Asturian-American Migration Forum

sal.lar/sallar: pronounced sah-TSAR in West Asturian or sah-YAHR in Central Asturian, verbu (verb). To weed out, yank out, root out, deracinate, avulse, cull. Used in Asturias to designate the weekly or monthly task of removing weeds in a potato or cornfield, or to extirpate a crop of any invasive growth. Also designates the carving of small mounds of earth around the root system of a plant to retain moisture.

By extension, in contemporary Asturian, it has the meaning of making a cull of something, to distill or gather the best of something. In this last sense, similar to esbirar or esbillar (to make a selection of the best fabas or fabes, for example).

Usage examples:
Los mious primos tan na l.louría sal.lando. (My cousins are in the community garden getting rid of the weeds. The word l.louría is pronounced tsow-REE-ah and is usually a communal patch reserved for growing kale (berza, grelos).
Asturias quedou ensin industria. Bien ceu, la xente vei tener que dir a sal.lar cumu faían los vieyos. (Asturias has lost its industrial economy. People will soon have to go weed their patches just like the old folk used to do.)

Folk wisdom:
Ayín, ayón, por qué nun creces? Porque nun me sallaste tolos meses. (Piggly wiggly, why aren’t you thriving? Because all these months you didn’t weed me.)
Esa saya colorada, nun la lleves a sallar, si quies que te la vea, cuélgala de la figar. (Don’t wear the red skirt when you go weeding. If you want me to notice it, hang it from a fig tree.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OybJvfSwrpw

As of 3:29, listen to usage of the word 'sallar' in the village of Restiellu, County Grau (Grado). Taresa, 82, talks about the killings in the area after Franco's troops took over the countriside of Grau circa 1938. One of the first people to get killed was the village teacher, who had offered to teach Taresa along with his two daughters. She was later unable to get an education.

Here is a brief transcript of Taresa's description:

Taresa: Ya...ya un día fomos a pa...a pousalas a Casa Esperanza. Ya tabamos allí sallando, ya mi madre ya la madre Candida. Ya había Rosario, había 3 días ou 4 que mataran los harmanos ya Rosario era prima carnal de Nieves ya era de los Barreiros ya vieno a ayudanos tamién. Ya contóunos el casu como fora cuando mataran los harmanos ya todo. Nós vieramos subir tocando el pitu el coche cuando subió...p'aú subió? Pa las Curuxas ou non sei pa ónde...

Is, creo que esbillar se refiere más bien a sacar los arbeyos y fabes (o castañes, o ablanes) de la vaina o la cáscara. A mí de pequeña me ponían a esbillar arbeyos y yo me sentía muy importante, sentada allí en la cocina con mi güela y mi madre, escuchando sus historias.

Thanks, Terechu. I'll post 'esbillar' next week as the word of the week and include your definition. I've seen 'esbilla' used at the International Film Festival in Xixon to refer to a culling or selection of the best films, so you're probably right on this one.