User:Rebeccaward12/Minderico language

The Minderico Language, or Language of Minde (Piação do Ninhou) is spoken in the Minde region of Portugal where it was first identified in the sixteenth century to be the secret language of traders and wool farmers. As time went on the language expanded to people of all occupations and social status up until the last 30 years, where speakers of the language have declined significantly. Today there are about 1000 passive speakers of the language and 23 fluent speakers. Of those 23 fluent speakers, 15 of them have learned the language through revitalization efforts in order to preserve the language. The number of speakers of Minderico language has been significantly declining over the last half century, primarily due to the language not being passed down through the generations. Speakers of the Minderico language are completely and totally bilingual, speaking both Minderico and Portuguese but the language only has about 150 active speakers, 23 of them being fully fluent.

Classification
Minderico is an Ibero-Romance language spoken in the Minde region of Portugal. The language is a sociolect that descended from the Portuguese language.

History
Minderico was first spoken around the 16th century, in the small industrial town of Minde, Portugal. Minde would gain recognition for its textiles and wool products and attracted buyers from all over Portugal. Thus, Minderico was born of these wool merchants as a means to protect their profit by speaking a language not known by outsiders. By speaking Minderico, merchants were able to communicate with other merchants in front of customers about prices without the customer knowing what they were saying. Eventually the language spread to all the inhabitants of Minde, and would be used in all contexts beyond the marketplace, to the point where it was the main language of the region. Minderico would be widely used in the region until about the year 1970.

Geographic Distribution
A big part of the reason that Minderico never spread out too far beyond the borders of Minde is due to the fact that it is secluded from the rest of Portugal by two plateaus (São Mamede and Santo António). The language did spread to two neighboring villages, the first being Serra de Santo António, however the language is no longer spoken in this village today. Though the second village, Mira de Aire, does have four passive Minderico speakers. This geographic isolation is one of the main reasons that the language was able to flourish and distinguish itself from Portuguese as a different language, however today that isolation coupled with the crisis in the textile industry contributes greatly to its decline.

Grammar/ Vocabulary
Due to the nature of Minderico’s evolution, many of its first words were related to trade, products, numbers, however by the time the language expanded to the whole region of Minde, many of these words are used much less. Today the words and phrases that are most used in the language are related to human needs and daily activities, as expected for any full fledged language. Much of the vocabulary used in Minderico is also closely tied to the fact that it began as a sociolect, many of the words in the language evolved from the inhabitants of Minde and their experiences. For example Vera Ferreira gives examples of these kinds of words on page 567 of “The Importance of New Technologies in the Revitalization of Minderico  where it is shown that the Minderico word for thunderstorms, leoa, comes from the Portuguese word for “Lioness”, leoa'', and this is due to the sound that thunderstorms make resembling the roar of a lion. Another example of a word like this is the Minderico word for teacher, which is touquim, this word comes from the surname of the first primary school teacher in Minde. The language also employs something called nominal incorporation, which is when a language uses light verbs that carry little to no weight in the sentence, but is combined with another verb in the sentence to give it meaning. Minderico has three of these light verbs: gâmbiar (to do something with hands), pôr(to put) and jordar(to take/bring/go)

Examples
From Treme-terras to O do linho

From Bandarra to Fusca

Note: many words I was unable to find what the word/phrase means literally and could only provide the English translation

Revitalization Efforts
Over the last 50 years or so, Minderico has been declining at a rapid rate; today it stands with only 150 active speakers with only 23 of those being fluent. This language is not recognized officially by the Portuguese government, and because of that there is almost no representation of the language in the media or anywhere outside of Minde for that matter. In 2009, the Volkswagen Foundation began funding a documentation project for Minderico that would serve to collect teaching materials in the language. This project, along with members of the community set out on a long term revitalization process for Minderico. True revitalization will take many years but as of 2016 there has been more digital writing using Minderico, which is certainly a good sign.

The most prominent group of new speakers are people who have moved to Minde for work or marriage that acquired the language. Most passive speakers are made up of people who have lived in Minde for their whole lives, but were not exposed to Minderico enough to become fluent, this group also includes children who have not yet fully acquired their ability to use the language. The last group of new speakers is people who are not originally from Minde, but may have a relative who is/was and felt a connection to the language.

While these revitalization efforts are a good thing, it does bring some tensions to the community. The first of these being between the older and younger generation. The older generation doesn’t necessarily believe that the younger generation of Minderico speakers are using the language in best form possible. The older generation sometimes calls into question the way younger people use the language, calling it “Modern Minderico” and “Invented Artificial language”. A lot of this grief from the older generation may come from the fact that they are not used to using Minderico in reference to modern technologies and life in the digital age, considering that the older generation tends to associate the language with original uses and traditional customs.

The second cause of tensions in the community is between native speakers and new speakers, this tension presents more of a problem than the rift between the generations and will not be mended as easily. This tension stems from the fact the traditional speakers acquired Minderico at home and in their community and have learned to use it in everyday contexts. Whereas new speakers have usually acquired the language through revitalization efforts and not in organic contexts like the traditional speakers. Traditional speakers feel that new speakers are not able to produce the same kind of fluency that they themselves are able to.Traditional speakers also take issue with the fact that many new speakers are either not from Minde, or have not lived there long enough to be authentic speakers of the language. Along with the issues traditional speakers take with new speakers, new speakers understand that Minderico is not something outdated that requires an update and that they are keenly aware of their level of proficiency and how that compares to people who have been speaking Minderico their whole lives. In no way is it their intent to update or modernize the language, they simply want to help preserve this language that had and hopefully will continue to have such a profound impact on its community.