Leonese Language

Leonese Language

The term Leonese (llionés), in the narrow sense adopted in this article, refers to certain vernacular Romance dialects which are spoken in northern and western portions of the historical region of León in Spain (modern provinces of León, Zamora, and Salamanca), and in a few adjoining areas in Portugal. In this narrow sense, Leonese is different from the dialects grouped under Asturian, though there is no clear division in purely linguistic terms. The current number of speakers of Leonese is estimated between about 20,000 and 50,000. The westernmost fringes of the provinces of León and Zamora belong to the territory of the Galician language, though there is dialectal continuity between both linguistic areas.

The Leonese and Asturian dialects have long been recognized as constituting a single language, which is currently called Astur-Leonese (or Asturian-Leonese, etc.) by most scholars, but which formerly was termed just Leonese. For most of the 20th century, linguists (eminent among them Ramón Menéndez Pidal in his landmark 1906 study of the language) spoke of a Leonese language or historical dialect descending from Latin, encompassing two groups: the Asturian dialects on the one hand, and on the other hand, certain dialects spoken in León and Zamora provinces in Spain, plus a related dialect in Trás-os-Montes, Portugal.

Among the Leonese dialects are (from south to north) Mirandese of Miranda do Douro in Portugal, Senabrés, Cabreirés, and Pal.luezu; other Leonese dialects are indicated on the map of dialects below. Nowadays, Mirandese is generally discussed separately from the remaining dialects of Leonese since it is not spoken in Spain.

Toponyms and other vocabulary related to Asturian-Leonese show that its linguistic traits had a larger geographical extension in the past, including eastern parts of the León and Zamora provinces, the Salamanca province, Cantabria, Extremadura, and even the Huelva province.

There is no official body that regulates the written Leonese.

Unlike Asturian, the Leonese dialects do not enjoy official institutional promotion.