Galician–Asturian or Eonavian (autonym: fala; Asturian: eonaviegu, gallego-asturianu; Galician: eonaviego, galego-asturiano) is a set of Romance dialects or falas whose linguistic dominion extends into the zone of Asturias between the Eo River and Navia River (or more specifically the Eo and the Frejulfe River). The dialects have been variously classified as the northeastern varieties of Galician, as a linguistic group of its own, or as a dialect of transition between Galician and Asturian, an opinion upheld by José Luis García Arias, the former president of the Academy of the Asturian Language (ALLA).
The set of dialects was traditionally included by linguists as Galician-Portuguese or Galician, with some traits of the neighbouring Astur-Leonese linguistic group. Now, however, there is a political-linguistic conflict on the identity of the language between those who prioritise the mixed identity and those that continue to prioritise the Galician substratum. Supporters of the former, mostly in Asturias, identify Eonavian as part of a dialect continuum between the Asturian and Galician languages or even a third language belonging to Portuguese-Galician group spoken only in that area. Supporters of the latter, mostly in Galicia, identify it as just Galician and want for it the same level of protection as Galician has in Castile and Leon, which protects the dialects of El Bierzo (of which the westernmost varieties are usually classified as Galician) in cooperation with the Galician government.Recently, the director of an exhaustive study by the University of Oviedo (ETLEN, a Linguistic Atlas of the Boundary between Galician-Portuguese and Asturleonese in Asturias) concluded that both proposals are true and compatible: that is, local varieties belong to the Galician-Portuguese domain and are part of the transitional varieties between this domain and Astur-Leonese.
