Samiguel Del Río

[GunnarW]

San Miguel Del Río.
It's the pueblo you will reach when you carefully walk down (early in the morning) after Pajares.
When you quit San Miguel, you will see this agglomeration sign. Well you have to look behind you as you quit the pueblo. On the sign is written "Samiguel del Río".
I know that in Galicia, Pais Vasco, ... and also Asturia: the names of the places can be written differently.
I was asking myself if this is not a fault. Typing in "Samiguel del rio" in Google is returning zero hits. Except googlemaps knows it together with San Miguel DR. But the Googlecar passed there, so that could be the reason that Googlemaps indexed the name also.
I zoomed in and you see that someone made a correction in the dirt with his or her finger. So for me, this is could be a fault.

 

[Susannafromsweden]

I googled only "Samiguel" and got this:
http://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samiguel_(Siero)

 

[GunnarW]

Yes Susanna, this one has 228 habitants. Our has 202 habitants lesser if we must believe http://www.todopueblos.com/san-miguel-del-rio-asturias.
But meanwhile, I found anyway some results on Samiguel del Río.

 

[peregrina2000]

Since the wikipedia entry is written in Asturiano (Asturianu?), it must be that San Miguel is castellano, and Samiguel is the Asturiano version. I have been suprised to see that the support and use of Asturiano seems to be increasing rather than decreasing. Does anyone know if there is an option to take an "asturian language track" in the public schools, much as there's one for Basque, Catalan, etc?

 

[GunnarW]

I'm not a language specialist but if Samiguel is the Asturian variant, then I can conclude that Asturians faded the N away because it's easier to pronounce. I can't imagine this could be a general rule to clear the N in all Saint names. It would be weird if an Asturian would say he would visit his aunt in Sasebastian or even walk the camino de Sasalvador.

 

[StuartM]

I don't know about in state schools but I'm pretty sure I saw a big Asturian language school near the cathedral in Oviedo.

It's good to see, as a fellow Celt I regret not having the opportunity to learn our native language at school.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Around here, the Asturian dialect is known as "Babel." As in "babble!" There is an Institute of Asturian Language near the cathedral (right at the top of Cider Street) and lots of Asturian dialect folk songs and poetry... a couple of winters ago I saw a two-act comedy in Carrion de los Condes performed entirely in Babel! (It is close enough to Castellano I could follow along OK.) The Asturians aren´t so politically loud about independence, so I don´t think their language is as "loaded" as that of the Catalans, Vascos, and Gallegos.

 

[angulero]

Se llama bable Rebekath.

El asturiano o bable se da como asignatura optativa en los institutos y escuelas, y no en todos, depende de la demanda. No es sólo de Asturias, hay zonas de Castilla donde aún se habla algo, incluso una zona de Portugal. Los que habéis hecho el camino por esta zona comprobaríais como casi en cada valle tienen su forma de hablar o falar, debido a hasta no hace mucho las comunicaciones eran muy complicadas, por eso es muy difícil normalizar el asturiano, porque existen muchas palabras para una cosa.

No es idioma oficial en España, a diferencia del Catalán, Vasco o Gallego, y ni siquiera es cooficial en Asturias, salvo en algunos concejos.

Por suerte, aquí no pensamos en independencias ni cosas de esas, pero tampoco veo mal que no se pierda la lengua y costumbres de nuestros antepasados.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idioma_asturiano

 

[Rebekah Scott]

gracias, Ender, para informarme.