Gramatica Asturiana Eng

8/13/2019 Gramatica Asturiana Eng

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XAVIER FRAS CONDE

AN APPROACH TO THE ASTURIANLANGUAGE

1999

ROMANIA MINORhttp://hades.udg.es/romaniaminor/
http://hades.udg.es/romaniaminor/http://hades.udg.es/romaniaminor/


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1. INTRODUCTION

What is Asturian?

Asturian is a Romance language derived from Latin. It is spoken nowadays in thePrincedom of Asturias, in Spain. Asturian belongs to a wider linguistic group calledAsturian-Leonese, which was the language of the ancient kingdom of Len. Its greatestexpansion in the XIIth century occupied todays Spanish provinces of Asturias, Len,Zamora, Salamanca, the western half of Cceres an Badajoz, the Portuguese region ofMiranda do Douro and the eastern bank of Cantabria. Asturian-Leonese never had aunified linguistic standard and several dialects were spoken all over this area. TodayCastillian (or Spanish) has almost extinguished all these dialects except two: Asturianand Mirandese (the Asturian-Leonese variant spoken in the Northeast of Portugal).

From all these dialects only Asturian has had an outstanding literature. Since theXVI century there is an Asturian literature. Today some important young authors aremaking a modern and excellent literature. Some independent publishing houses edit adozen titles every year.

The Asturian spelling system is questions not still solved. The alphabet isSpanish-based though some peculiar features can be found, such as the apostrophe.The language is more or less standardised by the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana(Asturian Language Academy), which recently gave birth to the expected Gramtica dela llingua asturiana(May 1998).

On the other hand, Mirandese is following a similar process, though in this casePortuguese scholars survey the normalisation of this co-dialect. Here a spellinghandbook has recently being prepared, too. As a matter of fact the spelling system of

Mirandese is Portuguese-based.

How to read Asturian: the writing system

If you are familiarised with Castillian Spanish, youll have no problem to readAsturian texts. Anyway, the Asturian alphabet is:

a it sounds as in Spanish.b it sounds as in Spanish.c it sounds as in Spanish, i.e. as /k/ before /a/, /o/, /u/ or a consonant and as

Spanish zetabefore /e/, /i/. It is possible to find it combined with , so it is which sounds /c/, as in English chest or Italian cento.

d it sounds as in Spanish.e it sounds as in Spanish.f it sounds as in Spanish.g it sounds as in Spanish before /a/, /o/ /u/ and another consonant. If you want to

spell /ge/, /gi/ then it must be written , . For /gwe/, /gwi/ the spellingis , .

h it does not sound.i it sounds as in Spanish.l it sounds as in Spanish. It may appear duplicated ; in such cases it sounds


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/j/.m it sounds as in Spanish.n it sounds as in Spanish. it sounds as in Spanish, i.e., as of French gagner or Italian ogni.o it sounds as in Spanish.

p it sounds as in Spanish.q it sounds as in Spanish. It is always in the , series to spell /ke/, /ki/.r it sounds as in Spanish, even .s it sounds as in Spanish.t it sounds as in Spanish.v it sounds as in Spanish, i.e., /b/, so theres no difference between and .x it has two values:

/s/ in classical words: sexu, existir. Most authors write simply /s/ here.

As in English "sh", inxente, xornada, etc.y it only has a consonantal value: /y/. As a vowel it is used in two cases:

with co-ordinated conjunction y (=and), sometimes ya.

with the dative personal pronoun y (plural yos) which is always joinedto the previous word.

z it sounds as in Spanish, i.e., with /a/, /o/, /u/ or at the end of a syllable or word.

The accent rules are the same as in Spanish. These are some typical cases ofdia-critic accent:

pa(preposition, =for) p(=father, also padre)tan(conj. =so) tn(3PP pr. ind. =they are)

ente(=between, among) nte(before, in front of, ahead)tres(=after, along) trs(=three)pues(conj. =so, then) pus(verb poder =can)el(article) l(personal pronoun)un(article) n(personal pronoun)

Demonstratives are accented when used as pronouns, except neuters esto, eso,aquello which are never accented. Interrogative pronouns are always accented in directand indirect questions.

The apostrophe is used to mark the dropping of a vowel. Some words can be

apostrophed: Singular definite articles before and after a noun or verb: lanimal, lotru da,

lalborada; cantal gallu. Some prepositions: de > d; en> n. The preposition pa is apostrophed when

the next word begins by a-, but this feature is stylistically condemnable.

Unstressed personal pronouns me, te, se: Ya manunciaron que... (=Iveannounced that...)

Conjunction que: Hai quapurase(=it is necessary to hurry up).

Anyway Asturian spelling suffers from an excess of apostrophes, which oftenmakes its writing and reading too much difficult.


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2. MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES

Gender

Asturian is the only western Romance language that possesses three genders:masculine, feminine and neuter.

1. Masculine nounsusually end by -uand sometimes by -eor consonant. Most of themcoincide with Spanish: el tiempu(=the time and the weather), lhome(=the man), elpantaln(=the trousers), el xeitu(=the way, the mode), etc.

2. Feminine namesusually end by -a, but not always: la casa(=the house), la xente(=the people), la nueche(=the night).

3. Neuters namescan have any ending in the nouns. In fact, Asturian neuters are of

three kinds: Masculine neuters: they have a masculine form and take a masculine

article: el fierro vieyo(=old iron). Feminine neuters: they have a feminine form and take a feminine

article: la lleche fro. Pure neuters: they are not nouns but nominal groups with and

adjective and neuters pronouns: lo guapo desti asuntu ye... (=theinteresting [thing] of this issue is...)

Neuter is marked specially in the adjective. So most adjectives have three

endings: -u(masc.), -a(fem.) and -o(neuter), which are respectively:

El vasu ta fru(=The glass is cold)Tengo la mano fra(=My hand is cold)Lagua ta fro(=Water is cold)

The use of neuter is rather complex in Asturian; anyway neuters nouns have noplural (except in some cases, where they are taken metaphorically, in which case thelose this gender, such as in les ages tn fres (=Waters are cold) or when you want toconcretise an abstract noun: Tien el pelo roxo (=his hair is red) is neuter but Tien unpelu roxu (=Hes got a red hair) is masculine. By the way, look at the change of ending

in the noun). Neuters nouns refer to abstract, collective and uncountable nouns.There are some cases in which the gender of the Asturian word is different from theSpanish one. Lets see some examples:

Spanish Asturian Englishla labor el llabor taskla sangre el sangre bloodel fin la fin endel color la color colour el calor la calor heatel puente la ponte bridge


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Indefinite article

Its forms are:

singular plural

masc. fem. masc. fem.

un una unos unes

For the plural is rather usual to find dellos, delles(see further quantifiers):

Haba unes / delles caxes enriba la mesa(=There were some boxes on thetable)

Possessives

Possessives have both a weak (unstressed) and a strong (stressed) form. Thefirst one is used as a qualifier, while the second one is used as a pronoun.

The unstressed forms are:

singular plural

One possessor*

1 PS mio mios

2 PS to tos

3PS so sos

Severalpossessors**

1 PP nuesu -a -onuestru -a -o nuesos -esnuestros -es

2 PPvuesu -a -o

vuestru -a -ovuesos -esvuestru -es

3 PP so sos

Remarks:* they only admit a plural form but not a gender ones.** they admit all the variations of gender and number in the 1PP and 2PP; 3PP work as

singular forms.


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Possessives are preceded by the determined article, which must keep theagreement in gender and number with the noun. Examples:

La mio casa ye nueva(=My house is new)Les mios cases son nueves(=My houses are new)

When referred to family names, the article is mostly omitted:

Mio padre trabaya na fbrica y mio madre trabaya en colexu(=My fatherworks at the factory and my mother works at school)

Stressed pronouns are used only as pronouns, usually preceded by the definitearticle. In this case they must agree with the noun they refer to (even if its neuter). Incase such a noun doesnt exist or it is related to a situation, then neuter forms will beused. In this case these forms admit all the endings. Its forms are:

singular pluralOne possessor*

1 PS mu -a -o mos -es

2 PS tuyu -a -o tuyos -s

3PS suyu -a -o suyos -es

Severalpossessors**

1 PPnuesu -a -o

nuestru -a -onuesos -es

nuestros -es

2 PPvuesu -a -o

vuestru -a -ovuesos -esvuestru -es

3 PP suyu -a -o suyos -es

Examples:

Esi galanu ye suyu(=masculine: that toy is his/hers)

Esa caxa ye tuya(=feminine: that box is yours)Esa faria ye nueso(neuter: that flour is ours)

Together with these stressed forms it is very usual to use another construction: it isused with preposition de plus unstressed forms mio, to, so, nueso, vueso, so (i.e., inneuter):

Esi galanu ye de soEsa caxa ye de toEsa faria ye de nueso


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Demonstratives

Asturian keeps three degrees of demonstratives which are related to the first,second and third persons of personal pronouns. They can be used both as determinersand as pronouns (the only difference is that in the first case they are unstressed and in

the second one they are stresses; apart from that, pronouns are accented, except esto,eso, aquello, i.e., the neuters forms which are always pronouns).

singular pluralmasc. fem. neut. masc. fem.

esti esta esto estos estes

esi esa eso esos eses

aquel aquella aquello aquellos aquelles

Aquelmay take the form aquelliwhen used as pronoun. They usually precede thenoun they go with: esti rapaz ye mio hermanu (=This boy is my brother), but it is alsopossible to place it after the noun, in which case the definite article is required:

el neu esti ye mio hermanu

Demonstratives may go with a relative pronoun:

esa que ta eh ye la mio ciud(=That oneover there is my city)

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns have stressed and unstressed forms. The first ones are of twokinds: subject pronouns and object pronouns, but always preceded by a preposition.The unstressed pronouns are always used as object pronouns (OD and OI).

PERSON SUBJECTOBJECT WITH

PREP.OBJECT REFLEXIVE

1 PS yo min, comigo me me2 PS tu ti, contigo te te3 PS m. l, elli l, elli lu (OD), -y (OI) se3 PS f. ella ella la (OD), -y (OI) se3 PS n. ello ello lo se1 PP ns ns nos nos2 PP vs vs vos vos3 PP m. ellos ellos los (OD), -yos (OI) se3 PP f. elles elles les (OD), -yos (OI) se


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The pronouns ns, vsmay also appear as nosotros -es; vosotros -es whenreferred to inclusive persons; i.e. when they speaker wants to remark that thesepersons are a closed cluster or group.

The courtesy person is vust (pl. vusts), which uses the paradigm of the thirdperson.

Unstressed third person pronouns are used not only when they substitute a noun,but also when the nominal group they are referred to is placed at the beginning of thesentence (this use is also common in Spanish and Galician): Dieron sidra a tola xente(=all the people were given cidre), but: A la xente dieron-y sidra. Another example:Fixeron la casa nueva a la vera de la carretera(=a new house was built (made) bythe road), but: La casa nueva fixronla a la vera de la carretera.

Subject pronouns are mostly omitted because the verb indicates which person it isreferred to. If they are put in the sentence, they express emphasis, as in most romancelanguages.

Pronoun se expresses impersonal subject. These sentences are used when the

subject is not important (it is equivalent to the medial voice in ancient languages and itis often translated by the passive voice in English):

Equ flase ingls, francs y alemn(=English, French and German are spokenhere)

These impersonal sentences are also possible with the third person plural, wherethe subject is omitted (ellos, elles) and it doesnt matter to find out who performs theaction:

Venden llibros vieyos a bon preciu(=Old books are sold at a good price)

Unstressed personal pronouns maintain a very ancient placing before or after theverb in Asturian. Their rules are:

1. They go after the verb:1.1. At the beginning of a sentence: Merqulos na tienda (=I bought them at

the shop)1.2. With the imperative tense: Daime lo que nun queris(=give me what you

dont want)1.3. In periphrases and compound tenses, the pronoun may be placed after the

past participle: Tengo vstolo(=Ive seen it) or tngolo visto.2. They go before the verb:2.1. In subordinated clauses: Espero que me lo digas (=I hope you say it to

me)2.2. After certain conjunctions and adverbs: Nun se vieron (=they didnt see

one an-other); Y te lo dixi (=Ive already told you); Si nos acompaes,vers un sitiu perguapu(=if you come with us, youll se a very nice place)

2.3. With the infinitive it may be before it if there are que, nunor si: Tenis quelo facer(=you must do it); Nun s si me lo traern(=I dont know whethertheyll bring it to me).


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The order of unstressed pronouns is always: first OI pronoun and then ODpronoun: Voi da-ylo(=Im going to give it to him). All infinitives drop their /r/ when anypronoun joins it: escribir > escribilo, escribinos, escrib-y, etc.

Orthographically pronouns -y and -yos are always written with an hyphen andjoined to the former word, whatever it may be.

Comparison of adjectives

Comparative of superiority is formed: ms... que; comparative of equality: tan...como(when used with nouns tantu / tanta / tanto ... como: tengo tanto dineru comotu); comparative of inferiority: menos... que: Elli ye ms altu que tu.

Absolute superlative follow the same rules but the definite article must be placedbefore the comparative particles:

Elli ye'l ms altu de la clas

Relative superlative is formed by placing such adverbs as mui, bien before theadjective. It is also possible to use prefix per-:

Ye perinteresanteYe mui interesanteYe interesante

The ending -simu, -a, -o, -os, -es is also possible: Mio padre ta ocupadsimu(=Hes really busy).

Quantifiers

Quantifiers may be variable or invariable. Some of them may work as eitherpronouns or as adjectives, some are only adjectives and some are only adjectives. Thelist of them is as follows:

Algn, alguna, algunos, algunes(Pronoun and adjective):

Some, several. Atop algunos amigos na cai (=I met some friends onthe street). It also presents the variant dalgn -a -os -es.

Nengn, nenguna, nengunos, nengunes(Pronoun and adjective): Any (negative), no: Nengn dellos nun lo saba(=None of them knew it)

n, una, unos, unes(Pronoun): One. Mercaste camises? S, merqu na (=Did you buy any shirts?Yes, I bought one)

Dl, della, dello, dellos, delles(pronoun and adjective):


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Some, several; a little, a few. Quiero della lleche(= I want some / a littlemilk)

Daquor (d)algo(pronoun): Something. Quiero ver daqu na tele (=I want to watch something on

TV)

Nada (pronoun): Anything (negative), nothing. Nun nos traxeron nada (=they didnt bringanything to us). Nun veo nada(=I see nothing). In this case other pronounsmay be used: cosa, gota, un res.

Daquinor (d)alguin(pronoun): Somebody. Hai daquin?(=Is there somebody?)

Otru, -a, -o, -os, -es(pronoun and adjective): Other, another. A la fin, lle otru llibru(=At the end I read another book)

Cada(adjective): Each, every. Vmonos cada selmana (=We see one another everyweek)

Varios, -es(pronoun and adjective): Some, several. Toi lliendo varios llibros al mesmu tiempu (=Imreading some books at the same time)

Tou, -a, -os, -es(pronoun and adjective): All. Vienen equ tolos des(=They come here all days)

Munchu, -a, -o, -os, -es(pronoun and adjective): Much, many. Tengo munchu tiempu(=Ive got much time)

Pocu, -a, -os, poques(pronoun and adjective): Little, few. Tengo pocu tiempu(=I have little time)

Cualaquier (adjective): Any (affirmative). Vendr cualaquier da(=Hell come any day)

Quienquiera(pronoun): Whoever, anybody. Que lo faiga quienquiera (=it can be done byanybody)

Some remarks must be added about the use of some of these quantifiers:

Asturian doesnt use un otru, as Spanish doesn't either, in constructions as Catalanun altreor French un autre. In this case, only otrucan be found: Si nun quies esi

peridicu, dame otru(=If you dont want that newspaper, give me another one).


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Interrogative and relative pronouns

Most of the relative poronouns are also interrogative. Some of them may takeendings but other are invariable:

Relative pronouns are

que: who, which, that. It may take an article or a demonstrative: esa muyer yela que me dio esto(=that woman is who (the one who) gave that to me)

quien: who, only with people, especially in indirect questions el cualu, la cuala, lo cualo, los cualos, les cuales: which, who, especially in

explicative sentences

Relative pronouns may be preceded by prespositions: el sitio a que / al cual vas(=the place to which/ where you go). Notice that Asturian doesnt use Spanish andPortuguese pronoun cuyo.

Interrogative pronouns may work as relatives especially in indirect questions. Their

forms are:

qu?: what? quin?: who? cul?: (with variations of gender and number: cula, culos, cules) which

one(s)?

cmo?: how, what like? nde?: where? ulu,-a...?: where is he/she/it? cundo?: when? cuntu, -a, -o...?:how much, how many?

They also may be preceded by a preposition.


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Verbs

Verbs are the richest element of the Asturian language as it usually happens inRomance languages. It would be impossible to give a full account of all its shades, sowe will show an overview of the paradigms and other elements.

Generalities:

1. Tenses: Tenses are mainly three: present, past and future. Asturian keepspluperfect as a single form together with Galician.

2.Aspects: Aspect is, as in all romance languages, perfective (i.e. fulfilled action) andimperfective (i.e., unfulfilled action). The perfective aspect corresponds to all presentand future tenses plus the imperfect. The rest of tenses are preterit and pluperfect;compound tenses must be included here, too.

3. Compound tenses: They have a very scarce use. Asturian clearly prefers simpletenses. Take notice of this equivalence between Spanish and Asturian:

ASTURIAN SPANISHcant

cant

he cantado

tengo cantaotengo cantado

Forms like tengo cantao are used to express an action which began and may berepeated in the present or in the future, so Asturian doesnt distinguish, as Spanishdoes, between something happened in the past whose score has completely ended(simple past) or whose score may reach the present moment (present perfect). Spanishdoes distinguish he cantado (past action reaching the present) and tengo cantado (itadds a certain idea of iterative action coming from the past which will probably appearagain). This last use is also known by Asturian.

4. Mode: Indicative, subjunctive, imperative and conditional, as in all Romancelanguages with no aspect about it to be remarked.

5. Non-personal forms: they are infinitive, gerund and (past) participle. They performthe same habitual functions of these special forms as in other Romance languages. Theinfinitive may work as a substantive, the gerund as an ad-verb and the participle as anadjective (as a verb it is used in periphrases and in compound tenses and just theneuter form is correct: falao, bebo, parto); when adjective it takes the five endings of alladjectives: falu, falada, falao, falaos, falaes; bebu, beba, bebo, bebos, bebes;partu parta, parto, partos, partes.


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Table of regular verbs

1st conj. 2nd conj. 3rd conj.Falar (=to talk) Beber (=to drink) Partir (=to leave; to split)

Indicative Presentfalofalesfalafalamosfalisfalen

bebobebesbebebebemosbebisbeben

partopartespartepartimospartsparten

Imperfectfalaba

falabesfalabafalbemosfalabeisfalaben

beba

bebesbebabebemosbebeisbeben

parta

partespartapartemosparteisparten

Preteritfalfalastefal

falemosfalastisfalaron

bebbebistebebi

bebimosbebistisbebieron

partpartisiteparti

partimospartisitispartieron

Pluperfectfalarafalarasfalarafalramosfalaraisfalaran

bebierabebierasbebierabebiramosbebieraisbebieran

partierapartieraspartierapartiramospartieraispartieran

Futurefalarfalarsfalarfalaremosfalarisfalarn

beberbebersbeberbeberemosbeberisbebern

partirpartirspartirpartiremospartirispartirn


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Conditionalfalarafalaresfalarafalaremos

falareisfalaren

beberabeberesbeberabeberemos

bebereisbeberen

partirapartirespartirapartiremos

partireispartiren

Subjunctive Presentfalefalesfalefalemosfalisfalen

bebabebasbebabebamosbebisbeban

partapartaspartapartamospartispartan

Imperfectfalarefalaresfalarefalremosfalareisfalaren

bebierebebieresbebierebebiremosbebiereisbebieren

partierepartierespartierepartiremospartiereispartieren

Imperativefalafali

bebibebi

partiparti

Compound tenses are (notice that the past perfect of indicative, i.e. the pluperfect, is asimple tense):

Indicative Present perfecttengo falaotienes falaotien falaotenemos falao

tenis falaotienen falao

tengo bebotienes bebotien bebotenemos bebo

tenis bebotienen bebo

tengo partotienes partotien partotenemos parto

tenis partotienen parto

Future perfecttendr falaotendrs falaotendr falaotendremos falaotendris falaotendrn falao

tendr bebotendrs bebotendr bebotendremos bebotendris bebotendrn bebo

tendr partotendrs partotendr partotendremos partotendris partotendrn parto


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Subjunctive Present perfecttenga falaotengas falaotenga falao

tengamos falaotengis falaotengan falao

tenga bebotengas bebotenga bebo

tengamos bebotengis bebotengan bebo

tenga partotengas partotenga parto

tengamos partotengis partotengan parto

Pluperfecttuviere falaotuvieres falaotuviere falaotuviremos falaotuviereis falao

tuvieren falao

tuviere bebotuvieres bebotuviere bebotuviremos bebotuviereis bebo

tuvieren bebo

tuviere partotuvieres partotuviere partotuviremos partotuviereis parto

tuvieren parto

The non-personal forms:

Infinitivefalar beber partir

Gerundfalando bebiendo partiendo

Participlefalu -ada -ao bebu -ida -o partu -ida -o


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Some irregular verbs

There are a lot of irregular verbs in Asturian. The first cause of irregularity iscaused by the diphthongation of the stem vowel in 1PS, 2PS, 3PS, 3PP of bothindicative and subjunctive present and 1PS of imperative according to this rule (which

reaches the three conjugations):

Infinitive Diphthong in Present-e- > -ie--o- > -ue-

Its seen on these tables with verbs sentarand contar:

Present indicativesientosientes

sientesentamossentissientan

cuentocuentes

cuentacontamoscontiscuenten

Present subjunctivesientesientessientesentemos

sentissienten

cuentecuentescuentecontemos

contiscuenten

Imperativesientasenti

cuentaconti

The rest of the irregularities mostly affect the stems in the present and in thepreterit. Here are some of these verbs with their main irregularities (regular tenses arenot in-cluded). Well show some abbreviations that are:

I: indicativeS: subjunctivePr: present indicativeImp. imperfectPt: preterit indicativeF: futurePf: pluperfectGerd. gerundPart. participle


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Caber(=to fit, to be contained)PrI quepio, cabes, cabe...PtI cupe, cupiste, cupo...PrS quepia, quepias, quepia....

Dar(=to give)PrI doi, das, da, damos, dais, danPfI diera, dieras, diera...PrS dea, deas, dea...

Dicir(=to say)PrI digo, dices, diz, dicimos, dics, dicenPtI dixe, dixite, dixo, diximos, dixistis, dixeronPrS diga, digas, diga...Part. dicho

Dir(=to go)PrI voi, vas, va , vamos, vais, vanImp. diba, dibes, diba, dbemos, dibeis, dibenPtI fui, fuiste, foi, fuimos, fuistis, foronPfI fora, foras, fora, foramos...PrS vaiga, vaigas, vaiga, vaigamos...

Esmoler(=to worry)PrI esmuelgo, esmueles, esmuel...PrS esmuelga, esmulgas, esmuelga...

Facer / faer(=to do, to make)PrI faigo, faes, fai, fa(c)emos, fa(c)is, faenPtI fice:fixe, ficiste:fixiste, fixo:fizo:fezo:fexo, fici-mos:fiximos,

ficistis:fixistis, ficieron:fixeronFI fadr, fadrs, fadr...PrS faiga, faigas, faiga...Ger. faciendo:fayendoPart. fecho

Haber=(to have to)

PrI he, has, ha, habemos, habis, hanPtI hube, hubiste, hubo, hubimos...FI habr, habrs, habr...PfI hubiera, hubieras, hubiera...PrS hebia, hebias, hebia...

Oyer(=to haear)PrI oigo~oyo, oyes, oi, oyimos, oys, oyenPrS oiga, oga, oigas...


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Poder(=can)PrI puedo, puedes, puede...PtI pude, pudiste, pudo, pudimos, pudisteis, pudieronPrS pueda, puedas, pueda...

Poner(=to put)PrI pongo, pones, pon, ponemos, ponis, ponenPtI punxe, punxite, punxo, punximos, punxitis, punxeronFI pondr, pondrs, pondr...PrS ponga, pongas, ponga...Part. puesto

Querer(=to want)PrI quiero, quies, quier, queremos, queris, quierenPtI quixe, quixiste, quixo, quiximos, quixistis, quixeron

Saber(=to know)PrI s, sabes, sabe, sabemos, sabis, sabenPtI supe, supiste, supo, supimos, supistis, supieronPrS sepia, sepias, sepia...

Ser(=to be)PrI soi, yes, ye, somos, sois, sonImp. yera, yeras, yera, yramos, yerais, yeranPtI fui, fuiste, foi, fuimos, fuistis, foronFtI sedr, sedrs, sedr...PrS seya, seyas, seya, seyamos...

Tar(=to be, to stay, to stand)PrI toi, tas, ta, tamos, tais, tanPtI tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvisteis, tuvieronPrS tea, teas, tea...

Tener(=to have)PrI tengo~teo, tienes, tien, tenemos, tenis, tienenPtI tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvistis, tuvieronFI tendr, tendrs, tendr...

PrS tenga, tengas, tenga...

Trayer(=to bring)PrI traigo, trais, trai, trayemos, trayis, trayenPtI truxe, truxiste, truxo, truximos, truxistes, truxeronPrS traiga, traigas, traiga...

Valir(=to be worthy, to cost) Salir (=to go out) is alike.PrI valgo, vales, val, valemos, valis, valenFI valdr, valdrs, valdr, valdr...PrS valga, valgas, valga...


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Ver(=to see)PrI veo, ves, ve, vemos, veis, venPrS ve(y)a, ve(y)as, ve(y)a, ve(y)amos...Part. visto

Venir(=to come)PrI vengo, vienes, vien, venimos, vens, vienenPtI vine, viniste, vieno, vinimos, vinistis, vinieronFI vendr, vendrs, vendr...PrS venga, vengas, venga...

Some notes about verbs

Impersonal there be is hai, haba, habr; its the third person signular (alwaysinvariable). Take notice of hai instead of ha.

Verbs having -l, -z, -n in the last syllable lose their final -e: producir > produz;nacer > naz; crecer > crez; salir > sal, valir > val, tener > tien, poner > pon,venir > vien.

Auxiliary verbs are: ser + participle (for the passive voice): La carretera yeconstruda polos obreros(=The road is made by the workers); tener+ participle(=have), already explained. Obligation is expressed with haber (de), tener de +infinitive: has (de) / tienes de trabayar ms(=you have to work harder). Deber isalso possible.

Future tense is very little used. Instead of it the periphrasis dir+ infinitive is the mostcommon way to express future: vamos viaxar a China esti branu(=Were going totravel to China next summer).

Asturian knows a kind of continuous tenses with tar+ gerund. Compare trabayo demaana (=I [usually] work in the morning) with toi trabayando de maana (=Imworking this morning).

The so-called inchoative verbs (ending in -ecer) and verbs ending in -ucir areperfectly regular except for their 3PS of Present Indicative: florez < florecer, deduz< deducir.

Verbs ending in -uyirare regular except for 3PS: contruyir > constri. Verbs of the second and third conjugations having --or -x-in the stem, just before

the ending, do not form their gerund with -ie-but with -e-: tiir(=to dye) > tiendo,fuxir(=to escape, to take away) > fuxendo.


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Timeagoralluegodepus (de)sero

ceomaanageiayeritardems tardeantes (de)enantescuantayhaide maana

de tardede nuechede sutrucude repentede sotquede xemes en cuandodacuandonunca(en)xamsotra vez: vegada: vuelta

nowimmediatelyafter(wards)late

soontomorrowtodayyesterdaylatelaterbeforebefore, previouslya long time agoagoin the morning

in the afternoonin the evening (night)suddenlysuddenlysuddenlyfrom time to timesometimesneverneveragain

Placedayurinenyuridelantredetrsdentrofueraequehell

enribaembaxoa la manzorgaa la mandrecha

somewhereanywhere (neg.), nowherein front, aheadbehind, at the backinsideoutsideherethereover there

up(side)down(side)on the lefton the right

Affirmationspor supuestuclarotamin

yesof coursesurealso, too.


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Negationnonnuntampoco

nonoteither (neg), neither

Doubttalvezal meyorseiqueposiblemente

maybeperhapsmaybepossibly

Prepositions

The simple ones are:

ato (direction, OI, and OD when referred to people: vi a Mara nacai=I saw Mary on the street)

con withcontra against

de

of, about, from, in (de tarde, dhibiernu =in the winter). Thispreposition is often omitted when linking two nominal groupswhenever it is placed among vowels: casa campu (=country

house), vasu vino(=glass of wine)dende ~desde

from, since

escontra in direction to, towardshacia intohasta until; also dicapa for, to (directions)por by (agentive), along. Per equ: this waysegn according tosin without; also possible the reinforcement ensinso undersobre ontres after, behindxunta together with, by (proximity), near


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The main compound prepositions are:

a lo llargo de alongal dellu de close to, near, bypola mor de because ofa causa de because ofper aciu de by means ofen metanes de in the middle of, in the centre ofa(l) travs de through

Conjunctions

Here well also follow the traditional classification:

Coordinative prepositions:

copulativey (ya)y taminnin

and (yabefore a word beginning by (h)i-)and alsoand not, neither

disjunctiveo (u)

o bien or (ubefore a word beginning by (h)o-)

distributivey... yora... oranin... nin

either...orneither... nor

adversativeperomas

sicasporo

buthowever

neverthelessanyway

Subordinative conjunctions

causeporquepor mor de (que)

becausebecause of


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timecuandosiempre que

whenwhenever

concessionmagueranqueinda quealpesar de que

although

despite

finalitypa + inf.pa que

to (+inf)for (sb) to, in order to

condition

sinel casu de (que)

ifin case


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3. THE ASTURIAN LANGUAGE NOWADAYS

This is just an overview of the Asturian grammar according to the standardlanguage used in literature. We havent taken notice of the dialects; even westernAsturian is used in literature, so some main features, which differ from central standard

Asturian, are: Western Asturian is much more conservative than central Asturian. It still keeps

falling diphthongs: ouru (=gold), touru (=bull), falu (=he/she spoke), pouco(little); fali(=I spoke), l.leiteiru(=milkman, however feminine is not -eira, but -era)

It doesnt know the neutre gender, so there are only masculine and femininegenders

The change as > -es and an > -en dont take place

Some consonant cluster shows an ancient state: muitu (standard Asturianmunchu), estreitu (standard Asturian estrechu), etc.

Standard Asturian ll-and -ll-have evolved into /ts/, which is normally spelt as

On the other hand, Mirandese has its own grammar. The language resemblesWestern Asturian, but it is much more conservative, especially in phonetics (it keeps thesame system of sibilants as northern Portuguese of Minho and Trs-os-Montes). Itsspelling system is based upon Portuguese.

We are aware that these pages lack many elements but this scheme may be largeenough for somebody who wants to approach the language for the first time.

Gramatica Asturiana Eng

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