Mirandese language

Not to be confused with Mirandolese.

The Mirandese language or lhéngua mirandesa is an Astur-Leonese language or language variety^[3] that is sparsely spoken in a small area of northeastern Portugal in Terra de Miranda (made up of the municipalities of Miranda do Douro, Mogadouro and Vimioso).

Mirandese
mirandés
Native to	Portugal
Region	Terra de Miranda (Miranda do Douro, Vimioso and Mogadouro)
Native speakers	(15,000 cited 2000)[1] (10,000 use it regularly, 5,000 when they return to the area)[2]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Ibero-Romance West Iberian Asturleonese Mirandese
Official status
Official language in	Co-official recognition. Special protection status in Miranda do Douro, Portugal. Statutory language of provincial identity in 4 municipalities, northeast Portugal (1999, Law No. 7-99 of 29 January).[2]
Regulated by	Anstituto de la Lhéngua Mirandesa
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mwl
ISO 639-3	mwl
Glottolog	mira1251
ELP	Miranda do Douro
Linguasphere	51-AAA-cb
Locator map of the Miranda do Douro municipality, which harbors the vast majority of Mirandese speakers.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Street sign in Genísio, with the street name in Mirandese and in Portuguese

Recognition

The Assembly of the Republic granted it official recognition alongside Portuguese for local matters on 17 September 1998 with the law 7/99 of 29 January 1999.^[4] In 2001, Mirandese was officially recognised by the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages, which aims to promote the survival of the least spoken European languages.^[5]

Roots

Mirandese has a distinct phonology, morphology and syntax. It has its roots in the local Vulgar Latin spoken in the northern Iberian Peninsula.

Mirandese is a descendant of the Astur-Leonese variety spoken in the Kingdom of León and has both archaisms and innovations that differentiate it from the modern varieties of Astur-Leonese spoken in Spain. In recognition of these differences, and due to its political isolation from the rest of the Astur-Leonese speaking territory, Mirandese has adopted a different written norm to the one used in Spain for Astur-Leonese.