language

[Sandra T.]

Greetings, Tom in snowy Edmonton from Sandra
in suddenly unsnowy and unseasonably warm New York:

Aragonese and Asturian are basically considered "dialects"
by most Spaniards. Having a literature is one of the deciding factors when
distinguishing between a language and a
dialect. You ask what is considered "literature"...well,
I think that answers itself...no? Literature constitutes a body
of writings by various authors on various topics and ranging over a variety
of genres and over extended periods of a
nation's cultural history. Like England, France, the U.S.,
Canada,  Germany and Russia, Spain and her Latin American daughters,  abound
with great authors of every category,
as you well know. Gallego or Galaico-Portuguese and
Catalan are also rich in extraordinary writers.
But Aragonese and Asturian are not, and in addition, are
spoken by a small number of people in a very limited area.
They are thus usually considered dialects, or as you
call them, "minority languages".
Ciao for now,
Linguist and fellow language pedant,
Sandra

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