Galega
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:
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" |
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 | 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 | menti | "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 | "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 | òver | "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.