Asturian-American Migration Forum

fíu: pronounced FEE-oo. Sustantivu (Noun). Son, a male child or descendant. Also an endearing or familiar form of address to a man or boy: "Ay fíu, ye que paecíame que andabes tresmanau." (Sorry son, it looked like you were lost.) In some counties of West Asturias (Teberga, Somiedu, Miranda) pronounced as fichu (FEE-choo), and in Galician-Asturian pronounced as fiyo (FEE-yoh) or fillo (FEEL-yoh).

Fía: pronounced FEE-ah. Sustantivu (Noun). Daughter, a female child or descendant. Also used as a familiar form of address to a girl or adult woman: "Home fía, ye que el to home Xuan nun sirve pa trabayar. Ye un folgau." (Honey, the problem is that your husband Xuan doesn’t like to work. He’s lazy.) In Western counties pronounced as ficha (FEE-chah), and in Galician-Asturian as fiya (FEE-yah) or filla (FEEL-yah).

Idiomatic usage:
Fichu de moza solteira (illegitimate son; literally "son of a single woman")
Fía de per de llau (illegitimate daughter; literally "daughter from the sideline")
Fíu del diañu (the devil’s son)
La fía de sua mai (a daughter that takes after her mother)

Folk wisdom:
"Fíu fuste, padre serás; cumu fixiste, fadrán." (You were once a son and one day you will be a father; like you treat us, they will treat you.)
"A quien Dios no-y da fíos, da-y el diablu sobrinos." (Those to whom God does not grant children, the devil grants nephews.)

Thanks, Is! There are also the following variants:

- jiyu (Eastern Asturias, mostly Llanes)
- fiyu (East-Central Asturias, Infiesto, Piloña)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_vGk8sri_I

Fast forward to 07:19 into this utube video by Xose Anton Ambas, recorded in Viodo (County Gozon). The interviewee is Adelina, 86, who has had to move back into her son's farmstead in Viodo after a thrombosis. She speaks of 'ocle', a type of seaweed that people in coastal areas used to harvest for the pharmaceutical industry and also to fertilize their fields. Note her usage of the word 'fíu' as of 07:40. This is part of her dialogue in Central Asturian:

Adelina: A la mas dibamos al mar, al ocle, al ocle, a les alenes, que diba una sobrina mia a vender les alenes.
Ambas: Esta xente nun sabe lo que ye l'alena.
Adelina: Bueno pues l'oricio, a los oricios, les alenes. Pero amigo, depues agora diome a mi la trombosis [ya lo se] y tuve que venir equi pa col fíu. Pa col fiu y la nuera y la nieta.

Wonderful! Thanks, Is! The travelling seamstresses carrying their sewing machines on their heads were still around in the 50's.
I enjoyed her account of her married life as the wife of a seaside farmer, and what a typical life she had, four cows, a meadow, a kitchen garden to grow potatoes and corn, and then the Sea...they gathered and dried seaweed, which they sold, they gathered sea urchins and barnacles and everything, as she says.
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Qué guapo! Gracias, Is. En los años 50 todavía existían las costureras que iban por las casas con sus máquinas de coser en la cabeza.
Me encantó el relato de su vida de casada con un campesino de la ribera, y lo típica que era su vida, con cuatro vacas, un prado, huerta para patatas, maíz y demás, y luego el mar...iban al ocle, que secaban y vendían, iban a oricios y a llámpares y a todo, como dice ella.