Galician language
From Freepedia
| Galician (Galego) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Spain |
| Region: | Northwestern Spain. Also spoken in Portugal. |
| Total speakers: | 3 to 4 million (1/2 million by emigrants in South America and Europe) |
| Ranking: | Not in top 100 |
| Genetic classification: | Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Gallo-Iberian Ibero-Romance West-Iberian Portuguese-Galician Galician |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | Spain |
| Regulated by: | Real Academia Galega |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | gl |
| ISO 639-2 | glg |
| SIL | GLN |
| See also: Language – List of languages | |
Galician (Galician: galego) is a language variety of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia (in the Galician language, Galicia and also Galiza is used), an autonomous community with the constitutional status of "historic nationality" and located in northwestern Spain, and in areas in the neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castilla-León.
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Classification
Historically, the Portuguese language originated in Galicia and Northern Portugal (comprising the Roman Gallaecia) and branched out in the 14th century after the Reconquista brought it southwards. Many linguists consider Modern Galician and Portuguese as dialects or varieties of the same language; the question of which variety is the true form is a matter of debate. For instance, in the past for Encyclopædia Britannica Galician was a Portuguese dialect spoken in northwestern Spain, once often incorrectly considered a dialect of Spanish. However, neither the Galician Government nor the vast majority of the Galician people regard their language as a variety of Portuguese, but a separate language. After centuries of separation between the two languages, mutual comprehension can sometimes be difficult, although it is usually quite fluent.
To sum up, the relationship between the Galician-Portuguese sub-group can be compared with the relationships between Moldavian and Romanian as well as Flemish and Dutch.
The Instituto da Lingua Galega claims that Galego is an independent Romance language that belongs to the group of Ibero-Romantic Languages. On other hand, to the minority and unofficial Associaçom Galega da Língua, galego has never ceased to be a part of the Portuguese language, just like the Brazilian version, African Portuguese, and other dialects, using a more Portuguese spelling system of galego in place of one closer to Spanish one - Galicia is therefore spelt by them as Galiza. However, in some aspects the Portuguese dialects are more conservative than the Galician ones, which for the most part lost of the voiced fricatives /z/.
The most similar Portuguese dialects in relation to Galician are Alto-Minho Portuguese, and Trás-os-Montes Portuguese, but also Northern Portuguese.
In any case, the discussions on the Galician language tend to mirror the never-ending debate in Galician society between reasserting its own identity ("isolationism") or assimilating to a bigger cultural block ("reintegrationism").
Geographic distribution
Galician is spoken by more than 3 million people: it is spoken by most of the people in Galicia as well as among the many Galician immigrants in the rest of Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, Biscay), Iberoamerica (Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Havana ) and Europe (Andorra, Geneva, London).
Due to its historical situation as a non-official language, for some authors the situation of language domination in Galicia could be called "diglossia", with Galician in the lower part of the continuum and Spanish language at the top, while for others the conditions for diglossia established by Ferguson are not met.
Official status
The Spanish state recognized Galician as one of Spain's four "official languages" (lenguas españolas), the others being Castilian (also called Spanish), Catalan-Valencian, and Basque. Though this is viewed by most as a positive step toward language maintenance, officialness does not guarantee language transmission among the youngest generations.
Dialects
Galician has multiple dialects, yet mutual comprehension is total.
Sounds
Vowels
| Phoneme (IPA) | Grapheme | Example |
|---|---|---|
| /a/ | a | nada |
| /e/ | e | tres |
| /ɛ/ | e | ferro |
| /i/ | i | min |
| /o/ | o | bonito |
| /ɔ/ | o | morto |
| /u/ | u | gusto |
Consonants
| Phoneme (IPA) | Grapheme | Example |
|---|---|---|
| /b/ | b and v | banco, ventá |
| /θ/ | z+a,o,u and c+e,i | cero, zume |
| /tʃ/ | ch | chama |
| /d/ | d | dixo |
| /f/ | f | falo |
| /g/ or /ħ/ | g+a,o,u and gu+e,i | galego, guerra |
| /k/ | c+a,o,u and qu+e,i | conta, quente |
| /l/ | l | luns |
| /ʝ/ or /ʎ/ | ll | botella |
| /m/ | m | mellor |
| /n/ | n | nove |
| /ɲ/ | ñ | mañá |
| /ŋ/ | nh | algunha |
| /p/ | p | por |
| /ɾ/ | r | hora |
| /r/ | r and rr | recto, ferro |
| /s/ | s | sal |
| /t/ | t | tinto |
| /ʃ/ | x | viaxe |
Grammar
Vocabulary
Writing system
Galician orthography, introduced in 1982 (and made law in 1983) by the Real Academia Galega (based on a report by the "Instituto da Lingua Galega"). It remains a source of contention, however, as some citizens would rather have the institutions recognize Galician as a Portuguese variety and therefore opt for the use of the Portuguese writing system, perhaps with some adaptations. A revised edition was published in 2003, with some minor changes towards Portuguese.
Currently there are two different writing systems, with only one being official. The official orthography is approved by RAG (Real Academia Galega), and it is used by the official institutions, in education, and by most writers. The other version, which is oriented toward Portuguese, is called reintegrationism (reintegracionismo), and uses a written system known as maximal orthographic system (normativa de máximos ortográficos), and is promoted by AGAL (Associaçom Galega da Língua). A more radical point of view to reintegrationism is lusism (lusismo), which proposes fully to insert the Galician language into Portuguese using the same writing system and being part of the common Portuguese language community (lusofonía). Until 2003 there was one third writing system of commitment between the official system and reintegracionism, but their supporters now accept the official norm.
In both 1986 and 1990 there were meetings between all of the Portuguese-speaking countries in order to establish a spelling reform (there are some minor spelling differences between Portugal and Brazil, just as between British and American English). Galicia was invited to take part in the meetings, but the Galician government (that claims that Galician is not Portuguese) ignored the invitation. However, an unofficial commission formed by Galician linguists was sent and took part in both meetings. [1]
History
From the ninth century, the language spoken in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula was so different from Latin that Latin and Galician could be already considered two separate languages. Nevertheless, written texts in Galician have only been found dating from the end of the 12th century, because Latin continued to be the cultured language not only in Galicia but also throughout medieval Europe.
The oldest known document is the poem Ora faz ost'o Senhor de Navarra by Joam Soares de Paiva, written around 1200. The first non-literary documents in Galician date from the early thirteenth century, the Noticia de Torto (1211) and the Testamento of Afonso II of Portugal (1214), both samples of medieval notarial prose.
From the eighth century, Galicia was a political unit within the kingdoms of Asturias and Leon, but was able to reach a degree of autonomy, becoming an independent kingdom at certain times in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries. Galician was the only language in oral use and Latin was used to a decreasing degree in written language. This oral unilingualism was able to exert such pressure in the thirteenth century that it led to a situation of dual official status for Galician and Latin in notarial documents, edicts, lawsuits, etc; Latin, however, continued to be the universal vehicle for culture.
In the Middle Ages, Galaico-português (or Portuguese-Galician) was a language of culture, poetry and religion throughout not only Galicia and Portugal but also Castile (where Castilian was used mainly for prose).
After the separation of Portuguese and Galician, Galician was considered provincial and was not widely used for literary or academic purposes until its renaissance in the mid- 1800s.
During the rule of General Francisco Franco (himself a Galician) in Spain, the formal or written use of any language but Spanish was officially repressed (although Galician continued to be widely spoken in rural areas). This also included other languages like Basque or Catalan.
With the advent of democracy, Galician has been brought into the institutions, and it is now co-official with Spanish. Galician is taught in schools and there is a public Galician-language television. However, for the most part there has been no serious attempt on the part of the Spanish and Galician institutions to reverse language assimilation and loss.
Examples
- Good day: Bos días (ILG-RAG) | Bom dia (AGAL/Portuguese)
- What's your name?: Como se chama? (ILG-RAG) | Como é que se chama? (AGAL/Portuguese)
- Excuse me: Desculpe (ILG-RAG) | Desculpe (AGAL/Portuguese)
- Thank you: Graciñas(ILG-RAG) | Obrigado (AGAL/Portuguese)
- You're welcome: Benvida/o (ILG-RAG) | Bem-vinda/o (AGAL/Portuguese)
- Goodbye: Adeus (ILG-RAG) | Adeus (AGAL/Portuguese)
- Yes: Si (ILG-RAG) | Sim (AGAL/Portuguese)
- No: Non (ILG-RAG) | Nom (AGAL) Não (Portuguese)
See Also
- Galician literature
- Fala dos arxinas, a jargon of Galician masons.
External links
- Ethnologue report for Galician
- Instituto da Lingua Galega
- English-Galician CLUVI Online Dictionary
- Biblioteca Virtual Galega
- Movimento Defesa da Língua
- Associaçom Galega da Língua - Portal Galego da Língua
- Associação de Amizade Galiza Portugal - Lusografia
- Assembleia da Língua
- Galician - English Dictionary: from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition.
