Extremaduran language

Dialects

The linguistic varieties of Extremadura are usually classified in three main branches: Northern or "High" (artu estremeñu), Central or "Middle" (meyu estremeñu), and Southern or "Low" (baju estremeñu). The northern branch is usually considered to be the language proper, and is spoken in the north-west of the autonomous region of Extremadura, and the south-west of Salamanca, a province of the autonomous region of Castile and León. The central and southern branches are spoken in the rest of Extremadura, and are not different enough from standard Spanish to be considered anything but dialects of the language, since at least the 18th century.

Northern Extremaduran is also spoken in a few villages of southern Salamanca, being known there as the "palra d'El Rebollal", which is now almost extinct.

History

The late 19th century saw the first serious attempt to write in Extremaduran, until then an oral language, with the poet José María Gabriel y Galán. Born in Salamanca, he lived most of his life in the north of Cáceres, Extremadura. He wrote in a local variant of Extremaduran, full of dialectal remnants, but always with an eye on Spanish usage.

Throughout the 20th century, revival efforts focused on documenting local vernacular forms. By the early 21st century, only a small community of activists advocated for co-official status of Northern Extremaduran, while regional authorities have not implemented legal protections beyond recognizing Extremaduran as part of the broader Spanish linguistic heritage.

There are also attempts to transform the southern Castilian dialects ("castúo", as some people named them, using the word which appeared in Luis Chamizo Trigueros's poems) into a language. Advocacy for codifying southern Castilian dialects under the label ‘Extremaduran’ has heightened tensions over linguistic identity, contributing to regional government decisions against granting co-official status to Northern Extremaduran. It is in serious danger of extinction, with only the oldest people speaking it at present, while most of the Extremaduran population cannot speak the language, since the majority of Extremadurans, and even its own speakers, regard it as poorly spoken Spanish.

In 2013, the people of Serradilla created the first feature film in Extremaduran, Territoriu de bandolerus.

Phonology

• Features related to Astur-Leonese:
  • Post-tonic o becomes u, e.g. oru 'gold'.
  • Post-tonic e becomes i, e.g. calli or 'street'.
  • Latin word-final e, chiefly after d, is not lost, e.g. redi 'net'.
  • Some cases of palatalization of word-initial n, e.g. ñíu 'nest'.
  • Conservation of the consonantic group mb in intermediate position, e.g. lambel 'to lick'.
  • Frequent conservation of word-initial derived from a Latin f-. This consonant is lost in most Spanish varieties, but is common with much of Andalusia, e.g. higu 'fig'.
  • Occasional conservation of word-initial f, e.g. fogal 'home, hearth'.
• Features related to southern peninsular Spanish:
  • General loss of intervocalic d, e.g. mieu 'fear'.
  • Debuccalization of post-vocalic , and into (s-aspiration), e.g. estal 'to be'.
• Other features:
  • Infinitives in -l, e.g. dil 'to go'.
  • Metathesis of the consonant cluster rl into lr, e.g. chalral 'to talk'.
  • Occasional interchange of the liquid consonants l/r, e.g. craru 'clear'.
  • Preservation of some old voiced fricatives, such as some instances of corresponding to in Portuguese or corresponding to in Portuguese (both corresponding to /θ/ in Spanish). This feature is an archaism preserved from Old Spanish or Old Astur-Leonese, as it happens only when it is etymologically justified. When a voiced fricative appears, one also does in languages such as Catalan or Portuguese: Extremaduran tristeza 'sadness' (still voiced in Portuguese tristeza , voice lost in Spanish tristeza ), but Extremaduran cabeça 'head' (voiceless also in Portuguese cabeça , Spanish cabeza ). The feature is dying out quite fast but is found all over the High Extremaduran speaking area.

Morphology

• Anteposition of the article before the possessive pronoun, as in Old Spanish or in many Romance languages such as Leonese, Portuguese, Catalan or Italian.
• Anteposition of the particle lu (or lo), in some interrogative sentences.
• Use of diminutives inu and ina, as heritage from Leonese (as in Portuguese).
• Occasional formation of gerund, derived from a form of the verb in past tense.
• Usage of a vocative-exclamative case. When nouns are in the vocative, the closing of post-tonic vowels (e into i and o into u) disappears and those vowels open. El Ramiru quíi venil (Ramiro wants to come), but Ramiro, ven pacá (Ramiro, come here!). Sé quién lo vidu, Pepi (I know who saw it, Pepe did), but Sé quién lo vidu, Pepe (I know who saw it, Pepe). This is a characteristic shared with the Fala language. Extremaduran and the Fala language are actually the only western Romance languages with a distinct form of vocative case for nouns formed with a change in the ending.
• Usage of the preposition a with the verbs andal and estal indicating static temporal location, contrasting with the usage of en. Está a Caçris "He's at Cáceres (for a few days)", Está en Caçris "He's in Cáceres", Está pa Caçris "He's around Cáceres".
• A very frequent usage of deictic forms to which enclitic pronouns can be added at the end. They can be used in the middle of a sentence: Velaquí la mi casa (Here is my house), velallilu (there he is), velaquí lechugas, millu... (Look, lettuce, corn and so on is grown here).
• Usage of reduplicated forms of plural pronouns with a reciprocal sense (ellus y ellus, vujotrus y vujotrus...): Estaban brucheandu ellus y ellus: They were wrestling with each other.

Vocabulary

• Usage of terms considered in Spanish as archaisms: ludia (Spanish levadura, "yeast").
• Presence of common terms from Andalusian Arabic: zagal (from Andalusian Arabic zaḡál, "boy").

Comparative tables

• The words in this table refer only to High Extremaduran.

** Extremaduran words in this table are spelled according to Ismael Carmona García's orthography.

Literature

The language of Extremadura began to appear in documentation from the 13th century. In the 17th century, texts in the Talaveran subdialect appeared (1638). Extremaduran began to have more presence in literature with Vicente Barrantes and his Días sin sol of 1875.

In 1984, José María Alcón Olivera published Requilorios, the first novel written in Extremaduran. It was not until the 2000s that new publications in Extremaduran were seen, in this case, in the El Rebollar variant, with El corral los mis agüelus, by José Benito Mateos Pascual. This was followed by the Primera Antología de Poesía Extremeña in 2005. In 2011, La nueva literatura en estremeñu was published, followed in 2012 by a second part.

In 2012, Ismael Carmona García published the poetry collection Pan i verea. The siblings Miguel Herrero Uceda and Elisa Herrero Uceda published two books of short stories in Extremaduran: one in 2012, entitled Ceborrincho, relatos extremeños, and another in 2015, entitled Mamaeña, relatos extremeños. Other books in subsequent years include La huélliga by Marcos Cruz Díaz and El sol del lobu by Aníbal Martín. In 2025, Vicente Costalago published Euris estremeñus i sotras poemas, divided into three parts: the first with epic poems about various Extremaduran heroes; the second with religious poems; and the last with individual poems.

Organizations

There is a regional organization in Extremadura, OSCEC Estremaúra, that tries to defend the language, one journal (Belsana) and one cultural newspaper, Iventia, written in the new unified Extremaduran and the old dialect "palra d'El Rebollal".

Textual example

Writers

• José María Gabriel y Galán
• Miguel Herrero Uceda
• Elisa Herrero Uceda

References

References

1. "Extremeño".
2. "Acerca de Hispania".
3. (September 2023). "[Congress about the Extremaduran language]".
4. Gutierro Rodriguez, Bienvenido. (17 March 2008). "En defensa del habla extremeña".
5. Viudas Camarasa, Antonio. (2008). "Agenda de APLEX". APLEX.
6. González Salgado, José Antonio. (2003). "Actas del Congreso Internacional "La lengua, la Academia, lo popular, los clásicos, los contemporáneos..."".
7. Real Antón, Jose María. (18 June 2007). "Primer Congreso sobre el habla de Extremadura".
8. [http://www.panorama-extremadura.com/texto-diario/mostrar/158894/estreno-mundial-de-la-pelicula-territoriu-de-bandolerus World premiere of the movie ' Territorial of Bandolerus '] {{Webarchive. link. (2014-02-22 (in Spanish))
9. Ismael Carmona García's dictionary 2005 ''Izionariu castellanu-estremeñu''
10. "OSCEC Estremaúra".
11. "Inventia".