Another lost language from Spain

You might think that Spain only has two languages, Spanish and Basque, but that’s not true! There’s also a small language called A Fala, spoken by just a few thousand people in a tiny area of Spain.

It comes from the Valle de Jálama, in the northwest part of Extremadura, right on the border with Portugal. People in three towns—San Martín de Trevejo, Eljas, and Valverde del Fresno—still use it today. Each town has its own version, but all of them together form this unique language that has survived for hundreds of years.

Valle de Jálama in Extremadura, Spain

The history of A Fala goes back to the Middle Ages, when people from Galicia and Portugal moved into the mountains of this area. Back then, they spoke Galician-Portuguese, which later split into two languages: Galician and Portuguese. Because the Valle de Jálama was so isolated, the people there kept speaking their own version of the old language, which slowly changed into what we now call A Fala. This separation helped protect the language and gave it its own identity.

For a long time, Spanish has been the main language of school, government, and daily life in Extremadura. Still, families in the Valle de Jálama have worked hard to keep A Fala alive by speaking it at home and in their communities. Today, people celebrate the language with festivals and cultural events, and local groups are working to make sure it doesn’t disappear. Young people are encouraged to learn and use A Fala so that it can continue into the future.

When you listen to A Fala, you’ll notice it sounds a lot like Portuguese, but it also has words and grammar that are influenced by Spanish. This is because the villages that speak A Fala are right between the two cultures. Linguists, or people who study languages, find A Fala fascinating because it shows how languages can mix and change when people live near borders. It’s like a living piece of history that connects Spain and Portugal.