| Cantabrian | |
| Nativename: | Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: cántabru, montañés |
| States: | Spain |
| Region: | Autonomous community of Cantabria and Asturian municipalities of Peñamellera Alta, Peñamellera Baja and Ribadedeva[1] |
| Speakers: | 3,000 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Italic |
| Fam3: | Latino-Faliscan |
| Fam4: | Latin |
| Fam5: | Romance |
| Fam6: | Italo-Western |
| Fam7: | Western |
| Fam8: | Ibero-Romance |
| Fam9: | West Iberian |
| Fam10: | Asturleonese |
| Ancestor: | Old Latin |
| Ancestor2: | Vulgar Latin |
| Ancestor3: | Proto-Romance |
| Ancestor4: | Old Leonese |
| Script: | Latin |
| Isoexception: | dialect |
| Glotto: | cant1245 |
| Glottorefname: | Cantabrian |
| Ietf: | ast-u-sd-escb |
Cantabrian (Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: cántabru, in Cantabrian) is a vernacular Romance linguistic variety, most often classified as part of the Asturleonese linguistic group. It is indigenous to the territories in and surrounding the Autonomous Community of Cantabria, in Northern Spain. The language is currently relegated to the rural dialects, while most of the population speaks a more or less standard version of Spanish.
Traditionally, some dialects of this group have been further grouped by the name Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: Montañés ('from the Mountain'), Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: La Montaña ('the Mountain') being a traditional name for Cantabria due to its mountainous topography. Currently, this name is reserved for the western dialect, grouping under the name of Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: Pasiegu the variety of the eastern valleys.
These dialects belong to the Northwestern Iberian dialect continuum and have been classified as belonging to the Astur-Leonese domain by successive research works carried out through the 20th century, the first of them, the famous work Spanish; Castilian: El dialecto Leonés, by Ramón Menéndez Pidal.[2]
This dialect group spans the whole territory of Cantabria. In addition, there is historical evidence of traits (such as toponyms, or certain constructions) linking the speech of some nearby areas to the Cantabrian Astur-Leonese group:
Some of this areas had historically been linked to Cantabria before the 1833 territorial division of Spain, and the creation of the Province of Santander (with the same territory as the modern-day Autonomous Community).
Based on the location where dialects are spoken, we find a traditional dialectal division of Cantabria, which normally corresponds to the different valleys or territories:
| Autoglottonym | Area of usage | Meaning of name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montañés | La Montaña, i.e. Coastal and Western parts of Cantabria | Of or pertaining to the people of La Montaña | |
| Pasiegu | Pas, Pisueña and upper Miera valleys | Of or pertaining to the people of Pas | |
| Pejín | Western coastal villages | From peje, "fish" | |
| Pejinu | Eastern coastal villages | ||
| Tudancu | Tudanca | Of or pertaining to the people of Tudanca |
However, based on linguistic evidence, R. Molleda proposed what is today the usual division of dialectal areas in Cantabria. Molleda proposed to take the isogloss of the masculine plural gender morphology, which seems to surround a large portion of Eastern Cantabria, running from the mouth of the Besaya River in the North, and along the Pas-Besaya watershed. He then proceeded to name the resulting areas Western and Eastern, depending on the location to the West or East of the isogloss. This division has gained support due to the fact that, although masculine morphology by itself is not a very important difference, many other isoglosses draw the same line.
The Cantabrian set of consonants is nearly identical to those of its neighbouring languages of the dialectal continuum, the Asturian and the Northern Peninsular Spanish. An important difference is the preservation of the voiceless glottal fricative (/h/) as an evolution of Latin's word initial f- as well as the [x-h] mergers; both features are also found in Eastern Asturian as well as some Spanish dialects, especially those from Southern Spain and parts of Latin America. The preservation of the voiceless glottal fricative was usual in Middle Spanish, before the /h/ in words like /humo/, from Latin Latin: fumus, resulted in Modern Spanish /umo/. Every Cantabrian dialect keeps /f/ before consonants such as in /'fɾi.u/ (cold), just as Astur-Leonese and Spanish do.
| Feature | Western Dialects | Eastern Dialects | Gloss | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coastal Valleys | Inner Valleys | ||||
| f+C | /f/ /'fɾi.u/ | frigĭdus cold | |||
| f+w | /h/ /'hue.gu/ | /f/ /'fue.gu/ | /f/ or /x/ /'hue.gu/ or /'xue.gu/ | focus hearth, later fire | |
| f+j | /h/ /'hie.ru/ | Ø /'ie.ru/ | ferrum iron | ||
| f+V | /h/ /ha'θeɾ/ | Ø /a'θeɾ/ | facĕre to do (verb) | ||
The [x - h] merger is typical in most Western and Eastern Coastal dialects, where [x] merges into [h]. However, the Eastern dialects from the Inner Valleys have merged [h] into [x]; moreover, there are older speakers that lack any kind of merger, fully distinguishing the minimal pair /huegu/ - /xuegu/ (fire - game).
Other features of the Cantabrian consonant set, particular to the eastern and western varieties are:
Other features are common to most Astur-Leonese dialects; some of these are:
In 2009, Cantabrian was listed as a dialect of the Astur-Leonese language by UNESCO's Red Book of the World's Languages in Danger, which was in turn classified as a definitely endangered language.[5]
| Gloss | Latin | Asturian | West. Cantabrian Montañés | East. Cantabrian Pasiegu | Spanish | Features | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "high" | ALTUM | altu | altu | altu | alto | ALTUM > altu | |
| "to fall" | cayer | cayer | cayer | caer | Before short e, /d/ → /j/. | ||
| "to say" | DĪCERE | dicir | dicir/icir | dicir/dicer/icir | decir | Conjugation shift -ERE → -IR | |
| "to do" | facer/facere | ḥacer | hacer | hacer | Western /f/→[h]. Eastern /f/→∅. | ||
| "iron" | FERRUM | fierro | ḥierru | yerru | hierro | Western pronounced as //ferum/ > [hjeru]/. Eastern pronounced as //ferum/ > [hjeru] > [jeru] > [ʝeru]/. | |
| "flame" | FLAMMAM | llapa, llaparada | llapa | llama | llama | Palatalization /FL-/ > pronounced as //ʎ// (or pronounced as //j//, due to western yeismo) | |
| "fire" | FOCUM | fueu/fuegu | ḥueu | ḥuigu/ḥuegu | fuego | Western: FOCUM > pronounced as /[hueku] > [huegu] > [hueu]/. Eastern: FOCUM > pronounced as /[xueku] > [xuegu]/[xuigu]/ (metaphony). | |
| "fireplace" | LĀR | llar | llar | lar | lar | Western: Palatalization of ll-, yeísmo. | |
| "to read" | LEGERE | lleer | leer | leyer | leer | Eastern: survival of -g- as -y-. | |
| "loin" | llombu | lombu/llombu | lumu/lomu | lomo | Western: conservation of -MB- group. Eastern: metaphony. | ||
| "mother" | MATREM | madre/ma | madre | madri | madre | Eastern: closing of final -e. | |
| "blackbird" | MIRULUM | ñarbatu/mierbu | miruellu | miruilu | mirlo | Westen: palatalization of -l-. Eastern: metaphony. | |
| "to show" | MOSTRARE | amostrar | amostrar | mostrar | mostrar | Western: prothesis. | |
| "knot" |
| ñuedu/ñudu | ñudu | ñudu | nudo | Palatalization of Latin N- | |
| "ours" | NOSTRUM | nuestru | nuestru | muistru | nuestro | Eastern: metaphony and confusion between Latin pronoun nos and 1st person plural ending -mos. | |
| "cough" | TUSSEM | tus | tus | tus | tos | ||
| "almost" | QUASI | cuasi | cuasi | casi | casi | ||
| "to bring" | TRAHĔRE | trayer | trayer | trayer | traer | Conservation of Latin -h- by -y-. | |
| "to see" | VIDĒRE | ver | veer | veyer | ver | Eastern: before short e, /d/ → /y/. |
| Gloss | Asturian | West. Cantabrian Montañés | East. Cantabrian Pasiegu | Spanish | Features | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "photo" | fotu/afotu | ḥotu | afutu | foto | Western shows [f] > [h], while Eastern prefers prothesis. | |
| "dog/dogs" | perru/perros | perru/perros | pirru/perrus | perro/perros | Western masculine singular -u, plural -os. Eastern masculine singular -u + metaphony, plural -us. |
The following notes only apply for the Cantabrian derivatives, but might as well occur in other Astur-Leonese varieties:
Many verbs keep the etymological -h- or -d- as an internal -y-. This derivation is most intense in the Pasiegan Dialect.
Latin -MB- group is only retained in the derivatives of a group containing few, but very used, Latin etyma: lumbum (loin), camba (bed), lambere (lick), etc. however, it has not been retained during other more recent word derivations, such as tamién (also), which comes from the -mb- reduction of también a compound of tan (as) and bien (well).
In Pasiegan dialect, all masculine singular nouns, adjectives and some adverbs retain an ancient vowel mutation called Metaphony, thus: lumu (one piece of loin) but lomu (uncountable, loin meat), the same applies for ḥuigu (a fire/campfire) and ḥuegu (fire, uncountable) and muistru and muestru (our, masculine singular and uncountable, respectively).
Most Western Cantabrian Dialects retain the ancient initial F- as an aspiration (IPA [h]), so: FACERE > /haθer/. This feature is still productive for all etyma starting with [f]. An example of this is the Greek root phōs (light) which, through Spanish foto (photo) derives in ḥotu (IPA: [hotu])(photography).
All Eastern Dialects have mostly lost Latin initial F-, and only keep it on certain lexicalized vestiges, such as: ḥumu (IPA: [xumu]). Thus: FACERE > /aθer/.
Prothesis: some words derive from the addition of an extra letter (usually /a/) at the beginning of the word. arradiu, amotu/amutu, afutu.
Yeísmo: Most Cantabrian dialects do not distinguish between the /ʝ/ (written y) and /ʎ/ (written ll) fonemes, executing both with a single sound [ʝ]. Thus, rendering poyu and pollu (stone seat and chicken, respectively) homophones.
Lleísmo: Pasiegan Dialect is one of the few Cantabrian Dialects which does distinguish /ʝ/ and /ʎ/. Thus, puyu and pullu (stone seat and chicken, respectively) are both written and pronounced differently.
Palatalization: Cantabrian Dialects do mostly not palatalize Latin L-, however, some vestiges might be found in Eastern Cantabrian Dialects, in areas bordering Asturias (Asturian a very palatalizing language). This vestiges are often camouflaged due to the strong Yeísmo. Palatalization of Latin N- is more common, and words such as ñudu (from Latin nudus), or ñublu (from Latin nubĭlus) are more common.
Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: Na, que entornemos, y yo apaecí esturunciau y con unos calambrios que me ḥiendían de temblíos... El rodal quedó allá lantón escascajau del too; las trichorias y estadojos, triscaos... Pero encontó, casi agraecí el testarazu, pues las mis novillucas, que dispués de la estorregá debían haber quedau soterrás, cuasi no se mancaron. ¡Total: unas lijaduras de poco más de na![6]
Spanish; Castilian: Nada, que volcamos, y yo acabé por los suelos y con unos calambres que me invadían de temblores...El eje quedó allá lejos totalmente despedazado; las estacas quebradas... Pero aún así, casi agradecí el cabezazo, pues mis novillas, que después de la caída deberían haber quedado para enterrar, casi no se lastimaron. ¡Total: unas rozaduras de nada!
Nothing, we tipped over, and I ended up on the ground and with some cramps that invaded me with tremors... The axis was far away, totally torn apart; the broken stakes... But even so, I was almost grateful for the header, because my heifers — which after the fall should have been left to bury – were hardly hurt. In total: Some scratches like nothing!