West Iberian languages explained

West Iberian
Also Known As:Western Iberian Romance
Region:Iberian Peninsula, Latin America, Africa, Israel, Philippines, East Timor, Easter Island, Goa
Familycolor:Indo-European
Fam2:Italic
Fam3:Latino-Faliscan
Fam4:Latin
Fam5:Romance
Fam6:Italo-Western
Fam7:Western Romance
Fam8:Gallo-Iberian
Fam9:Iberian Romance
Child1:Asturleonese
Child2:Castilian
Child3:Galician–Portuguese
Child4:Pyrenean–Mozarabic?
Glotto:west2838
Glottorefname:West Ibero-Romance
Glotto2:unsh1234
Glottorefname2:Unshifted Western Romance
Map:Mapa lingüístic de la Península Ibèrica.svg
Mapcaption:Languages of the Iberian Peninsula
West Iberian Romance:Occitano-Romance

Non-Indo-European:

West Iberian is a branch of the Ibero-Romance languages that includes the Castilian languages (Spanish, Judaeo-Spanish), Astur-Leonese (Asturian, Leonese, Mirandese, Extremaduran (sometimes) and Cantabrian),[1] [2] and the descendants of Galician-Portuguese (Portuguese, Galician, Eonavian, Fala, Minderico, Cafundó, and Judaeo-Portuguese). Pyrenean–Mozarabic (Aragonese and Mozarabic) may also be included.

Until a few centuries ago, they formed a dialect continuum covering the western, central and southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula—excepting the Basque and Catalan-speaking territories. This is still the situation in a few regions, particularly in the northern part of the peninsula, but due to the differing sociopolitical histories of these languages (independence of Portugal since the early 12th century, unification of Spain in the late 15th century under the Catholic Monarchs, who privileged Castilian Spanish over the other Iberian languages), Spanish and Portuguese have tended to overtake and to a large extent absorb their sister languages while they kept diverging from each other.

There is controversy over whether the members of the modern Galician-Portuguese and Astur-Leonese sub-groups are languages or dialects. A common, though disputed, classification is to state that Portuguese and Galician are separate languages, as are Asturian, Leonese, and Mirandese. Cantabrian and Extremaduran are considered codialects of the Leonese language for UNESCO, whereas the latter is a Castilian dialect in the ISO codes.

Papiamento is a West Iberian creole language spoken in the Dutch West Indies and believed to be derived from Portuguese, Judaeo-Portuguese and Spanish.

Classification

Bold indicates language families. Daggers indicate extinct languages.

Notes and references

References

Notes and References

  1. Book: Menéndez Pidal, R. El dialecto Leonés. 1906. 2006. El Buho Viajero. León. 84-933781-6-X.
  2. http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00206 UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger