Mirandese studies

Mirandese, a minority language spoken in north-eastern Portugal, has undergone significant shifts in vitality over the past century. First brought to scholarly attention by Portuguese philologist Leite de Vasconcelos in the late nineteenth century, Mirandese descends from Astur-Leonese, a medieval Romance variety of the Iberian Peninsula. Historically, it survived in a stable diglossic framework alongside Portuguese and Spanish, serving specific communicative roles within small and close-knit communities. However, by the mid-twentieth century, social stigma and the pressure of Portuguese disrupted intergenerational transmission, pushing Mirandese to the brink of endangerment. In response, revitalization efforts emerged, including its introduction into local schools in the 1980s, the establishment of an orthographic norm and its recognition by the Portuguese Parliament in 1999. Despite its current endangered status, these measures have elevated the symbolic value of Mirandese, attracting new speakers (including descendants of the Mirandese diaspora), stimulating the expansion of its written corpus and increasing scholarly interest. This Special Issue ‘Mirandese Studies: Language, Literature, Landscape and Pedagogy’, an example of this interest, explores the linguistic identity and literary heritage of Mirandese, as well as its role in the linguistic landscape, and its pedagogical needs, emphasizing the importance of continued research and institutional support to ensure its survival and vitality in the future

Linguistics · Sociology · Literature, Culture, and Criticism · Philosophy

• The linguistic landscape of Mirandese

  Carmen Fernández Juncal•International Journal of Iberian…•2025

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• Standardising Mirandese

  Cristina Martins, Isabel Santos et al.•Sociolinguistica - International…•2015

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• The native-non-native dichotomy in minority language contexts

  Bernadette O''Rourke, Fernando Ramallo et al.•Language Problems & Language…•2011

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