Asturian-American Migration Forum

I'm in a dictionary-buying mode. Could anyone give us a brief review of good Asturian-Castilian dictionaries?

I want one that will help me learn the basic vocabulary and read a few of the Asturianu texts Bob has mentioned here.

The dictionary is also going to come in handy when I visit Asturian Web sites that are written in Asturianu. It's amazing how many sites are either using Asturianu exclusively or mixing Asturian and Castilian Spanish. It appears to me that the number is rising rapidly in the past year.

It'd be great if my dictionary-to-be went beyond a list of comparable words to show full examples of the words in use so I can get a sense of how to construct my own sentences.

Thanks, Art

I think the best choice for people who read castellano and are beginning to learn asturianu is "Diccionario asturianu castellanu/castellanu asturianu" by Xuan Xosé Sanchez Vincente, published by Trabe in Uvieu (Oviedo), 2001. It has the advantage of being very easy to use because of a large number of detailed definitions of asturianu words, and a smaller section of asturianu equivalents for castellano words. It's the one I find myself reaching for most frequently when reading asturian texts. The price is about $37.

"Dictionario de los Bables de Asturias" by Jesus Neira and Maria Rosario Piñeiro reverses the emphasis. It has a large section of castellano entries with asturianu equivalents and a smaller section of asturianu entries. It was published at Oviedo in 1989 by Principado de Asurias/Instituto de Estudios Asturianos (I.D.E.A.)

I also like the monolingual "Dictionariu de la Llingua Asturiana" (often referred to as DALLA), published by Academia de la Llingua Asturiana. It costs about $60.

There is also "Diccionariu de la llingua (y otros organos sexuales)", by Ismael María González Arias (only about $9), which I don't have yet but intend to order soon. Who could resist?

All four dictionaries are available from Asturshop.com. They are very reliable and accept the standard charge cards. Since books are heavy, shipping costs can be quite expensive. If your total order is under $200 and the items are for personal use, your shipment should clear US customs with no problems and without your having to pay any duty. Asturshop does a good job on the customs paperwork for you. All of the books and CD's I have purchased from them have arrived carefully packed and in good condition.

Otru diccionariu bastante bonu pa entamar a deprender Asturianu ye'l Diccionariu Temáticu Asturianu de Ramón d'Andrés.(Alborá Llibros-1991).Nesti diccionariu les pallabres tan clasificaes por temes:la natura,l'home,la sociedá siendo asina más fácil alcontrar la pallabra que ún quier saber como se diz n'Asturianu.
Saludos pa toos
Another good dictionary to start to learn Asturian is Diccionariu Temáticu Asturianu by Ramón d'Andrés(Alborá Llibros 1991).In this dictionary words are classified by themes:Nature, Society, Man, being sometimes easier to find the right word in Asturian.
Kind regards

I'm amazed by how many good Asturian dictionaries there are!

My amazing friend Agustíin gave me one, "Dicionariu Basicu de la Llingua Asturiana" by Ferreiro Felix, Manzano Pablo, and Rodriguez Urbano. This 408 page book was published by Coleción Didática de la Llingua in 1984. It's all in Asturianu, but it's definitions and examples are simple enough that I get the sense. The first edition also has little illustrations by Miguel Barangaño next to most of the entries.

There are more recent editions of this dictionary. The 2001 edition, for example, dropped the images and crammed the entries in to 286 pages. The book now has smaller print and a much smaller format. It lists only Pablo Manzano and Urbano Rodríquez as authors.

On closer examination, I see that they have also changed the spelling of some words, and changed the wording of definitions and examples, perhaps to fit "standard Asturian". For someone who only knows Castellano, it may be a little easier to understand the slightly more Castellano-leaning text of the 1984 edition.

In my opinion, the Asturian Language Academy Normative Dictionary (DALLA) is the best of all, although a little expensive. I recommend too the X.X. Sánchez Vicente dictionary. About the others mentioned by Bob, the one by Ismael G. Arias, "Dictionary of the Tongue (and another sexual organs)" is a specific book on the sex language in Asturian (it's a little joke with the double meaning of Llingua = Language, and also Tongue, as human organ).

I don't recommend in any way the other book, by Jesús Neira. This man is a death declared enemy of the Asturian language, and he says in its works that the Asturian is only a poor dialect from Castilian, the historical result of the old mixture of the medieval Leonese with Castilian, that prevailed of "natural" form being a more appropriate "superior" language like culture transmitter, reason why Asturian speakers were leaving it "voluntarily" little by little, so that today only remain some "colorful" rests in a speech that is fundamentally Spanish.

This book was published at a time of strong controversy, indeed with the intention to demonstrate its theses. What Jesus Neira did was to gather all class of popular words, mixing Asturian words, Castilian words correctly pronounced, Castilian words pronounced with Asturian accent, and aberrant words that are correct neither in a language nor in another one. All it directed to produce the sensation of degradation and little linguistic entity of the Asturian, the vision of a infinite dialectal fragmentation, and the impossibility to elaborate a cultured norm, to teach it in the school, and to make of our language a culture vehicle.

In fact, the institution that published this dictionary is the IDEA (Instituto de Estudios Asturianos, today RIDEA), an institution that channeled the official Asturian culture under the Francoism, whose intellectual production and authors are enough reactionaries in general.

Saludinos.