Otros horizontes: la aparición de la lengua asturiana en las cartas privadas de los emigrantes de principios del XX

Abstract

In an attempt to add a new viewpoint to the analysis of the Asturian language, this article proposes the use of other sources, such as the letters exchanged by emigrants and their families in the context of contemporary mass migrations, a phenomenon of great relevance in Asturias. These correspondences were written along the first third of the 20th century and archived in the Muséu del Pueblu d’Asturies (Xixón). Through these letters we try to track the coexistence of Castilian and Asturian because, although in general they were written in Castilian, they also offer us a privileged view of the presence of Asturian, both as fragments and as isolated terms or characteristic structures. For that purpose, the letters of three informants who lived the migratory experience have been selected. Significant cases that give us a sufficient number of examples have graphic and linguistic elements at different levels, and help us investigate the coincidences and differences in the use of Asturian language. In this way, we will analyse the degree of penetration of Asturian in the written language of these senders, its relevance in their discourses in order to understand the different appropriations of language made by these anonymous people, who were usually away from social, economic and cultural circles, who brought in their private letters their emotional world, their environments, their intimacy and their linguistic reality.