Reintegrationism
Encyclopedia
Reintegrationism is the linguistic
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 and cultural movement in Galicia which defends the unity of Galician
Galician language
Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...

 and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 as a single language. In other words, it postulates that Galician and Portuguese languages did not only share a common origin
Galician-Portuguese
Galician-Portuguese or Old Portuguese was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was first spoken in the area bounded in the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and the Douro River in the south but it was later extended south...

 and literary tradition, but that they are in fact variants
Diasystem
In the field of structural dialectology, a diasystem or polylectal grammar is an analysis set up to encode or represent a range of related varieties...

 of the same language today. According to this, Galicia should officially "re-integrate" into the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.

Controversy

At present, there are two main views in Galicia about the Galician language:
  • The isolationist considers Galician and Portuguese to be two distinct languages, despite the fact of the two being closely related. Isolationists favour differentiated rules of writing and spelling between Galician and Portuguese. In this fashion, Galician spelling follows the model of Spanish
    Spanish language
    Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

     orthography
    Orthography
    The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...

    . This view is held by the majority of public and Government organizations. Its standard norm, the "NOMIGa", is elaborated by the Real Academia Galega
    Real Academia Galega
    The Royal Galician Academy is an institution dedicated to the study of Galician culture and especially the Galician language; it promulgates norms of grammar, spelling, and vocabulary and works to promote the language. The Academy is based in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. The current president is...

    (Royal Galician Academy) and the Instituto da Língua Galega (Institute for Galician Language).

Among other criteria, isolationism argues that since the majority of the Galician population was initially educated in Spanish only (as official use of Galician was forbidden for centuries, especially during Franco's dictatorship), it is easier to create a Galician written norm which is closer to Spanish, therefore more "familiar", regardless of other considerations. It is also alleged that since the Spanish language had such a vast influence in modern Galician its contribution should not be simply disregarded. This influence is noticeable in some aspects of Galician phonetics
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...

 and colloquial speech.
  • The reintegrationist view considers Galician to be a variant of the Galician-Portuguese
    Galician-Portuguese
    Galician-Portuguese or Old Portuguese was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was first spoken in the area bounded in the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and the Douro River in the south but it was later extended south...

     linguistic diasystem
    Diasystem
    In the field of structural dialectology, a diasystem or polylectal grammar is an analysis set up to encode or represent a range of related varieties...

    , as evidenced by the common origin, common grammar
    Grammar
    In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...

    , syntax
    Syntax
    In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....

    , vocabulary
    Vocabulary
    A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...

    , morphology
    Morphology (linguistics)
    In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...

     and overall mutual intelligibility
    Mutual intelligibility
    In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort...

    . Reintegrationists support the use of spelling rules similar to the ones used in Portuguese-speaking countries. This is supported by the AGAL
    Agal
    The agal , also spelled iqal, egal or igal, is an accessory constructed of cord which is fastened around the Keffiyeh to hold it in place. The agal is usually black in colour....

     (Galician Association of the Language), Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language, Brazilian Academy of Letters
    Academia Brasileira de Letras
    Academia Brasileira de Letras is a Brazilian literary non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century by a group of 40 writers and poets inspired by the Académie Française. The first president, Machado de Assis, declared its foundation on December 15, 1896, with the statutes being...

    , Sciences Academy of Lisbon
    Sciences Academy of Lisbon
    The Sciences Academy of Lisbon ' was created in 1779 in Lisbon, Portugal, as an institution dedicated to the advancement of science and learning with the goal of promoting academic progress and prosperity to the country...

    , and a number of civic and cultural associations both in Galicia and Portuguese-speaking countries.

In this fashion, it is argued that Galician would be faithful to its history and etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

 and subsequently its written norm would be more scientific and precise. 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 accentuation
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...

) .

Reintegrationism is a cultural stand as much as a linguistic position. Its supporters believe that Galicia rightfully belongs to Lusophony since, in fact, modern Portuguese originated in Galician soil (see History of Portuguese, Galician-Portuguese period). They aim for stronger cultural and economic ties with the Portuguese-speaking countries using the common language as a tool for direct communication.

From the Portuguese side, a number of relevant linguists and authors such as Luís Lindley Cintra
Luís Lindley Cintra
Luís Filipe Lindley Cintra was a prominent figure in Portuguese philology and linguistics. A prolific writer with over 80 published works, he was a keen student of the historical differentiation during the 14th and 15th centuries between literary Portuguese and Castilian Spanish...

, Manuel Rodrigues Lapa, Fernando Venâncio
Fernando Venâncio
Fernando Venâncio is a Portuguese born writer, intellectual, literary critic, linguist and academic. At present he holds Dutch nationality....

, Carlos Reis or Malaca Casteleiro have expressed their agreement with the reintegrationist views.

Genesis of the debate

The divergences between isolationism and reintegrationism can be traced back to the time of the Galician Rexurdimento
Rexurdimento
The Rexurdimento was a period in the History of Galicia during the 19th century. Its central feature was the revitalization of the Galician language as a vehicle of social and cultural expression after the so-called séculos escuros , in which the dominance of Castilian Spanish was nearly complete...

(Revival), in the nineteenth century, when Galician began to be systematically written again in Galician territory for the first time since the Middle Ages. Up to that time, written Galician was either forbidden or simply dismissed by the Spanish authorities, and certainly not allowed to be used officially. Hence, Rexurdimento Galician writers realized they did not "know" how Galician should be spelled properly. There were three possible options: to infer it from the Medieval forms; to use the Spanish spelling which was already known to all; or to use the Portuguese spelling, feeling that written Portuguese was "what Galician would have been if it had not been forbidden". Authors such as Castelao
Castelão
There are two association football stadiums nicknamed Castelão:*Castelão , located in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil*Castelão , located in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil-Other:...

, among others, stated that Galician should gradually merge with Portuguese, namely in its written form. The reality was that until the 1980s Galician was often written using a mix of the three options.
Yet, with the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975, and with the Spanish transition to democracy
Spanish transition to democracy
The Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish...

, Galicia became an autonomous community with the Statute of Autonomy of 1981, with Galician as its official language (alongside Spanish). It was then urgently required to establish a fixed standard form. Claims for Galician-Portuguese linguistic unity had already been produced, as evidenced with the Manifesto para a supervivência da cultura galega (Manifesto for the Survival of Galician Culture), first published in 1974. Still, the first draft of the language norms was produced in 1979 under the guidance of linguist Professor Ricardo Carvalho Calero
Ricardo Carvalho Calero
Ricardo Carvalho Calero was a Spanish philologist, academic and writer. He was the first Professor of Galician Language and Literature at the University of Santiago de Compostela. He was one of the main theorists of contemporary reintegracionism and his works on this field are considered a primary...

. These norms recommended a gradual approach to Portuguese, often allowing for a number of different solutions in case of doubt.

However, political issues forced the resignation of Carvalho Calero and, consequently, the 1979 pro-reintegrationist norms were revoked. The new official norms and reforms to be passed from 1982 onwards would be strongly pro-isolationist, until today.

Practicalities

Reintegrationism currently accepts two possibilities for writing Galician: either adopting the standard Portuguese written norm or using a slightly modified norm following the recommendations of AGAL
Agal
The agal , also spelled iqal, egal or igal, is an accessory constructed of cord which is fastened around the Keffiyeh to hold it in place. The agal is usually black in colour....

. In any case, reintegracionism considers that spoken Galician and all of its characteristic words, expressions, and pronunciation should not be radically substituted by standard Portuguese. The main recommendations of reintegrationism when referring to spoken Galician revolve around the avoidance of unnecessary Spanish loanwords, namely colloquialisms. In writing the most obvious differences from the official norm (NOMIGa) are (according to AGAL):
  • Use of nh instead of the letter ñ to represent the palatal nasal
    Palatal nasal
    The palatal nasal is a type of consonant, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase letter n with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom of the left stem of the letter. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J...

     sound. For example: caminho instead of camiño (way)
  • Use of the digraph lh instead of ll to represent the palatal lateral
    Palatal lateral approximant
    The palatal lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase letter ⟨y⟩ , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is L.-Features:Features of the palatal lateral...

     sound. For example: coelho instead of coello (rabbit)
  • Use of -çom or -ção instead of the suffix -ción. For example: associaçom or associação instead of asociación (association)
  • 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 ortography, being a calque of Spanish one, does not cater for any difference between open and closed vowels, since Spanish does not have them.
  • Avoidance of specific lexical choices (namely colloquialisms) introduced by Spanish
    Spanish language
    Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...



Even though the reintegrationist norm does not have "official" status, it has been recognized in courts of law . Furthermore, Galician members of the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

 (such as José Posada
José Posada
José Domingo Posada González , of Galicia, Spain, was a member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999 and is the president of Coalición Galega ....

, Camilo Nogueira or Xosé Manuel Beiras
Xosé Manuel Beiras
Xosé Manuel Hixinio Beiras Torrado - commonly known as Xosé Manuel Beiras or simply Beiras - is a Galician politician, economist, writer and intellectual. He is professor of Structural Economy at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Santiago de Compostela...

) have used spoken Galician when addressing the chamber and have used standard Portuguese orthography to encode their Galician talk. 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
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

.

Furthermore, members of Galician reintegracionist associations have been regularly present at meetings of the CPLP (Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries). In 2008, Galician delegates were invited as speakers to the Portuguese Parliament when discussing the new spelling norms
Spelling reforms of Portuguese
This article is about the spelling reforms of the Portuguese language.-Historical background:Portuguese began to be used regularly in documents and poetry around the 12th century...

 for Portuguese language.

The local government of Corcubión
Corcubión
Corcubión or Corcubiom in the AGAL ortógraphy of galician language, is a municipality of Spain in the Province of A Coruña, in the autonomous community of Galicia.The local government of this municipality was the first public institution to officially use the AGAL norm of the galician language...

 (a Galician municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

) was the first public institution to officially use the AGAL norm, as seen in its website, offering options for "Galician" (NOMIGa) and "Galician-Portuguese" (AGAL) - plus English and Spanish.

Common positions

Theoretically, the positions of the standards of NOMIGa (official norm) and AGAL are not so different. Although usually accused of having pro-Spanish tendencies, it is stated at the introduction of the NOMIGa that "standard choices must be in harmony with those of other languages, especially to those of Romance languages and especially to those of Portuguese". Furthermore, they value "the contribution of Peninsular and Brazilian Portuguese" in the creation of the Galician norm.
This being the philosophy behind the "official standard", both NOMIGa and AGAL share an initial starting point, but it is often discussed that the NOMIGa are far removed from the usual speech of day-to-day and older Galician speakers, in addition to "isolate" (hence the term isolacionist) Galician from the rest of Portuguese-speaking areas by using a different writing system.
In any case, European and Brazilian Portuguese are usually analyzed by both isolationists and reintegrationists as a primary source from which to extract scientific and technical terminology
Terminology
Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words that in specific contexts are given specific meanings, meanings that may deviate from the meaning the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. The discipline Terminology studies among other...

 and neologisms.

Political implications

As with many other aspects of Galician society and culture, language is deeply politicized in Galicia. Traditionally, the defence and promotion of Galician language has been linked to Galician nationalism
Galician nationalism
Galician nationalism is a political movement arguing for the recognition of Galicia as a nation. The political movement referred to as modern Galician nationalism was born at the beginning of the twentieth century from the idea of Galicianism.- Ideology :...

, yet this is often considered a simplification. Likewise, different political groups and parties have adopted different approaches to the "isolationism vs reintegrationism" polemic. Broadly speaking, pro-independence groups have traditionally expressed a greater support for the reintegrationist norm, while others have adopted the isolationist. In any case, all the linguistic organizations behind both reintegrationism and isolationism have attempted to dissociate themselves from the political debate. 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.

Further reading


External links


See also

  • Galician-Portuguese
    Galician-Portuguese
    Galician-Portuguese or Old Portuguese was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was first spoken in the area bounded in the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and the Douro River in the south but it was later extended south...

  • Galician language
    Galician language
    Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...

  • Portuguese language
    Portuguese language
    Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

  • Community of Portuguese Language Countries
  • Ricardo Carvalho Calero
    Ricardo Carvalho Calero
    Ricardo Carvalho Calero was a Spanish philologist, academic and writer. He was the first Professor of Galician Language and Literature at the University of Santiago de Compostela. He was one of the main theorists of contemporary reintegracionism and his works on this field are considered a primary...

  • Associaçom Galega da Lingua
    Agal
    The agal , also spelled iqal, egal or igal, is an accessory constructed of cord which is fastened around the Keffiyeh to hold it in place. The agal is usually black in colour....

  • Partido da Terra
    Land Party
    The Land Party or Earth Party , is a Galician political party established in 2011.-Party platform:The party's platform encompasses six types of sovereignty: citizen sovereignty, which calls for a political reform based on direct democracy, incorporating advanced proposals of participatory...

  • Spanish language
    Spanish language
    Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

  • Spelling reform
    Spelling reform
    Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate, often officially sanctioned or mandated, change to spelling takes place. Proposals for such reform are also common....

  • Castrapo
    Castrapo
    Castrapo is the pejorative name for the form of the Spanish language spoken in the region of Galicia and which heavily uses Galician vocabulary and syntax....

  • Lusophilia
    Lusophilia
    Lusophilia is the love of, or friendship or sympathy toward, Portugal and/or Portuguese things. The word derives from Luso- plus -philia...

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