What is the Academia de la Llingua Asturiana

Founding

The Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (ALLA) was founded in 1980, by decision of the then Provincial Council of Asturias (Diputación Provincial). Its creation marks the formal start of the linguistic normalization process of Asturian: before this date, the language had no single authority in charge of fixing a common written standard.

Comparative context

To gauge how late the ALLA arrives, it helps to compare it with equivalent institutions for other languages of the Iberian Peninsula. Euskaltzaindia, the Academy of the Basque Language, was founded in 1919 — more than sixty years earlier. The gap between the two dates shows the historical lag between the normalization process of Basque and that of Asturian.

Normative authority

The ALLA is the only institution with recognized authority to fix the reference orthography, grammar and lexicon of Asturian. Among its normative output is the Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, a reference lexicographic work.

Objectives and Purpose

The ALLA’s founding objectives, as defined by the institution itself, are: to research and formulate the grammatical rules of Asturian and its linguistic varieties; to provide guidance and standards for its written and formal use; to catalogue its vocabulary in the form of a dictionary; to promote the use, teaching and spread of Asturian; to protect the linguistic rights of Asturian citizens; to work on the standardization of Asturian; to run literary and educational prizes and competitions; to promote linguistic research on Asturian; and to collaborate in the training of specialized teachers. It is not, therefore, an institution that only sets standards: its mandate spans from philological research to the social promotion of the language’s use.

Social Role

Beyond its technical, normative role, the ALLA serves as a public point of reference for Asturian society as a whole: it is the institution consulted whenever an authoritative answer is needed on how to write or correctly speak Asturian, and it is also the body that endorses — through prizes, calls for submissions and publications — literary and educational work in the language. This reference role directly or indirectly supports publishers, media outlets, teachers and cultural projects that work in Asturian and need a common standard to rely on.

Collaboration with Other Organizations

The ALLA does not work alone: it collaborates with other associations and institutions in the Asturian cultural and educational ecosystem, including the Universidá Asturiana de Branu and teacher associations such as ALCEM. Xiringase is also part of that network of collaboration: it is working jointly with the ALLA on several projects, still under development, which will be presented as they progress.

Public academic activity

The ALLA, together with the University of Oviedo, organizes the World Congress of Asturian Culture (CMCA), the leading recurring academic forum for research on Asturian language and culture. The CMCA25 edition, held in February 2025, brought together more than 60 academic contributions, according to sources from the institution itself.

Source of sociolinguistic data

Beyond its normative work, the ALLA is also the institution responsible for the reference sociolinguistic studies on Asturian, including the 2017 survey, which measures actual knowledge and use of the language among the population.

Role in the official-status debate

Although the ALLA has no authority to decide on the official status of Asturian — a political and legal decision, not an academic one — its normative work and data form the technical basis on which that debate rests.

Bibliography

The institutional sources this article relies on:

• Academia de la Llingua Asturiana. L’Academia de la Llingua Asturiana. https://alladixital.org
• Euskaltzaindia. Euskaltzaindia, la Academia de la Llingua Vasca. https://www.euskaltzaindia.eus
• Academia de la Llingua Asturiana y Universidá d’Uviéu. Congresu Mundial de Cultura Asturiana. https://alladixital.org