Mirandese language

Not to be confused with Mirandolese.

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
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

Street sign in Mirandese in Miranda de l Douro, of Rue de la Costanielha, a famous street in Mirandese culture^[1]

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:

Vasconcelos Mirandese (1884)	First official orthography (90's)	Current Mirandese	English
Qĭêm dirĭê q’antre ‘ls matos èiriçados, Las ourrĭêtas i ‘ls ríus d’ésta tĭêrra, Bibĭê, cumo ‘l chaguárço de la ſĭêrra, Ũṅa lhêngua de ſóuns tã bariados ? Mostre-ſe i fále-ſ’ éssa lhêngua, filha D’um póbo qe tĭêm néilha ‘l chóro i ‘l canto ! Nada pur çĭêrto mus câutíba tânto Cumo la fórm’ am qe l’idéia brilha.	Quiên dirie qu'antre ls Matos eiriçados, Las ourriêtas i ls rius desta tiêrra, Bibie, cumo l chaguarço de la siêrra, Ũa lhéngua de sonidos/sons tan bariados? (A)mostre-se i fale-se essa lhéngua, filha Dun pobo que ten neilha l choro i l canto! Nada por ciêrto mos cautiba tanto Cumo la forma an que l'eideia brilha.	Quien dirie qu'antre ls Matos eiriçados, Las ourrietas i ls rius desta tierra, Bibie, cumo l chaguarço de la sierra, Ũa lhéngua/léngua de sonidos/sons tan bariados? (A)mostre-se i fale-se essa lhéngua/léngua, filha Dun pobo que ten neilha l choro i l canto! Nada por cierto mos cautiba tanto Cumo la forma an que l'eideia brilha.	Who'd say that amongst the Bristle bushes, The valleys and the rivers of this land, There lived, like the plants of the mountain range, A language, daughter Of people that have in it the cries and songs! Nothing certainly captivates us as much As the way in which said idea shines.

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.

Map of the singular masculine definite article l in Mirandese and its phonetic variation.

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

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩		ɲ ⟨nh⟩	(ŋ) ⟨ũ⟩[2]
Plosive	voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩			k ⟨c, q⟩
	voiced	b ⟨b⟩	d ⟨d⟩			ɡ ⟨g⟩
Affricate	voiceless				tʃ ⟨ch⟩
Fricative	voiceless	f ⟨f⟩	s̻ ⟨c, ç⟩	s̺ ⟨s, ss⟩	ʃ ⟨x⟩
	voiced		z̻ ⟨z⟩	z̺ ⟨s⟩	ʒ ⟨j⟩
Approximant	central				j ⟨y⟩	(w) ⟨u-⟩
	lateral		l ⟨l⟩		ʎ ⟨lh⟩
Trill				r ⟨r, rr⟩
Tap				ɾ ⟨r⟩

• 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 [β, ð, ɣ].

Vowels

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

Oral vowels Front Central Back Close i ɨ u Near-close ʊ Close-mid e o Open-mid ɛ ɐ ɔ Open a

Nasal vowels Front Central Back Close ĩ ɨ̃ ũ Near-close ʊ̃ Close-mid ẽ õ Open-mid ɛ̃ Near-open ɐ̃

• /a/ has allophones of [ä, ɐ], /e/ with [ɛ, e, ɨ], and /o/ with [ɔ, o, u] and [ʊ]. And with the addition of nasal vowel sounds [ɨ̃] and [ɛ̃] for /ẽ/.
• Vowels /i, u/ can become glides [j, w] when preceding or following other vowels.

Dialectal variations

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

Dialect	Sentence	IPA	Meaning
Raiano	Hai más fuogo alhá, i ye deimingo!	ˈaj ˈmas̺ ˈfwo.ɣʊ/u/ˈfwo.ʊ/u ɐˈʎa, ˈi ˈje dejˈmĩ.gʲʊ/u	'there's more fire over there, and it's Sunday!'
Central	Hai más/mais fuogo alhá, i ye deimingo!	ˈaj ˈmas̺/ˈmajs̺ ˈfwo.ɣʊ/u ɐˈʎa, i je dejˈmĩ.gʊ/u	'there's more fire over there, and it's Sunday!'
Sendinese	Hai más fuogo alá, i ye demingo!	ˈaj ˈmas̺ ˈfu.ɣʊ/u ɐˈla, ˈi ˈ(j)i dɨˈmʊ̃j̃.gʲʊ/u	'there's more fire over there, and it's Sunday!'

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

Portuguese of Campo de Víboras	Mirandese	Rest of Trás-Os-Montes/Standard Portuguese	English Translation
alcaforro	alcaforro	abutre	vulture
amalinado	amalinado	adoentado	sick
anubrado	anubrado	nublado	cloudy
assomar	assomar	espreitar (false friend with Portuguese assomar)	to peek
bardeiro	bardeiro	vassoura	broom
betxe	beche	bode (false friend with Portuguese beche)	billy-goat
botxe	boche	bofe	lung (vulgar)
catxo	cacho	bocado	bit
canhona	canhona	ovelha	sheep
carambelo	carambelo	gelo	ice
txafurgo	chafurgo	mergulho	dive
curgidoso	curjidoso	curioso/desenrascado	curious/resourceful
d’apeto	(d’)apeto	de propósito	on purpose
desinjum	zinjun	pequeno-almoço/desjejum (rare)	breakfast
emantes	mentes	enquanto	while
(ele) fai	(el) fai	(ele) faz	(he) does
forfalha	forfalha	migalha	crumb
guitxo	guicho	esperto/alerta	smart/alert
ai	hai	há	there is
scuma	scuma	espuma	foam

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 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.

Mirandese	Portuguese	English
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.	Muitas línguas têm orgulho 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 orgulho de nada disso, como é o caso da língua mirandesa.	Many languages take pride in their ancient scrolls, their centuries-old literature, and in famous writers, today standards of those languages. But there are others which can't boast of any of this, as in the case of Mirandese.

Then a comparison of the previous text in three modern languages of the Asturo-leonese group:

Mirandese	Leonese	Asturian
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.	Muitas llinguas tien arguyu de los sous pergaminos antiguos, de la lliteratura escrita van cientos d'annos y d'escritores bien famosos; guei bandeiras d'eisas llinguas. Peru hai outras que nun pueden tener arguyu de nada d'eisu, cumu ye'l casu de la llingua mirandesa.	Munches llingües tienen arguyu de los sos pergaminos antiguos, de la lliteratura escrita hai cientos d'años y d'escritores enforma famosos, güei banderes d'eses llingües. Pero hai otres que nun pueden tener arguyu de nada d'eso, como ye'l casu de la llingua mirandesa.

Old writing

When mirandese was first recognised and a writing system was established, it used to have ⟨â⟩, ⟨ê⟩ and ⟨ô⟩ (like Portuguese) to represent [ɐ], [e] and [o] respectively. It has since fallen in disuse, one of the reasons being that ⟨ô⟩ was utilised in the diphthong ⟨uô⟩, but this writing was only accurate in the Central and Raiano dialect, where it was read [wo], unlike the Sendinese dialect, where it was read [u] or occasionally [ʊu] .

Bilingual sign in the village of Pruoba(Póvoa), previously Pruôba, with old writing, having ⟨ô⟩. Reading Dius bos l pague pula buôssa besita i buôna biaige 'Thank you (literally “God bless you”) for your visit and bon voyage.'

Comparative tables

Latin	Mirandese	Catalan	Gascon	Aragonese	Spanish	Portuguese	Galician	Extremaduran	Leonese	Xalimego	English
altus	alto	alt	haut	alto	alto	alto	alto	artu	altu	altu/cirulalgu, firulalgu	high/tall
quasi	quaije	quasi	quasi	cuasi	casi	quase	case	cuasi, abati	cuasi	caishi/cashi/casi/cuashi/cuasi	almost
dicere	dezir	dir	díser	decir	decir	dizer	dicir	izil	dicire	idil/idel	to say
facere	fazer	fer	har	fer	hacer	fazer	facer	hazel	facere	fel/ficel	to do
focus	fuogo	foc	huec	fuego	fuego	fogo	fogo	hueu	fueu	fogu	fire
flamma	chama	flama	ehlama	flama	llama	chama	chama	flama	chama	chama	flame
legere	lher (ler in Sendinese)	llegir	léger	leyer	leer	ler	ler	leel	lliere	leel/lel	to read
lingua	lhéngua (léngua in Sendinese)	llengua	lengua	luenga	lengua	língua	lingua	luenga/léngua	llingua	lengua	tongue/language
lumbum	lhombo (lombo in Sendinese)	llom	lom	lomo	lomo	lombo	lombo	lombu	llombu	lombu/lomu	loin
mater	mai/madre	mare	mair	mai	madre	mãe	nai	mairi	mai	madri/mairi	mother
merula	mierlo/mielro	merla	mèrlo	merla	mirlo	melro	merlo	mielru	mielru		blackbird
monstrare	amostrar	mostrar	muishar	amostrar	mostrar	mostrar	mostrar	muestral	amuesare	mostral	to show
noster	nuosso	nostre	noste	nuestro	nuestro	nosso	noso	muestru/nuestru	nuesu	nosu	ours
tussis	tuosse	tos	tos	tos	tos	tosse	tose	tossi	tose	tosi	cough

Recognition

Public sign with the history of the Cathedral of Miranda do Douro, written in Mirandese.

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

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 [ŋ] 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, [ŋ] doesn’t have its own letter or digraph, ⟨ũ⟩ representing [ũŋ] or [ʊ̃ŋ]. One could argue that [ŋ] doesn’t even have any symbol representing it, ⟨ũ⟩ representing [ũ] or [ʊ̃] and the reader is supposed to know that the voiced velar nasal exists in said word.

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