Eonavian

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Eonavian

Eonavian or Eonaviego is a term used to refer a set of dialects or falas whose linguistic dominion extends in the zone of Asturias between the Eo

Eo River

The Eo is a river in northwestern Spain. Some 91 km in length, its estuary forms the boundary between the regions of Galicia, Spain and Asturias. The river is known for its salmon fishing....
and Navia rivers (or more exactly Eo and Frexulfe rivers). It includes the Asturian municipalities of Boal

Boal

Boal is a municipality and a civil parish in the Autonomous community of the Principality of Asturias in Spain. It is also the name of the capital of the municipality....
, Castropol

Castropol

Castropol is a small town and municipality in Asturias, Spain....
, Coaña

Coaña

Coa?a is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It lies along the Cantabrian Sea to the north, and is bordered on the south by Boal, on the east by Navia and Villay?n across the Navia River, and on the west by El Franco....
, Eilao, El Franco

El Franco

El Franco is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias. It is bordered on the north by the Cantabrian Sea, and to the west by Tapia de Casariego, to the south by Castropol and Boal, and to the east by Coa?a....
, Grandas de Salime

Grandas de Salime

Grandas de Salime is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It is famous for its hydroelectric dam across the Navia River, forming the Embalse de Salime ....
, Pezós, Samartín d'Ozcos, Santalla de Ozcos, Santiso de Abres, Tapia de Casarego, Taramundi

Taramundi

Taramundi is a municipality in the Principality of Asturias, Spain.It neighbors on the north side with San Tirso de Abres and Vegadeo, on the east side with Villanueva de Oscos and Vegadeo, on the south side with Santa Eulalia de Oscos and Lugo, on the east side with Lugo....
, A Veiga

Vegadeo

Vegadeo is a municipality in the Autonomous Community in the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It is bordered on the north and east by Castropol, on the south by Villanueva de Oscos, Taramundi, and San Tirso de Abres, and on the west by the Eo River and San Tirso municipality....
, Vilanova d'Ozcos, and partially those of Navia, Ibias

Ibias

Ibias is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It is bordered on the north by Allande and A Fonsagranda and Negueira ; on the east by Dega?a and Cangas de Narcea; on the south by Peranzais and Cand?n y on the west by A Fonsagrada and Navia de Suarna ....
, Villayón

Villayón

Villay?n is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It is bordered on the north by Navia , on the west by Coa?a, Boal and Illano, on the east by Vald?s, Tineo y Allande and on the south by Allande....
, and Allande

Allande

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Encyclopedia

Eonavian or Eonaviego is a term used to refer a set of dialects or falas whose linguistic dominion extends in the zone of Asturias between the Eo

Eo River

Boal

Boal is a municipality and a civil parish in the Autonomous community of the Principality of Asturias in Spain. It is also the name of the capital of the municipality....
, Castropol

Castropol

Castropol is a small town and municipality in Asturias, Spain....
, Coaña

Coaña

El Franco

Grandas de Salime

Taramundi

Vegadeo

Ibias

Villayón

Allande

Allande is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. Its capital is Pola de Allande .The municipality is bordered on the north by Villay?n, on the south by Cangas del Narcea and Ibias, to the east by Tineo and to the west by Pesoz, Grandas de Salime and Negueira de Mu?iz ....
. Other terms used include gallego-asturiano (the official term in Asturias, meaning 'Asturian-Galician language') a fala ('the speech', not to be confused with the Fala language

Fala language

Fala is a Romance language from the Portuguese-Galician languages mixed with Leonese language spoken in Spain by about 10,500 people, of which 5,500 live in a valley of the northwestern part of Extremadura near the border with Portugal....
of Extremadura

Extremadura

Extremadura is an autonomous communities in Spain of western Spain whose capital city is M?rida, Spain. It includes the provinces of Spain of C?ceres and Badajoz ....
) and galego de Asturias ('Galician language of Asturias'). The term Eonaviego was first used by the linguist Xavier Frías Conde, and it was himself who translated it as Eonavian in English, Éonavien in French or eonavienc in Catalan. In 2007, the Academy of the Asturian Language accepted the denomination of Eonavian to refer to this Galician-Portuguese

Galician-Portuguese

Galician-Portuguese was a West Iberian languages spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was first spoken in the area between the Bay of Biscay and the Douro River, but it expanded South with the Reconquista....
dialect

Dialect

A dialect is a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class....
.

This set of dialects was traditionally included by linguists as Galician-Portuguese

Galician-Portuguese

Galician language

Galician is a language of the Iberian Romance languages branch, spoken in Galicia , an Autonomous communities of Spain located in northwestern Spain, as well as in small bordering zones in the neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castile and Le?n and in Northern Portugal....
, with some characteristics of Asturian language

Asturian language

Asturian is a Romance language of the West Iberian languages, Astur-Leonese language, spoken in the Spain province of Asturias by the Asturian people....
. That was the opinion of some linguists as Menéndez Pidal, Eugenio Coseriu

Eugenio Coseriu

Eugenio Coseriu was a linguistics that specialized in Romance languages at the University of T?bingen, author of over 50 books, honorary member of the Romanian Academy....
, Luís Lindley Cintra

Luís Lindley Cintra

Lu?s Filipe Lindley Cintra was a prominent figure in Portuguese linguistics.BiographyExternal links...
, Dámaso Alonso

Dámaso Alonso

D?maso Alonso y Fern?ndez de las Redondas was a Spain poet, Philology and Literary Criticism. Though a member of the Generation of '27, his best-known work dates from the 1940s onwards....
or even more recent ones as Francisco Xavier Frías Conde or Xoán Babarro. Nowadays, however, there is a political-linguistic conflict on the identity of the language, between those that prioritize the Asturian identity of this speech and those that continue to prioritize the Galician substratum

Substratum

In linguistics, a stratum or strate refers to a language that influences, or is influenced by another through language contact. A substratum is a language which is influenced by another, while a superstratum is the language that exerts the influence....
. The former, mostly in Asturias, identify Eonavian as a dialect continuum

Dialect continuum

A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater....
between the Asturian and Galician languages, or even a third language spoken only in that area. The latter, mostly in Galicia, identify it as Galician and request the protection which Galician enjoys in Castile and Leon

Castile and León

Castile and Le?n , known formally as the Community of Castile and Le?n is one of the seventeen Autonomous communities of Spain of Spain. It was constructed from Old Castile and Le?n in 1983....
, that protects the dialects of El Bierzo

El Bierzo

El Bierzo is a region in the province of Le?n , Spain. The valley has the administrative status of comarca and its capital is the town of Ponferrada....
in cooperation with the Galician Government

Xunta de Galicia

The Xunta de Galicia is the executive of the autonomous community of Galicia . According to the Galician Statute of Autonomy of 1981, it consists of the President of Galicia, the Vice-President , and the specialized ministers ....
.

In this dialectal area, there are associations supporting each side, such as Asociación Abertal (defending the Galician theory) and Xeira, Fala Viva or Xunta Pola Defensa de la Llingua Asturiana (defending the Asturian theory). Its protection and language policy

Language policy

Many countries have a language policy designed to favour or discourage the use of a particular language or set of languages. Although nations historically have used language policies most often to promote one official language at the expense of others, many countries now have policies designed to protect and promote regional and ethnic langu...
is the responsibility of the Asturian Government and the Secretaría Llingüística del Navia-Eo, a division of the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana responsible for this area. There are two different orthographies for Eonavian, the official one (more Asturian-like) and one made by the Mesa prá Defensa del Galego de Asturias (more Galician-like).

Most of the speakers identify Eonavian as a part of the dialect continuum

Dialect continuum

A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater....
between the Asturian and Galician languages, belonging this dialect to the galician branch of the continuum, but being the frontier dialect.

External links

(Galician theory)
(defending the Galician theory)
(defending the Asturian theory)

Eonavian

See also

External links