Asturian-American Migration Forum

espuntar: pronounced Ess-poon-TAHR. Verb that describes a budding plant or the act of cutting or pruning a tree. It can also refer to the cutting of loose ends of hair or the dislodging of corn grains from the husk. By extension, espuntar means to choose or select.

Synonyms at clip, crop, cut back, cut down, pare, trim, snip or separate the wheat from the chaff.

Usage examples:

En Ca Marcelin espuntanon el teixu porque-l.lys quitaba la vista. [At Marcelin’s farmstead they pruned the yew tree because it was blocking their view.]

En chegando, Nolo tuviera espuntando maiz pa los xatos. [As soon as Nolo arrived, he took to picking out the corn for the heifers.]

Esos tomates hai que los espuntar. [Those tomato vines need some pruning.]

Listen to Pilar, from Almonu (Vil.lar de Sapos, County Ayande/Allande), asking ethnomusicologist Xose Anton Ambas to select a song for her to sing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j-12F_Q ... re=related

Ambas: Vamos ver si nos alcordamos…de los cantares que cantaban pa L’Habanera pa l’agarrao. You sei que hai un son mui guapu, aprendilo contigo…
Pilar: A ver, espunta algo a ver…
Ambas: Pou espuntar, pero tengo que pensar tamien. Ia que con tanta camara pongome nerviosu.
Pilar: Si, pues you nun te digo nada…

Keep listening to the YouTube clip for Pilar’s salacious story of the two brothers, one smart and the other dumb, who were ready to do anything for a pote de berzas (Asturian kale stew).

The verb espuntar also exists in Ladino, the language of the Sephardim in medieval Spain. Here is a poem/song by Jehuda Kalazh as published in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1972, in the ‘Annual of the Social Cultural and Education Association of the Jews in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria’:

‘Enkomedo a la tiera kitar todo en su punto,
Trigo i sereales i arvoles de fruto!
Kada koza en su tiempo su fruto deve kitar,
En la guerta o en el kampo el arvol deve espuntar.
I komo sinyal el Dyo pozo, de 15 Shevat ke empesen,
Del prinsipio lo kompozo, en este rizho estesen!’

Is, what got you thinking about espuntar? Did you get a haircut?

That detail about the same word being in Ladino is very interesting. Is there a relationship between Asturian and Ladino?

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Is, cómo es que empezaste a pensar en espuntar? ¿Recibiste un corte de pelo?

El detalle que la misma palabra existe en ladino es muy interesante. ¿Existe una relación entre el asturianu y ladino?

Art wrote:Did you get a haircut?

Meca, how did you know? The neocortex is an amazing repository of associations. Tired of getting butcher jobs in Washington (U Street) or North African buzzes in Paris (Belleville), I bought myself a BaByliss for Men buzzer by Titanium. The unfortunate part is that you need to calibrate it for length in order to espuntar correctly. Not an easy task, as witnessed by the fesoriazos in the back of my head.

On the Ladino poem, I think the verb espuntar also exists in Catalan. Llames could find out for us if it's used in Majorca and the Balearic islands. It makes sense since both Asturian and Ladino are derived from vulgar Latin, although Ladino has the Hebrew inputs as well. I'm not sure if the strict equivalent in Castilian Spanish would be despuntar. Need to check that one too.

I have my hair and beard trimmed three or four times a year, whether or not they need it.

I once showed up at my parents' house with rather long hair, kept out of my eyes by a folded kerchief tied around my head (sort of a modified Hells Angels look). My father, who was quite conservative in these matters, said "not in this house, Buster." I ignored him and he chose not to mention it again, but it became a family joke to the point where he proudly wore the t-shirt I had made for him. It was blue with bright yellow letters proclaiming "Not in this house, Buster."

When the Sephardim left Spain, they took with them their language of the time, and it followed its own path of cultural evolution. If the asturianu that came to this country 100 years ago with my ancestors were still commonplace, it would make a fascinating subject for linguistic study.

Bob wrote:My father, who was quite conservative in these matters, said "not in this house, Buster."

Well Buster, at that point of your post, I had to break out in laughter. I don't know what the neighbors thought.

On hirsute and non-hirsute matters, I would offer you my BaBybliss For Men buzzer, except transportation costs are too high and haircuts are, in economics-speak, non-tradables.

Your comment about the Asturian spoken in West Virginia 100 years ago would indeed make for a fascinating study. Granda, a member of this forum I've met in UAE recently, made a similar comment. He told me how fascinated he was to hear Americans speak with Asturian intonation and use words in real Asturian in Luis Argeo's documentary film, Asturianus.

It was proof to him (not a speaker of Asturian) that it was the people's language scarcely a century ago. Today, it is almost an illegal language for political reasons and what a shame that is.

On another note, if anybody has experience raising multilingual children, I'd be interested. My niece is reaching her 12-month language acquisition window and has been getting English, French, Russian and Breton. We'd like to add Asturian and Spanish.

Experience in raising multilingual children, no, but my understanding is that they are amazingly able to keep multiple languages separate and develop native accents even if the learning process starts a few years later than 12 months. The window may be a little wider than you think. My father spoke no English until he started school, and he spoke perfectly in asturianu and castellano (according to people we met in Spain - this pleased him enormously) and had no discernible foreign accent in English. He also spoke a little Italian (leaning toward Sicilian) and Polish because of his late childhood friends in Niagara Falls.

I have, however, promised my granddaughters to take them to Spain (really Asturias) when they can carry on a conversation. Their school introduces them to castellano in kindergarten, and starts teaching some classes in that language in later grades. They are VERY excited about the trip, even though they are well aware that it is a few years in the future.

I may be biased, and I myself started late in life, but I cannot imagine a greater gift to children than to ensure that they can speak and read more than one langage.

On matters of hair, since my beard turned white, most years I have let it grow rather long before Christmas, to the delight of young children I encounter in grocery stores and other such places who ask me "are you Santa Claus."

The Santa hat I wear helps too.

Ah, then it makes sense that Ladino and Asturianu would have a parallel development.

I was wondering when the Sephardim arrived on the Iberian Peninsula. This article below suggests that Jews may have arrived very early with Phoenician and Greek settlements, perhaps beginning in about 800 BCE. He claims that Jews made up a significant percentage of the population of these Greek outposts and that they were in Spain long before the Romans came.
http://www.alfassa.com/blog/2008/12/why ... moder.html

Perhaps there was another influx later after one of the times in which the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.

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Ah, entonces tiene sentido que el ladino y asturianu habrían tenido un desarrollo paralelo.

Me pregunto sobre cuando las sefardíes llegaron a la Península Ibérica. Este artículo abajo sugiere que los judíos pueden haber llegado muy temprano, con los asentamientos de los fenicios y griegos, quizás a partir de alrededor de 800 AEC. Afirma que los judíos formaban un porcentaje significativo de la población griega de estas ciudades y que se encontraban en España antes de que los romanos llegaron.
http://www.alfassa.com/blog/2008/12/why ... moder.html

Quizás hubo otro flujo más tarde después de uno de los tiempos en que el Templo en Jerusalén fue destruido.

While I don't have anything approaching native fluency or Paul's linguistic abilities, I find the history of castellano, asturianu and related languages fascinating. At my other home I have a volume of early literature, and will post the reference the next time I am there. All I remember right now if that it was published by Garland and is volume one in a three volume work, with a cover the color of the background of our website. It has everything from Ladino to Mozarabic and early dialects of asturianu and castellano (and others).

paul, i thought that the asturian word of the week would be the equivalent of bbq!

Yes, I found fascinating the fact that the some of the Asturamericans in Luis Argeo's documentary spoke with an impecable Asturian intonation. That was pure asturian for many of them!
However I find sad that the language and culture will probably die with many of them as it seems difficult for the traditions to pass to the new generations. Is it maybe because USA has blended everything that has arrived during the last 200 years? or maybe because there were not enough number of asturianos to create a long lasting influence

But if you look at the Sephardim and the ladino language. They have been able to keep the language for more than 500 years. It wonder why they do it. I remember having a sepharad customer in Greece. He could trace his ancestors until xv century. He had a beatiful handwriting and in the pre-email era he used to hand write faxed in ladino.

Sheparad won the Premio Principe of Asturias de la Concordia 1990. I tried to find in the internet the speech given during the ceremony as it was quite emotive

Is wrote: English, French, Russian and Breton. We'd like to add Asturian and Spanish.

und wie wärs noch mit einem schuß chinesisch obendrauf, zur abrundung, sozusagen?

siembre tengo una barba de tres días. p.d.: iS, para { respectivamente: contra } ^fesoriazos^: uses dos espejos. ansonsten: übung macht den meister.

jajaja me hace gracia lo de cortarse el pelo a fesoriazos ya lo escuche yo en Asturias mas de una vez.. donde sacaste esa expresion?

granda wrote: jajaja me hace gracia lo de cortarse el pelo a fesoriazos ya lo escuche yo en Asturias mas de una vez.. donde sacaste esa expresion?

Escuitaralo a un rapaz de Xixon que trabayaba nuna peluqueria xunto Puerta la Villa. Taba acabante cortame you mesmu el pelu, ya saliu mal l'esperimentu. Entos, al sentame na butaca de la peluqueria, dixo eso: 'tu non te cortaste el pelo, diste-y fesoriazos'.

El casu ia que agora que tengo el buzzer de Titanium vou pasar por lo mesmo. Cumo bien diz Tierradenaide, practice makes perfect. Pero los espeyos ayudan. Por ciertu, au te cortaras el pelo tu l'outru dia ya cuanto pagaras? Bur Dubai? Karama?