uz - heath/heather - brezo

[is]

uz: pronounced OOTH, chiefly West Asturian and Galician-Asturian. The low-growing shrub of the genus Erica or Calluna. Heather is native to Europe (and South Africa) and has small evergreen leaves and small, colorful purple or white flowers. A heath is known as an uzal, pronounced ooth-AHL.

East and Central Asturian variants include bericiu, berizu, beriza, terenu, terena, tuerganu and others.

The deep roots of the uz moural (purple-flowering heather) were used in West Asturias to light fires at the metalworking forges or ferreirias, as well as to heat ovens or thatch roofs. Today, areas rich in uz moural like Bual/Boal, Grandas de Salime and County Ayande (Allande) are known for their deep-red honey made by bees that collect pollen from mountain heaths (uzales).

Listen to minute 2:48 in this youtube clip with Maruja, 71, from L.landelfornu (Tsan-dehl-FOR-noo), in County Vil.layon (Vee-tsah-YOHN) in western Asturias:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXsUVBLj ... re=related

Maruja: que pa salir d’alli…ya sabes con que saliamos? Con cargas de l.lena…
[to get out of there, do you know how we did it? Carrying a load of firewood...]
Ambas: na cabeza [on your head]
Maruja: de uz, de uz moural, na cabeza pa venir p’arroxar pa cuando habia qu’amasar ya fer el pan…
[of heather, of purple heather, on our heads so we could use it later to fire up the oven and make bread...]
Ambas: ya baxar al mulin a cerca Parl.leiru
[and carry it down to the flour mill near Parl.leiru]
Maruja: ya baxar al mulin a embaxo, a cerca Parl.leiru, a la veira de Ferreirin aqui embaxo, que ta enfrente…
[and come down to the mill, near Parl.leiru, next to Ferreirin down here, which is in front of...]
Ambas: en L.landelfornu son vaqueiros?
[Are the people of L.landelfornu vaqueiros (nomadic herdsmen)?]
Maruja: en L.landelfornu nun somos vaqueiros, somos aldeanos.
[Here in L.landelfornu we aren't vaqueiros, we're settled farmers]
Ambas: sois aldeanos, ya que pueblos hai eiqui de vaqueiros?
[you're farmers, so what villages here are technically vaqueiros?]
Maruja: bueno pues de vaqueiros you que te vou decir? A lo major igual molesta a la gente que lu digas, porque antes…
[well, vaqueiro villages, what can I say? Maybe people wouldn't like it for me to label them as such because...]
Ambas: porque antes taba mal visto…
[because it used to be unfashionable...]