Linguistic diversity in the Camino Primitivo

[Pelegrin]

In our pilgrim world, the Camino Primitivo is famous for its beauty, rurality and .... hardness. Nevertheless, only a few people (even Spaniarda) know about its great local language diversity. From Oviedo to Puerto del Palo, first we have the western variant of the Asturian language (WA), with around 10% speakers. Then from Puerto del Palo to the Galician border a language very close to Galician, called Gallego - Asturiano (GA) (40% speakers). And finally, from the Ast-Gal border to Santiago we have the Galician language (70% speakers).

To give an example of this language diversity, I have chosen the expresion "the milk" (Spanish "la leche"). Wheareas this word in Spanish is feminine, in all the Primitivo the different forms are masculine. In first sector (WA), the word is "el cheite". I met two speakers in Borres and Alto de la Lavodoira who still say it. In second sector (GA), there are two forms: "el lleite" (Berducedo*) and "el leite" (Grandas). And finally in Galicia, we have "o leite", identical to Portuguese.

As a summary, in the Camino Primitivo it is posible to hear "la leche" in 5 different ways in a gap of only 120 kms. But unfortunatelly this situation won't last in Asturias more tan two generations (in my opinion).

(*) To tell the whole thing, In Berducedo the original form "el lleite" now is lost, instead of it they say "el leche", same as in Spanish but masculine!!??. In San Emiliano 12 kms far, el "lleite" still survives.

 

[fortview]

This is very interesting! My Spanish is , sadly, not good enough, to recognise the differences . It will be a shame to lose this diversity though.

 

[Pelegrin]

This is very interesting! My Spanish is , sadly, not good enough, to recognise the differences . It will be a shame to lose this diversity though.

Thank you for your interest.

In the first sector, it was difficult for me to find Western Asturian speakers. In fact, I only met two people.
In the second sector, in Berducedo, I only met one Gallego-Asturiano speaker, he is the only farmer in town I think. In Grandas though is easy to hear the local language.
In Galicia, throughout the Primitivo, what you hear spoken by locals is mostly Galician.

 

[angulero]

As a summary, in the Camino Primitivo it is posible to hear "la leche" in 5 different ways in a gap of only 120 kms. But unfortunatelly this situation won't last in Asturias more tan two generations (in my opinion).

Yo pienso lo contrario. Creo que se está recuperando poco a poco, incluso en la escuela se puede estudiar. De todas formas, lo que escuchaste la mayoría de las veces no es asturiano, sino castellano con muchas palabras del asturiano.

Ahí te dejo las formas de decir leche que recoge el diccionario de la lengua asturiana.

 

[Pelegrin]

Si, lo se. A los que hablan de esa forma no los cuento. Los que he mencionado en mis intervenciones anteriores hablaban bien el Ast. occidental y el gallego asturiano.
Saludos.