Galega

From Linguifex
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Galanego (endonym: Galanego; Galanego: [galaˈnego]), also called as Galano by neibouring Galician speakers, is a Insular Celtic language which evolved under strong influence of vulgar Latin. Galanego has official status along with Spanish, and speakers of Gaglanego are basically bilingual with Galician. Although the area of this language is mainly restricted to Galicia inside the Iberian peninsular, there are several oversea Galanego communities which are established by the immigrants to Middle and South America. Basically, Galanego 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 Galanego 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 Galanego 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.

History

Phonology

Consonants

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 durno "fist"

Phonology 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 ɛ ɸlikkā leca lèca "slate" f. lec'h llech
e normally e e kwennom penno peno "head" m. penn pen
final i affection ɛ "" m.
a normally a a markos marco marco "horse" m. marc'h march
final i affection ɛ mantī menti menti "size, quantity" f. ment maint

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 "one" adv. un un
ā ɔ māros moro mòro "big" adj. meur mawr
au auberos over òver "vain, futile" adj. euver ofer
ai 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.