Mirandese has a distinct phonology, morphology and syntax, and has been distinct at least since the formation of Portugal in the 12th century. It has its roots in the spoken Latin of the north of the Iberian Peninsula (Portuguese developed in the northwest).

It is a descendant of the ancient Astur-Leonese language of northern Iberia, the last remnant of the ancient language of the Kingdom of León, and closely related to the modern Astur-Leonese languages in Spain. However, these amalgamations in the Spanish territory did not affect Mirandese, which preserves distinct linguistic differences in relation to both Portuguese and Spanish. It shares a great deal of lexicon with regional Portuguese dialects.

In the 19th century, José Leite de Vasconcelos described it as “the language of the farms, of work, home, and love between the Mirandese”. Since 1986–87 it has been taught to students between the ages of 10 and 11, and so is recovering.

Today Mirandese retains fewer than 5,000 speakers (but the number can be up to 15,000 if counting second-language speakers) in the villages of the Municipality of Miranda do Douro and in some eastern villages (e.g. Vilar Seco and Angueira; in Caçarelhos, it is considered recently extinct) of the Municipality of Vimioso, and some linguistic influence can be observed at other villages of the municipality of Vimioso and the municipalities of Mogadouro, Macedo de Cavaleiros and Bragança.

Three variants of the Mirandese language exist: Border Mirandese (Mirandés Raiano), Central Mirandese (Mirandés Central) and Sendinese (Sendinés). Most speakers of Mirandese also speak Portuguese; some of these speak Spanish as well.

The main differences between Mirandese in Portugal and the Astur-Leonese languages in Spain are caused by the dominant languages in each region. Mirandese has been influenced phonetically and in lexicon by Portuguese and the Astur-Leonese languages in Spain by Spanish (Castilian). All have distinctive orthography that phonetically reflects the respective main national languages. Another difference is that Mirandese and Leonese remain very conservative, while Asturian has undergone a greater amount of change.

Picote is known for many reasons: one is the dam of Tear, built between 1954 and 1958, an impressive stranglehold of the Douro River, in its internacional.

This Hydraulic section of Picote opened in January 1958, has a height of 100 meters, this crown has a length of 92.30 meters, and its 3 generators have the capability of producing 180 MWh.

Another reason why Picote is known is that that of all the villages belonging to so-called Terra de Miranda, Miranda Land, is one that has more defended and encouraged the use of Language Mirandesa. This is evident by the fact that many of the streets of village have cards with their names written in Portuguese and Mirandese; or because the posters with the programs of the parties also are written in Portuguese and Mirandese.

Picuote is Picote in Mirandese.

Due to this important linguistic reason, Picote is one of the small villages that most often appears in television news and print media (including the daily press). So these reasons (and others, we invite you now to find out). Picote an excellent holiday destination where you can escape completely from the confusion of the day-to-day, and also know a way of life and a landscape that surely surprise you will pleasantly.

The visit allows to discover characteristic features of the social and cultural life of a region whose strong identity, manifested in the presence of the Mirandese language (second official language of Portugal since 1998) and anchored in agriculture, livestock and border trade, is going nowadays through deep and rapid changes.

Besides some archaeological pieces of interest, the collection is mainly ethnographic, facing the description of life of the population of a rural border region between the nineteenth century and the contemporary period.

Address:

Praça D. João III – 5210-190 Miranda do Douro

GPS:Lat: 41,4943605 Long: -6,274196299999971

Phone:+ 351 273 431 164

E-mail:mterramiranda@culturanorte.pt