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.

External 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 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 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 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 ɔ māros moro mòro "big" adj. meur mawr
au auberos over òvero "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.

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/
/t/+/i/,/e/,/ɛ/,/j/ anatlā > ança /ˈɑ̃θa/

Lenition

Voicing

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)

Nasalisation

Epensis

Celtic "s" to Galega "x"

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).