Galician

Galician, defined in the Autonomous Statutes as Galicia’s own natural language, is a Romance language which grew up around the 9th Century as an off-shoot of the Vulgar Latin brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Roman legions during the period of Romanisation. This language eventually took over from the many Pre- Celtic, Celtic and Para- Celtic languages spoken around the north-west of the Peninsula which, owing to their number and to the fact that they were purely oral languages, were unable to withstand the pressure of the more highly developed, written Latin, and only survived as a substratum affecting the vocabulary and the pronunciation of the latter. Languages spoken by other peoples including the Germanic Swabians and the Visigoths and also, albeit to a lesser extent, Arabic, influenced the way this Vulgar Latin was to evolve, eventually emerging as a fully-fledged Romance language in its own right known as galego (‘Galician’), which owes its name to the Roman Province of Gallaecia which once stretched far beyond the limits of modern-day Galicia into what is now Portugal, the birthplace of what went on to become an independent kingdom. Portugal was, therefore, a ‘Gallaician’ kingdom where Galician was spoken. However, following the split of Galicia and Portugal, which expanded southwards to the Algarve, the language spoken there came to be known as ‘Portuguese’, the name by which it was to continue to be known around the globe when Portugal became a colonial power. From the historical point of view, both Galician and Portuguese are, therefore, one and the same language. However, the political division of Galicia and Portugal which first began in the 11th Century, coupled with the subsequent domination of Galicia by the Kingdom of Castile meant that the natural differences in the way the language was spoken on either side of the River Minho, which over the centuries had come to be a political frontier, grew ever wider.

The history of the Galician language can be divided into three main periods: Old, Middle and Modern Galician. Old Galician, also known as Medieval Galego-Portuguese, covers the period from the appearance of the language in the Middle Ages to the 15th Century. For over seven hundred years, Galician was a completely normal language used by all sectors of society, although, as in the rest of the Roman Empire, in the early years Latin still held sway as the language of writing. In the latter part of this same period, Castilian Spanish also started to make inroads as the language of the ruling classes imposed on Galicia from outside. During this period, the Galician language (better referred to as Galego-Portuguese) reached great heights of literary fame, particularly as a language of poetry, giving rise to the brilliant school of Galego-Portuguese poetry with such rich and varied writings as the renowned Cantigas de Amor, the Cantigas de Amigo and the Cantigas de Escarnio e Maldizer amongst others.

Middle Galician covers the period C. XVI-XVIII, known as the ‘Dark Years’ owing to the almost complete disappearance of Galician as a written language. The political colonisation of Galicia by the Kingdom of Castile which first set in towards the end of the previous period was accompanied by the gradual imposition of Castilian Spanish as the language of power and administration, thereby making it the official language to all extents and purposes. Galician, which was still spoken by the whole of the population, found itself relegated to the rank of a purely spoken language, increasingly eschewed by the ruling classes and coming to be seen as an inferior language spoken by uneducated and ignorant people. Along with the loss of prestige and the scorn suffered by the language itself, Galician literature which had seen such a heyday in years gone by, also soon all but disappeared.

Modern Galician covers the period C. XIX-XX. Although the 19th Century witnessed a literary Revival with such outstanding writers as Rosalía de Castro, on the political and social fronts Galician continued to play a secondary role to Castilian Spanish which was the language of administration, teaching, the Church, etc., effectively making it the language of power and the only official language. On the other hand, this period also saw the birth of a burgeoning Galician political and cultural movement which advocated the use and a renewed dignity for the Galician language. During the first third of the 20th Century, Galician continued to win back ground as a means of literary expression, spurred on by the emergence of Galician nationalism which made the language one of the mainstays of its political agenda. However, the Spanish Civil War which broke out in 1936, followed by Franco’s dictatorship, brought the all of these efforts in favour of Galician to an abrupt halt. After the death of Franco in 1975, work began to set in motion a process of legal changes which led to the recognition of Galician as one of the two official languages of Galicia alongside Spanish. The Law of Language Normalisation was also issued, effectively bringing the Galician language into the education system and into public administration, although many of the goals set out in this Law still remain to be fulfilled.

Apart from the fact that Galician is spoken around the globe in the form of Portuguese, a language with which it still has a great deal in common despite the differences which mainly affect pronunciation, Galician per se is spoken today in the four Provinces which make up the Autonomous Community of Galicia, i.e. A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra, as well as in the areas bordering Asturias, Leon and Zamora. It is also kept alive throughout the world by the many Galician émigrés living abroad. Although recent years have been marked by an alarming drop in the number of younger speakers, coupled with the fact that the diglossic situation with regards to Spanish has yet to be fully overcome, Galician continues to be spoken by the vast majority of the population and over 80% can speak the language and practically all of the population can understand it.

X. R. Freixeiro Mato