Extremaduran language

Extremaduran
estremeñu
Native to	Spain
Region	Autonomous community of Extremadura
Native speakers	200,000 (500,000 total)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Gallo-Iberian Ibero-Romance West Iberian Astur-Leonese Extremaduran
Language codes
ISO 639-2	roa
ISO 639-3	ext

Extremaduran (estremeñu) is a Romance language, spoken by several thousand people in Spain, in an area covering the northwestern part of the autonomous community of Extremadura and adjoining areas in the province of Salamanca. It should not be confused with the Spanish dialects spoken in most of Extremadura, though it is difficult to establish the boundary between both languages.

Dialects

The linguistic varieties of Extremadura are usually classified in three main branches (Northern or "High" -- artu estremeñu, Central or "Middle" -- meyu estremeñu, and Southern or "Low" -- baju estremeñu). The northern one is usually considered to be the language proper, and is spoken in the northwest of the autonomous region of Extremadura, and the southwest of Salamanca, a province of the autonomous region of Castile and León. The central and southern ones are spoken in Extremadura and in the provinces of Huelva and Seville, in the autonomous region of Andalusia, and are at least since the 18th century Castilian dialects. In the Portuguese town of Barrancos (in the border between Extremadura, Andalusia and Portugal), a dialect of Portuguese heavily influenced by Extremaduran is spoken, known as "barranquenho", the Barranquian dialect. The northern Extremaduran had also a dialectal region in southern Salamanca, the "palra d'El Rebollal", which is almost disappeared.

History

After the union of the kingdoms of León and Castile (into the 'Crown of Castile and León'), the Castilian language (Spanish) slowly replaced Latin as the official language of the institutions, thus relegating Old Leonese to a sign of poverty and ignorance of those who spoke it. Only in Asturias, where the language was born, people were conscious of speaking a language different from Castilian; but even there only some authors used it in their writings.

Probably the cultural upheaval of Spanish-speaking Salamanca's University was the cause of the quick Castilianisation of the eastern parts of this province, so dividing the Astur-Leonese domain between Asturian, Leonese and the Extremaduran in the south of the old Leonese kingdom. The expansion of Spanish also came from the south with the economic revival of the Province of Badajoz.

The late 19th century saw the first serious attempt to write in Extremaduran, up to then an oral language, with the famous poet José María Gabriel y Galán. Born in Salamanca, he lived most of his life in the north of Cáceres, Extremadura. He wrote in a local variant of Extremaduran, full with dialectal remains, but always with an eye on Spanish usage, and also writing most of its works in Spanish.

After that, localisms are the pattern in the attempts to defend the Extremaduran language, to the extent that today only a few people try to revive the language and make northern Extremadura a bilingual region, whereas the government and official institutions think the best solution is for the northwestern Extremadurans to speak a Castilian dialect without any kind of protection. There are also attempts to transform the southern Castilian dialects ("castúo", as some people named it using the famous word which appeared in Luis Chamizo's poems) into a language, which makes even harder to defend the "real" language, and makes it easier for the administration to reject co-officiality and normalisation of Extremaduran. It is in serious danger of extinction:, with only the oldest people speaking its remnants at present, while most of the Extremaduran population ignores the actual delimitation (or even the existence) of the language, as almost all the written media and all the audiovisual media in Spanish.

Phonological characteristics

• General loss of intervocalic d. Ex: mieu
• Substitution of the o, in final position, for u. Ex: oru
• Substitution of the e, in final position, for i. Ex: calli
• Frequently spiration of the f, in initial position. Ex: huendu
• Verbal terminations in l. Ex: dil. Although in some towns such as Las Hurdes, existes the loss of final consontal, in the infinite of verb. Ex : tomá
• Occasional replacement of the consonants l/r or r/l. Ex: craru

Comparative tables

Latin	Italian	French	Spanish	Portuguese	Extremaduran	English
altum	alto	haut	alto	alto	artu	high
quasi	quasi	presque	casi	quase	cuasi	almost
dicere	dire	dire	decir	dizer	izil	to say
facere	fare	faire	hacer	fazer	hazel	to do
focum	fuoco	feu	fuego	fogo	huegu	fire
flammam	fiamma	flamme	llama	chama	flama	flame
legere	leggere	lire	leer	ler	leyel	to read
linguam	lingua	langue	lengua	língua	luenga	language
lumbum	lombo	lombe	lomo	lombo	lombu	loin
matrem	madre	mère	madre	mãe	mairi	mother
mirulum	merlo	merle	mirlo	melro	mielru	blackbird
nostrum	nostro	notre	nuestro	nosso	muestru	ours
tossem	tosse	toux	tos	tosse	tosi	cough

* Note: the words in this comparative square refers only High Extremaduran

Organizations and media

There exists a regional organization in Extremadura, APLEx , which tries to defend the Extremaduran language (and also the Spanish dialects of Extremadura), one journal (Belsana) and one cultural newspaper, Iventia , written in the new unified Extremaduran and the old dialect "palra d'El Rebollal".

Textual example

Extremaduran

El estremeñu es una luenga palrá nel noroesti ela comunidá autónoma d'Estremaúra.

Spanish

El extremeño es una lengua hablada en el noroeste de la comunidad autónoma de Extremadura.

English

Extremaduran is a language spoken in the northwest of the autonomous community of Extremadura.

See also

• Astur-Leonese Group
• Castúo
• Fala language
• Chinato
• Ramón Menéndez Pidal

External links

• Ethnologue report for Extremaduran
• Languages of Spain and map Template:Es icon
• Virtual Library Extremaduran Language Template:Es icon
• APLEx Extremadura Cultural Society
• Iventia.com — A cultural news site in Extremaduran
• Linguistic cartography of Extremadura, which offers 418 linguistic and ethnographic maps on rural lexicon Template:Es icon