18 Facts About Galician language

Galician language evolved locally from Vulgar Latin and developed, by the 13th century, into what modern scholars have called Galician language-Portuguese.

The lexicon of Galician language is predominantly of Latin extraction, although it contains a moderate number of words of Germanic and Celtic origin, among other substrates and adstrates, having received, mainly via Spanish, a number of nouns from Andalusian Arabic.

Fernandez Rei in 1990 stated that the Galician language is, with respect to Portuguese, an ausbau language, a language through elaboration, and not an abstand language, a language through detachment.

Also, on 1 November 2016, the Council of Galician Culture was admitted as a consultative observer of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries .

Galician language is spoken by some three million people, including most of the population of Galicia and the numerous Galician language communities established elsewhere, in Spain, in other European cities, and in the Americas .

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Galician language has legal recognition in the Bierzo region in Leon, and in four municipalities in Zamora.

Galician language has been accepted orally as Portuguese in the European Parliament, being used by some Galician language representatives, among others: Jose Posada, Camilo Nogueira and Xose Manuel Beiras.

Galician language-Portuguese lost its political unity when the County of Portugal obtained its independence from the Kingdom of Leon, a transition initiated in 1139 and completed in 1179, establishing the Kingdom of Portugal.

Portuguese was the official language of the Portuguese chancellery, while Galician was the usual language not only of troubadours and peasants, but of local noblemen and clergy, and of their officials, so forging and maintaining two slightly different standards.

In spite of Galician being the most spoken language, during the 17th century the elites of the Kingdom began speaking Spanish, most notably in towns and cities.

The Galician language spoken and written then is usually referred to as Middle Galician language.

Middle Galician language is known mostly through popular literature, but through the frequent apparition of Galician language interferences and personal and place names in local works and documents otherwise written in Spanish.

Standard Galician language is usually based on Central Galician language characteristics, but it incorporates western and eastern traits and features.

Galician language allows pronominal clitics to be attached to indicative and subjunctive forms, as does Portuguese, unlike modern Spanish.

Galician language usually makes the difference according to gender and categorizes words as masculine "o rapaz" or feminine "a rapaza" .

Galician language expresses the difference in number with a form for the singular and another for the plural.

Current official Galician language orthography is guided by the "Normas ortograficas e morfoloxicas do Idioma Galego", first introduced in 1982, by the Royal Galician language Academy, based on a report by the Instituto da Lingua Galega .

In July 2003, the Royal Galician Academy modified the language normative to admit and promote some archaic Galician-Portuguese forms conserved in modern Portuguese, merging the NOMIG and the main proposals of the moderate sectors of reintegrationism; the resulting orthography is used by the vast majority of media, cultural production and virtually all official matters including education.