[Resumen extraído de la fuente original]

This work analyses the state of portuguese language in Olivença, a town by te portuguese/spanish border, under spanish administration since 1801. Having previously studied, in 1970, the bilingualism and language contact, I have already noticed then a considerable degree of linguistic interference between spanisn and portuguese and also a crucial symptom of language decline: lack of transmission of the language to the children. The present research carried in ioco in 2000 considering as well the language attitudes —extremely unfavourable towards the portuguese— has clearly shown a scenario of language loss. Spoken only among the elderly, without any written form lo make it more valuable, full of spanish interference, the portuguese language is dying. Keywords: bilingualism, language contact, language loss, language shift, language attitudes, linguistic interference.