ok convince me .. i know nothing about galician but it certainly looks beautiful and im willing to believe it
Things that I like about Galician:
edit… I did different “levels” of bullet points, but tumblr leveled them. sighhhh :-)
Vowels never get reduced (the European Portuguese schwa is the bane of my existence, because it confuses my comprehension), and there is a lovely seven vowel system
Galician has lovely diphthongs! So you distinguish /ɛ/ /e/ and /ej/ in Galician, for example. /oj/ and /ej/ show up frequently in words, i.e. the big plaza in Santiago de Compostela at the end of the pilgrimage (yes I’m basic <3 ) is called praza de obradoiro (workshop plaza). In general /ej/ and /oj/ are in a lot of words and I like the sound
No phonemic nasal vowels (though varieties near the Portuguese border sometimes have them phonologically ?) can’t do nasal vowels to save my life
Palatals show up a lot (unlla = fingernail)
<x> represents the /∫/ sound, which I think is a very elegant way of writing the /∫/ sound
<n> represents the /ŋ/ sound word-finally, which is cool. <nh> represents th /ŋ/ sound within words, i.e. unha = ‘a’ feminine)
There are essentially two competing orthographies, but occasionally people mix the two a bit. The standard/official (Real Academia Galega) orthography is based off of Castillian accent rules and has a lot of <x>’s which is jazzy, and the “Lusophone” orthography uses more Portuguese spelling like <lh> and <nh> and <ç>. The Portuguese orthography is associated with 'international/reintegracionista mindset’
Galician sociolinguistics is fascinating because there are SO many dialectical variations throughout Galicia.
Galicia is very rural compared to most of Iberia,
It’s population until recently was essentially a 50-50 split between living in cities and the countryside.
Galician speakers (in my experience) can identify fairly percisely where others are from. It also creates difficulties with establishing the regional norm.
Even in it’s urban areas, Galicia has seven cities (Santiago, Vigo, A Coruña, Ferrol, Ourense, Pontevedra, Lugo), which is different from areas of iberia that are dominated by one big city, such as Madrid or Barcelona, etc.
in my personal experience people constantly conceive of and refer to a words’ ‘Portuguese-ness’, ‘Galician-ness’ and ‘Castillian-ness’
Some people with more reintegracionalista mindsets refer more to Portuguese-ness and Castillian-ness
i.e. at my work some people said ‘silla’ even though it is not accepted by the RAG, and I remember someone commenting to me that ‘cadeira’ is better.
I can remember various word debates, like about whether medrar or crecer was correct [RAG admits both, if you ascribe to them])
Because I had the perspective of a learner, I got to listen to a lot of very interesting sociolinguistc conversations by asking people how to say something
Gheada or no? (some regions produce ‘g’ as an ‘h’ sound)
My friends and coworkers travelled to Portugal often and many could read in Portuguese so the relationship between Portuguese and Galician is complicated and interesting
This dabbles into the question of ‘what is a language’ and also ‘how do we respond to language contact’
Some people want to bring Galician closer to Portuguese {but this can introduce things that not inherent to Galician as well, such as ‘voltar’ instead of ‘volver’. Similarly, ‘ficar’ is more like to die in colloquial Galician, as is my understanding. Feel free to dispute.
My advice to foreigners is generally to treat Galician and Portuguese the way you would treat the Scandinavian languages, and simply listen to other people frame the sociolinguistic situation.
I’m not trying to take a stance towards or against reintegracionalista perspectives… this is just a practical/respectful recommendation for foreigners
Regardless of linguistic discussion, Galego e a cultura galega exists in its own right and beauty. Sen permiso de Madrid e Lisboa e sen obligacion a elas.
Hopefully I’ve phrased this all well… this is not a well-elaborated post so feel free to add your own corrections and opinions Galician mutuals. I’m trying to give a respectful overview of the sociolinguistic conversations in society. {oxalá me explique ben aquí, non desenvolvei este tema en moito detalle. engadades as suas explicacións se este non vos parece correcto. Tento de darvos unha vista panoramica que axeita e reflexa as conversacións sociais sociolingüisticas}
Galician clitics are really cool!
The unmarked position for object clitics (me, che, lle, nos, vos, lles // me, te, o, a, nos, vos, os, as) is post verbal, i.e. lévovolos = levo+vos+os (the /s/ become an /l/ in clitics when you affix them = I bring them to you)
The accent just maintains the original word stress. More lusophone spelling uses the “-”. A lot of people use the “-” even with the standard orthography i.e. Quero-te
Subordinate clauses and negation makes them preverbal i.e. non cho (che+o) quero dicir…
As someone who spoke Castillian Spanish and some (Brazilian) Portuguese… very different gramatically than EP) before living in Galicia, the first week I felt like I was always overhearing mandatos because of the clitic position, haha :-)
I’ve heard empathetic clitics as well… I’m not sure if my example so take this with a grain of salt… but that means you can even have three clitics rather rarely.
(Ti Lévaschevolos… na verdade? (Levas=che=vol=os) = “You brought it to them yourself…” really?)
I have a few Galician mutuals please weigh in on this if you want, because I’m 95% sure my example is not gramatical :v
Sometimes a lot of vowels line up, i.e. síntoo = I’m sorry (I feel it)
This is fun, cool and valid. Oíoo = “I hear it”
/n/ get’s inserted after diphthongs before clitics —> “Atropouno” = “(3rd person singular) looked for it”
Galician has some cool words {that leads to interesting syntax}
Seica/disque: so they say // it’s rumored that
Seica que romperon X e X = They may X and X have broken up // a little birdie told me // I don’t know if it’s true
Senllo/a: to each their own?
Os estudantes remataron senlla tarefa = the students finished (each their own) homework.
Edit: Shoot I almost forgot that there are not ‘multiword’ past tenses in Galician, only simple preterite, imperfect, and simple máis de perfecto -ara / -era / -ira --> conserved from Latin
i.e. antés do que chegaste, chamara ao banco --> before you arrived, he had already called the bank.
Anyways I deeply love the Galician language… and I’m aware that sociolinguistically it’s because I have Galician friends and lived there, but it’s still just such a cool thing. I would love to return. Teño seguedores galegxs aqui entón porfa engadades o que os pareza ben a conversación se queredes. Non desenvolvei algúns temas ao extento que merecen e a publicación é un pouco impresionista.
If you want to hear some Galician Televisión de Galicia has a youtube channel, and you can listen to artists like Sés (folklore), Verto (trap), etc.
Saúdos, bicas e apertas a todos :-)
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