The opposite view holds that Portuguese and Galician should be viewed as distinct languages, which is called Isolationism.[citation needed]
Controversy
There are two main views in Galicia about the Galician language:[citation needed]
The isolationist considers Galician and Portuguese to be two distinct languages, although they are closely related.[citation needed] Isolationists favour differentiated rules of writing and spelling between Galician and Portuguese. In this fashion, Galician spelling follows the model of
Spanishorthography and its own traditional conventions, which converge with it in some aspects. Its standard norm, the "
NOMIGa", is elaborated by the Real Academia Galega (Royal Galician Academy) and the Instituto da Língua Galega (Institute for Galician Language).
In this fashion, it is argued that Galician would be faithful to its history and
etymology and subsequently its written norm would be more scientific and precise.[citation needed] Thus, it would allow Galician speakers to have direct access to a world culture and it would also clarify some spelling problems of the isolationist norm (for example in terms of
stress).[4][5]
There are two opinions on the orthographic norms of our native language: the phonetic ... influenced by the domination of Spanish, and another one ... where etymology is its main and most logical attribute ... because (Portuguese orthography) is the natural orthography of the Galician language, and I cannot understand how there still are not only doubts about this, but even opinions against it ... with no scientific basis.
— Roberto Blanco Torres, La unificación ortográfica del idioma gallego, 1930
There is a reason why our language is the same as in Portugal ... Our languages must become the same one again.
However, political issues forced the resignation of Carvalho Calero and, consequently, the 1979 pro-reintegrationist norms were revoked. The new official norms and reforms passed from 1982 onwards would be strongly pro-isolationist.[9]
Use of ⟨nh⟩ instead of the letter ⟨ñ⟩ to represent the
palatal nasal sound. For example: caminho instead of camiño (way).
Use of ⟨mh⟩ instead of ⟨nh⟩ to represent the
velar nasal sound. For example: algumha instead of algunha.
Use of the digraph ⟨lh⟩ instead of ⟨ll⟩ to represent the
palatal lateral sound. For example: coelho instead of coello (rabbit)
Use of ⟨çom⟩/⟨ção⟩ and ⟨çons⟩/⟨ções⟩ instead of the suffix ⟨ción⟩ and ⟨cións⟩. For example: associaçom/associação instead of asociación and associaçons/associações instead of asociacións (association, associations)
Preference for the use of suffixes ⟨aria⟩ and ⟨vel⟩ over ⟨ería⟩ and ⟨ble⟩ or even ⟨bel⟩. For example: livraria instead of librería (bookshop); incrível instead of incrible or incríbel (incredible)
Use of ⟨ss⟩ between vowels, when appropriate, instead of the simplified ⟨s⟩ for all cases. For example: associação instead of asociación
Use of either ⟨x⟩, ⟨j⟩ or ⟨g⟩ preceding ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, according to the etymology of the word, instead of ⟨x⟩ for all cases. For example: hoje instead of hoxe (today), geral instead of xeral (general), but exército as in exército (army)
Use of ⟨m⟩ instead of ⟨n⟩ at the end of a word. For example: som instead of son (sound)
Use of a wider range of accentuation signs instead of the simplified single stroke. For example: português instead of portugués (Portuguese), comentário instead of comentario (commentary). Note that the official orthography, being a calque of the Spanish one in that respect, does not cater for any difference between open and closed vowels, since Spanish does not have them.
Avoidance of specific lexical choices introduced by
Spanish
Galician members of the
European Parliament (such as
José Posada,
Camilo Nogueira and
Xosé Manuel Beiras) have used spoken Galician when addressing the chamber and have used standard Portuguese orthography to encode their Galician speech. In all cases, these interventions and encodings have been accepted by the Parliament as a valid form of Portuguese, that is, an official language of the
European Union.[11][12][13]
Furthermore, members of Galician reintegrationist associations have been regularly present at meetings of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries. In 2008, Galician delegates were invited as speakers to the
Portuguese Parliament when discussing the new
spelling norms for the Portuguese language.[14]
Political implications
As with many other aspects of Galician society and culture, language is deeply politicized in Galicia.[citation needed] Traditionally, the defence and promotion of the Galician language has been linked to
Galician independence, yet this is often considered a simplification.[citation needed] Likewise, different political groups and parties have adopted different approaches to the "isolationism vs reintegrationism" polemic.[citation needed] For example, AGAL members have often expressed that this is merely a linguistic, hence scientific, discussion, and that it should not become the arena for political fights among the community of Galician speakers.[15][16][17]
^Freitas, M.P. (2008). A represión linguística en Galiza no S.XX. Ed. Xerais.
^Callón, Carlos (2022). O libro negro da língua galega. Ed. Xerais.
^Minahan, James (2000). One Europe, many nations: a historical dictionary of European national groups. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 279.
ISBN0-313-04866-5. Following Franco's 1939 victory, the Galicians suffered severe punishment – their culture was suppressed, and edicts were issued forbidding the speaking, teaching, or publishing of books or newspapers in the Galician language.