Language-power relationship, linguistic identity and the struggle for survival: the case of Asturian in Oviedo, Spain

ABSTRACT

The analysis of a community’s linguistic landscape has proven to be an excellent tool not only in portraying, but also in evaluating and interpreting what languages are used in a single place (and what languages seem to be invisible), what the vitality of any of these languages is, and the relative influence that each linguistic variety within that community has and how it relates to the other varieties in terms of power, visibility and functionality. The presence or absence of a language in the public space conveys a message that directly and indirectly exposes its significance versus its marginality in the community. The present study analyzes languages used in the public space of a neighborhood in Oviedo, the capital city of Asturias in Spain, where Spanish is the majority language and Asturian is the regional language. While Asturian is present in some of the official street signs, stores’ signages only utilize Spanish along with other minority languages such as Arabic. Using a mixed research approach, this article analyzes attitudes and power relations among Spanish, Asturian and other immigrant languages used in the LL of a neighborhood in Oviedo, Asturias, while also revealing public perceptions of language hierarchies and prestige in the area.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The results of this survey were compared with the data gathered from previous sociolinguistic studies in order to analyze the diachronic evolution of Asturians’ linguistic attitudes toward the regional language.

2. Chart 1 presents data adapted from two sources: The data for the Asturias population come from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, (2021); while the Informe sobre la Llingua Asturiana provides the numbers of Asturian speakers.

3. In the Pumarín neighborhood live 11% of the immigrant population of Oviedo. The total immigrant population comprises almost 12% of the Oviedo population, according to the 2020 report. Available at https://transparencia.oviedo.es/normativa-e-informes/poblacion. Accessed on March 7, 2021.

4. It is worth to note that the College of Humanities of the University of Oviedo is the only one in the Principality of Asturias, that means that all Humanities undergraduate students in the region come to Oviedo from different parts. Therefore, several students go through this street every day, since they use public transportation to reach Oviedo and the campus.

5. Three different political parties – PSOE, Somos, and IU – were in charge of Oviedo local government at that time.

6. When participants seemed to not understand what they were being asked about, the researcher made clear that Asturian is the regional language spoken in Asturias.

7. We use italics to transcribe Spanish and bold + italics to represent Asturian

8. The literal translation is “it is spoken by four cats,” which means very few people but also has a derogatory meaning.

9. It must be mentioned that all the participants who assured that Asturian was represented on TV, clarified that they were talking about the regional TV channel called TPA (“Televisión del Principado de Asturias”), in which Asturian is spoken in some shows and news. However, not all the television programming of this channel is in Asturian, as Spanish can be found in several shows.