UNESCO RED BOOK ON ENDANGERED LANGUAGES: EUROPE

Leonese

Variant(s): known as Mirandese in Portugal
Geographical location: Spain: historical province of León, extending to the northeastern corner of Portugal
Relationships: /Ibero-Romance/Indo-European
Present state of the language: SERIOUSLY ENDANGERED
(a) children speakers: in Spain, some children may learn the language, but most if not all of them become more fluent in Castilian Spanish and may not become active users of Leonese; in Portugal, the language is more widely used
(b) mean age of youngest speakers:
(c) distribution by sex:
(d) total number of speakers, members of the ethnic group: in Spain, not known; in Portugal, possibly approx. 10,000 speakers
(e) degree of speakers' competence: many speakers mix Castilian elements in their speech
Sources:
(i) information (about the language): Joachim Born: Leonesisch. Lexicon der Romanistische Linguistik. VI, 1. 693--700.
(ii) published and unpublished material (of the language): a little
(iii) competent scholar(s) and institution(s): Joachim Born (Mannheim), Jesús Neira Martínez
Remarks: Extremeño in Extremadura is sometimes regarded as a co-dialect
Compiler: Tapani Salminen, Helsinki, 31 Dec 1993 [updated 21 Dec 1999]