Western Asturian

Western Asturian,Art. 1 de la ] is the western dialect of Asturian language spoken in western Asturian lands between the Navia and Nalón rivers, and north of the province of León.

Area spoken

Asturias: The border with central Asturias is an almost straight line that joins the councils of Muros and Quirós from north to south. The Navia river separates it from the Entrambasauguas area.León: Western Asturian is spoken in the councils of Babia and north of Luna and in the councils of Laciana and Ribas de Sil.

Linguistic regions

According to the consonantism, Diego Catalán divides Western Asturias into four regions:

Eastern Lowlands

It includes the councils of Muros, Candamo, Grado, Cudillero and Pravia. Common vocalism of the West and consonantism typical of the central zone:

Conservation of the old decreasing diphthongs /éi, óu/: veiga, cantéi, touro, cantóu.
Possibility of three diphthongs for the short Latin vowels /e/ and /o/: /ié-ya/ yara/year, ya/y, /ué-uá-uó/ puablu-pueblu-puoblu.
Unstressed vowel closure: -u-us, -i -is, -a/-as // u-os, -u-es. -a/-es: gatu/gatus, fonti/fontis, vaca/vacas. In some places there is a strong tendency to close the final vowels /-i, -u/.
Conservation of -oriu, -oria in agreement with the central languages: Cobertoria, taladraoria, casoriu.
Palatization /ll/ for derivatives of /l-, -ll-, pl-, kl-, fl-/: lluna, valle, llave, llover, llama. Not being inside the word where it develops /y/: ayalga.
/ñ/ for /-nn-/: cabin ; and frequency of initial /ñ/ palatalization: ñarbasu, ñarigón.
/ch/ from /kt, ult/: trucha, cuchu, munchu.
/y/ coming from /ly, k'l/: muer, vieya. A particularity of this region is that /-y-/ after a palatal vowel can disappear: viea - vieya, abea - abeya, ouvea - ouveya, ourea - oureya.

At the morphological level, in some places there are cases of feminine nouns adjectived in /-u/, which indicates the extension to the West of the continuous/discontinuous opposition: La tierra tá ricudíu. Within this region is located the Cudillero speech called pixueto.

Eastern Highlands

It comprises Quirós, Teberga, Proaza and penetrates the Leonese lands of Babia and north of Luna.

The vocalism basically agrees with region A, although there is a lesser tendency to close the final vowels /i, u/, although there is no uniformity between the parishes. Quirós shows a greater number of endings /e, o/ú there are no endings in -us/-un comierun, xatus, which is understood as pronunciations of Teverga.
-oriu or, -oria in consonance with the language: Cobertoria, taladraoria, casoriu.
/ḷḷ/ instead of /ll/ from region A: ḷḷuna, vaḷḷe, ḷḷave, ḷḷover, ḷḷama. Not being inside the word where it develops /y/: ayalga.
/-n-/ < nn, instead of /-ñ-/: pena, cabana, farina.
As in region D, result /ch/ for /ly, k'l/: mucher, viecha.
Unique in the whole of Asturias, the result /ts/ < /kt, ult/: cutso, mutso, otso, cotse.

This region establishes the limit of the ya/yas 'is, you are'; specifically in Teverga, being already unknown in Quirós. The speech of Quirós or quirosano presents its own and original features that give it a certain personality within the region.

Western Lowlands

It includes the low valleys of Cangas [del Narcea], Tineo and Luarca.

Vocalism agrees with the two previous regions. There is a greater number of decreasing diphthongs due to the vocalization of certain final consonants in an inner group. nueite, truita, muitu.
-oiru, -oira with metathesis of /i/: versatoriu > versadoiro, Cubertoira.
Consonantism that coincides with region A for /y/ from /ly, k'l/: muyer, vieya.
Consonantism that coincides with region B in the solution /ḷḷ/: ḷḷuna, vaḷḷe, ḷḷave, ḷḷover, ḷḷama. Not being inside the word where it develops /y/: ayalga.
Coexistence of results /ch/ and initial /ḷḷ/ for the groups /pl, kl, fl/: chuver/ḷḷover.
Insertion of /u/ due to the influence of /w/ in the following syllable: augua, lleugua, yeugua, fraugua, senauguas 'petticoat' etc.
In this region we can distinguish the contractions conjunction plus article nu < in+illu and nel < in+ille. The former is used before a consonant: nu camin, nu chanu, while the latter is used before a vowel nel eiru, nel uzal.

Western Highlands

It includes Somiedo, brañas of Cangas del Narcea, Degaña and enters the Leonese lands of Laciana and Ribas de Sil.
Vocalism and consonantism that coincides with region C, not being in the result /ch/ from /ly, k'l/ in mucher, navacha, and from /-cl-, -pl-, and -fl -/: achalga, as occurs in region B. Within this region is the speech Trabáu in Degaña and the parishes of El Bau and the Estierna both in Ibias called tixileiru.
The classification criteria for Western Astur-Leonese are presented in the following table.

Lexical differences

Normative	Eastern Lowlands	Eastern Highlands	Western Lowlands	Western Highlands	Bercian	Cabreiran Leonese:es: Cabreirés\|	Senabrian Leonese:es:Senabrés \|	Mirandese
*lauretum > lloréu	llouréu	ḷḷouréu	ḷḷouréu	ḷḷouréu	llouréu	llouréiru	llouréiru	lhouro
*afflaticam > ayalga	ayalga	achalga	ayalga	achalga		ayalga	allalga
*plovere > llover	llover	ḷḷover	ḷḷover/chover	ḷḷover/chover	chuvere	chuvere	chuvere	chober
*lactem > lleche	lleiche	ḷḷeitse	ḷḷeite	ḷḷeite	lleite	lleiti	lleiti	lheite
*noctem > nueche	nueche	nuetse	nueite	nueite		ñueiti	ñuoiti	nuite
* multu > munchu	muchu	mutsu	muitu	muitu	muitu	mueitu	muitu	muito
*capanna > cabaña	cabaña	cabana	cabana	cabana	cabana	cabaña	cabaña	cabanha
*oculo > güeyu	güeyu	güechu	güeyu	güechu		güeyu	guollu	guolho
* mulier > muyer	muyer	mucher	muyer	mucher		muyere	mullere	mulher