Alentejan Portuguese

Alentejan Portuguese
Native to	Portugal, Spain
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Latin Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Gallo-Iberian Iberian Romance West Iberian Galician–Portuguese Portuguese Alentejan Portuguese
Dialects	Oliventine
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Distribution of Alentejan and Alto-Alentejan dialects   Alto-Alentejan Portuguese   Alentejan Portuguese

Alentejan Portuguese is a dialect of Portuguese spoken in the Portuguese region of Alentejo. It is also spoken, with its own subdialect, in the disputed municipalities of Olivença and Táliga. In this area, the language is currently endangered.

Characteristics

• Presence of the article before the possessive pronoun, as in Ladino
• The regular use of the gerund in the present tense.
• A shift of ou to oi: oitro for outro
• Paragoge with i added to the end of verbs in the infinitive of verbs: fazeri for fazer
• The diphthong ei is replaced by e: galinhero for galinheiro

Present situation in Olivença and Táliga

The 2005 report of the Council of Europe's expert group on the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Spain asked the Spanish government to furnish information about the situation of Oliventine Portuguese, and for measures for the protection and promotion of that language under the provisions of Article 7 of the charter.^[1] However, in the report submitted by Spain in 2006, there are no references to Oliventine Portuguese.^[2]

In the 2008 report issued by the Council of Europe, the following paragraphs were listed:^[3]

48. The Expert Committee has received no information on the use of Portuguese in Extremadura, particularly in Olivença.

49. According to information gathered during the site visit, the Portuguese language (the Oliventina) is traditionally spoken in Olivença and Táliga since the 13th century. However, the information received on the current use of this language is inconclusive, but indicates that Portuguese is taught as a foreign language in the education field.

50. The Expert Committee can not assess the situation of Portuguese in Extremadura, and urges the authorities to clarify this issue in the next cycle of monitoring, particularly in cooperation with the association "Além Guadiana", recently established to promote the Portuguese language.

See also

• Oliventine Portuguese

References

1. European Charter for Regional of Minority Languages: Application of the Charter in Spain (Report). Strasbourg: Council of Europe. 21 September 2005. p. 13. ECRML (2005) 4.
2. Segundo informe sobre la aplicación en España de la Carta Europea de las Lenguas Minoritarias o Regionales (2006) (PDF) (in Spanish), Council of Europe
3. European Charter for Regional of Minority Languages: Application of the Charter in Spain (PDF) (Report). Strasbourg: Council of Europe. 11 December 2008. p. 9. ECRML (2008) 5.

Further reading

• Matias, Maria de Fátima Rezende (2001). "A agonia do portugués em Olivença". Revista de Filología Románica (in Portuguese). 18: 159–170.