Lletres Asturianes

Cantares d’amor y guerra: Exploring Gaspar García Laviana’s Poetic and Social Work through Translation into Asturian

2025-10-22T13:40:47+02:00

This article analyses Cantos de amor y guerra by Gaspar García Laviana through its translation into Asturian. The process of translating the work of the poet and priest provides an opportunity to explore in greater depth his social and religious commitment to the Nicaraguan people and to the ideals of the Sandinista Revolution. The poems, written in a clear and direct language, combine love with the struggle for justice, reflecting the influence of Liberation Theology and García Laviana’s engagement with the poor and the oppressed. Accordingly, the article discusses the metrical and rhythmic challenges involved in rendering the original Spanish text into Asturian, seeking to preserve its musicality and popular tone while retaining the ethical and aesthetic essence of the original work.

The Fuero Juzgo in the Bavarian State Library: Questions of Dating and Provenance

2025-05-20T06:48:09+02:00

Among the seven or eight 13th-century codices preserved with the Fuero Juzgo in the Astur-Leonese language, two or three were copied before 1260. Codex Hispanicus 28 of the Bavarian State Library, published by the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana in 1994, is the oldest manuscripts. It can be dated in 1240-1250 for codicological and palaeographic reasons, as demonstrated in this work. Furthermore, this copy is materially related to MS 49 of the Real Academia Española, despite the latter being of later production. The hypothesis of a possible manufacture in Asturias is raised due to formal similarities with other codices of the same origin. These two volumes are comparatively analysed from a codicological and palaeographic perspective and new information is provided on other Fueros Juzgos in the same language, whose dating is particularized and whose place of copying can be established in León, Zamora and probably Toro.

Asturian and English in contrast: on dislocations

2025-09-24T09:08:16+02:00

This paper addresses the syntactic analysis of hanging or suspended topics, also known as left dislocations, in Asturian and English, from a transformational generative perspective. These structures are peripheral in both senses of the adjective: on the one hand, they are noun phrases that either introduce the topic or subject of predication, or else provide a framework for the attending proposition with which they appear, and therefore occur in the most peripheral

or leftmost part of the sentence. On the other hand, they are peripheral (or non-canonical) constructions insofar as they are considered part of spoken or informal language and, for this reason, they have traditionally been excluded from prescriptive grammars. However, their interest in syntax is unquestionable. The article offers a host of empirical arguments from Asturian and English that lead to the inescapable conclusion that, despite superficial appearances, the hanging topic and the host sequence with which it co-occurs are part of two independent clauses, paratactically related to one another. Therefore, dislocations are extra-sentential elements, and the observed syntactic behavior is precisely what would be expected: that of two autonomously generated sentences. The paper also tackles an intriguing contrast between Asturian and English regarding hanging topics in what seems like subordinate clauses: while in English, dependent hanging topics can occur with a reduplicated that complementizer or not, in Asturian, as in Spanish, subordinate hanging topics routinely appear with a secondary que complementizer. Likewise, Asturian offers data demonstrating the possibility of a free restart without a subordinating verb. It is shown once again that an analysis of complementizer reduplication that assumes two underlying sentences behind the scenes is superior to existing mono-sentential alternatives in the literature while deriving a number of correct empirical predictions.

Evolution of research on linguistic attitudes in Asturias: a systematic review

2025-07-15T08:28:13+02:00

This study provides a systematic review of research on language attitudes in Asturias from the 1980s to the present. The analysis focuses on the role of linguistic attitudes in education and their impact on perceptions of Asturian, Spanish, and other languages in the region. Empirical studies on Asturian language education, student and teacher attitudes, and the relationship between language attitudes and multilingualism were examined. Findings indicate that Asturian language instruction positively influences perceptions and appreciation of the language while correlating with favorable attitudes toward multilingualism. The study also identifies an evolution in research methodologies, transitioning from early quantitative approaches to more recent mixed-methods and qualitative studies. Despite advancements, challenges remain, including the lack of longitudinal studies and comparative analyses with other bilingual communities. The study concludes that continued research on linguistic attitudes in Asturias is essential for strengthening Asturian language education and enhancing its social recognition.

Translating Queneau: another exercise in style. Limits of translation.

2025-07-09T07:23:04+02:00

Inspired by the recent translation into Asturian of Exercices de style by Raymond Queneau (2024), carried out by Pilar Fidalgo Pravia, this article addresses well-known challenges in translation while exploring its significance for minority languages. The study focuses on the complexities of literary translation, particularly in the case of Exercices de style, a work featuring 99 stylistic variations of the same anecdote. The article examines strategies employed in various languages, such as foreignization and cultural transposition, emphasizing the importance of generating an equivalent effect on the target reader. Additionally, it highlights the relevance of the Relevance Theory (Sperber & Wilson, 1986) to understand how the target text should produce a similar effect to the original, maintaining a comparable processing effort. This theoretical approach allows for evaluating the effectiveness of translation in terms of its ability to convey not only the content but also the intention and cultural context of the source text. The Asturian version of Exercicios d’estilu serves as an example of how translation can normalize and revitalize minority languages, enriching their lexicon and developing new literary genres. Translation is not only a bridge between cultures but also a key tool for preserving and promoting linguistic diversity in a globalized world.

An overview of the translation into Asturian of dramatic texts

2025-05-22T11:51:14+02:00

Against the backdrop of Itamar Even-Zohar’s Polysystem Theory, the phenomenon of translating literary texts—particularly those of a dramatic nature—into other languages constitutes, within the Performing Arts (especially in the Asturian context), a field of study with specific connotations. On the one hand, the very nature of the dramatic text, which may not coincide with the performance script; and on the other, the existence of less conventional forms of translation—since the channels of stage communication differ from those of written literature—broaden the boundaries of the object of study and shape a specific subsystem. This may help define aspects related either to a Theatre Corpus for Asturias or to an Asturian linguistic-literary system. Based on these premises, this article seeks to provide an approach to the volume of activity generated by the translations of dramatic texts into Asturian, drawing on private archives, websites, newsletters and official documents, previous studies on the subject, and various publications.

An approach to the narrative contribution of women writers in Lliteratura: Revista Lliteraria Asturiana

2025-06-17T10:06:28+02:00

This paper analyses the literary production of Asturian women narrators who have participated in the journal Lliteratura: Revista Lliteraria Asturiana, published by the Academy of the Asturian Language. The aim is, on the one hand, to recognise that literary magazines are an interesting object of research and, on the other hand, to examine the presence of women writers throughout the journal’s history. The corpus under analysis includes the first forty issues of the journal Lliteratura (1990–2024), which were taken as a source of study due to the importance of literary journals in the history of Asturian literature, and particularly the long publishing trajectory of Lliteratura. The results provide general quantitative data on the journal, which lay the groundwork for further complementary analyses. Additionally, more specific data on the object of research are also provided, and these are discussed in greater depth in relation to the sociolinguistic and literary context in which they were produced. The results of the analysis show a significant and growing participation of women narrators in the journal Lliteratura over time. However, these data also confirm that there are still important limitations in terms of the visibility and study of the literary production of these women writers. It therefore underscores the need to continue advocating for change.

A terra domestica ad verba inlustranda. Homenaje al profesor Javier Terrado Pablo. Calero, M.ª A, Rizos, C. & Selfa, M. (Coords.) (2025). Quaderns de sintagma 5. Lleida: Edicions de la Universitat de Lleida-Departament de Filologia i Comunicació. 363 pp.

2025-10-29T10:12:49+01:00

Ensin resume

La Llingua Asturiana: Distintividá, Identidá y Oficialidá/The Asturian Language: Distinctiveness, Identity, and Officiality, Corral-Esteban, A. (Ed.) (2025). Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, Oxford: Peter Lang. 320 pp.

2025-10-29T10:17:50+01:00

Ensin resume

Estudios asturianos en el siglo XXI, Álvarez-Sancho, I., Lamar-Prieto, C. & Villazón-Valbuena, M. (Eds.) (2025). Uviéu: Ediciones Trabe. 214 pp.

2025-10-29T10:20:34+01:00

Sin resumen

Género, sociedad e historia en los nombres de lugar: una mirada panhispánica / Xéneru, sociedá ya historia nos nomes de llugar: una güeyada panhispánica. Fuente- Cornejo, T. & Cano-González, A. M.ª (Eds.) (2025). Uviéu: Universidá d’Uviéu; Academia de la

2025-10-29T10:28:16+01:00

Without abstract