Galician language

Galician, also called Galego, is a language spoken mainly in Galicia, in northwestern Spain. It has official status there along with Spanish and is used by many people. The language is also spoken in some nearby areas, as well as by Galician communities in countries like Argentina, Uruguay, and the United States.

Modern Galician belongs to the West Iberian language group and came from Vulgar Latin. It shares a history with Portuguese, and the two were once very similar. Over time, they changed, especially because of changes in Portuguese. Today, Galician has its own special features, with many words from Latin, but also influenced by Germanic, Celtic, and Arabic languages.

The language is regulated by the Royal Galician Academy, which works to protect and support it. Some groups think Galician and Portuguese are versions of the same language, while others see Galician as part of Portuguese. Either way, Galician is important to the culture and identity of Galicia.

Classification and relation with Portuguese

Further information: Galician-Portuguese § Language

Modern Galician and Portuguese come from a common medieval language called Galician-Portuguese. This language grew from Vulgar Latin in the old Kingdom of Galicia and Northern Portugal.

By the 1300s, it was used in writing. By the 1400s, it split into two forms: Galician and Portuguese. Portuguese became the official language of the Kingdom of Portugal. Galician was used in important documents in the Kingdom of Galicia, which was part of the crown of Castile.

Galician stopped being used in official documents by the 1500s and became mainly a spoken language. In the 1700s, the first Galician dictionaries were made. In the 1800s, Galician literature started to grow again. It was only in the late 1900s that Galician began being taught in schools and used by the government.

Today, Galician speakers can usually understand northern Portuguese very well. Some experts think Galician and Portuguese are forms of the same language. Others see them as separate languages because of differences in sounds and words. Most Galician speakers see it as a special language with its own history and books.

Geographic distribution and legal status

Galician is spoken by about three million people. Most live in Galicia. You can also hear Galician in places like Madrid, Biscay, Andorra la Vella, New Jersey, Montevideo, Mexico City, Havana, San Juan in Puerto Rico, and other cities in Europe and the Americas.

In Galicia, Galician is an official language, just like Spanish. People use it in local government and schools. It is also an official language at universities in Galicia. It has some special rights in León and Zamora. Spain has other official languages too, such as Spanish, Catalan, Basque, and Aranese.

History

Further information: Galician–Portuguese and History of the Galician language

Galician has a long and interesting history. It started as a version of Latin, mixed with the local language spoken in the area. By the 12th century, people saw it as a language different from Latin. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Galician-Portuguese became a popular language for culture, with many songs and poems written in it. Important people like King Alfonso X the Learned helped support the language.

Over time, as Portugal and Galicia separated politically, the two languages began to change differently. By the 17th century, Spanish became more common among leaders, and Galician was used less in writing. But in the 19th century, people became more interested in Galician again. This led to more books and schools to teach and celebrate Galician culture and language. Today, Galician is an official language in Galicia, along with Spanish, and it is taught in schools.

Dialects

Some people think Galician has no real dialects, but local varieties can be grouped into three main blocks. These blocks are made up of different areas, and the language in each area is still easy to understand.

These three blocks differ mainly in how they change certain sounds from old Galician words. For example, some words that ended with special sounds in the past now have different endings depending on where you are. In the east, center, and west, these endings change in their own ways. Another difference is in how the sound “g” is pronounced—in the west, it often sounds a bit like the “ch” in “Bach.” There are also differences in how certain vowel sounds are stressed and how “s” sounds are made in different parts of Galicia.

Each area has its own special traits, and Standard Galician usually uses features from the central area but also includes some traits from the east and west. The three main dialect areas are Eastern Galician, Central Galician, and Western Galician.

Phonology

Main article: Galician phonology

Galician has special sounds that make it unique. These sounds help people in Galicia, Spain, talk in their own language. Learning about these sounds shows how the language works and what makes it different from others.

Grammar

Galician, like Portuguese, has small words called pronominal clitics that stick to the ends of sentences. It also uses many words and ways of speaking from Spanish.

In Galician, words have genders — they can be masculine, like "o rapaz" (the young man), or feminine, like "a rapaza" (the young woman). This gender shows up in articles, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. For example, "o can" means "the dog" and "a cadela" means "the female dog."

Words can be singular, like one item, or plural, like many items. The most common way to show the plural is by adding an "s" at the end, as in "cantiga" (song) changing to "cantigas" (songs).

There are different ways to talk to people, either informally using "ti" (you, singular) and "vos" (you, plural), or formally using "vostede" (you, singular) and "vostedes" (you, plural).

Verbs in Galician change their endings depending on who is doing the action and when. Dictionaries list verbs by their infinitive form, which ends in "-ar", "-er", or "-ir".

Orthography

The official rules for writing Galician are in the "Normas ortográficas e morfolóxicas do Idioma Galego" (NOMIGa). These rules were first made in 1982 by the Royal Galician Academy (RAG). In July 2003, the academy updated the rules. Now, some older Galician-Portuguese ways of writing are used in books, schools, and on TV.

There is also another way to write Galician called International Galician or Reintegrationist. This way matches the way we write Portuguese orthography. The Galician Language Association (AGAL) supports this. It is also used by groups like the Community of Portuguese Language Countries and the European Parliament. Some people think both ways of writing should be accepted.

Acute accent

In Galician, one syllable in a word is spoken louder than the others. Sometimes an acute accent (´) is put over a vowel to show which syllable is spoken louder. For example, paspalhás or móbil. The accent can also show when two vowels are two different sounds or help us know which word is meant when words sound the same.