Asturian Language Guide

Also spoken in
Spain
Script
Latin

Where it's spoken

Asturian is described as the vernacular language of the Principality of Asturias, an autonomous community in northern Spain. Regional law calls it the "traditional language of Asturias" and says it "will enjoy protection". It is not an official language of the Principality: although it can be studied in schools, it coexists with Spanish in an unequal degree of use, mainly because it has not been recognized as an official language.

The same law gives all citizens the right to use Asturian and to express themselves in it, orally and in writing, and treats its use in citizens' oral or written communications with the Principality as valid for all purposes. According to the Mercator dossier, Asturian is also spoken to the north and west of the city of León and to the west of the city of Zamora. The IPA Illustration says that Astur-Leonese was historically spoken in parts of the Spanish provinces of León and Zamora and that there are still remnants of it.

The most prominent dialects follow geography: Western, Central and Eastern Asturian. Central Asturian is considered the most representative and has been the base of the vowel and consonant standard. The Academy of the Asturian Language has been responsible for the standardization of the language for decades.

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Script & pronunciation

Asturian is written in Latin letters, and this app's cards give only the Asturian spelling, with no separate romanization. The orthographic version of the sample text in the IPA Illustration uses the letters x and ll and apostrophes inside words, and its vowel examples include ñ (el neñu ye malu). The same letters appear on this app's cards: viaxe in ¿Cuántu dura'l viaxe? ("How long does the journey take?"), llave in la llave ("Key"), pequeñu ("Small") and l'agua ("Water"). Asturian has a standardized orthography, regulated by the Academy of the Asturian Language.

In the IPA Illustration, written questions open with an inverted question mark (for example ¿El páxaru tapica la mitá?), as on this app's cards, such as ¿Cuántu dura'l viaxe?

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Grammar essentials

Adjectives change their final vowel with gender: the IPA Illustration gives la neña ye mala (feminine singular, -a) and el neñu ye malu (masculine singular, -u), plus a third ending, -o, used with mass nouns (la xente ye malo). This app's cards show the masculine and feminine endings side by side in Yes mui guapu / guapa ("You are very handsome / beautiful").

Before a verb, the negative word is nun, as in Nun entiendo ("I don't understand") on this app's cards, and in nun sabe falar otra cosa, an Asturian sentence quoted in Merlan's article.

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Politeness & etiquette

Modern Asturian has a two-level system of address made of pronouns only. For one person, familiar tu contrasts with polite usté (also spelled vusté); for several people, vosotros or vosotres (vos in the west) contrast with ustedes. Usté descends from vuesa merced and is described as a third-person pronoun.

This app's card ¿Cómo ta usté? ("How are you? (formal)") uses it. The card's note says the casual ¿Cómo tas? is more common in daily life and that usté is for elders and formal settings.

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