Andalusian language
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Andalusian language (Spanish language: Andaluz, N.O.A.: Andalù) is a proposed term to classify the various Romance lects spoken in the Andalusia region of Spain as a full language. While these variants are mostly considered dialects of Spanish, some Andalusian nationalists and Andalusian cultural advocates consider the differences significant enough to warrant its consideration as a language. Opponents of this usage consider it an attempt to furnish the Andalusian Autonomous Region with the cultural markers and trappings of other Spanish regions such as Catalonia and Galicia, in an attempt to reinforce separatist claims.
The peculiar linguistic features of Andalusian developed from vulgar Latin in parallel to Castillian Spanish as the vernacular language of the population during the period of Arab and Berber domination Al-Andalus, and it is therefore as distinct not just in form but in origin from standard Spanish as Galician is from Portuguese. They say that only accidents of history (the fact that Andalusia was mostly annexed to the Kingdom of Castille immediately after the expulsion of the Arabs) have caused Spanish and Andalusian to be considered the same language.
The context for the movement to classify Andalusian as a language is the development of regional cultural revivals paralleling the regained autonomy of several Spanish regions. Over the years since the return of democracy to Spain, several previously suppressed languages have been allowed to flourish in Spain, such as Asturian and Catalan. Andalusian nationalists hope to achieve the same.
The most visible characteristic of the Andalusian language revival movement is the use of a strictly phonetic script that is visually very distinct from standard Spanish.
One method in actual commercial use for transcribing popular songs, flamenco lyrics, or whatever other texts which aim to reflect the actual speech features of the Andalusian region is called the Norma Ortográfica Andaluza (or NOA) which is based on the standard Andalusian of folklore in use throughout the Andalusian region and wherever it has been carried by flamenco performers.
This system is different from the standard Castillian spelling mostly in the representation of the 10 Andalusian vowels: five which it shares with Castillian (a, e, i, o, u), and five which are termed open or aspirated which are proper to the Andalusian accent, and are represented with a grave accent (`): (à, è, ì, ò, ù) and are mostly used in situations where an "s" has been aspirated before another consonant, (and the omission of certain other consonants as well). This aspiration often results in a duplication or a lengthening of the following consonant.
For example:
- Lò jóvenè ècelentè han venío de la universidá.
- Los jóvenes excelentes han venido de la universidad.
When such an aspirated vowel also happens to carry the accent in a word and would usually be marked with an acute accent, the two accents, (grave and acute) merge into a circumflex accent over the vowel (â, ê, î, ô, û).
According to the Ethnologue report on Spanish[1], Andalusian is a regional dialect of Spanish (as opposed to Castilian) and not its own distinct language.
