U.S. English Foundation Research

PORTUGAL

Language Research

The Mirandese speaking community has done little to promote its language. Only a few activities, based purely on folk arts and traditions, are organized by some associations, but promotion of the Mirandese language is left to the local authorities. Nevertheless, some articles in the local newspapers as well as radio and television features have demonstrated that the language is still alive in the region.

Mirandese has not been used or taught at any level of education. On the other hand, the local authorities have encouraged the inclusion of the language as an optional subject in the first three years of the secondary schools in the area. Mirandese was taught as an optional subject to a fairly small number of pupils in the first to third year at the Miranda do Douro secondary school. However, there were huge gaps in the system for teaching Mirandese. There was neither a course inspectorate nor training and support for teachers.

After the official recognition of the Mirandese language in the Miranda do Douro region by the Portuguese Law 7/99, several activities and initiatives have taken place in this community. The academic year started with a new possibility to attend some language courses in Mirandese. There are also some projects directed at the formalization of the language; i.e. the orthographical standardization of the Mirandese language. Other projects focus on the social use of the language, such as, programs and events aimed at cultural and linguistic promotion, creation of a "Language Day", actions to promote the language outside its area, works to promote and spread the language in media, etc.

The creation of an Institute of the Mirandese Language was obviously needed as a consequence of these initiatives, in order to coordinate both the formation and the normalization processes. The decision to create this body with legal authority, decision making capacity and consultative status, was made after a meeting held by several academic and government agencies. According to Voz do Nordeste (a biweekly Portuguese magazine), the statutes will be approved during the next meeting in November or December 2000. Mirandese is not used at all in the mass media, apart from a very few articles that have appeared in the local press.

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Updated (March 2003)

THE MIRANDESE LANGUAGE

Despite the fact that some students were already enrolled to study the Mirandese language as an optional subject (1 hour per week) at schools in Miranda de Douro this school year (2002/2003), the teaching had been interrupted and it was authorized only in December 2002 by the Northern Regional Bureau for Education. This delay violated the right of children to learn the Mirandese language included in Law 7/1999, which recognizes the linguistic rights of the Mirandese community and gives the Mirandese language a co-official status.

The issue of teaching Mirandese is also controversial at university level, as during the first semester of the current school year it was introduced as a "foreign language" subject in the curriculum of the Anthropology Department at the University of Miranda de Douro.

As for the media, the weekly regional paper "Nordeste" in Bragança includes since January a page written in Mirandese. Moreover, a radio program in Mirandese is broadcast by Mirandum FM and Rádio Brigantia.

Source: Mercator new, February 2003, http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm

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Updated (June 2003)

NEW MIRANDESE TEACHER TRAINING PROJECT LAUNCHED

A new project proposed by Professors Olinda Santana (Universidade de Trás-os-Montese Alto Douro, UTAD, Portugal) and Antonio Alves (Université de Nice, France), submitted to the Scientific Committee of the UTAD, contains a number of measures for the protection and promotion of Mirandese at university level.

If this proposal is accepted by the University, a new teacher-training program will be implemented at the beginning of the academic year 2004/2005.

This would have paramount importance for the teaching of Mirandese as it is currently left at the discretion and goodwill of teachers who want to teach it as an optional subject in schools.

According to Antonio Alves, Mirandese, which has been taught since 1987 to pupils up to the age of fifteen, will benefit from a larger poll of trained professionals, who will be able to teach it at all levels in a more systematic manner, giving the language visibility and prestige.

Spoken in the Trás-os-Montes north-eastern region of Portugal, bordering Spain and especially in the city of Miranda de Douro and surrounding villages, Mirandese is officially recognized and protected by national law and has enjoyed a great revival since introduction of the Orthographic Convention.

The language is still very much spoken in the families, but this is not enough to ensure its survival. The teaching of Mirandese needs to become more institutionalized; especially it needs to be involved in education at the university level.

The proposed training program will be taught at masters level and except teachers' training, it will also try to create a new category of professionals able to use Mirandese in different fields ranging from language teaching, cultural tourism, tour guiding and so on.

Source: Eurolang News, Brussels, June 18, 2003, by Marcello Mereu, http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4282

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