Orlé is a small population of the case council, in the Principality of Asturias, in Luenga History and Land Landscapes. For a few years, however, he is immersed in a controversy as peculiar as Espinosa: his neighbors want the place where they live continues to be ‘Orlé’, the name they have been using a lifetime and have learned from their parents and grandparents, not ‘Orllé’, which is the one that appears in a decree that pretends to protect traditional toponymy.
The debate is served.
What happened? That Orlé does not want to be ‘Orllé’, but ‘Orlé’. It sounds like macarronic tongue, but in reality it is the summary of a controversy that has been outrageous for years of a small parish of the case council, in the region of Nalón, Principality of Asturias. At the root of the controversy is a decision that affects something so symbolic, so sensitive (even sacred) as the name of the population. The locals defend that it is ‘Orlé’, but that has not prevented the administration from having chosen the ‘Orllé’ alternative.
Where does the problem come from? To understand it, you have to go back a few years ago, to 2007, when the regional government published a decree with the list of official place names for the case council. There it is clarified that what until now was known above all as ‘Orlé’ would be called ‘Orllé’. In the document, which reviews the names of the different populations of the municipality, it is clarified that the objective is the “recovery and fixation of Asturian toponymy” as part of a greater effort to promote the bable language.
The Principality of Asturias also emphasizes that the changes are not the result of the whim or are imposed overnight. The decree starts from the Toponymy Advisory Board (JAT), which issued a proposal to the City Council so that it could make observations. However, despite that long processing, the official change of ‘Orlé’ by ‘Orllé’ does not conform to what the neighbors believe it is fair: that the zone continues to be called as (insist) has always done it.
But … how was it possible? In a column published in 2024 in New Spainthe representative of the neighbors, Ana Álvarez, denounces that the change was managed in a “poor” way and that the initial proposal that was presented to the case council included “several strange names to the sociolinguistic reality” of the town. For example, ‘Guspriz’ by Buspriz or ‘Ñeves’ by ‘Nieves’.
“The majority were subsequently corrected, but ‘Orllé’ was not rectified because the rural parish of Orlé was not summoned to participate in the file formation sessions, nor did the final file be transferred to him,” says Álvarez. “The neighbors were not consulted, remaining others until, with the population of the decree, Orlé ceased to be the official name of this people.”
What did the neighbors do? In addition to gathering to discuss the issue, go to the press and record their deep discomfort, the people of Orlé decided to move card in the offices: he asked the City Council (in which they are framed) to begin the procedures to recover the traditional name of the population and the proposal rose to the Ministry of Culture, Linguistic Policy and Tourism.
The problem is that your claim does not seem to have advanced much. In October 2022 the locals already showed their anger for not having received any official response “after nine months of waiting” and last July they insisted that they were still waiting for a resolution, although they had presented all their historical, sociolinguistic and legal arguments before the JAT.
Why is it news? Because the neighbors have made it clear that they are fed up. Although in Orlé they do not reach a hundred registered, over the weekend part of them starred in a performance to make clear (once again) with what name they feel identified: they gathered in a meadow and drew with their bodies the name of ‘Orlé’ and then taking an aerial photo.
At the entrance of the town they have also put a sign in which it can be read “thanks for saying Orlé”, although in reality it is not quite necessary if it is taken into account that someone has gone further and has labeled the signal of the official place name: “Orllé”. Apart from the claims at street level, a few months ago the parish carried its arguments directly before the Toponymy Board.
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And what do they argue? Basically, the origin of the name ‘Orlé’ can be traced eight centuries ago, until the times of King Alfonso IX, so they consider it “a genuinely Asturian place name.” On the contrary, it happens in his opinion with the ‘Orllé’ form. “It is not a traditional way, because it is not present in the popular speech of the neighbors and the elderly state that even their grandparents have ever used it. Nor does it appear in any historical text. It is only a residual variant and external to the people,” argue the residents.
As if all that were not enough, they assure that if at any time ‘Orllé’ has been used to refer to the area has been “pejoratively.” “To prove that it is not used at all in Orlé, it would be enough to speak with its neighbors and about the mocking use of the place name ‘Orllé’,” says Juan Manuel Estrada, official chronicler of the case council. Thus, the neighbors say that the change goes against the initial objective with which it was promoted: protect the local toponymy.
Is it the only argument? At all. There are those who argue that ‘Orllé’ is not a way out of nowhere and slides that a possible solution is to use the double place name Orllé/Orllé. This was remembered last year in New Spain Ramón D´Andrés, linguist and member of the Academy of the Asturian Llinggua.
In a broad article, the expert argues that, although for minority use, ‘Orllé’ is an authentic form and still used by some speakers. “The objective of the JAT is not only to set, but also to recover the toponymy when it is in danger of being definitely lost to generalized Castilianization,” says D´Andrés, who clarifies that in 2022 the use of both form was already raised: Orlé/Orllé.
“Very different matter is that it is intended that Orlé is the only official name: that the advisory board cannot do it because it cannot put in the ‘Linguistic Death Corridor’ (I use Mrs. Álvarez’s expression) the Asturian form Orllé, perfectly documented in its existence and use, although minority,” the linguist continues to paraphrase the argumentary of the neighbors.
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