunpowder magazine (with over 500 barrels of powder)

294-463: A rival episcopal seat in the northeast part of Portugal. By 1680, it was the only ecclesiastical seat in the region. The area was served by a narrow gauge railway, the Sabor line (Linha do Sabor) , which ran over 100 km between Duas Igrejas-Miranda and the southern terminus at Pocinho , where connections could be made to the main line to Oporto . The Sabor line closed in 1988. Miranda do Douro

343-460: A study conducted in 1991 on the specific Asturian dialect, showed that there could be as many as 450,000 speakers within the Asturias region, with about 60,000 to 80,000 able to read and write the language. The same study indicated that another 24 percent of the population could understand Asturian. This also explains the diverse range of knowledge and familiarity that those within the region have of

392-414: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Indo-European languages -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Miranda do Douro Miranda do Douro ( European Portuguese: [miˈɾɐ̃dɐ ðu ˈðo(w)ɾu] ; Mirandese : Miranda de l Douro [miˈɾɐ̃dɐ ðɨl ˈdowɾʊ] ; Spanish : Miranda de Duero ) is a city and a municipality in

441-470: Is a cultural heritage that will be the subject of special respect and protection." Additionally, article 4 of the Asturian Statute of Autonomy states that, "The Asturian language will enjoy protection. Its use, teaching and diffusion in the media will be furthered, whilst its local dialects and voluntary apprenticeship will always be respected." In light of these stated provisions of the 1/1998, on

490-556: Is a language that exists as distinct linguistic varieties. Within this macrolanguage, the Western and Eastern dialects share some linguistic characteristics with Galaicoportuguese and Spanish respectively. The boundaries of the Asturleonese language extend through Asturias, Leon, Zamora, and Miranda do Douro. However, the language is not just the sum of Asturian, Leonese, Zamorano, and Mirandan dialects; in purely linguistic terms,

539-421: Is completely opposite: hot and dry with maximum temperatures hovering around 30 °C (86 °F). Administratively, the municipality is divided into 13 civil parishes ( freguesias ): Miranda do Douro is twinned with: The city has been isolated from the rest of the country for many centuries, so the ancestral way of life is still vivid in the traditions and even in the language (see below). Apart from

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588-559: Is located in a region that skirts the border between the Portuguese Trás-os-Montes region, and the Spanish autonomous community of Castile and León . The relief in this region is influenced by hard quartzite deposits near the border region, making erosion difficult, resulting in high escarpments and cliffs. The soils are composed of schists and granite bedrocks. The Parque Natural do Douro Internacional (English: Douro International Nature Park ), which encompasses

637-421: Is still not regarded as an official language today. However, the language is optional at school, where it is widely studied. The Spanish Constitution recognizes the existence of vehicular languages and the need for the protection of existing dialects within the national territories. In article 3.3 of the constitution, the document concretely states that "the richness of the distinct linguistic modalities of Spain

686-408: Is taught in public schools in the few areas where Mirandese is natively spoken. Initially thought to be a basilect of Portuguese, José Leite de Vasconcelos studied Mirandese and concluded it was a separate language from Portuguese. Linguistically, it is considered that within the dominion of Asturleonese, the known dialects such as Leonese, Asturian, or Mirandese form a macrolanguage. A macrolanguage

735-706: 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 is a West Iberian creole language spoken in the Dutch West Indies and believed to be derived from Portuguese , Judaeo-Portuguese and Spanish . Bold indicates language families . Daggers indicate extinct languages. This article about Romance languages

784-572: The Bronze Age . Around AD 716, the Moors defeated local Visigothic tribes, and occupied some of the lands, calling the area Mir-Hândul . By the late 11th century, León possessed the region as a stepping-stone to Portugal . The settlement of the village of Miranda developed through the initiative of King Denis , in an area that lay between the lateral slopes of the Douro and Fresno Rivers . It

833-627: The district of Bragança , northeastern Portugal . The population in 2011 was 7,482, in an area of 487.18 km . The town proper had a population of 1,960 in 2001. Referred to as the "Cidade Museu" of the Trás-os-Montes region, it is located 86 kilometres from Bragança , preserving many of its medieval and Renaissance-era traditions and architecture. It has a language of its own, Mirandese , which enjoys official status in Portugal, in addition to cultural and historical discontinuity with

882-701: The 23 March, the Use and Promotion of the Asturleonese Language serves this purpose; promoting the use of the language, its knowledge within the educational system, as well as its dissemination in media. However, Asturleonese continues to have a very limited presence in the public administration. In Portugal, the related Mirandese dialect is recognized by the Assembly of the Republic as a co-official language along with Portuguese for local matters, and it

931-603: The Asturleonese language, as there exist some speakers, some who can only understand the language, and a very small portion of the population who are able to read and write. West Iberian languages Occitano-Romance : West Iberian is a branch of the Ibero-Romance languages that includes the Castilian languages ( Spanish , Judaeo-Spanish ), Astur-Leonese ( Asturian , Leonese , Mirandese , Extremaduran (sometimes), Cantabrian ), Navarro-Aragonese and

980-511: The East and Extremaduran in the South have transitional traits with Spanish (northern Spanish for Cantabrian, southern Spanish for Extremaduran). There are differing degrees of vitality of the language for each region in the area: Asturias and Miranda do Douro have historically been the regions in which Asturleonese has been the best preserved. Leonese (used interchangeably with Asturleonese )

1029-592: The Germanic kingdoms of Iberia that Latin came to be the commonly spoken language of the area. Along with many linguistic similarities to Latin, the Asturian language also has distinct characteristics that can be linked back to the Cantabrian Wars , a conflict in which the former inhabitants of Leon and Asturias fought against the incorporation of the Roman culture. These two linguistic influences, together with

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1078-619: The Portuguese Republic officially recognised the language in 1999. It is administered by the Anstituto de la Lhéngua Mirandesa . There is no known, exact number of Asturleonese speakers, as not enough statistical research has been conducted in this area and many dialects are not accounted for due to their close similarities with Spanish. It is believed that there are over 100,000 Asturian speakers within Spain and Portugal. However,

1127-467: The Portuguese state as co-official with Portuguese for local matters, and an estimate of between 10,000 and 15,000 people speak the language. Miranda do Douro is in the middle of Douro International Natural Park , also known as Parque Natural do Douro Internacional in Portuguese, which is a protected natural area located in northeastern Portugal and northwestern Spain . The natural park promotes

1176-596: The Roman legions in Asturica Augusta as well as the Roman Sixth (Hispanian) Legion . The adoption of Latin by the Astures , who inhabited the area, was a slow but inevitable process, as the use of the colonial language was the key to obtaining equal rights; the most important priority, at the time, being to earn Roman citizenship. However, like the rest of the peninsula, it was not until the establishment of

1225-560: The descendants of Galician-Portuguese . Until a few centuries ago, they formed a dialect continuum covering the western, central and southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula—excepting the Basque and Catalan-speaking 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 since

1274-418: The distance, the weather conditions are also an adversary, as it is very cold and snowy in winter, and very dry and hot in summer. Gastronomy is one of the local hallmarks, well within the tradition of Trás-os Montes. "Posta à Mirandesa", a heavy, thick steak, is the traditional dish, known and imitated through the rest of the country. The wine from the region has a high alcoholic graduation (17–18°) and matches

1323-559: The early 12th century, unification of Spain 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

1372-453: The expansion and the subsequent regression of vernacular languages, would determine the linguistic evolution in the northwestern part of the peninsula. The vocabulary of Asturleonese contains pre-romanic elements that survived the later romanization of the area, as well as including pre-Indoeuropean elements that were only maintained through toponymy. For a long time, during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, Latin and Asturian co-existed within

1421-476: The farms, work, home, and love between the Mirandese," noting that it was a fully separate language from Portuguese. Since 1986/87 the language has been taught to students between the ages of 10 and 11, and Mirandese is now recovering. Today Mirandese has fewer than 5,000 speakers (but the figure goes up to 15,000 if one includes second language speakers). Portugal took a further step in protecting Mirandese when

1470-406: The fragmentation of others. During the nineteenth century, the Asturian territories were included as part of the Spanish circle. During this time, Spanish thrived as a language of prestige and culture, which led to its progressively replacing Asturleonese in these areas, as well as with Galician in neighboring Galicia, leaving it to mainly oral usage. Consequently, there existed, and still exists,

1519-533: The language is officially named, was recognized as a language in need of special protection by the local government. In 1994 there were 100,000 first language speakers and 450,000 second language speakers able to speak or understand Asturian. However, the outlook for Asturian remains critical, with a large decline in the number of speakers in the last 100 years. At the end of the 20th century, the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana undertook initiatives designed to provide

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1568-533: The language is often offered as an elective subject in schools throughout the linguistic region. Asturleonese only recently received recognition in the municipality of Miranda do Douro by virtue of Portuguese law 7/99 on 29 January 1999, although merely as a language that should continue to be protected and preserved, not awarding it any official status. Meanwhile, Catalan , Basque , and Galician were all granted official status in their respective regions in 1978. Therefore, there exists some tension, as Asturleonese

1617-524: The language with most of the tools needed to survive in the modern era: a grammar , a dictionary and periodicals . A new generation of Asturian writers has championed the language. These developments have given Asturian greater hope of survival. Leonese was probably spoken in a much larger area in the Middle Ages, roughly corresponding to the old Kingdom of León . As the Castilian language became

1666-543: The largest towns of León , Zamora and Salamanca provinces. Leonese's desperate reality as a minority language has driven it to an apparent dead end, and it is considered a Seriously Endangered Language by UNESCO . There are some efforts at language revival aimed at the urban population (the Leonese Council has made campaign to encourage young people to learn Leonese). Some experts think Leonese will be dead in two generations. In spite of all these difficulties,

1715-550: The low social and political acceptance of referring to the language in Asturias as Leonese , and in other parts of the domain (such as León or Zamora ) as Asturian (even though it is virtually the same language), a significant part of the authors and specialists prefer to refer to all the dialects collectively as Asturllionés or Asturleonés , although others continue to use the regional terms (like Leonese, Asturian, Mirandese, etc.). Much effort has been made since 1974 to protect and promote Asturian. In 1981 Asturian, or Bable , as

1764-435: The main divisions of Asturleonese have north-south boundaries and form three separate sections that are shared between Asturias and Leon: occidental, central, and oriental. Only through a second level of analysis were smaller sections able to be distinguished. The political and administrative entities and linguistic spaces rarely coincide, as it is most common that languages go beyond borders and do not coincide with them. Given

1813-469: The main language in Spain, the linguistic features of the Leonese language retreated progressively westwards. In the late 1990s several associations unofficially promoted Leonese language courses. In 2001 the Universidad de León (University of León) created a course for Leonese teachers, and local and provincial governments developed Leonese language courses for adults. Nowadays Leonese can be studied in

1862-430: The most important towns that skirted the Trás-os-Montes region. The Castilians occupied Miranda do Douro during the late 14th century, and would remain there until they were expelled by John I of Portugal . On 10 July 1545, King John III elevated Miranda do Douro to the status of city, at the same time becoming the first diocese in Trás-os-Montes (in a papal bull on 22 May 1545 by Pope Paul III, which segmented

1911-649: The municipalities of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo , Freixo de Espada à Cinta , Miranda do Douro and Mogadouro , includes an area of 85,150 hectares (328.8 sq mi), along the border portion of the Douro River. It was created on 11 May 1998 to encompass the constituent territories that encompass the Rivers Douro and Águeda, along the Spain-Portugal border that include similar geological and climatic conditions, and to help support flora and fauna in

1960-520: The number of young people learning and using Leonese (mainly as a written language) has increased substantially in recent years. The Leonese City Council promotes Leonese language courses for adults. Leonese is taught in sixteen schools in Leon. Leonese has special status in the Statute of Autonomy of Castile and León . In the 19th century, José Leite de Vasconcelos described Mirandese as "the language of

2009-464: The region goes: Em Miranda há nove meses de Inverno e três de Inferno ("In Miranda there are nine months of winter and three months of Hell") . Summers tend to be dry and warm; while winters are rigorously cold with some snowfall, having average minimum temperatures hovering around 0 °C (32 °F) in January, and frequently falling negative, with 70 days of frost per year on average. The summer

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2058-493: The region, while allowing appropriate human activities. The creation of the complementary Parque Natural de Arribes in Spain, allowed the systematic protection of an area that encompassed the larger ecosystem and biome. Miranda do Douro has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ( Csb ). Due to its inland location in the Nordeste Transmontano , the area experiences extreme weather fluctuations. A common saying of

2107-500: The regional cuisine well. The city's old quarter, with the cathedral, dates back to the Middle Ages . Most houses are small and one story high. Inside the old city proper lie the town hall and museum, the "Museu da Terra de Miranda" (museum of the lands of Miranda), which has displays of archaeological findings, farm life, local clothing, and traditional masks. The city has no industries but depends on commercial activity, mainly

2156-515: The rest of the Portuguese state. The town is located on the border with Spain , with the Douro River separating the two countries. The nearest town in Spain is Zamora . The present mayor is Artur Manuel Rodrigues Nunes ( Socialist ). The municipal holiday is on 10 July. The origin of Miranda do Douro as a populated place is still discussed by historians, but archeologist discoveries give evidence that inhabitants had been living there during

2205-538: The sale of house textiles and cutlery from the village of Palaçoulo . Spaniards come in great number on holidays and weekends. There are several hotels, among them the Pousada de Santa Catarina, which overlooks the Douro River. The surrounding area is home to the speakers of Mirandese ( Mirandês ), a language of the Astur-Leonese family, related to Asturian and Leonese . Mirandese was recognised in 1999 by

2254-530: The unique ecological and cultural heritage of the region. The park is situated along the Douro River , which forms the border between Portugal and Spain for a significant portion of its course. It covers an area of approximately 85,000 hectares (210,000 acres), with about two-thirds of the park located in Portugal and the remaining third in Spain . The walking trail from Miranda do Douro to São João das Arribas

2303-442: Was hit by a cannon, destroying the four towers of the castle and many of the barrios in the vicinity. Approximately a third of the city's population (about 400 residents) were killed, resulting in the ruin of the religious, demographic and urbanized portion of Miranda. It was almost two years later (1764) that friar Aleixo Miranda Henriques (then the twenty-third bishop) would abandon Miranda, moving to Bragança , which had become

2352-665: Was in Miranda that the Treaty of Alcanices was signed between Denis and Ferdinand IV of Castile , setting the border between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile . Miranda was founded on 18 December 1286, and immediately elevated to the status of vila (English: town ), with one of its prerequisites declaring that the administrative division would be a Crown fief. From that period forward, Miranda became progressively one of

2401-475: Was once regarded as an informal dialect ( basilect ) that developed from Castilian Spanish , but in 1906, Ramón Menéndez Pidal showed it developed from Latin independently, coming into its earliest distinguishable form in the old Kingdom of León . As is noted by the Spanish scholar Inés Fernández Ordóñez, Menéndez Pidal always maintained that the Spanish language (or the common Spanish language, la lengua común española , as he sometimes called it) evolved from

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