The Galician Language

In the words of A. D. Rodríguez Castelao, every language is a source of art, the vehicle of expression of the people's original soul. Here is the history of the language in which the people inhabiting Galicia in the last millennium expressed their creative will.

Galician is a Romance language, the result of the evolution of Latin introduced by Roman soldiers to the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula from the first century AD onwards. It is possible to speak of the existence of Galician, as a language distinct from Latin, from the ninth century onwards.

Coinciding with the heyday of the Jacobean pilgrimages in the Middle Ages was the gradual consolidation of Galician as a written language. At that time, the territories of Galicia and Portugal were part of the Galician-Portuguese linguistic area.

The cantiga (song) 'Ora faz ost'o senhor de Navarra' (1196) and the manuscript called 'Noticia do Torto' (1212) are the oldest writings on record. These and other contemporary texts were a first attempt to grammatically organize the Neo-Latin language.

There are still some 1,650 cantigas from the Galician-Portuguese lyric, proof of the vitality of this Neo-Latin language. Alfonso X wrote in Galician-Portuguese and used his scriptorium to compose the Cantigas de Santa María, a colossal literary work.

After the Middle Ages, and especially after the 16th century, a new political and social context prevailed in Galicia that resulted in the total absence of the Galician language in formal and cultural uses, although it did remain alive and buoyant in spoken and popular spheres.

In the 18th century, and influenced by the ideals of the Enlightenment, voices started to criticize the marginal situation of Galician. Fray Martín Sarmiento, an important figure in Spain during this period, fought for its use in schools and in literary creation.

The Rexurdimento is the cultural revival movement that took place in the second half of the 19th century. An illustrious figure in this period was Rosalía de Castro, who published the book of poems Cantares Gallegos (1863), the first contemporary work written entirely in the Galician language.

In the 20th century, Galician regained its cultural uses, thanks to entities such as the Irmandades da Fala, the Grupo Nós, and the Seminario de Estudos Galegos. These advances crystallized in its formalization in the statute of autonomy, approved in a referendum in 1936.

Galician experienced the greatest advances in its social and political status after the end of the Spanish dictatorship in 1975. The approval of the Statute of Autonomy of Galicia (1981) and the Law of Linguistic Normalization (1983) were two very important historical milestones.

There are 2,700,000 people living in Galicia, and almost 2,000,000 use the language in their daily interactions. It is used in the educational system, where a bilingual model is implemented, as well as in the public sector, at universities, on the Internet, in commerce, etc.

Nowadays, it is spoken in Galicia and in the westernmost areas of the Principality of Asturias and the Autonomous Region of Castile and León. It remains alive in the Galician emigrant community and is the subject of study and learning at 36 universities in 16 countries across the Americas and Europe.

Despite being a language that is remarkably homogeneous, it has formal varieties of a territorial nature. There are three dialectal areas: Eastern, Central, and Western. Standard Galician is governed by the Real Academia Gallega, which was founded in 1906.

Galicia has always had close ties with Portugal, and the language is the most obvious of them all. This makes it possible to bolster the international reach of Galician and have a competitive advantage in areas such as culture or the economy.