Leonese language

This article is about the dialects in León, Zamora, and Salamanca provinces. For the wider linguistic area, see Asturleonese language.

Leonese
Llionés
Native toSpain, Portugal
RegionProvinces of León (north and west), Zamora (north-west) in Castilla y León, in Spain,[1][2][3] and the towns of Rionor and Guadramil in northeastern Portugal.[4][5]
EthnicityLeonese
Native speakers
20,000–50,000 (2008)[6][7]
Early forms
Dialects
Official status
Official language in
As of 2010, has special status in the Spanish autonomous community of Castile and León
Language codes
ISO 639-2ast
ISO 639-3ast
Glottologleon1250
Linguasphere51-AAA-cc
IETFast-u-sd-escl
Astur-Leonese is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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A Leonese speaker from Peñaparda in El Rebollar, recorded in Salamanca, Spain

Leonese (Leonese: llionés, Asturian: lleonés) is a set of vernacular Romance language varieties currently spoken in northern and western portions of the historical region of León in Spain (the modern provinces of León, Zamora, and Salamanca), the village of Riudenore (in both Spain and Portugal) and Guadramil in Portugal, sometimes considered another language. In the past, it was spoken in a wider area, including most of the historical region of Leon. The current number of Leonese speakers is estimated at 20,000 to 50,000.[6][7][8] Spanish is now the predominant language in the area.

Leonese forms part of the Asturleonese linguistic group along with dialects of Asturian. The division between Asturian and Leonese is extra-linguistic, as the main divisions within the Asturleonese complex are between eastern and western varieties, rather than between varieties spoken in Asturias and Leon.

  1. ^ Herrero Ingelmo, José Luis (March 2006). "El leonés en Salamanca cien años después" [Ramón Menéndez Pidal and The Leonese dialect] (PDF). In Morala Rodríguez, José Ramón (ed.). Ramón Menéndez Pidal y El dialecto leonés (1906–2006). Ramón Menéndez Pidal y El dialecto leonés. Beltenebros (in Spanish). León, Spain: Instituto Castellano y Leonés de la Lengua. pp. 207–235. ISBN 978-84-935774-5-2.
  2. ^ Llorente Maldonado de Guevara, Antonio (1986). "Las hablas vivas de Zamora y Salamanca en la actualidad". In Alvar López, Manuel (ed.). Lenguas peninsulares y proyección hispánica (in Spanish). Madrid: Fundación Friedrich Ebert; Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana. pp. 107–131. ISBN 9788439872092.
  3. ^ Borrego Nieto, Julio (1996). "Leonés". In Alvar López, Manuel (ed.). Manual de dialectología hispánica: el español de España. Barcelona, Spain: Editorial Ariel. pp. 139–158. ISBN 978-84-344-8217-3.
  4. ^ Menéndez Pidal 1906.
  5. ^ Segura da Cruz, Luísa; Saramago, João; Vitorino, Gabriela (September 1993). "Os dialectos leoneses em território português: coesão e diversidade". Variação Linguística no Espaço, no Tempo e na Sociedade. Encontro Regional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística. Miranda do Douro: Associação Portuguesa de Linguística. pp. 281–293.
  6. ^ a b González Riaño & García Arias 2008.
  7. ^ a b Sánchez Prieto, Raúl (2008). "La elaboración y aceptación de una norma lingüística en comunidades dialectalmente divididas: el caso del leonés y del frisio del norte" (PDF). In Sánchez Prieto, Raúl; Veith, Daniel; Martínez Areta, Mikel (eds.). Mikroglottika Yearbook 2008 (in Spanish). Vol. 1. Peter Lang. pp. 145–153. hdl:10366/19373. ISBN 978-3-631-58027-1.
  8. ^ García Gil 2008, p. 12.