From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cantabrian Montañés, Cántabru
Spoken in:	Autonomous community of Cantabria and Asturian municipalities of Peñamellera Alta, Peñamellera Baja and Ribadedeva. Spain.
Total speakers:	undefined
Language family:	Indo-European  Italic   Romance    Italo-Western     Gallo-Iberian      Ibero-Romance       West Iberian        Cantabrian
Writing system:	Latin alphabet
Official status
Official language of:	none
Regulated by:	No regulated
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	-
ISO 639-2:	-
ISO 639-3:	-
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

Cantabrian language or Mountain language is the name received the language used in the West of Cantabria and some zones of the Valley of Pas and the Valley of Soba, in its Eastern zone.

It is a transition language that can be considered either a dialect of Asturian, an ancient dialect of Castilian, or an independent romance language in its own right.

The Cantabrian has two subdialects: Western and the Eastern. The dividing zone between both variants is between the Saja river and the Pas. Pas dialect is the Eastern variant with the particularitity of being specially well preserved.

Extract of L'últimu home in Asturian

Un españíu fizo tremar el fayéu. El ñarbatu esnaló lloñe. L'esguil espaeció nel ñeru. Hebo otru españíu, y darréu otru. L'home, entós, mientres cayía coles manes abiertes, los güeyos nel infinitu y el so cuerpu remanando per tolos llaos abonda sangre, glayó una pallabra, una pallabra namás, que resonó y güei sigue resonando na biesca y en toa Asturies: «¡Llibertá!».

Translation to Cantabrian

Un españíu ḥizo temblar el ḥayal. El miruellu voló largu. L'esquilu esmanó nel ñial. Hebo otru españíu, y darréu otru. L'hombri, entós, mientris cayía conas manos abiertas, los güeḥos nel sinfinitu y el su cuerpu esvarciando por tolos laos sangri n'abondu, glarió una parabra, una parabra namás, que retingló y hui sigui retinglando ena viesca y en toa Asturias: «¡Libertá!».

Translation to Castilian

Un estallido hizo temblar el hayedo. El mirlo voló lejos. La ardilla desapareció en el nido. Hubo otro estallido, y luego otro. El hombre, entonces, mientras caía con las manos abiertas, los ojos en el infinito y su cuerpo vertiendo por todas partes mucha sangre, gritó una palabra, sólo una palabra, que resonó y hoy sigue resonando en el bosque y en toda Asturias: «¡Libertad!».

English Version

An outbreak made shake the beech forest. The blackbird flew far. The squirrel disappeared into its nest. There was another outbreak, and soon another one. The man, then, while he fell openhanded, the eyes in the infinite and his body spilling throughout much blood, he shouted a word, only one word, that resonated and today continues resonating in the forest and in all Asturias: "Freedom!".

• García Lomas, A.: El lenguaje popular de la Cantabria montañesa. Santander: Estvdio, 1999. ISBN 84-87934-76-5

• Dictionary of Cantabrian in the Asturian wiktionary (in Asturian) - currently no content.
• Dictionary of Cantabrian (in Spanish)
• Alcuentros, Cantabrian magazine of minority languages (in Spanish)
• Aicion pol cántabru (Action for Cantabrian) (in Cantabrian/Spanish)