Asturian (Asturianu or bable) is a Romance language of the West Iberian group, Astur-Leonese Subgroup, spoken in the Spanish province of Asturias by the Asturian people. In Asturias, even though it is not an official language, it is protected under the Autonomous Statute legislation and is an optional language at schools. As part of the Astur-leonese group, Asturian was formerly considered an informal dialect (basilect) of Spanish, but in 1906, Ramón Menéndez Pidal showed it was part of the Leonese Language as a result of Latin evolution in the northern part of the Kingdom of León .

Nowadays it is considered a separate language. The language developed from Vulgar Latin with contributions from the pre-Roman languages, which were spoken in the territory of the Astures, an ancient tribe of the Iberian peninsula. Castilian Spanish came to the area later, in the 14th century, when the central administration sent emissaries and functionaries to occupy political and ecclesiastical offices.

Nowadays, Asturian codification of Astur-Leonese spoken in the Asturian Autonomous Community has become a modern language, after the birth of "Academia de la Llingua Asturiana" in 1980. Leonese and Mirandese (the other two Astur-Leonese languages) are very close to Asturian. Much effort has been made since 1974 to protect and promote Asturian.

In 1994, there were 100,000 first language speakers, and 450,000 second language speakers able to speak or understand Asturian. However, the situation of Asturian is critical, with a large decline in the number of speakers in the last 100 years.

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