Leonese dialect
Spoken in
- Indo-European Italic Romanesque Ibero-Romance Asturleonesisch Leonesisch
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Branch
Branch
The Leonese language ( leonesisch llionés ) is a language of the Romance branch of the Indo-European language family and, together with Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan and other languages of the Iberian peninsula, the Ibero-Romance language branch. It belongs, together with the Mirandesischen and the Asturian Leonese or to asturleonesischen language continuum.
Leonesisch is spoken in the Spanish provinces of León and Zamora. In the new Statute of Autonomy of the Autonomous Community of Castile - Leon, to which the said provinces include the Leonese is recognized as being of particular cultural inheritance, without reaching the status of official language. According to UNESCO, the Leonese is threatened with extinction.
Internal linguistic history
As a descendant of Vulgar Latin, the Leonese language has experienced fewer changes compared to the neighboring languages Spanish and Asturian.
Among the most interesting phenomena, which Leonese words were from vulgärlateinischem Erbwortschatz, there are the following sound shifts:
- Palatalization of [n ] and [ l]: lupus > llobu 'Wolf '
- Nubes > nube 'cloud'
- Sonorisation ( change of voicing ): lacus > llagu ' lake '
- Diphthongization of the Latin of [o ] and [ e] under certain conditions: morior > muerru ' ( I ) die '
- Centum > cientu ' hundred '
- Februarius > febreiru ' February '
- Latin group / pl /, / cl /, / fl / is [ ʃ ]: plovere > chovere ( rain )
- Clamare > Chamare ( call )
- Flamma > chama ( flame)
External language history
The Leonese language evolved in the west of the Iberian peninsula from the Vulgar Latin that was spoken by the romanized Asturern who settled near the garrison city of the seventh Roman Legion ( Legio VII Gemina ). The separation from the other Ibero-Romance languages began after the collapse of the Roman Empire and creation of the Christian Kingdom of León, and under the influence of südasturischen substrates and the subsequent Suebian, Visigoth and Mozarabic superstrate.
The first document in leonese language " Nodicia de Kesos ", dated to the year 959 The Leonese language is from the 10th century literary and court language. The law books of most Leonese cities such as León, Zamora, Toro, Castelo Rodrigo, Salamanca and Ledesma or the city and notary documents of the Middle Ages Leonesic are written in this relatively uniform language. In the 14th century was Leonesisch the lingua franca along for hundreds of kilometers in north-south direction extending Vía de la Plata. The modern Leonesisch evolved from the medieval law firm and court language Altleonesisch.
From the 15th century and especially after the union of the kingdoms of Leon and Castile, the Leonese lost its function as a vehicular language of the court in favor of Castilian. However, the language was able to hold in the peasant population of the Leonese cities long as a document from the 17th century proves from the area around Salamanca.
The Leonese language area comprised in the early 19th century, the western and northern rural areas of the modern provinces of León, and Zamora. Nowadays Leonesisch is spoken in the north, west and center of the province of León and in the west of the province of Zamora.
The sociolinguistic situation of the Leonese has improved in recent years: since 2006 supported Leonesischkurse take place in the provincial capitals and in many cities of the province of León by the municipalities or the provincial administrations. There music is being played back on Leonesisch, and in the city of León Leonesisch was introduced into the curriculum planning of state schools.
Vowel system
In the Leonese language there are only three vowels, which can be found at the end of the word.