The Border Dialect of Marvao / Valencia de Alcantara - an Endangered Linguistic Variety

The linguistic border in Marvao / Valencia de Alcantara does not correspond to the geopolitical border between Portugal and Spain. This is explained by the fact that a Portuguese linguistic variety used in the North-east part of Alentejo expanded to Spain and characterizes a large region in Valencia de Alcantara. The variety of Marvao / Valencia de Alcantara belongs to the Southern Centre Portuguese dialects (Beira Baixa and Alto Alentejo), and therefore shares their main characteristics. However, it differs from the varieties spoken in the surrounding villages due to some particularities at both phonetical-phonological and lexical-semantic levels. As this linguistic variety is vulnerable in Portugal and it is seriously endangered in the Spanish territory, it is urgent to implement some measures to reverse the situation and contribute to its revitalization. This paper aims to describe the linguistic situation of the region, to present the main phonetical-phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical-semantic features of this border dialect, and to show some possible strategies to reverse the disappearance trend that the variety of Marvao/Valencia de Alcantara is facing.