The President of Asturias

Asturias' General Meeting has adopted, and I, on behalf of His Majesty the King, and pursuant to what article 32.2 of the Statute of Autonomy for Asturias provides, enact the following law on the use and promotion of the Bable/Asturian language.

Preamble

Article 4 of Asturias' Statute of Autonomy provides: "The Asturian language will enjoy protection. Its use, teaching and diffusion in the media will be furthered, whilst its local dialects and voluntary apprenticeship will always be respected".
Likewise, article 10.1.15 points out as being in Asturias' jurisdiction: "Furtherance and protection of the Asturian language and its different dialects which, as linguistic varieties, are used in Asturias".
Moreover, the same article, in paragraph 1.14, also points out as being in Asturias' jurisdiction: "Furtherance of research and culture, with special emphasis on their regional manifestations and teaching of their autochthonous culture". From such point of view, the Asturian language and its varieties build up a historic and cultural heritage which needs to be defended and preserved.
It is also evident that promotion of a region's culture and linguistic diversity favours revitalization of the identifying marks of the peoples which make up the Spanish State.
The fact that the Asturian people have recovered the richness of the Bable/Asturian language demands a set of actions aimed at its promotion, protection, preservation and good use and also respect for its different varieties.
Asturias' Cabinet, which has undertaken the management and coordination of the activities related to the Bable/Asturian language, has set measures to promote it, specially in education and other institutional fields. Such measures were aimed at the recovery, preservation and promotion of the Bable/Asturian language and its varieties.
It is deemed fit to go forward in this process and achieve a consolidation of what has been provided until now. It is therefore convenient that the articles of our Statute concerning the Bable/Asturian language and its varieties are implemented. In this respect it is necessary to go deeply into some aspects, such as use, teaching, promotion in the media, in order to fulfil the present social demand according to the requirements of our Statute.

Chapter I
General Provisions
Article 1. Traditional Language.
The Bable/Asturian language, as Asturias' traditional language of Asturias, shall enjoy protection. Asturias shall promote its use, diffusion and teaching.

Article 2. Galician/Asturian.
The status of protection, respect, tutelage and development provided by this law for the Bable/Asturian language will be extensive, through special regulations, to the Galician/Asturian in those areas where it is an own linguistic variety.

Article 3. Purpose of the law.
It is the purpose of this law:
a) to protect the citizens' right to know and use the Asturian language and provide the means to put such right into effect.
b) to further its recovery and development, taking measures to promote its use.
c) to ensure the Bable/Asturian language teaching in the exercise of the duties undertaken by Asturias, according to the principles of its voluntary and gradual character and respect for the sociolinguistic reality of Asturias.
d) to ensure its free use and the non-discrimination of citizens for this reason.

Chapter II
On the Use of the Bable/Asturian Language
Article 4. Administrative use.
1. All citizens have the right to use the Bable/Asturian language and express themselves orally and in the written form in such language.
2. Use of the Bable/Asturian language shall be binding to all ends in the citizens' oral or written communications in Asturias.
3. Asturias shall promote knowledge of the Bable/Asturian language amongst all civil servants working in Asturias. Knowledge of the Bable/Asturian language shall be an advantage in public competition announced by Asturias, as demanded by the characteristics of the post and duties to be developed.

Article 5. Publications.
1. Provisions, decisions and agreements by all Asturian institutional bodies, together with the laws adopted by the General Meeting, shall be publishable in Bable/Asturian, in a separate issue of Asturias' OFFICIAL JOURNAL. The publishing agreement shall be adopted by the body or institution which allows or orders such publication.
2. Publications, forms, leaflets or institutional notices shall be published indistinctly in Spanish, Bable/Asturian or in both languages. In the event that a conflict arose with a third party, they shall be compulsorily published in Spanish, without detriment of being also publishable in Bable/Asturian.

Article 6. Agreements.
Asturias shall achieve agreements with the government administration to promote use of the Bable/Asturian language by the services which perform their duties in the territory of Asturias.

Article 6. Translation bodies.
The Asturian administration shall have an official translation body of the Asturian language whose duties shall be the following:
a) Translate or certify the validity, as the case may require, of all the texts that are to be published in Bable/Asturian in the Official Journals of Asturias and of Asturias' General Meeting.
b) Translate any text written in Bable/Asturian into Spanish, as required both by public authorities in the exercise of their duties and by the institutions which article 16 of this Law refers to.
c) Any other duty conferred to it in the regulatory development of this Law.

Article 8. Town Councils.
1. Asturian Town Councils shall be able to take the necessary measures to ensure the effectiveness of the exercise of the linguistic rights that this Law grants to all citizens residing in Asturias.
2. Asturias shall be able to agree on specific plans with the Town Councils for the effective use of the Bable/Asturian language in the respective councils, and it shall therefore be able to subsidize the services and actions required.

Chapter III
On Education
Article 9. Teaching.
Asturias, in the exercise of its duties, shall ensure the Asturian language teaching and shall promote its use within the educational system, as Asturias' Statute of Autonomy provides.
Article 10. Curriculum.
1. In the exercise of its duties, Asturias shall ensure the Bable/Asturian language teaching in all levels and degrees, but respecting, however, the voluntary character of its apprenticeship. In any case, the Bable/Asturian language shall be taught within the school timetable and it shall be a subject included in the curriculum.
2. The previous principles shall be applied to standing education for adults.
3. Choice of study or use of the Bable/Asturian language as a subject of the curriculum shall by no means be grounds for discrimination amongst students.

For those who chose it, its apprenticeship or use shall not be an obstacle to be granted the same education and knowledge on the same conditions as the rest of students.

Article 11. Degrees and diplomas
Asturias shall provide:
a) The required degrees or diplomas to teach the Bable/Asturian language.
b) Degrees or certificates proving knowledge of the Bable/Asturian language.
c) Training programmes and entry procedures concerning such degrees and certificates.
d) The authorization procedure for the textbooks to be used in the Bable/Asturian language teaching.
e) Decree of curriculum in the different educational levels.

Chapter IV
On the Media and the Editorial and Audiovisual Production
Article 12. Promotion.
Public administrations shall promote the defence of the Bable/Asturian language in the public and private media.

Article 13. Diffusion.
1. Asturias shall contribute to the diffusion of the Bable/Asturian language in the media through:
a) The draft and budgetary endowment of schemes for economic and physical support to normally use the Bable/Asturian language in the media.
b) The protection of cultural and artistic manifestations, publication of books, phonographic, audiovisual and cinematographic production and any other activities carried out in Bable/Asturian.
2. The autonomous government Administration shall ensure a relevant presence of the Bable/Asturian language on radio and television broadcastings and on the other media being present now or in the future in such institution.
Article 14. Subsidies.
1. The grant of subsidies or aids to the media, and to audiovisual, cinematographic, phonographic or editorial productions can be specific for productions or publications in Bable/Asturian. In the rest of publications and productions the presence of the Asturian language shall be promoted in a non-summarized way on specific sections or spots.
2. Private or public companies or businessmen using the Bable/Asturian language in advertising, labelling, mail or documents shall be equally granted subsidies and aids for this purpose.

Chapter V
On Toponymy
Article 15. Place-names.
1. The place-names of Asturias' Autonomous Community shall have their traditional official denomination. When the general use of a place-name is in its traditional form and in Spanish, its denomination can be bilingual.
2. Pursuant to the regulatory procedure, it is the Cabinet's concern, subject to the opinion by Asturias' Committee on Toponymy, and without prejudice to the municipal and national powers, to determine the place-names of the Autonomous Community.

Chapter VI
On the Consultative Bodies
Article 16. Consultative and Advisory Bodies.
According to the provisions of this Law, the following institutions shall be considered to be consultative and advisory bodies of Asturias' Administration:
a) The University of Oviedo.
b) The Academy of Language.
c) Asturias' Committee on Toponymy.
d) The Royal Institute of Asturian Studies (RIDEA).

Article 17. University of Oviedo.
The University of Oviedo, in the exercise of its duties and aiming to ensure that the Asturian language teachers are well qualified to teach the Bable/Asturian language, shall carry out the initial training of such teachers through the relevant departments. Likewise, it is in the University's field the linguistic and philological research on the Bable/Asturian language.

Article 18. Academy of Language.
Without prejudice to the authority that the institutions which article 16 of this Law refers to have in the exercise of their duties, the following functions will be in the Academy of Language's field:
a) Monitor the regional plans and programmes with regard to the Bable/Asturian language.
b) Deliver opinions on one's own initiative or at the request of both Asturias' General Meeting and the regional Government on specific actions concerning the Bable/Asturian language.
c) Give advice or make proposals concerning the Bable/Asturian language to Asturias' Administration, as requested by the relevant bodies with regard to culture and/or language.
d) Any other function conferred to it as provided by the regulatory development of this Law.

Additional provision
The Galician-Asturian language shall have a similar treatment to the Asturian language with regard to its protection, respect, teaching, use and tutelage in its territory.

Temporary provision
Until the adoption of the procedures and curricula which are required to enter the degrees which section a) of article 11 refers to, Asturias shall give official recognition, as provided by regulations, to the degrees issued by official institutions.

Final provision
The Cabinet shall have the authority to issue the regulatory provisions required for the development and implementation of this Law.

Therefore, I order all the citizens who are to implement this Law to contribute to its enforcement, and also all courts and authorities to observe it and have it observed.

In Oviedo, March 23, 1998