Galician-Portuguese
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Galician-Portuguese (also known as galaico-português or galego-português in Portuguese and galaico-portugués or galego-portugués in Galician) was an Iberian Romance language, spoken in the Middle Ages, in the western area of the Iberian Peninsula. It arose via Vulgar Latin, and was spoken, at first, from the Cantabric Sea to Douro River, though it extended South with Portuguese Reconquista.
Galician-Portuguese had a special cultural role in the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula which can be seen in its literature. It can be compared to the role of Occitan in the Mediterranean coast.
The main existing sources of Galician-Portuguese lyric poetry are:
- The four extant manuscripts of the Cantigas de Santa Maria
- Cancioneiro de Ajuda
- Cancioneiro da Vaticana
- Cancioneiro Colocci-Brancutti (or Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal)
The language had its maximum expression in the final years of the 12th century until the 14th century in Spain. Some known poets were Bernal de Bonaval, Arias Nunes, Pero da Ponte, and Pedr'Amigo de Sevilha. Until 1350, Galician-Portuguese was the only Latin-derived written language in the Christian peninsula. The Castilian king Alfonso X composed his Cantigas de Santa Maria and the Cantigas de Escarnio e Maldizer in Galician-Portuguese, his favourite language for poetry. The Portuguese king Denis also wrote his Cantigas and declared Portuguese as an official language in 1290. Until then Classical Latin was the official (written) language of Portugal; the spoken language did not have a name, being simply known as Língua Vulgar ("common language" or Vulgar Latin) until it was named "Portuguese" in the reign of King Denis. Galician-Portuguese, or Português Arcaico (Old Portuguese), is a modern term for the common ancestor of modern Portuguese and modern Galician. Compared to the differences in ancient Greek dialects, the alleged differences between 13th century Portuguese and Galician are trivial.
As a result of political isolation, Galician-Portuguese lost its unity when Portugal and Galicia found themselves under different ruling dynasties. The Galician version of the language followed an independent evolution and became influenced by Spanish, which still happens today. Two of the most important Galician cities at the time, Braga and Porto, became independent with Portugal, while Santiago de Compostela was already a separated entity previous to the independence of Portugal. Galician was preserved because those who spoke it were rural or never went to school, where Spanish was taught as the only correct speaking. The language was only officially recognized in Spain in the late 20th century. The linguistic division (or not) of both languages is still discussed today; there are those, mostly a minority among Galician nationalist groups, who demand the reunification of the language. There are Portuguese and Galician philologists that would agree that both are dialects of a same language. Galician is still spoken by more than three million people in Galicia, while Portuguese continues to grow in use, and today is the sixth most spoken language in the world.
