ASTURIAN LANGUAGE GRAMMAR - best seen

[astúricu]

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ASTURIAN LANGUAGE GRAMMAR



PREFACE

Asturies is a historical nation located in northern Iberian peninsula and has 1,087,885 inhabitants (1997). Asturies became an autonomous country in 1981, under the name of Principáu d'Asturies (Principality of Asturies). Its capital is Uviéu. This old nation covers an area of 10,564 km2. To the north lies the Asturian Sea, and to the south the spanish region of Castilla y León. There is a natural border between this communities, along the ridges of the Asturian Mountains. Most of the population, industry and agriculture is to be found on the coastal plain. Asturias has its own language, the Asturianu (also called Bable). Asturianu belongs to the Romance language group. Since it is linguistically very close to Portugueese and Spanish, some regard it as a romanic dialect but in fact is an independent language within the romanic family of languages. Asturian is mostly spoken in the Principality of Asturias, but also in northern Castiella y León, western Santander province (Asturies de Santillana) and in north-eastern Portugal (Miranda). The language has four dialects: Western Asturian, Central Asturian, Eastern Asturian and the Asturogalaic or Galaicasturian dialect. Intelligibility among the four dialects is adequate. Central Asturian has the most speakers and has been taken as the basis for normative Asturian: the first Asturian grammar has been recently published and it is institutionally backed. The asturian language has also a normative dictionary, the DALLA and tha Academia de la Llingua is also preparing a complete map of the asturian language territory.

In a research from 1983, the figure of 100,000 speakers of Asturian appeared to be a reasonable estimate and about 250,000 people use a mixture of asturian and castillian in their daily speech. However, a similar survey was repeated in 1991 and the results were rather different: in 1991 the number of speakers within the population was 44% (about 450,000 people). About 80,000 and 60,000 people declare being able to read and write it. In addition to this, another 24% of the Asturian population understand the language. Thus, 68% of the people at least understand Asturian.

Asturian (Asturianu) is the autochtonous language of the Asturian Nation and some parts of the land of León, Santander and Zamora (Spanish state) and the area surrounding the city of Miranda do Douro (Republic of Portugal) and there's also remains of the language in some parts of Salamanca and Cáceres provinces. Like other Romance languages in the spanish peninsula, it developed out of the break-up of unified Latin in the early middle ages. In historical terms Asturian became closely linked with the Kingdom of Asturies (started in 718) and the ensuing Asturian-Leonese or Leonese kingdom. The Astur tribes who were later to speak Asturian occupied Asturias itself and parts of the surrounding territories of León, Zamora and Miranda. Asturian was influenced by the language or languages spoken by the pre-Roman or celtic peoples inhabiting Asturias before Latin replaced them, asturian language keeps some vocabulary from this pre-roman speech. Asturian language nowadays is an endangered language due to the strong political pressures of Castilian. Although in the last few years some protective and linguistic planning measures have been taken, the Asturian language does not yet enjoy the official status of other hispanic languages such as Catalan, Basque, or Galician since the advent of democracy and the autonomous system in Spain. The Asturian situation is, in fact, paradoxical, since, in spite of sociological studies evincing a general support in asturian people for official status and linguistic normalization this demand is thwarted by the averse attitude of certain political and academic local élites who block, by means of their influence, any advancement in this direction. Recent studies analyze the historical and sociological keys of linguistic shift in Asturies exemplified by the peculiar situation of Asturian Language Teaching at the University of Uviéu, which has recently been in danger of becoming banned. The lingüístic repression in Asturies and its consequent lack of human lingüístic rights has been reported on a study made by the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana, the asturian language comittee, and reported to the United Nations office for human rights. The Council of Europe has recently denounced the governments of Asturies for its responsabilities in the lingüístic policy of repression and its obstacles in the normalization of the asturian and its lack of support for this endangered and minorized hispanic language. Other important european and international institutions such as the AIDLCM (Langues et Cultures Menacés) has been continuously demanding official status, political support and normalization policys for the asturian language, the same as other local languages within Spain already have. Asturianu is taught in asturian schools only by parents demand and with many official obstacles in its promotion at schools and Universities. The Llei d'Usu y Promoción del Asturianu stablished in 1998 by the asturian government hasn't been fully implemented yet due to a certain lack political support to the language by the asturian local authorities. The Academia de la Llingua Asturiana has recently published a report on the repression and non recognition of the linguistic rights in the Asturian Country.




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Some accent rules in asturian language:



The accent rules are not quite the same as in Spanish. For instance these are some typical cases of dia-critic accent:

pa (preposition, =for) pá (=father, also padre)

tan (conj. =so) tán (3PP pr. ind. =they are)

ente (=between, among) énte (before, in front of, ahead)

tres (=after, along) trés (=three)

pues (conj. =so, then) pués (verb poder =can)

el (article) él (personal pronoun)

del (de + el) dél (indefinit =somewhat, something of)

un (article) ún (personal pronoun)

nos (atonic promoun 1 person plural) nós (tonic pronoun 1 person plural)

Demonstratives are accented when used as pronouns, except neuters esto, eso, aquello which are never accented. Interrogative pronouns are always accented in direct and indirect questions. The apostrophe is used to mark the dropping of a vowel. Some words can be apostrophed:

Singular definite articles before and after a noun or verb: l’animal, l’otru día, l’alborada; canta’l gallu.

Some prepositions: de > d’; en> n’. The preposition pa is apostrophed when the next word begins by a-..

Unstressed personal pronouns me, te, se: Ya m’anunciaron que... (=I’ve announced that...)

Conjunction que: Hai qu’apurase (=it is necessary to hurry up). Anyway Asturian spelling suffers from an excess of apostrophes, which often makes its writing and reading too much difficult.



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MORPHOLOGICAL ASPECTS

The article

The forms of the article in asturian are: el (masciline the), la (feminine the), lo (neuter the), los (masculine plural the), les (feminine plural the).

Articles el and la in asturian use to apostrophize when the following word beguins with a vocal or h- as: l'asuntu, l'añada, l'esperteyu, l'indianu, l'oriciu, l'untu, l'hachu, l'hemisferiu, l'himnu, l'horru, l'humeru. Article neuter lo, does not have plural and does not apostrophize as it might be twisted with other articles: lo orbayao, lo olvidao, lo oxidao.

Definite article

Its forms are:

singular plural

masc. fem. neut. masc. fem.

Before cons. el la

Before vow. l' la/l' * lo los les

Remarks:

*Only before words beginning by a-: l’arma, l’alma, but la entrada, la idea.

It must be quoted that masculine singular article el may be omitted when preposition en precedes it:

Metió les ferramientes en coche (=he/she put the tools in the car)

Dexemos la ropa n’almariu (=we left the clothes in the wardrobe)



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Indefinite article

Its forms are:

singular plural

masc. fem. masc. fem.

un una unos unes

For the plural is rather usual to find dellos, delles (see further ‘quantifiers’): Había unes / delles caxes enriba la mesa (=There were some boxes on the table)

The Genders

Asturianu is the only western Romance language that possesses three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.

1. Masculine nouns usually end by -u and sometimes by -e or consonant. Most of them coincide with Spanish: el tiempu (=the time and the weather), l’home (=the man), el pantalón (=the trousers), el xeitu (=the way, the mode), etc.

2. Feminine names usually end by -a, but not always: la casa (=the house), la lluna (=the moon), la xente (=the people), la nueche (=the night).

3. Neuters names can have any ending in the nouns. In fact, Asturian neuters are of three kinds:

Masculine neuters: they have a masculine form and take a masculine article: el fierro vieyo (=old iron), el pelo roxo (=the red hair).

Feminine neuters: they have a feminine form and take a feminine article: la lleche frío (cold milk), la lleña seco (dry firewood).

Pure neuters: they are not nouns but nominal groups with and adjective and neuters pronouns: lo guapo d’esti asuntu ye... (=the interesting [thing] of this issue is...)

Neuter is marked specially in the adjective. So most adjectives have three endings: -u (masc.), -a (fem.) and -o (neuter), which are respectively:

El neñu ye prietu (= The boy is swarthy), El vasu ta fríu (=The glass is cold),

La neña ye guapa (=The girl is pretty) ,Tengo la mano fría (= I have my hand cold)

El carbón ye puro ( =Coal is pure), L’agua ta frío (=Water is cold)

The use of neuter is rather complex in Asturian; anyway neuters nouns have no plural (except in some cases, where they are taken metaphorically, in which case the lose this gender, such as in les agües tán fríes (=Waters are cold) or when you want to concretise an abstract noun: Tien el pelo roxo (=his hair is red) is neuter but Tien un pelu roxu (=He’s got a red hair) is masculine. By the way, look at the change of ending in the noun). Neuters nouns refer to abstract, collective and uncountable nouns. There are some cases in which the gender of the Asturian word is different from the Spanish one and even meaning different things. Let’s see some examples:

Spanish - Asturian - English

la labor - el llabor- task

la sangre - el sangre - blood

el fin - la fin - end

el color- la color - colour

el calor - la calor- heat

el puente- la ponte - bridge



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The singular and plural in asturian

The formation of plural in asturian is not simple at all. It is formed according to the following schedule:

TYPE SINGULAR PLURAL REMARKS

Masculine nouns ending by -u > -os: llobu > llobos, furacu > furacos, fierru > fierros, xatu > xatos, fíu > fíos, carbayu > carbayos

Feminine nouns ending by -a > -es: lloba > llobes, neña > neñes, fía > fíes, llingua > llingües, llueca > llueques, xiga > xigues, vaca > vaques

Masculine or feminine nouns ending by consonant: nothing > -es: llagar > llagares, figal > figales, manguán > manguanes; xabón > xabones

Words end-ing in -z may take -os in masculine in order to distinguish the masculine plural from the feminine one: rapaz > rapazos; rapaza > rapaces.

Masculine nouns ending by -ín > -inos: sobrín > sobrinos, vecín > vecinos, camín > caminos. In this case the etymological vowel is re-established.

Feminine nouns ending by -á, -ada, -ú > -aes / -úes where the original etymo-logical vowel is re-established: ciudá > ciudaes; frayada > frayaes; virtú > virtúes.

The meaning of the former Asturian words is: llobu (woolf), furacu (hole), fierru (iron), xatu (bullock), fíu (son), carbayu (oak), neña (girl), llingua (tongue, language), llueca (bell), llagar (cider house), figal (figtree), manguán (silly),vaca (cow), xabón (soap), rapaz (boy), rapaza (girl), camín (way, path), ciudá (city), frayada (tired, fem.), virtú (virtue).



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Definite article

Its forms are:

singular plural

masc. fem. neut. masc. fem.

Before cons. el la

Before vow. l' la/l' * lo los les

Remarks:

*Only before words beginning by a-: l’arma, l’alma, but la entrada, la idea.

It must be quoted that masculine singular article el may be omitted when preposition en precedes it:

Metió les ferramientes en coche (=he/she put the tools in the car)

Dexemos la ropa n’almariu (=we left the clothes in the wardrobe)





Indefinite article

Its forms are:

singular plural

masc. fem. masc. fem.

un una unos unes

For the plural is rather usual to find dellos, delles (see further ‘quantifiers’): Había unes / delles caxes enriba la mesa (=There were some boxes on the table)



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The Possessives

Possessives have both a weak (unstressed) and a strong (stressed) form. The first one is used as a qualifier, while the second one is used as a pronoun.

The unstressed forms are: mio, mios, to, tos, so, sos, nuesu-nuestru, vuesu-vuestru, nueso-nestro, so, sos (my, your, his-her-its, our, your, their) as in the examples. Theese possessives in asturian ussually come with an definite article:

El mio neñu (My boy) La mio neña (My girl), El to neñu (your boy), La to neña (your girl), El so neñu (his-her boy), La so neña (his-her girl), Los sos neños (his-her boys), Les sos neñes (his-her girls), El nuesu neñu (our boy), La nuesa neña (our girl), Los nuesos neños (our boys), Les nueses neñes (our girls), El vuesu carbón (our coal), Los vuesos neños (your boys, plural possessors), la so lleña-la lleña d'ellos (their firewood).

singular plural

One possessor*

1 PS mio mios

2 PS to tos

3PS so sos

Several possessors

1 PP nuesu -a -o, nuestru -a -o, nuesos -es, nuestros -es

2 PP vuesu -a -o, vuestru -a -o, vuesos -es, vuestru -es

3 PP so sos

Remarks:

* they only admit a plural form but not a gender ones.

** they admit all the variations of gender and number in the 1PP and 2PP; 3PP work as singular forms.

Possessives are preceded by the determined article, which must keep the agreement in gender and number with the noun. Examples: La mio casa ye nueva (=My house is new), Les mios cases son nueves (=My houses are new)

When referred to family names, the article is mostly omitted: Mio padre trabaya na fábrica y mio madre trabaya en colexu (=My father works at the factory and my mother works at school)

Stressed pronouns are used only as pronouns, usually preceded by the definite article. In this case they must agree with the noun they refer to (even if it’s neuter). In case such a noun doesn’t exist or it is related to a situation, then neuter forms will be used. In this case these forms admit all the endings. Its forms are:

singular plural

One possessor*

1 PS míu -a -o míos -es

2 PS tuyu -a -o tuyos -s

3PS suyu -a -o suyos -es

Several possessors**

1 PP nuesu -a -o, nuestru -a -o, nuesos -es, nuestros -es

2 PP vuesu -a -o, vuestru -a -o, vuesos -es, vuestru -es

3 PP suyu -a -o suyos -es

Examples:

Esi galanu ye suyu (=masculine: that toy is his/hers). Esa caxa ye tuya (=feminine: that box is yours). Esa fariña ye nueso (neuter: that flour is ours)

Together with these stressed forms it is very usual to use another construction: it is used with preposition de plus unstressed forms mio, to, so, nueso, vueso, so (i.e., in neuter): Esi galanu ye de so, Esa caxa ye de to, Esa fariña ye de nueso.



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Demonstratives

Asturian keeps three degrees of demonstratives which are related to the first, second and third persons of personal pronouns. They can be used both as determiners and as pronouns (the only difference is that in the first case they are unstressed and in the second one they are stresses; apart from that, pronouns are accented, except esto, eso, aquello, i.e., the neuters forms which are always pronouns).

singular plural

masc. fem. neut. masc. fem.

esti esta esto estos estes

esi esa eso esos eses

aquel aquella aquello aquellos aquelles

Aquel may take the form aquelli when used as pronoun. They usually precede the noun they go with: esti rapaz ye mio hermanu (=This boy is my brother), but it is also possible to place it after the noun, in which case the definite article is required: el neñu esti ye'l mio hermanu

Demonstratives may go with a relative pronoun: esa que ta ehí ye la mio ciudá (=That oneover there is my city)



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Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns have stressed and unstressed forms. The first ones are of two kinds: subject pronouns and object pronouns, but always preceded by a preposition. The unstressed pronouns are always used as object pronouns (OD and OI).



PERSON SUBJECT OBJECT WITH PREP. OBJECT REFLEXIVE

1 PS yo min, comigo me me

2 PS tu ti, contigo te te

3 PS m. él, elli él, elli lu (OD), -y (OI) se 3 PS f. ella ella la (OD), -y (OI) se 3 PS n. ello ello lo se

1 PP nós nós nos nos

2 PP vós vós vos vos

3 PP m. ellos ellos los (OD), -yos (OI) se 3 PP f. elles elles les (OD), -yos (OI) se



The pronouns nós, vós may also appear as nosotros -es; vosotros -es when referred to inclusive persons; i.e. when they speaker wants to remark that these persons are a closed cluster or group. The courtesy person is vusté (pl. vustés), which uses the paradigm of the third person. Unstressed third person pronouns are used not only when they substitute a noun, but also when the nominal group they are referred to is placed at the beginning of the sentence: Dieron sidra a tola xente (=all the people were given cidre), but: A la xente dieron-y sidra. Another example: Fixeron la casa nueva a la vera de la carretera (=a new house was built (made) by the road), but: La casa nueva fixéronla a la vera de la carretera.

Subject pronouns are mostly omitted because the verb indicates which person it is referred to. If they are put in the sentence, they express emphasis, as in most romance languages. Pronoun se expresses impersonal subject. These sentences are used when the subject is not important (it is equivalent to the medial voice in ancient languages and it is often translated by the passive voice in English): Equí fálase inglés, francés y alemán (=English, French and German are spoken here)

These impersonal sentences are also possible with the third person plural, where the subject is omitted (ellos, elles) and it doesn’t matter to find out who performs the action: Venden llibros vieyos a bon preciu (=Old books are sold at a good price)

Unstressed personal pronouns maintain a very ancient placing before or after the verb in Asturian. Their rules are:

1. They go after the verb:

1.1. At the beginning of a sentence: Dígotelo yo (=I tell you), Pintételu d'azul, (=I painted it in blue to you), Vilu nel prau (=I saw him on the grass), Tiréla na fonta (=I threw her in the fountain), Llimpiévosles dafechu (=I cleaned them completely for them), Merqué-yoslos na tienda (=I bought them at the shop for them)

1.2. With the imperative tense: Apúrrilu p'aquí (=bring it here), Faláime bien (=Speak to me well), Daime lo que nun queráis (=Give me what you don’t want)

1.3. In periphrases and compound tenses, the pronoun may be placed after the past participle: Téngolo vísto (=I’ve seen it) or Tengo vístolo.

2. They go before the verb:

2.1. In subordinated clauses: Espero que me lo digas (=I hope you say it to me)

2.2. After certain conjunctions and adverbs: Nun se vieron (=they didn’t see one an-other); Yá te lo dixi (=I’ve already told you); Si nos acompañes, verás un sitiu perguapu (=if you come with us, you’ll se a very nice place)

2.3. With the infinitive it may be before it if there are que, nun or si: Tenéis que lo facer (=you must do it); Nun sé si me lo traerán (=I don’t know whether they’ll bring it to me).

The order of unstressed pronouns is always: first OI pronoun and then OD pronoun: Voi da-ylo (=I’m going to give it to him). All infinitives drop their /r/ when any pronoun joins it: escribir > escribilo, escribinos, escribí-y, etc. Orthographically pronouns -y and -yos are always written with an hyphen and joined to the former word, whatever it may be.



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Comparison of adjectives

Comparative of superiority is formed: más... que; comparative of equality: tan... como (when used with nouns tantu / tanta / tanto ... como: tengo tanto dineru como tu); comparative of inferiority: menos... que: Elli ye más altu que tu. Absolute superlative follow the same rules but the definite article must be placed before the comparative particles:

Elli ye'l más altu de la clas

Relative superlative is formed by placing such adverbs as mui, bien before the adjective. It is also possible to use prefix per-:

Ye perinteresante - Ye mui interesante - Ye interesante

The ending -ísimu, -a, -o, -os, -es is also possible: Mio padre ta ocupadísimu (=He’s really busy).



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Quantifiers

Quantifiers may be variable or invariable. Some of them may work as either pronouns or as adjectives, some are only adjectives and some are only adjectives. The list of them is as follows:

Algún, alguna, algunos, algunes (Pronoun and adjective): Some, several. Atopé algunos amigos na cai (=I met some friends on the street). It also presents the variant dalgún -a -os -es.

Nengún, nenguna, nengunos, nengunes (Pronoun and adjective): Any (negative), no: Nengún d’ellos nun lo sabía (=None of them knew it)

Ún, una, unos, unes (Pronoun): One. ¿Mercasti camises? Sí, merqué úna (=Did you buy any shirts? Yes, I bought one)

Dél, della, dello, dellos, delles (pronoun and adjective): Some, several; a little, a few. Quiero della lleche (= I want some / a little milk)

Daqué or (d)algo (pronoun): Something. Quiero ver daqué na tele (=I want to watch something on TV)

Nada (pronoun): Anything (negative), nothing. Nun nos traxeron nada (=they didn’t bring anything to us). Nun veo nada (=I see nothing). In this case other pronouns may be used: cosa, gota, un res.

Daquién or (d)alguién (pronoun): Somebody. ¿Hai daquién? (=Is there somebody?)

Otru, -a, -o, -os, -es (pronoun and adjective): Other, another. A la fin, lleí otru llibru (=At the end I read another book)

Cada (adjective): Each, every. Vémonos cada selmana (=We see one another every week)

Varios, -es (pronoun and adjective): Some, several. Toi lleendo varios llibros al empar (=I’m reading some books at the same time)

Tou, -a, -os, -es (pronoun and adjective): All. Vienen equí tolos díes (=They come here all days)

Munchu, -a, -o, -os, -es (pronoun and adjective): Much, many. Tengo munchu tiempu (=I’ve got much time)

Pocu, -a, -os, poques (pronoun and adjective): Little, few. Tengo pocu tiempu (=I have little time)

Cualaquier (adjective): Any (affirmative). Vendrá cualaquier día (=He’ll come any day)

Quienquiera (pronoun): Whoever, anybody. Que lo faiga quienquiera (=it can be done by anybody)

Some remarks must be added about the use of some of these quantifiers:

Asturian doesn’t use un otru, as Spanish doesn't either, in constructions as French un autre. In this case, only otru can be found: Si nun quies esi periódicu, dame otru (=If you don’t want that newspaper, give me another one).

Varios, -es is only used in plural.

Tou is contracted to the article forming one word: tol, tola, tolos, toles: toles selmanes (=all the weeks, every week)

Poques is just an orthographic change; it’s not irregular.

Cualaquier may be a pronoun, but in that case it takes another form: cualaquiera: Qué traxe pongo? Pon cualaquiera (=what shall I put on? Put on anyone). Also possible cualaquiera que (=whichever, whoever). There’s a compound form in qualaquier cosa (=whatever).

Quienquiera is rather rare. Most of the times is substituted by cualquiera.



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Numerals

Cardinal numbers in asturian are:

1 Un, unu; una 2 Dos 3 Tres 4 Cuatro 5 Cinco 6 Seis 7 Siete 8 Ocho 9 Nueve 10 Diez 11 Once 12 Doce (dolce) 13 Trece (trelce) 14 Catorce 15 Quince 16 Dieciséis (Selce) 17 Diecisiete 18 Dieciocho 19 Diecinueve 20 Venti 21 Ventiún, ventiuna 22 Ventidós 23 Ventitrés 30 Trenta 31 Trenta y un, una 32 Trenta y dos 40 Cuarenta 50 Cincuenta 60 Sesenta 70 Setenta 80 Ochenta 90 Noventa 100 Cien 200 Doscientos,-es 300 Trescientos,-es 400 Cuatrocientos,-es 500 Quinientos,-es; cincocientos,-es 600 Seiscientos,-es 700 Setecientos,-es 800 Ochocientos,-es 900 Novecientos,-es 1.000 Mil 2.000 Dos mil 3.000 Tres mil 1.000.000 Un millón

Ordinal numbers are rarely used in asturian. The most common forms are from 1st to 10th. After that, cardinal numbers are used instead. They take all endings of gender and number, though here we just give the masculine and feminine of singular.

1 Primer,-a (if pronoun masculine form is primeru and neuter form is primero) 2 Segundu,-a 3 Tercer,-a (the same case as primeru) 4 Cuartu,-a 5 Quintu,-a 6 Sextu,-a 7 Sétimu,-a 8 Octavu,-a 9 Novenu,-a 10 Décimu,-a

As for the rest: El Papa Xuan XXIII (=El Papa Xuan Ventitrés: Pope John XXIIIth).

Other numerals are: Metada ~ metá: half Doble: double Triple: third part Cuartu: forth part Quintu: fifth part Mediu, -a: half Decena: ten Docena: dozen



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Interrogative and relative pronouns

Most of the relative poronouns are also interrogative. Some of them may take endings but other are invariable:

Relative pronouns in asturian are

que: who, which, that. It may take an article or a demonstrative: Esa muyer ye la que m'apurrió esto (=That woman is who (the one who) has brought that to me)

quien: who, only with people, especially in indirect questions: Nun sé quien picó al timbre (=I don't know who has ringed at he bell)

el cualu, la cuala, lo cualo, los cualos, les cuales: which, who, especially in explicative sentences Relative pronouns may be preceded by prespositions: el sitio a que / al cual vas (=the place to which/ where you go). Notice that Asturian doesn’t use Spanish and Portuguese pronoun cuyo.

Interrogative pronouns may work as relatives especially in indirect questions. Their forms are:

¿qué?: what?

¿quién?: who?

¿cuál?: (with variations of gender and number: cuála, cuálos, cuáles) which one(s)?

¿cómo?: how, what like?

¿ónde?: where?

¿ulu,-a...?: where is he/she/it?

¿cuándo?: when?

¿cuántu, -a, -o...?: how much, how many?

They also may be preceded by a preposition.



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Asturian Verbs

Verbs are the richest element of the Asturian language as it usually happens in Romance languages. It would be impossible to give a full account of all its shades, so we will show an overview of the paradigms and other elements.

Generalities:

1. Tenses: Tenses are mainly three: present, past and future. Asturian keeps pluperfect as a single form.

2. Aspects: Aspect is, as in all romance languages, perfective (i.e. fulfilled action) and imperfective (i.e., unfulfilled action). The perfective aspect corresponds to all present and future tenses plus the imperfect. The rest of tenses are preterit and pluperfect; compound tenses must be included here, too.

3. Compound tenses: They have a very scarce use. Asturian clearly prefers simple tenses. Take notice of this equivalence between Spanish and Asturian:

ASTURIAN AND SPANISH EXAMPLES:

falé - he habado

tengo falao - tengo hablado

Forms like tengo falao are used to express an action which began and may be repeated in the present or in the future, so Asturian doesn’t distinguish, as Spanish does, between something happened in the past whose score has completely ended (simple past) or whose score may reach the present moment (present perfect). Spanish does distinguish he hablado (past action reaching the present) and tengo hablado (it adds a certain idea of iterative action coming from the past which will probably appear again). This last use is also known by Asturian.

4. Mode: Indicative, subjunctive, imperative and conditional, as in all Romance languages with no aspect about it to be remarked.

5. Non-personal forms: they are infinitive, gerund and (past) participle. They perform the same habitual functions of these special forms as in other Romance languages. The infinitive may work as a substantive, the gerund as an ad-verb and the participle as an adjective (as a verb it is used in periphrases and in compound tenses and just the neuter form is correct: falao, bebío, partío); when adjective it takes the five endings of all adjectives: faláu, falada, falao, falaos, falaes; bebíu, bebía, bebío, bebíos, bebíes; partíu partía, partío, partíos, partíes.



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Table of regular verbs

1st conj. 2nd conj. 3rd conj.

Falar (=to talk) Beber (=to drink) Partir (=to leave; to split)

Indicative Present

falo fales fala falamos faláis falen

bebo bebes bebe bebemos bebéis beben

parto partes parte partimos partís parten

Imperfect

falaba falabes falaba falábemos falabeis falaben

bebía bebíes bebía bebíemos bebíeis bebíen

partía partíes partía partíemos partíeis partíen

Preterit

falé falasti faló falemos falastis falaron

bebí bebisti bebió bebimos bebistis bebieron

partí partisiti partió partimos partisitis partieron

Pluperfect

falara falaras falara faláramos falarais falaran

bebiera bebieras bebiera bebiéramos bebierais bebieran

partiera partieras partiera partiéramos partierais partieran

Future

falaré falarás falará falaremos falaréis falarán

beberé beberás beberá beberemos beberéis beberán

partiré partirás partirá partiremos partiréis partirán

Conditional

falaría falaríes falaría falaríemos falaríeis falaríen

bebería beberíes bebería beberíemos beberíeis beberíen

partiría partiríes partiría partiríemos partiríeis partiríen

Subjunctive Present

fale fales fale falemos faléis falen

beba bebas beba bebamos bebáis beban

parta partas parta partamos partáis partan

Imperfect

falare falares falare faláremos falareis falaren

bebiere bebieres bebiere bebiéremos bebiereis bebieren

partiere partieres partiere partiéremos partiereis partieren

Imperative

fala falái

bebi bebéi

parti partíi

Compound tenses are (notice that the past perfect of indicative, i.e. the pluperfect, is a simple tense):

Indicative Present perfect

tengo falao tienes falao tien falao tenemos falao tenéis falao tienen falao

tengo bebío tienes bebío tien bebío tenemos bebío tenéis bebío tienen bebío

tengo partío tienes partío tien partío tenemos partío tenéis partío tienen partío

Future perfect

tendré falao tendrás falao tendrá falao tendremos falao tendréis falao tendrán falao

tendré bebío tendrás bebío tendrá bebío tendremos bebío tendréis bebío tendrán bebío

tendré partío tendrás partío tendrá partío tendremos partío tendréis partío tendrán partío

Subjunctive Present perfect

tenga falao tengas falao tenga falao tengamos falao tengáis falao tengan falao

tenga bebío tengas bebío tenga bebío tengamos bebío tengáis bebío tengan bebío

tenga partío tengas partío tenga partío tengamos partío tengáis partío tengan partío

Pluperfect

tuviere falao tuvieres falao tuviere falao tuviéremos falao tuviereis falao tuvieren falao

tuviere bebío tuvieres bebío tuviere bebío tuviéremos bebío tuviereis bebío tuvieren bebío

tuviere partío tuvieres partío tuviere partío tuviéremos partío tuviereis partío tuvieren partío

The non-personal forms:

Infinitive

falar beber partir

Gerund

falando bebiendo partiendo

Participle

faláu -ada -ao, bebíu -ida -o, partíu -ida -o



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Some irregular verbs

There are a lot of irregular verbs in Asturian. The first cause of irregularity is caused by the diphthongation of the stem vowel in 1PS, 2PS, 3PS, 3PP of both

indicative and subjunctive present and 1PS of imperative according to this rule (which reaches the three conjugations):

Infinitive Diphthong in Present

-e- > -ie-

-o- > -ue-

It’s seen on these tables with verbs sentar and cuntar:

Present indicative

siento sientes siente sentamos sentáis sientan

cuento cuentes cuenta contamos contáis cuenten

Present subjunctive

siente sientes siente sentemos sentéis sienten

cuente cuentes cuente contemos contéis cuenten

Imperative

sienta sentái

cuenta contái

The rest of the irregularities mostly affect the stems in the present and in the preterit. Here are some of these verbs with their main irregularities (regular tenses are not in-cluded). We’ll show some abbreviations that are: I: indicative S: subjunctive Pr: present indicative Imp. imperfect Pt: preterit indicative F: future Pf: pluperfect Gerd. gerund Part. participle



Caber (=to fit, to be contained)

PrI quepio, cabes, cabe...

PtI cupe, cupisti, cupo...

PrS quepia, quepias, quepia....

Dar (=to give)

PrI doi, das, da, damos, dais, dan

PfI diera, dieras, diera...

PrS dea, deas, dea...

Dicir (=to say)

PrI digo, dices, diz, dicimos, dicís, dicen

PtI dixe, dixiti, dixo, diximos, dixistis, dixeron

PrS diga, digas, diga...

Part. dicho

Dir (=to go)

PrI voi, vas, va , vamos, vais, van

Imp. diba, dibes, diba, díbemos, dibeis, diben

PtI fui, fuisti, foi, fuimos, fuistis, foron

PfI fora, foras, fora, foramos...

PrS vaiga, vaigas, vaiga, vaigamos...

Esmoler (=to worry)

PrI esmuelgo, esmueles, esmuel...

PrS esmuelga, esmulgas, esmuelga...

Facer (=to do, to make)

PrI faigo, faes, fai, facemos, facéis, faen

PtI fice:fixe, ficisti:fixisti, fixo:fizo, ficimos:fiximos, ficistis:fixistis, ficieron:fixeron

FI fadré, fadrás, fadrá...

PrS faiga, faigas, faiga...

Ger. faciendo

Part. fecho

Haber =(to have to)

PrI he, has, ha, habemos, habéis, han

PtI hube, hubisti, hubo, hubimos...

FI habré, habrás, habrá...

PfI hubiera, hubieras, hubiera...

PrS hebia, hebias, hebia...

Oyer (=to haear)

PrI oigo~oyo, oyes, oi, oyimos, oyís, oyen

PrS oiga, oga, oigas...

Poder (=can)

PrI puedo, puedes, puede...

PtI pude, pudiste, pudo, pudimos, pudisteis, pudieron

PrS pueda, puedas, pueda...

Poner (=to put)

PrI pongo, pones, pon, ponemos, ponéis, ponen

PtI punxe, punxiti, punxo, punximos, punxitis, punxeron

FI pondré, pondrás, pondrá...

PrS ponga, pongas, ponga...

Part. puesto

Querer (=to want)

PrI quiero, quies, quier, queremos, queréis, quieren

PtI quixe, quixisti, quixo, quiximos, quixistis, quixeron

Saber (=to know)

PrI sé, sabes, sabe, sabemos, sabéis, saben

PtI supe, supisti, supo, supimos, supistis, supieron

PrS sepia, sepias, sepia...

Ser (=to be)

PrI soi, yes, ye, somos, sois, son

Imp. yera, yeras, yera, yéramos, yerais, yeran

PtI fui, fuisti, foi, fuimos, fuistis, foron

FtI sedré, sedrás, sedrá...

PrS seya, seyas, seya, seyamos...

Tar (=to be, to stay, to stand)

PrI toi, tas, ta, tamos, tais, tán

PtI tuve, tuvisti, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvisteis, tuvieron

PrS tea, teas, tea...

Tener (=to have)

PrI tengo, tienes, tien, tenemos, tenéis, tienen

PtI tuve, tuvisti, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvistis, tuvieron

FI tendré, tendrás, tendrá...

PrS tenga, tengas, tenga...

Trayer (=to bring)

PrI traigo, trais, trai, trayemos, trayéis, trayen

PtI truxe, truxisti, truxo, truximos, truxistes, truxeron

PrS traiga, traigas, traiga...

Valir (=to be worthy, to cost) Salir (=to go out) is alike.

PrI valgo, vales, val, valemos, valéis, valen

FI valdré, valdrás, valdrá, valdrá...

PrS valga, valgas, valga...

Ver (=to see)

PrI veo, ves, ve, vemos, veis, ven

PrS ve(y)a, ve(y)as, ve(y)a, ve(y)amos...

Part. visto

Venir (=to come)

PrI vengo, vienes, vien, venimos, venís, vienen

PtI vine, vinisti, vieno, vinimos, vinistis, vinieron

FI vendré, vendrás, vendrá...

PrS venga, vengas, venga...

Some notes about verbs

Impersonal ‘there be’ is hai, había, habrá; it’s the third person signular (always invariable). Take notice of hai instead of ha.

Verbs having -l, -z, -n in the last syllable lose their final -e: producir > produz; nacer > naz; crecer > crez; salir > sal, valir > val, tener > tien, poner > pon, venir > vien.

Auxiliary verbs are: ser + participle (for the passive voice, wich is a sort of strange in asturian speech): La carretera ye fecha pola xente (=The road is made by the people); tener + participle (=have), already explained. Obligation is expressed with haber (de), tener de + infinitive: has (de) / tienes de trabayar más (=you have to work harder). Deber is also possible.

Future tense is very little used. Instead of it the periphrasis dir + infinitive is the most common way to express future: vamos viaxar a China esti branu (=We’re going to travel to China next summer).

Asturian knows a kind of continuous tenses with tar + gerund. Compare trabayo de mañana (=I [usually] work in the morning) with toi trabayando de mañana (=I’m working this morning).

The so-called inchoative verbs (ending in -ecer) and verbs ending in -ucir are perfectly regular except for their 3PS of Present Indicative: florez < florecer, deduz < deducir, conduz< conducir, produz < producir, reduz < reducir.

Verbs ending in -uyir are regular except for 3PS: contruyir > constrúi.

Verbs of the second and third conjugations having -ñ- or -x- in the stem, just before the ending, do not form their gerund with -ie- but with -e-: tiñir (=to dye) > tiñendo, fuxir (=to escape, to take away) > fuxendo.



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The asturian Adverbs

Many adverbs are adjectives used adverbially. In this case, they always take the neutre form -o: Xicu ye mui altu (=Francis is very tall adjective) Xulia fala mui alto (=Julie speaks aloud adverb)

Other examples are: solu: solo (alone, only), baxu: baxo (short, low; bellow). Asturian often uses the -mente ending added to an adjective to make it an adverb (note that the adjective must take the feminine singular form): rápidu > rápidamente (but in ven rápido (=come quickly), rápido is an adverb as in the former cases), llocu > llocamente (=madly), etc. On the other hand there are many genuine or pure adverbs, which are classified here according to the traditional criteria. It must be quoted that Asturian admits the double negation when a negative quantifier (or another word related to a negative category) commences a sentece: Nun quiero nada (=I don’t want anything) Nadie nun vien or nun vien nadie (=Nobody’s coming). In the first part of the second sentence we could also find: Nadie vien



We include not only the adverbs themselves, but also adverbial locutions:

Manner

asina, destamiente, d’esti mou, a xeitu, aspacio, adulces, bien, mal

so, in this way, in this way, right(ly), slowly, slowly, well , bad(ly)

Quantity

mui - poco- abondo- a esgaya (asgaya) - enforma - nada de - algo: daqué (de) - muncho - dafecho (dafechamente)

very - (a) little - enough - in a great deal - rather - quite no - nothing of - somewhat (very) much - absolutely, completely

Time

agora, lluego, depués (de), sero, ceo, mañana, güei, ayeri, tarde, más tarde, antes (de), enantes, cuantayá, hai, de mañana, de tarde, de nueche, de sutrucu, de repente, de sutaque, de xemes en cuando, dacuando, nunca, (en)xamás, otra vez: vegada: vuelta

now, immediately, after(wards), late, soon, tomorrow, today, yesterday, late, later, before, before or previously, a long time ago, ago, in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening (night), suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, from time to time, sometimes, never, never, again

Place

dayuri ,nenyuri, delantre, detrás, dientro, fuera, equí, ehí, ellí, enriba, embaxo, a la manzorga, a la mandrecha

somewhere, anywhere (neg.)or nowhere, ahead, behind, inside, outside, here, there, over there, up(side), down(side), on the left, on the right

Affirmation

sí - por supuestu - claro - tamién

yes - of course - sure - also, too.

Negation

non - nun- tampoco

no - not - either (neg), neither

Doubt

talvez, al meyor, seique, posiblemente

maybe, perhaps, maybe, possibly



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The asturian Prepositions

The simple ones are:

a to (direction, OI, and OD when referred to people: vi a Xuacu na cai =I saw Joachim on the street)

ante - énte in front of

baxo under

cabo - co by, next to

con with

contra against

de of, about, from, in (de tarde, d’hibiernu =in the winter). This preposition is often omitted when linking two nominal groups whenever it is placed among vowels: casa campu (=country house), vasu vino (=glass of wine)

dende from

ente between

escontra in direction to, towards

hacia into

hasta until; also dica

pa for, to (directions)

per by (direcction os space) Per equí: this way

por by (agentive), along.

según according to

ensin without;

so under

sobre on, about

tres after, behind

xunta together with, by (proximity), near


The main compound prepositions are:

a lo llargo de along; al delláu de close to, near, by; pola mor de because of; a causa de because of; per aciu de by means of; en metanes de in the middle of, in the centre of; a(l) través de through



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Conjunctions

Here we’ll follow this classification in asturian:

Coordinative prepositions:

copulative

y (ya), y tamién, nin

and (ya before a word beginning by (h)i-), and also, and not or neither

disjunctive

o, o bien

distributive

yá... yá, ora... ora, nin... nin

either...or, neither... nor

adversative

pero, anque, sicasí, poro

but, however, nevertheless, anyway

Subordinative conjunctions

cause

porque, por mor de (que)

because, because of

time

cuando, siempre que

when, whenever

concession

maguer, anque, inda que, alpesar de que

although, despite

finality

pa + inf., pa que

to (+inf), for (sb) to, in order to

condition

si, nel casu de (que)

if, in case


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Contractions

Asturian language uses some contractions, wich is the mixture of a preposition and an article ( a + el = al, per + el = pel). It must be said that contractions never apostrophize in asturian with other words or particles. Thees contractions are:

al, del, pal, sol, col, cola, colo, colos, coles, nel, na, no, nos, nes, pel, pela, pelo, pelos, peles, pol, pola, polo, polos, poles.

al mercáu (to the market), del llugar (of the place), pal llagar (for the cider house), sol teyáu (on the roof), col fíu (with the son), cola vidaya (with the temple), colo puesto (with the clothes put on), colos fíos (with the sons), coles fíes (with the daugthers), nel carbayéu (in the oakwood), na fonte (in the fountain), no semao (in the seeded), nos semaos (in the seeded fields), nes fariñes (in the corn-flour melt), pel camín (throug the way), pela nueche (by night), pelo segao (through the mowed), pelos llugares (through the villages/places), peles mañanes (in the mornings), pol pueblu (for the people/village), pola xente (for the people), polo axeitao (for the correct), polos asuntos (for the issues), poles perres (for the money).

Other contractions are made by the mixture of words like indefinites tou (all), cada (each) with articles, or even the mixture of the preposition en plus indefinite ún (someone) or él, ella, ellos, elles (he, she, they), as in the examples:

tol, tola, tolo, tolos, toles, caún, caúnu, caúna, caúno, nun, nún, nunu, nuna, nuno, nunos, nunes, nél, nella, nello, nellos, nelles

tol día (all the day), tola nueche (all the night), tolo puesto (all the put), tolos díes (all the days), toles nueches (all the nights), caún-caúnu-caúna, caúno (each one), nun llugar (in a place), ve ponelu nún (go and put it in one), ve ponelu nunu (go and put it in one), ve ponelu nuna siella (go and put it in a chair), marcharon d'unu nuno (they wet away one by one), ve ponelu nunos llugares (go and put it in some places), ve ponelu nunes sielles (go and put it in some chairs), Nun tien enfotu nél (He doesn't have confidence in him), Nun tien enfotu nella (She doesn't have confidence in her), Nun tien enfotu nello (He doesn't hace confidence in it), Nun tien enfotu nellos (He doesnt have confidence in them), Nun tien enfotu nelles (He doesnt have confidence in them).

There is also contractions in asturian with preposition en plus a demonstrative, like en + esti = nesti (in + this). The examples are:

nesti, nesta, nesto, nestos, nestes, nesi, nesa, neso, nesos, neses, naquel, naquella, naquello, naquellos, naquelles

nesti llugar (in this place), nesi paisaxe (in that landscape), naquel tiempu (in that time)

Other contractions are in asturian: pente, pante, an, pequí, perhí, pende, pellí, pellá, perriba-penriba, perbaxo-pembaxo.

pente la borrina (through the mist, for + in the mist), siempre anda perhí (always goes somewhere out, for there), llanzólu penriba'l teyáu (he has thrown him over the roof, for + up the roof), perbaxo (under, for + under)



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FOR MORE ABOUT ASTURIAN LANGUAGE:
- Gramática de la llingua asturiana (Academia de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu)
- Diccionariu de la llingua asturiana (DALLA, Academia de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu)

[Art]

Thanks, Astúricu! I've never seen a summary of Asturian grammar in English.

Please don't put the same message in two places. I've already told you this, haven't I?

Also, if you let me know when you want to update this message, I'll figure out a way to get that done.

-----------------

¡Gracias, Astúricu! Nunca he visto una gramática asturianu en inglés.

Se ruega no poner el mismo mensaje en dos sitios. Ya te he dicho antes, ¿no?

Además, dime cuando quieres poner al dia este mensaje para que resolvalo yo.