Galega

Galega (endonym: Galega; Galega: [gaˈlega]), also called as Galá by neibouring Galician speakers, is a Insular Celtic language which evolved under strong influence of vulgar Latin. Galega has official status along with Spanish, and speakers of Gaglega are basically bilingual with Galician. Although the area of this language is mainly restricted to Galicia inside the Iberian peninsular, there are several oversea Galego communities which are established by the immigrants to Middle and South America. Basically, Galega is a Brythonic language with Celtic lexicon and Iberian Latin featured sound changes, its grammar also shifts from Celtic languages to resemble its Latin neibours.

Etymology

The name Galega is the language of Galanha, this term comes from the endonym Gallania, which is used to distinct the Brythonic speakers that immigrated to Galicia around 6BC by local Vulgar Latin speakers, as they mistaken these people come from Gallia(Modern day France). While the Galega speakers called themselves as Bretonado that time, but eventually they came to accept this exonym as their endonym in order to distinguish with the local British people.

Phonology

Vowels

Similar to its neibour Galician, Galanego also has seven vowels, but use grave marks to distinct close-mid vowels and open-mid vowels:

Vowels

Phoneme (IPA)	Grapheme	Examples
/a/	a	mabo "son"
/e/	e	bedo "world"
/ɛ/	è	cèdo "forest"
/i/	i	cigo "meat"
/o/	o	rodo "red"
/ɔ/	ò	mòro "big"
/u/	u	useio "high"

Internal history

Galanego undergone a mixture of both Celtic and Vulgar Latin sound changes. While its lexicon evolved from their nominative forms, not oblique form as its Latin neibours.

Vowels

Short vowels

Proto-Celtic	Condition	Old Galega	Late Galega	Example
				Proto-Celtic	Old Galega	Late Galega	Translation	Late Breton	Late Welsh
i	normally	ɪ	e	ɸritus	rido	redo	"ford" m.	red	rhyd
	final a affection	e̝	ɛ	ɸlikkā	leca	lèca	"slate" f.	lec'h	llech
e	normally	e	e	kwennom	penno	peno	"head" m.	penn	pen
	final i affection	e̝	ɛ				"" m.
a	normally	a	a	markos	marco	marco	"horse" m.	marc'h	march
	final i affection	e̝	ɛ	mantī	menti	mènti	"size, quantity" f.	ment	maint
o	normally	o	o	dolā	dola	doa	"meadow" f.	dol	dol
	final i affection	ɵ	u				"" .
u	normally	u	o				"" f.
	final a affection	o	o	kumbā	comba	comba	"valley" f.	komm	cwm
	final i affection	ü	i				"" .

Long vowels and dipthongs

Proto-Celtic	Condition	Old Galega	Late Galega	Example
				Proto-Celtic	Old Galega	Late Galega	Translation	Late Breton	Late Welsh
ī	all places	i	i	līwos	liwo	livo	"colour" m.	liv	lliw
ū		ü		rūnā	ryna	riña	"secret, mystery" f.	rin	rhin
ou		ʉ	u	toutā	tuda	tuda	"people, tribe" f.	tud	tud
oi				oinos	unho	ũ	"one" adv.	un	un
ā		o̜	ɔ	māros	moro	mòro	"big" adj.	meur	mawr
au				auberos	over	òvero	"vain, futile" adj.	euver	ofer
ai		e̝	ɛ	kaitos	cedo	cèdo	"forest" m.	koad	coed
ei		e	e	skeitos	scedo	escedo	"shield" m.	skoed	ysgwyt

Galanego vowels presents following features:

• Galanego doesn't have diphthongization in open and closed syllables as in Portuguese and Catalan.
• Galanego once has /y/, also written as "y" before 9th century, but this vowel finally merged with /i/.
• Only final a & i vowel affection are affective in Galanego compared to modern Celtic languages.

Consonants

Palatalisation

Similar to all West romance languages, palatalisation happens when /k/ & /t/ are followed by /i/,/e/,/ɛ/ and semivowel /j/, they became /ts/ by middle Galega, and eventually /θ/:

Condition	Middle Galega	Late Galega	Examples
/k/+/i/,/e/,/ɛ/,/j/	/ts/	/θ/	kīkos > cigo /ˈθiɣo/ "meat" m.
/t/+/i/,/e/,/ɛ/,/j/			anatlā > ança /ˈɑ̃θa/ "breath" f.

Syncope

1. common syncope shared with Iberian-Romance

1. intervocalic /l/ and /n/

Intervocalic /l/ and /n/ are eventually omitted in Galega, either create new diphthongs or following epenthesis rules. While /n/ will cause nasalisation on the preceding vowel, see "vocalisation" for details:

• dolā > dola > doa "meadow" f. (without epenthesis)
• argantīnos > argantino > argançinho "silvern" adj. (without epenthesis)
• salēnos > saleno > saeio "salt" m. (with epenthesis)
• wēlos > welo > veio "modest" (with epenthesis)

1. syncope of intervocalic /d/, /g/

Intervocalic /g/ first become /ɣ/ by vocalisation and then omitted, either create new diphthongs or following epenthesis rules:

• togos > toɣo > too > to "roof, ceiling" m. (without epenthesis)
• brigā > bre̝ɣa > brɛa > brèia "hill" f. (with epenthesis)

Liquid interchange

Similar to Galician, Portuguese and Spanish, Galega also has liquid interchanges of /l/ and /r/ if they are present in following syllabes, but are basically regularised to the following two conditions:

• -lVl- > -lVr: mīlālos > miloro > miòro "bestial" adj. (without epenthesis)
• -rVr- > -rVl: eriros > erilo > ereio "eagle" m. (with epenthesis)

Note that all /l/ will be omitted following syncope rules(while in some cases epenthesis rules applies).