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Galician (Galician: galego) is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community with the constitutional status of "historic nationality", located in northwestern Spain. Galician is considered by some to be a different written norm for Galician-Portuguese, the other norm being Portuguese. Galician and Portuguese are separated by a dialect continuum - however, the written norm is substantially different. In July 2003 the Galician Language Acadademy modified the language normative to admit some archaic Galician-Portuguese forms conserved in modern Portuguese. These changes have been considered an attempt to build a consensus among major Galician philology trends and represent,in words of the Galician Language Academy, the normative desired by 95% of Galicians. The 2003 reform is thought to put an end to the so-called normative wars raised by the different points of view at the relationship between modern Galician and Portuguese languages.
Classification Historically, the Galician-Portuguese language originated in Galicia and Northern Portugal (comprising the Roman Gallaecia), and branched out since 14th century after the Portuguese expansion brought it southwards. There are linguists who consider Modern Galician and Modern Portuguese as dialects or varieties of the same language, but this is a matter of debate. For instance, in past editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica, Galician was termed a Portuguese dialect spoken in northwestern Spain, once often incorrectly considered a dialect of Spanish. However, Galician and Portuguese academics do not regard Galician as a variety of Portuguese, but rather as a separate language, in spite of occasional linguistic works about the Galician-Portuguese branch as a whole. Mutual intelligibility is good between Galicians and Northern Portuguese, but poorer between Galicians and speakers of Central-Southern European Portuguese. Briefly, the relationship within the Galician-Portuguese sub-group can be compared with that between Flemish and Dutch, Macedonian and Bulgarian or Occitan and Catalan. The Instituto da Lingua Galega (ILG) claims that modern Galician must be considered an independent Romance language that belongs to the group of Ibero-Romance Languages as a brother of Portuguese. On the other hand, according to the unofficial and minoritary Associaçom Galega da Língua (AGAL), differences between Galician and Portuguese languages are not enough to consider them separate languages, just like other Galician-Portuguese forms such as Brazilian Portuguese, African Portuguese, Extremaduran Fala (Spain), and other dialects. Thus it uses spelling system closer to Portuguese and medieval Galician-Portuguese instead of the ILG one, closer to Galician modern phonetics and to Spanish. However, in some aspects, the Portuguese dialects are more conservative than the Galician ones, which for the most part have lost the voiced fricatives /z/ and /ʒ/, and the palatal consonant /ʎ/ (yeísmo). The dialects of Portuguese most similar to Galician are those of Alto-Minho and Trás-os-Montes (northern Portugal). In any case, 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"). See Writing system section, below. Geographic distribution Galician is spoken by more than 3 million people, including most of the people in Galicia, as well as among the many Galician immigrants in the rest of Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, Biscay), elsewhere in Europe (Andorra, Geneva, London), and Ibero-America (Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Havana). There is a controversy about including Eonavian dialects spoken in Asturias into the Galician language, between those defending Eonavian is a dialect continuum of transition to the Asturian language and those defending it as clearly Galician. Because of its historical status 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 at the top; while for others, the conditions for diglossia established by Ferguson are not met. Official status Spain has recognized Galician as one of Spain's four "official languages" (lenguas españolas), the others being Castilian (also called ''Spanish''), Catalan (or Valencian), and Basque. Galician is taught at primary and secondary school and used at the universities in Galicia. Further, it has been accepted orally as Portuguese in the European Union Parliament and used as such by, among others, the Galician representatives José Posada, Camilo Nogueira and Xosé Manuel Beiras. Dialects Galician has multiple dialects, yet mutual comprehension is total. Sounds Galician has kept only the seven oral vowels of medieval Galician-Portuguese; it has no central vowels or nasal vowels. Around the Renaissance, its sibilants went through significant changes which closely paralleled the evolution of the Spanish consonants. Grammar Galician allows pronominal clitics to be attached to indicative and subjunctive forms, as does Portuguese, unlike standard Spanish or Castilian. After many centuries of close contact between the two languages, Galician has also adopted many loan words from Spanish, and some calques of Spanish syntax. Writing system The current official Galician orthography was introduced in 1982, and made law in 1983, by the Real Academia Galega (RAG), based on a report by the ILG. It remains a source of contention, however, a minority of 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 orthography. The official orthography is approved by the RAG and is used by official institutions, in education, and by most writers. There is another version, oriented towards Portuguese, called reintegrationism (reintegracionismo), using a written system known as the maximal orthographic system (normativa de máximos ortográficos), which is promoted by the AGAL (Associaçom Galega da Língua). A more radical point of view on reintegrationism is Lusism (lusismo), which proposes to integrate the Galician language fully into Portuguese using the same writing system as part of the common Portuguese language community (lusofonía). Until 2003, there was a third writing system between the official system and reintegrationism, but their supporters now accept the official norm. In 1986 and 1990, there were meetings between all the Portuguese-speaking countries in order to establish spelling reform (see Spelling reforms of Portuguese). Galicia was invited to take part in the meetings, but the Galician government, which asserts that Galician and Portuguese must be considered different languages, did not send any representation. However, an unofficial commission formed by Galician linguists was sent, which took part in both meetings. * The question of the spelling system has very significant political connotations in Galicia. At present there are important political parties representing points of view that range from greater self-government for Galicia within the Spanish political set-up to total political independence from Spain designed to preserve Galician culture and language from the risk of being absorbed into a greater one. Since modern Galician spelling system derives from Spanish one it is seen by these parties as some form of Spanish influence that it is necessary to remove, since medieval Galician and medieval Portuguese were a language unity, Portuguese spelling is nearer to medieval Galician than to modern Galician Spanish-style spelling. Language unification would also have the benefit of linking the Galician language to another major language with its own extensive cultural production, which would weaken the links that bind Galicia and Spain and ultimately favour the people's aspiration toward an independent state. Although both concepts are frequently associated, there is no correlation between reintegrationism, independentism and defending Galician and Portuguese linguistic unity. Here are some examples which back up this statement: History From the 8th 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 spoken use, and Latin was used, to a decreasing extent, as a written language. This monopoly on spoken language was able to exert such pressure in the 13th 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 higher culture. 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-Portuguese date from the early 13th century, the Noticia de Torto (1211) and the Testamento of Afonso II of Portugal (1214), both samples of medieval notarial prose. In the Middle Ages, Galaico-português (or Galician-Portuguese) 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 it was not widely used for literary or academic purposes until its renaissance in the mid-19th century. With the advent of democracy, Galician has been brought into the country's institutions, and it is now co-official with Spanish. Galician is taught in schools, and there is a public Galician-language television channel, TVG. The Real Academia Galega and other Galician institutions celebrate each May 17 as "Día das Letras Galegas" ("Galician Literature Day"), dedicated each year to a deceased Galician-language writer chosen by the academy. Examples See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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