Brazilian writer João Guimaraes Rosa said that “all languages are remains of an ancient mystery.” This beautiful sentence seems to have been written to refer to the falamother tongue of approximately 4,500 inhabitants residing in three municipalities in the north of the province of Cáceres and whose origin is uncertain.
THE fala It has its own name in each of the municipalities: valverdeñu in Valverde del Fresno; lagarteiru in Eljas; And maneguin San Martin de Trevejo. On the part of its speakers, the use of the terminology is infrequent “a fala”, which is rather reserved for the linguistic field and the need to label the three varieties at the same time.
To define more precisely what is fala and if a reliable origin can be determined, we spoke with Miroslav Vales, a Czech linguist and university professor who, coincidentally, is one of the people who has studied it the most: “It is a language of the sub -Ibero-Romance group of languages, romances and their more exact classification are the subject of linguistic discussions. Research on the language includes endless hypotheses about its origin, but none are proven. The history of its origin remains a mystery. For me, it’s a romance language.
According to Vales, its speakers do not like their language to be labeled as being of Galician, Portuguese or Asturian origin. Theories about its origin lead to one of three languages, based on various historical episodes that have not been clearly demonstrated. “Furthermore, these people feel deeply valverdenus, manegus And lagarteirusand their native language helps them express their unique identity,” he adds.
“I thought, wrote, dreamed and identified with Lagarteiro» (I think, I write, I dream and I identify in lagarteiru), says María Luisa Domínguez, resident of Eljas and member of the Cultural Association U green lizardan entity born to preserve and promote this little linguistic gem.
For Domínguez, the fala It is very important from a sentimental and cultural point of view: “It is the essence of our roots, the treasure that our ancestors preserved and transmitted to us from generation to generation and that we continue to bequeath to our children: we continue to fight. to ensure this preservation.
Transmitted purely orally, fala It is one of the most vital minority languages in Europe, and around 80% of residents of all generations in the three municipalities use it in their daily lives: with family, with neighbors, in commerce, in bars…
However, this vitality is seriously threatened by the demographic situation (aging population and very low birth rate), by intensive contacts with the Spanish and by economic factors which limit the possibilities of young people to settle in the region.
The scarcity of written documents adds to the difficulties of preserving this language in the long term. Paradoxically, new platforms like WhatsApp lead to the generation of more written testimonies: “As it is a bit of a mixture of oral and written, there are people who communicate in fala by this means,” explains Vales.
Saving an endangered language
In the fight for its conservation, the Czech researcher published a dictionary in 2021, after three years of interviews with residents of the three cities and almost archaeological work to find the texts available in the three varieties.
“In lagarteiru It was easier because there is a cultural magazine, Anduriñawhich is published every year, and there are occasional plays. For the other two varieties, it was quite complicated. In maneguthe writer Domingo Frades, now deceased, was the only one to publish anything. and in valverdeñuthere is a small book of stories that was published in 2019 and nothing else,” explains Vales.
Miguel Ramos, president of the Cultural Association U green lizardbelieves that the fala It can be a tourist attraction and, in this way, add another option to preserve it: “That a language of oral transmission is maintained here for nine or ten centuries, in three cities so close and with three different varieties , is not the case. none of the minority languages of Europe.
U green lizard is responsible for publishing the annual Anduriña magazine, in addition to representing traditional plays in which people of all ages perform, which serves to encourage citizen participation and cultural transmission from older people to new generations.
So far, the fala It did not obtain the status of an official language, since the Statute of Autonomy of Extremadura does not mention any minority language. The only recognition it has received from institutions is the declaration of “Asset of Cultural Interest” in 2001.
