Description and Dialects
According to various criteria, Cantabrian may include varieties spoken in various parts of Cantabria, in the border areas of Biscay, and in nearby mountain regions of the provinces of Burgos and Palencia. Within Cantabria, the dialect is spoken in the west and some zones of the Valley of Pas and the Valley of Soba in the east.
It is a transition language that can be considered either a dialect of Astur-Leonese, an ancient dialect of Castilian, or an independent Romance language in its own right.
Cantabrian has two subdialects: Western and the Eastern. The dividing zone between the variants is between the Saja River and the Pas. Pas dialect is the Eastern variant with the particularity of being specially well preserved.
Cantabrian was listed in the UNESCO Red Book of the World’s Languages in Danger in 2009, in the Astur-Leonese linguistic group as a definitely endangered language.
Read more about this topic: Cantabrian Dialect
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