The Aragonese language has many regional dialects, which can be grouped by valley or larger comarca areas. The area where Aragonese is spoken has quite a rugged relief and is generally sparsely populated with many tracts and valleys pretty isolated from each other. In the literature about the language, the term dialect is ambiguous and can be used to refer to well-known valley varieties, such as cheso or ansotano. Aragonese speakers can be classified into four groups or main dialectal areas following : Western, Central, Eastern, and Southern. There is a centuries-old diglossia that has favored the lack of unitary awareness among Aragonese speakers; in areas where the language has been best preserved, Aragonese speakers often use local names for their dialect.
The most accepted dialectal classification is the one by Francho Nagore, who classified Aragonese varieties into 4 groups: [1] [2]
For some, these groups are considered complex dialects and their internal variations, such as Cheso or Chistabino, would be regional variants. For others, the four groups are the constituent dialects of the Aragonese language and the variants that they include would be subdialects, spoken locally or regionally.
Although the Nagore classification with four dialectal areas is the most widespread, other authors have proposed alternatives. For Chusé Raúl Usón and Chabier Tomás, there would be three historical dialects that correspond more or less to the three old Pyrenean counties:[3]
Fernando Sánchez proposed a classification that posits the existence of two great variants/dialects: Western and Eastern. These would also have more extreme subvarieties:[4]
See also: Ribagorçan dialect and Benasquese dialect. The eastern area includes a large part of the historic County of Ribagorza, plus eastern parts of Sobrarbe, and has many features in common with Catalan, with increasing similarity as one moves east.
Some common features of the group are:
The Western Aragonese area corresponds to the Jacetania region, plus part of Alto Gállego and a few towns in Cinco Villas. Western dialects include Ansó Aragonese, Hecho Aragonese, Aragüés Aragonese, and Aísa Aragonese.
Common features:
Southern dialects include Nevalese. They are the ones more influenced by the Spanish language, and in recent times most of them have lost all but a few of their Aragonese features, merging with the Spanish dialects spoken to the south of the area.
Corresponds to part of Alto Gállego and western parts of Sobrarbe. Features:
Western Block:
Central Block:
Eastern Block:
Southern Block:
Transition Dialects
There are different degrees of similarities between variants:
The topography in the form of well-separated valleys has caused the Aragonese language to have evolved into a dialect or locally spoken language in each valley:
| Ansó | Ansotano | |
| Hecho Valley | Cheso | |
| Aragüés and Jasa | Aragüesino | |
| Aísa | Aisino | |
| Tena Valley | Tensino | |
| Broto Valley | Bergotés | |
| Ballibió | Aragonese of Ballibió | |
| Bielsa | Belsetano | |
| Gistaín Valley | Chistabino | |
| Benasque Valley | Benasqués |
There is a distribution of differences between the East and the West, with boundaries that do not coincide, but some that appear mainly from Broto and Cotefablo to the Ribagorza and further, and others that are seen mainly from Tena and Cotefablo to Navarre.