The project

  • ALPI

    The Atlas Lingüístico de la Península Ibérica (ALPI) is an atlas of the peninsular Romance domain that was devised in the early years of the 20th century by Ramón Menéndez Pidal at the Philology section of the Centre for Historical Studies in Madrid.

  • ALPI Researchers

    The ALPI research director was Tomás Navarro Tomás and the members of the team of surveyors were Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa, Rodrigo de Sá Nogueira, Lorenzo Rodríguez-Castellano, Manuel Sanchis Guarner, Aníbal Otero, Francisco de Borja Moll, Armando Nobre de Gusmão and Luís Filipe Lindley Cintra.

Purpose

The aim of the ALPI project was to provide a characterisation of the Romance language varieties of the Iberian Peninsula and to rigorously document spatial variation. For this research project, adult speakers from rural areas were surveyed in 529 spots of the Peninsula, the Balearic Islands and the Catalan-speaking part of the French Roussillon

The ALPI project was conducted in accordance with the principles of traditional European dialectology, according to the criteria used in the first linguistic atlases of the 20th century. The first and only ALPI volume, containing phonetic data, was published in 1962. The rest of the materials were kept unpublished until the early 21st century.

Galician in the ALPI

In the Galician language domain, 62 surveys were conducted in 62 spots: 53 located in Galicia, 5 in Asturias, 2 in León and 2 in Zamora. The researchers in charge of this area were the Galician Aníbal Otero (for most of the spots located in Galicia and Zamora), the Asturian Lorenzo Rodríguez-Castellano (for the spots located in Asturias and León), and the American of Mexican descent Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa (for some spots in Ourense, Zamora, León and Asturias). Most of the chosen spots were visited by the surveyors in the years prior to the Civil War.

The ALPI surveys were conducted using two kinds of questionnaires – one with questions pertaining to phonetics, morphology and syntax (411 questions) and another one with questions about lexicon and ethnography (833 questions).

  • 62surveys

  • 53in Galicia

  • 5in Asturias

  • 2in León

  • 2in Zamora

In the field of Galician studies, the ALPI is a particularly valuable work because of the dearth of linguistic documentation about the varieties spoken in the first half of the 20th century. As Tomás Navarro Tomás asserted, the ALPI is a “kind of documentary record of the character and physiognomy of popular speech of the Peninsula in the years immediately prior to the Civil War.”

Notwithstanding the value of the materials, the publication of volume I of the ALPI in 1962 had no repercussions on Galician linguistics until recent times. The results of the fieldwork conducted by Aníbal Otero and his collaborators was unknown to and ignored by Galician scholars for a long time.

The aim of the project undertaken in 2007, under the coordination of CSICand with collaboration from Spanish, Portuguese and Canadian universities, is to publish and disseminate the ALPI materials in full. The Instituto da Lingua Galega of the University of Santiago takes part in this project from its inception.

ALPI Surveys

By clicking on the symbols you will get information about the ALPI surveys in the 62 localities.

Timeline

Development of the project
Atlas Lingüistico de la Península Ibérica
over time.

  • 1910

    Letter to Miguel de Unamuno

    Ramón Menéndez Pidal writes a letter to Miguel de Unamuno to suggest that there is a need “to know the multiple dialect varieties that still survive in Spain, and to mark them out on a map in order to have an idea of the living speech underlying literary uniformity.”

  • 1928

    First International Congress of Linguists

    The committee of the First International Congress of Linguists, held in The Hague, issues an appeal to governments and academic institutions to embark on projects of preservation and cartography of all the languages, particularly those in danger of extinction.

  • 1930

    Rodrigo de Sá Nogueira

    The Portuguese philologist Rodrigo de Sá Nogueira accepts to take charge of the ALPI surveys in Galicia and Portugal. A year later, he will abandon the project and will be replaced first by Armando Nobre de Gusmão, who conducts research in 14 spots (1936), and later by Luis Filipe Lindley Cintra.

  • 1931

    Beggining of the surveys in Cáceres

    Aurelio Espinosa starts the surveys in the province of Cáceres. The research begins in early March and the first person to be interviewed is a 33-year-old man, a day labourer who “can’t read or write.”

  • 1934

    Aníbal Otero starts the fieldwork in Muras

    On a Sunday, July 14th, Aníbal Otero starts the fieldwork in Muras, in the province of Lugo. His informant is Manuel González Permuy, a 54-year-old peasant who could read but had only travelled to Viveiro and A Coruña.

  • 1935

    The fieldwork in Galicia is completed

    In December of this year, the fieldwork in the 53 Galician spots is completed. In Galicia, Aníbal Otero was assisted by Aurelio Espinosa in the fieldwork conducted in the eastern parts of Lugo and Ourense.

  • 1936

    Aníbal Otero is arrested

    On August 5th, Aníbal Otero is arrested by the Portuguese police in Valença do Minho. After being taken to Tui, he is sentenced to “life imprisonment” for a “crime of military rebellion.” The village of Paderne, in the municipality of Melgaço, was the last one Otero and Gusmão had visited to conduct the surveys.

  • 1947

    Fieldwork is resumed

    Fieldwork is resumed in the spots where it had not been conducted in Spain and the French Roussillon.

  • 1953

    Fieldwork is resumed in Portugal

    Fieldwork is resumed in Portugal. The Portuguese philologist Luís Filipe Lindley Cintra starts his contribution to the project doing fieldwork with Aníbal Otero.

  • 1956

    The surveys in Portugal are completed

    The surveys in Portugal are completed. The 93 researched spots are located in Portuguese continental territory.

  • 1962

    The only ALPI volume is published

    The only ALPI volume, Atlas Lingüístico de la Península Ibérica. I Fonética, is published. The volume has 75 maps, the first five provide general information about the project: spots studied, popular name of the place, demonym or name of the inhabitants of the place, dialectal name of the local speech variety and survey conductors.

  • 2007

    Beggining of the editing and preparation of the ALPI materials

    CSIC proposal to start the project of editing and preparation of the ALPI materials. The purpose of the project is the full digital edition of the materials by researchers from Spanish, Portuguese and Canadian universities.

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