5 Un cachico de stória / A little bit of history

After the Kingdom of León was founded in the late IX century, the Astur-leonese language lost its position of influence and, as as it was to be expected, its strength and much of its expansion. Therefore, this language family -including Mirandese- were isolated and left out of the main cultural movements of centuries to follow, like Humanism and the Renaissance (XV and XVI centuries). The languages of power back then, which we know now as national languages, like Portuguese and Castilian, benefitted greatly from their exposure to these movements.

It was around this time that so-called national languages achieved its status as languages for administration and for academic purposes. In Portugal, the movement to “pray in the correct language” was very important, as the central administration of the Catholic church (which was also the main provider of education) pushed Portuguese as the language that should be used to “speak to God”.