Old Leonese, Medieval Leonese, Medieval Asturian or Medieval Asturleonese was a West Iberian dialect of Vulgar Latin spoken in several regions of the Kingdom of León, including the medieval Principality of Asturias. It is the direct ancestor of current Asturleonese varieties. Old Leonese was spoken until around the year 1500, and was attested starting from the 10th century with the Nodicia de kesos.

Geographical extent The exact borders and limits of the Leonese dominium are still discussed, various authors have proposed different limits. Ramón Menéndez Pidal proposed in his 1906 El Dialecto Leonés that Leonese once occupied all of the región of León, Asturias (excluding Eo-Navia) Cantabria and Western Extremadura.de Andrés Díaz-Madariaga, Ramón (2013), Asturleonese Dialect Classifications, University of Oviedo

Xulio Viejo identified the maximum extent of Asturleonese with the ancient Conventus Asturum(es) and subsequent Diocese of Astorga. As such the western border of Old Leonese would be the Navia river, the eastern the Purón river(es) (in Asturias) and Cea river (in León) and the southern the Duero river, holding that Leonese was not really spoken further south or east, only receiving a small influence from their time under the Kingdom of León, which was short and soon outmatched by the growing influence from Castile.Viejo, Xulio (2003). La formación histórica de la llingua asturiana. Trabe, pages 11-83.

Phonology

Consonants Consonant Inventory +Hector García Gil (2009)Hector García Gil (2009), Notes sobre l'asturiano-lleonés medieval na ciudá de Lleón nel primer terciu del sieglu XIV (1301-1330), Lletres Asturianes: Boletín Oficial de l'Academia de la Llingua Asturiana, Nº101, pages 85-97. ISSN 0212-0534LabialDental(Denti-)Alveolar(Pre-)PalatalVelar NasalStop/Affricate Fricative Lateral Trill Flap

The sound change to in weak contexts may appear in Old East and Central Leonese (such as in and ). According to some researchers, this trait might have contributed to the spread of yeísmo in Castilian, brought by Asturian and Leonese settlers. The distinction between /d͡z/ {z} and /t͡s/ {c, ç}, seems to have begun fading early, especially in Asturias, where the /t͡s/ (ç) sound was often written as /d͡z/ (z). An example is mazana /maˈd͡zana/ which appears more often in Asturian documentation than the expected maçana /maˈt͡sana/ (❮Mattiana).

Vowels Vowel Inventory Front Central Back Close Mid Open

Latin ŏ and ĕ developed in Old Leonese to and respectively, such as in . Compare Old Galician-Portuguese . Due to Galician-Portuguese influence, many documents don't represent these diphthongs orthographically. This tendency is stronger the western the location the document was forged is and was diminishing by the 13th century, in eastern areas like Sahagún it was already fased out (along with the etymological writing of Latin ll, lj, kl, pl as ll, instead using more frequently a phonetic spelling of i or y). It's more common for ue diphthongs to be represented as o than ie being represented as e.Vicente José Marcet Rodríguez (2009), La configuración de los usos gráficos romances en las escribanías leonesas durante la Edad Media, in Lletres asturianes: Boletín Oficial de l'Academia de la Llingua Asturiana, Nº101, pages 59-58 Occasionally, the grapheme uo may be found (such as suolos, Campumanes, 1247 or uoy, 1263Hector García Gil (2009), Notes sobre l'asturiano-lleonés medieval na ciudá de Lleón nel primer terciu del sieglu XIV (1301-1330), Lletres Asturianes: Boletín Oficial de l'Academia de la Llingua Asturiana, Nº101, pages 85-97. ISSN 0212-0534).Some texts shown both forms: ( & , & , etc.).

Literature No known poem or narrative work in Old Leonese has survived until today. However, we conserve a large corpus of legal and ecclesiastical documents from the 11th to 14th century which were produced by the Kingdom of Léon. Beginning in the late 14th century, and completed by the 15th, an administrative and church castilianization, boosted by the Castilian Trastámara dynasty ended all writing in Leonese, and prompted Asturleonese into the so-called Sieglos Escuros ("Dark Centuries"). Even then, some traces of Leonese can be seen in Spanish-language documents from the 15th and 16th centuries written, translated or copied by Leonese authors.Viejo, Xulio (2022). La llingua n’Asturies al traviés de los sieglos. Ediciones Trea

The first clue of Leonese was the Nodicia de Kesos, a text found near León dating to the 10th century written in Vulgar Latin (or "Pre-Leonese Romance" or just "Romance"), which, although isn't considered to be Leonese yet, it already shows features that would later characterize Asturleonese. Meanwhile, in 1155, Fueru d'Aviles was written, being the oldest text in the Asturian vernacular. The majority of Old Leonese texts from the 13th century are in the book Étude sur l'ancien dialecte léonais d'après des chartes du XIIIe siècle by Erik Staaff in 1907. A notable text is the translation of liber iudiciorum, the Fuero juzgo or Fueru xulgu.

Sample text Extract from a letter in Old Leonese, dated to 1294.Sanz Fuentes, M.J. 2012. De la vida y de la muerte. Cuatro documentos asturianos del siglo XIII. Revista de Filoloxía Asturiana. 3, 3-4 (feb. 2012). Available at: https://reunido.uniovi.es/index.php/RFA/article/view/9242 (Accessed: 28 February 2025).

Modern Asturian:

English:

References