Resumen de Línguas minoritárias no ecrã o caso da língua mirandesa em Portugal
Sérgio Ferreira, Cláudia Martins
The screen, be it the cinema screen or the home screen, is acknowledged almost unanimously as a powerful meansfor the assertion of national languages or prestigious standards. Its power can also be extended to the defence ofminority languages, official or not, and two examples are the Catalan Regional Channels, and bilingual subtitlingpractices in Belgium. As far as Portugal is concerned, Mirandese became the second official language in 1999,a language spoken in Miranda do Douro, in the north-eastern part of Portugal, by about 10,000 speakers. It was“discovered” at the end of the 19th century by Leite de Vasconcellos, and only then did it meet its first written forms;the first spelling convention dates from 1999. Since Leite de Vasconcellos, many literary works, newspaper articlesand translation of Portuguese classics have been put forth by various authors. However, the screen has not yet beenconquered by Mirandese for economic and political reasons. We intend to answer some questions: What is there stillto be achieved? What could the screen bring its speakers? Could the screen enable to bridge the generation gaps,to encourage the speakers’ self-esteem and identity?
