Mirandese –the language of the countryside, of home and love

A couple of months ago, I read an article all about Mirandese (Mirandés), stating that it was the second official language of Portugal, after of course, Portuguese. I am incredibly embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of this language. I have worked in the localization industry for 16 years and I should know about this language. Nor had I heard of the other languages spoken in Portugal (Asturian, Barranquian, Caló, Galician, Portuguese Sign Language and Vlax Romani).

Mirandese is an endangered language spoken in the northeastern corner of Portugal and is spoken by just 10,000 or 15,000 people on what is known as the Planalto Mirandês (or Mirandese Plateau), who all also speak Portuguese. This region is geographically divided from the rest of the country by two rivers. This region is referred to as the Miranda do Douro principality and it is actually easier to get to Spain from this region than it is to get to Lisbon and other parts of Portugal.

The interesting thing is that Mirandese does not descend from Portuguese or Spanish, but rather, developed concurrently with them from the so-called mother of all the Romance languages, Latin.

However, Mirandese does have many similarities to Portuguese, as the two languages share a common ancestry and have been spoken side-by-side for centuries. Despite these commonalities, Mirandese has its own phonology, morphology and syntax and is more closely related to Asturian than Portuguese.

In the 1930s, the Mirandese language was outlawed by Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. Many people thought it was a rural and undesirable version of Portuguese but this is not the case. It is a distinct language.

In 1999, the Portuguese Parliament granted Mirandese the status of becoming the second official language of Portugal. In compliance with the Constitution, Portugal officially recognized the “linguistic rights” of the Mirandese community and the “right to preserve and promote the Mirandese language for cultural patrimony, as an instrument of communication and as support to the identity of the Terra da Miranda”.

As a member of the Astur-Leonese language family (the generic name for a group of closely related linguistic varieties in the West Iberian branch of the Romance languages), it is now taught as an elective in the region’s public schools, and bookstores sell a small amount of books written in or translated into Mirandese.

The entire region of the Mirandese Plateau once spoke the Leonese language (this language predates Mirandese) when the area was part of the kingdom of León in the Middle Ages. However, after Portuguese independence in the 12th century, the Mirandese region became isolated enough from the rest of Portugal that efforts to preserve the language began.

Three variants of the Mirandese language exist. They are border Mirandese, Central Mirandese and Sendinese.

Here are some basic greetings in Mirandese:

	Buonas nuites.	Good night.
	Buonas tardes.	Good evening.
	Buonos dies.	Good morning.
	Buonos dies.	Good afternoon.
	L miu saludo!	Greetings!
	Oulá.	Hello.
	Tie	Mrs.
	Tiu	Mr.
	nó	no
	si	yes