Rate of change

Frank Rossi iglesias at axia.it
Wed Mar 10 21:19:50 UTC 1999


Concerning the Galician language, my wife is from La Corun~a and with her
assistance I would like to give the following input:

1) Galician is quite distinct from Castillian.

2) Whether it is distinct from Portuguese is a matter of opinion. The
Portuguese (nationalistically ?) consider it a "co-dialecto".

3) The pronunciation of Galician is very different from the standard
Portuguese of Lisbon, but if we consider the dialects of Northern Portugal
the distance is much less. (For example no difference between "b" and "v").
 The dialects differ mainly as a result of the influence of the official
languages. The dialects in Galicia are very much alive.

4) My wife's language is Castillian, as she grew up under Franco's regime
in a large city, and the use of Galician was, shall we say, strongly
discouraged. However, her family in the country continued to use Galician
and she can understand the language with no problems. Subjectively, my wife
has no problem in communicating with Northern Portuguese speaking in her
version of Castillian, but with a friend from Lisbon they have to speak
very slowly. However, this person's father is from Minho (Portuguese
Galicia), so that helps.  With Brazilians, it depends on the person. Some
kinds of Brazilian seem closer to Galician.

5) Galician may sound like Castillian, but in fact its sounds including the
lisped "s" were a local development parallel to that of Castille. (See
"Grama'tica Portuguesa" by Pilar Va'zquez Cuesta, Ed. Gredos, Madrid,
chapter on "El Gallego") The south of Galicia uses "seseo".

6) There is another phenomenon known as "geada", which is the pronunciation
of velar "g" similar to the Spanish "j", e.g. "lujo" for "Lugo", but this
is not considered "correct", although many other Spaniards consider it the
very essence of Galician as they find it funny, e.g. "jato" for "gato".

7) Galician has been recognised as an official language alongside
Castillian, on the same level as Catalan and Basque in their respective
areas. Like Basque, Galician had to develop a modern written standard over
the last few decades. There is currently a debate between the Autonomous
Government of Galicia, which has adopted a Spanish-like orthography, and
those who would prefer a Portuguese-style orthography, e.g. Espanha, rather
than Espan~a.

Un sau'do carin~oso a todos da lista indo-europea. Boa tarde.



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