The linguistic landscape of Mirandese

This article explores the presence of Mirandese in its linguistic landscape, that is, the language on display in public spaces. A fieldwork campaign in ten of the thirteen freguesias , or parishes, of the Miranda do Douro municipality reveals a noticeable lack of signage due to the eminently rural nature of the area under study, whose socio-economic structure does not favour elements of this nature in the public space. The article illustrates the diminished presence of the Mirandese language, with two defining characteristics: on the one hand, a mainly institutional origin of the signals, with scant private initiative, which hinders the transfer of oral usage to written output, and, on the other hand, the variety’s restricted functionality. Even if Mirandese has a part to play in local culture and identity, it adopts a symbolic rather than an informative role. The latter is reserved for Portuguese, as the dominant language used in all areas of communication. Nevertheless, following the implementation of remedial measures over the past 30 years, there appears to be an improvement in attitudes towards the autochthonous language, which has clearly gained prestige as a local hallmark.