The Mirandese language (Lhéngua Mirandesa in Mirandese; Língua Mirandesa or Mirandês in Portuguese) is spoken in northeastern Portugal. The Portuguese Parliament granted it official recognition on 17 September, 1998 with the law 7/99 of 29 January, 1999.
Mirandese has a distinct grammatical corpus (independent phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax) and dates from the formation of Portugal (12th century). It has its roots in the spoken Latin of the north of the Iberian Peninsula (Portuguese developed in the northwest). It offers a well-preserved dialect of the ancient Leonese language of northern Iberia, related to the Asturian language, which many consider in its turn as a dialect of Spanish.
However, these amalgamations in the Spanish territory did not affect Mirandese, which preserves distinct languistic differences in relation to both Portuguese and Spanish. Mirandese forms the last remnant of the ancient language of the Kingdom of León.
In the 19th century (1882), José Leite de Vasconcelos, described it as "the language of the farms, of work, home, and love between the Mirandese".
Today Mirandese retains fewer than 5,000 speakers in the villages of the Municipality of Miranda do Douro and in some eastern villages (i.e. Vilar Seco & Angueira; case of Cacarelhos, considered recently extinct) of the Municipality of Vimioso, and some linguisitic influence can be observed at other villages of the municipality of Vimioso and the municipalities of Mogadouro, Macedo de Cavaleiros and Bragança. Three variants of the Mirandese language exist: "Border Mirandese", "Central Mirandese" and "Sendinês Mirandese". Most speakers of Mirandese also speak Portuguese; some of these speak Spanish as well.
Hai lhénguas que to Is dies se muorren i hai lhénguas que to Is dies renácen.
Hai lhénguas cun sous scritores i hai lhénguas de cuntadores.
Hai lhénguas que son de muitos, i hai lhénguas que poucos úsan.
Mas todas eilhas, se son lhénguas de giente, son cumplexas na mesma.
Mirandese > Portuguese Dictionary
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