Extremaduran dialect
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Extremaduran is a diallect of the spanish language. Extremaduran is usually classified in three branches (Northern or "High" -- artu estremeñu, Central or "Middle" -- meyu estremeñu, and Southern or "Low" -- bahu estremeñu). The northern one is usually considered to be the language proper, and is spoken in the northwest of the autonomous region of Extremadura, and the southwest of Salamanca, a province of the autonomous region of Castile-Leon. The central and southern ones are spoken in Extremadura and in the provinces of Huelva and Seville, in the autonomous region of Andalusia, and are at least since the 18th century Castilian dialects. In the Portuguese town of Barrancos (in the border between Extremadura, Andalusia and Portugal), a dialect of Portuguese heavily influenced by Extremaduran is spoken, known as "Barranquenho", the Barrancainian dialect. The northern extremaduran had also a sub-dialectal region in Salamanca, the "palra d'El Rebollal", which has almost disappeared.
[edit] History
Western Extremadura was reconquered by the Kingdom of Leon, Astur-Leonese being the language (or Latin dialect) used by those new Christian inhabitants, who arrived around the 12th century to the actual territory where the Extremaduran is still spoken.
After the union of the kingdoms of Leon and Castile (into the 'Crown of Castile'), the Castilian language (Spanish) slowly substituted Latin as the official language of the institutions, thus relegating the Astur-Leonese to a sign of poverty and ignorance of those who spoke it. Only in Asturias (where the language was born) had the people conscience of speaking a language, different from Castilian; but even there only some authors used it in their writings.
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