Galician language

Spoken in

  • Indo-European languages Italic languages Romance Languages Ibero-Romance languages Galician

Gl

Glg

Glg

The Galician ( galego gal ) belongs to the nichtkastilischen nationality languages ​​of Spain and is spoken in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. In the autonomous region of Galicia, it is since the early 1980s, alongside Spanish, the official language. In addition, the Galician in some marginal areas, which include policy to the provinces of Oviedo, León and Zamora, common. The number of speakers is estimated at about 3.5 million. Galician has a close relationship to the Castilian and in particular to the Portuguese, with which it originally formed a unit ( galego - portugués ).

  • 5.1 phonetics 5.1.1 vowel system
  • 5.1.2 consonant system
  • 5.2.1 Article
  • 5.2.2 pronouns
  • 5.2.3 verbs

History

Emergence of the Galician language

The numerous population centers of Indo-European Nationalities ( castros ) that existed BC in the northwest of Spain today from the 5th century, indicate that in this region there was a certain cultural unity before the Roman conquest. In the Roman period the area formed an administrative unit: the situation created by Caracalla reform by 216 AD Hispania Nova Citerior Antonina. End of the 3rd century was selbige declared under Diocletian to own Roman province with the name Gallaecia. It is assumed that the Galician from the Latin of the Roman colonizers Galicia and developed as early as the 8th century, two parallel language systems of Latin and Galician existed.

High and Late Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, the Galician - Portuguese formed a linguistic unit, which was interrupted by the political secession of Portugal from the mid-12th century. Over time, the Portuguese away more and more of the language of the north and became the separate language.

Previously, the Galician - Portuguese, but experienced a cultural flowering time as a national literary language of high prestige, in the Iberian troubadour lyric was written. She is considered one of the most important European literature of the time and is passed down through the Cancioneiros ( collections of songs ). From the 13th century Galicia fell under increasing Castilian influence and the center galicischsprachiger poetry production shifted to the royal courts of Portugal and Castile. The heyday of the now increasingly castilianized Galician literary language was a little later a definitive end.

The surviving documents from various fields such as economics and religion testify that the Galician in the 14th and 15th century was undoubtedly the language of all strata of the population as oral and written media in Galicia. To contact the Castilian center of power, however, Castilian was used. This diglossia took from the 15th century due to the disempowerment of the Galician nobility continues to grow.

The Dark Ages

From the 16th century the Galician rural population emigrated from the increasingly economically underdeveloped outskirts of Galicia towards the center and south of the Iberian Peninsula. There they were mostly employed as a seasonal worker or lower staff, which led to the direct contact of the lowest galicischsprachigen with the highest kastilischsprachigen social groups. In Spain, then created a negative image of the Galicians, and also of their language, which was equally associated with illiteracy, poverty and misery, so writers use of the idiom avoided.

Due to the almost complete disappearance of Galician as a written language, the period between the 16th and 18th century in the language of history is called the os Seculos escuros (the " Dark Ages "). The use of Galician was limited to oral communication, while for Verschriftlichungen in the literary, technical and official field almost exclusively Castilian was used. This was the language of the intellectual elites who migrated into the Castilian power centers due to lack of career opportunities from the Galician homeland.

Some of the limited information available today for Galician language of the 18th century thanks to the works of Martín Sarmiento. The Benedictine monk, and polymath undertook several Galicienreisen on which he conducted empirical studies on the Galician Onomastics and lexis. His work has been published, however, not by himself, but only of the Spanish linguists Pensado in the 1960s and 70s.

Linguistically - literary rebirth: Rexurdimento

From the end of the 18th century discovered the importance of local language and history in Galicia and other parts of Western Europe. The study of the Galician culture and the search for their own identity had the consequence that the regional self-confidence grew. Soon were loud demands for more autonomy from Castile.

With the publication of the first book of poems by Rosalía de Castro ( Cantares gallegos ) about 1863 began the actual Rexurdimento ( v. gal rexurdir " re- sprout "). The author wanted to represent on the one hand with the up to now known book of Galician literature their homes and on the other hand appreciate their language. The poet Curros Enríquez ( Aires da Mina terra, 1880) and Eduardo Pondal ( Queixumes dos pinos, 1886) followed with their works the aim of developing Galician to a recognized and cultivated language. In general, their use was limited as a written language, but to the literature, in particular poetry, while Castilian remained the official and scientific literary language.

With the literary use of the Galician some difficulties were also associated. So had for abstract concepts often Kastellanismen be used because of the Galician vocabulary was tailored almost exclusively to the vernacular as well as specific professions. In addition, the centuries only spoken Galician lacked a norm in areas such as spelling and syntax.

The time of the Franco dictatorship

At the beginning of the 20th century was the first Galician of intellectuals who usually came from the Castilian -speaking upper class and the galeguismo represented, used for texts such as prose, plays and essays. Also, to the oral, non- colloquial usage of the idiom was in turn tried. Furthermore wore the establishment of various groups, campaigning for the promotion of their language in all public and private sectors, in the general upswing of the Galician. Examples are the resulting organization Irmandades since 1916 Fala and the Seminario de Estudos Galegos founded in 1923.

In the Second Republic was declared in a Galician Statute of Autonomy of the official language. This statute was never implemented due to the outbreak of the Civil War. After the victory of the born in Galicia dictator Francisco Franco, whose reign was marked by a centralist nationalism, the official use of all non- Castilian idioms was banned. Many writers then interrupted her literary activity, writing more in Castilian or emigrated abroad, especially to Latin America.

In the 50s brought about Spain's entry into the UNESCO a slight easing of language policy conditions and an intellectual minority tried again to revive the Galician language. As a result of the establishment of the publishing house Galaxia in 1951 appeared the first time in Galician texts such as novels or philosophical publications. However, the press censorship prevented this from time to time. 1962, the volume of poems Longa noite de pedra Celso Emilio Ferreiro was published in Vigo which addressed the author's delight in his mother tongue, but also antizentralistischen resistance and achieved a high level of awareness in all of Spain.

Legalization and standard dispute

After the death of Franco and with the Constitution of 1978, the linguistic diversity of the country was considered worth protecting cultural heritage. Galicia received ( such as Catalonia and the Basque Country ), the special status of a nacion Alidad histórica and Galician obtained (analogous to Catalan and Basque) a co-official status alongside Castilian. Of great importance also were the Statute of Autonomy of 1981, and the Act on linguistic normalization ( Lei de normalización lingüística ) 1983 The Galician was the Castilian is formally equivalent to: . Than language of public life, the local administration and teaching.

In 1985, the establishment of public radio and television stations Radio Galega and Televisión de Galicia took place. In the area of ​​print media regularly published from 1977 A Nosa Terra weekly newspaper is mentioned. Production of galicischsprachigen books has increased steadily since 1980 and covers all genres of fiction and literature. The latter plays an important role in the education sector, where Galician is common today as a school subject and course of study and as a language of instruction for other subjects, among others.

A still not finally completed process leading up to today on controversial disputes, is the emergence of a unified Galician standards. It 's all about spelling, but also morphological, lexical and cultural issues. The so-called Reintegrationisten are committed to the integration of Galician in the Portuguese -speaking world. The vocabulary of the galego reintegrado should be derived as possible from its roots in the Galician - Portuguese language family and is oriented with respect to its spelling to the current Portuguese orthography. In contrast, the autonomists have put the establishment of Galician as a distinct Romance language in addition to the Castilian and Portuguese to the destination. They argue that, Galicia and Portugal have both culturally and linguistically removed due to its centuries- long separation so far apart that the integration of Galician in the Portuguese -speaking world was no longer possible. In addition, the Galician could be maintained only as an autonomous language permanently. Besides these two main positions, the reintegracionismo and the autonomismo, still exist some other flows, in particular within the Reintegrationisten.

Use

Compared to other Spanish regions, the number of speakers of the local language in Galicia is relatively the highest. This may be due primarily to the relatively homogeneous population due to the geographical remoteness of Galicia. More than 90 % of residents claim to understand Galician and about two-thirds use it mainly in his own words. However, the number of monolingual Galicischsprecher decreases with age and degree of urbanity.

Nowadays, Galician is strongly mixed with the Castilian. This is partly because all the speakers are largely familiar with the Castilian language contact and interference can not be corrected due to lack of understanding or similar. Also, lose the traditional sectors such as agriculture and fisheries, where monolingual are often still active, increasingly important. Despite the largely positive attitude of the population towards the Galician language whose continued existence is not backed so.

Classification

For a long time there was disagreement about whether this is the Galician is a language or a dialect. In most relevant works of German Romance languages ​​from the 19th century, it is recognized as a dialect of Portuguese. This is due to that the few existing studies mainly dealt with the Galician medieval and developments of the last hundred years went unheeded. Argued was doing with the little linguistic distance between the Galician and Portuguese as well as their shared past and a common cultural heritage.

Also in Galicia itself it was for some time considered that the common idiom there is a dialect. Finally, the Galician did not have a particularly high prestige and was limited to certain communication situations. In addition, it was felt in parts of the population due to its linguistic and structural similarities with the Castilian and the lack of normalized standard form for a rural dialect of Castilian.

In Article 5 of the 1981 Statute of Autonomy of Galicia came into force states: A lingua propia de Galicia é o galego ( " The Galician is the own language of Galicia "). Today there is general agreement about the fact that Galician is an independent Romance language inside and outside Galicia. This is based less on the linguistic distance to the Portuguese and Castilian, but especially on his autonomous language extension. In Galician, therefore it is a language extension.

Dialectal outline

Although the Galician has only minor dialectal variations, one can distinguish between three dialect groups: the Ostgalicischen, the Zentralgalicischen and the Westgalicischen. The differences lie in the phonetic- phonological as well as morphological range, for example in relation to the presence of gheada (only in Westgalicischen ) or in terms of the plural forms of the on - l or -n ending nouns such as can " dog " ( omission of consonants in Zentralgalicischen: cas "dog "; ending on -is in Ostgalicischen: cais; receipt of consonants in Südwestgalicischen: cans, but omission of consonants in Nordwestgalicischen: cas ). Because of the few existing dialectal differences between the northern and the southern area within Westgaliciens sometimes a four-part structure of the dialect areas is made.

Language compared to the Castilian and Portuguese

Phonetics

Vowel system

The Galician has seven vowel phonemes: / a /, / e /, / ɛ /, / i /, / o /, / ɔ /, / u /. Unlike the Castilian sound system except for the five cardinal vowels a, e, i, o and u also different degrees of opening of e and o can be distinguished. The degree of opening of this Tonvokale is significant distinctively example, in the following two minimal pairs: PVC / bɛs / " you come " - ves / bes / " you see " and oso / ɔso / "bones" - oso / oso / 'bear'.

Apart from the existing sound system in Castilian Galician system includes two additional diphthongs: ou (eg ouro "gold" ) and ei ( eg xaneiro " January "). Using this word examples can further show that the Galician has the Latin phonetics sometimes preserved, while the Castilian innovative elements showing (Latin aurum "gold" > gal ouro; Kastil oro and Latin Januarius 'January' > gal. xaneiro; Kastil enero ). . However, there are also cases in which the Galician has evolved from Latin, while the Castilian become archaic structures containing (eg in terms of intervocalic -n-: Latin luna 'moon' > lua gal; Kastil luna. ).

Unlike the Portuguese are in Galician, with the exception of one variety in the eastern part of Galicia, no nasal vowels. Instead, the vowels usually go velar nasal consonant preceded (eg camión [ kamjoŋ ] " truck "). Another difference from the Portuguese concerns the realization of endsilbigen, unstressed o as [u ], as well as e [ ə ], which in Galician rarely occurs (eg gal Viño [ biɲo ] 'wine' o > [ o], port. vinho [ viɲu ] and gal arte [ arte ] "art", e> [ e]; port. arte [' artə ] ).

Consonant system

The special features in the Galician consonant system include the velar Nasalphonem / ŋ / (eg unha [ Una ] "one" ) and the palatal sibilant / ʃ / (eg xoven [ ʃɔβeŋ ] "young" ). A common phenomenon in the west of Galicia is the so-called gheada, the aspirated velar - fricative or pronunciation of / g / ( eg galego [ haleho ] " Galician "). It involves a stigmatized form of language and is in Galicia, both as a rural and vulgar, on the other hand, however, as a demarcation from the Castilian.

Although the Galician has a close systematic relationship with the Portuguese, the two varieties had developed proven apart throughout history. In addition to the differences mentioned above, this relates for example to the phase of the Desonorisierung. By way of derogation from the Portuguese, which has kept the opposition between voiceless and voiced sibilants, exist in Galician no voiced sibilants more. In the area of ​​phonological system can be stated as a whole, that the Galician one closer to the Castilian has as to the Portuguese.

Morphosyntax

In the field of morphology and especially the syntax is the grammar of Galician highly of the Portuguese.

Article

Definite article:

Example: a muller ( the woman), os homes ( the men )

The form of the definite article coincides Galician and Portuguese. In Galician also exists a second variant of the definite article, the allomorphs form -lo ( s ), la ( s ) is used only according to the final consonants -r or -s (eg, come- lo caldo " eat the soup " ).

Indefinite article:

Example: unha muller (a woman ), our homes ( some men )

Article prepositions: Similar to the Portuguese some prepositions are drawn together with the following items.

Preposition definite article:

Example: Vou ó médico. ( I go to the doctor. )

Preposition indefinite article:

Example: traballo now taller. ( I work in a workshop. )

Pronoun

Personal pronouns:

As in European Portuguese unstressed personal pronouns in affirmative declarative sentences are directly attached to the inflected verb form (eg Envíovos as chaves "I 'm sending you the keys "). In negative declarative sentences (eg non o coñezo "I do not know him "), and in interrogative sentences (eg, ¿ Que che Dixo? " What did he tell you ?") Takes the personal pronoun, however, a proclitic position.

Possessive pronouns: The possessive pronouns are in Galician, as is usually also in Portuguese, with the definite article (for example, a Miña amiga " my friend "; os vosos cans " your dogs ").

Verbs

As in Castilian and Portuguese, a distinction between three conjugacy classes in Galician. In broad agreement of the verbal systems are still some differences in the shapes (eg, in the 2.P.Pl. of the present tense and in the 2.P.Sg. of the perfect ).

Present tense:

Many commonly used verbs have irregular forms ( eg, ter 'have': Teno / th / th / temos / tedes / requested ).

Past tense: The main forms of the past tense are the historical perfect and the imperfect. Compared to the Castilian prefer the Galician and Portuguese language tenses formed synthetically (eg Kastil Todavía no ha llegado "He / she has not arrived yet ."; Gal ainda non chegou ). Typical of the Galician but is also its wealth to less grammatikalisierten Verbalperiphrasen (eg ter past participle: Teno escrito " I have written ").

Examples of the regular formation of the historical perfect tense:

With the historic Perfect completed actions and past actions are sequentially expressed.

Example: Onte Fomos a un bar, bebimos unha unha película cervexa e Despois VIMOS no cinema. (Yesterday we went to a bar, drank a beer and watched a movie in the cinema afterwards. )

The forms of the past tense match those of the Castilian, with the exception of 2.P.Pl. ( gal - abades / Iades / Iades; Kastil. Abais - / IAIS / IAIS). It is used for recurring actions and state descriptions in the past tense.

Example: Antes traballaba en Ourense. ( I used to work in Ourense. )

Future tense: The Galician features, as well as its neighboring languages ​​, two types of future tense, of which only the on the verb ir infinitive -based form is used in everyday language (eg, gal mos falar con ela Mañá "We will be with her tomorrow speak "; Kastil Vamos a hablar con ella mañana ). .

Lexis

The Galician vocabulary has a variety of Kastellanismen. The main reason is that the Galician dialect for a long time lacked its own innovative strength and therefore the newly created term needs, was come to meet, for example in the field of modern technology, through the acquisition of Kastellanismen. The current language planning is now seeking to replace these Kastellanismen by traditional revived Galician Galician forms or new terms are coined.

Portuguese is Galician vocabulary also very similar. However, there are many words in Galician, which already exist in Portuguese as outdated or no longer used (eg gal billa "key" gal brétema " fog "). In addition, there are some terms which, although in both varieties have identical or similar form, in their importance, however, differ from each other (eg coche gal "Auto", port. " coach "; almozo gal " lunch ", almoço port. "breakfast" ).

Text example

Excerpt from " The Little Prince": Oh, little prince, so little by little I understood your sad little life. For a long time you have to scatter thee, had nothing but the loveliness of the sunsets. I learned this morning of the fourth day, when you told me: I love the sunsets very much.

In Galician from O Principino: ¡ Ah, meu Principino, así fun comprendendo eu, pouquiño a pouco, a tua Vidina melancolica! Durante Moito tempo non tiveches distracción outra que que a dozura sentías ó contemplar o solpor. Aprendín este novo detective cando na Mañá do cuarto día me dixeches: Gústame Moito o solpor.

In Castilian from El Principito: ¡ Ah, principito! Así, poco a poco, comprendí tu vida pequeña melancolica. Durante mucho tiempo tu única distracción fue la suavidad de las puestas de sol de este nuevo Me ENTERE detective, en la mañana del cuarto día, cuando me dijiste: Me encantan las puestas de sol

In Portuguese from O Principezinho: Ah, principezinho! Assim fui conhecendo, aos poucos, a tua melancolica Vidinha! Durante muito tempo, a tua beleza única distração foi a dos crepúsculos. Fiquei a -lo sabe na manhã do quarto dia, quando me disseste: Gosto muito dos pores do sol

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