ELL: Asturian Language at the University

[Xulio Viejo Fernández]

The Asturian language, a non official romance language spoken in NW
Spain, is taught at the University of Oviedo (Asturias, Spain) from
1984. These classes were the result of the statements on protection
and teaching of the language included in Asturian autonomous laws, and
have been continuously supported by the majority of the university
community, as well as the students, who enrolled massively in spite of
being optional, not compulsory courses.

Last week, the Spanish Council of Universities notified the
University of Oviedo the ban on offering these courses as part of its
current studies, based on rather obscure political and administrative
reasons. This ban (which contradicts the spirit of the Spanish
Constitution and the Asturian autonomous law, as well as the
democratically expressed will of the University itself and most of the
teachers and students of the Faculty of Philology) is a harsh attack
not only to the scientific study of the Asturian language, but a
serious problem for the training of teachers of other educational
levels. As a consequence, it seriously threatens the social survival
of the language.

Asturian is one of the world's endangered languages, according
to the UNESCO Catalogue and the European Charter for Minority
Languages, and is theoretically protected by both Asturian and Spanish
laws.

For more information, contact jviejo at correo.uniovi.es (Xulio Viejo
Fernandez, Departament of Spanish Philology, University of
Oviedo)



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