, 1228 : "ESTAS CASAS MANDOU FAZER VASCO DA COSTA, ERA DE MCCCLXXVII"
These houses were ordered by Vasco da Costa, era 1377 (1339 AD) Latinate Galician charters from the century onward show that the local written Latin was heavily influenced by local spoken Romance, yet is not until the century that there is evidence for the identification of the local language as a language different from Latin itself. During this same century there are full Galician sentences being inadvertently used inside Latin texts, while its first reckoned use as a literary language dates to the last years of this same century. The linguistic stage from the to the centuries is usually known as Galician-Portuguese (or
Old Portuguese, or
Old Galician) as an acknowledgement of the cultural and linguistic unity of Galicia and Portugal during the Middle Ages, as the two linguistic varieties differed only in dialectal minor phenomena. This language flourished during the and centuries as a language of culture, developing
a rich lyric tradition of which some 2000 compositions (
cantigas, meaning 'songs') have been preserved—a few hundred even with their musical score—in a series of collections, and belonging to four main genres:
cantigas de amor, love songs, where a man sings for his ladylove;
cantigas de amigo, where a woman sings for her boyfriend;
cantigas de escarnio, crude, taunting, and sexual songs of scorn;
cantigas de maldecir, where the poet vents his spleen openly; and also the
Cantigas de Santa María, which are religious songs. The oldest known document is the poem ''Ora faz ost'o Senhor de Navarra'' by Joam Soares de Paiva, written around 1200. The first non-literary documents in Galician-Portuguese date from the early century, the Noticia de Torto (1211) and the Testamento of
Afonso II of Portugal (1214), both samples of medieval notarial prose. Its most notable patrons—themselves reputed authors—were King
Dom Dinis in Portugal, and King
Alfonso X the Learned in Galicia, Castile and León, who was a great promoter of both Galician and
Castilian Spanish languages. Not only the kings but also the noble houses of Galicia and Portugal encouraged literary creation in Galician-Portuguese, as being an author or bringing reputed troubadours into one's home became a way of promoting social prestige. As a result, many noblemen, businessmen and clergymen of the and centuries became notable authors, such as Paio Gomes Charinho, lord of
Rianxo, and the aforementioned kings. Aside from the lyric genres, Galicia developed also a minor tradition on literary prose, most notably in translation of European popular series, as those dealing with
King Arthur written by
Chrétien de Troyes, or those based on the
war of Troy, usually paid and commissioned by noblemen who desired to read those romances in their own language. Other genres include history books (either translation of Spanish ones, or original creations like the
Chronicle of St. Mary of Iria, by Rui Vasques), religious books, legal studies, and a treaty on horse breeding. Most prose literary creation in Galician had stopped by the century, when
printing press became popular; the first complete translation of the Bible was not printed until the century. As for other written uses of Galician, legal charters (last wills, hirings, sales, constitutional charters, city council book of acts, guild constitutions, books of possessions, and any type of public or private contracts and inventories) written in Galicia are to be found from 1230 to 1530—the earliest one probably a document from the monastery of
Melón, dated in 1231—being Galician by far the most used language during the , and centuries, in substitution of Latin.
Diglossia and influence of the Spanish language Galician-Portuguese lost its political unity when the
County of Portugal obtained its independence from the
Kingdom of León, a transition initiated in 1139 and completed in 1179, establishing the
Kingdom of Portugal. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Galicia was united with the Kingdom of León, and later with the Kingdom of Castile, under kings of the
House of Burgundy. The Galician and Portuguese standards of the language diverged over time, following independent evolutionary paths. Portuguese was the official language of the Portuguese chancellery, while Galician was the usual language not only of troubadours and peasants, but also of local noblemen and clergy, and of their officials, so forging and maintaining two slightly different standards. , 13th century During the reign of
Alfonso X, Spanish became the official language of the chancellery of the Kingdom of Castile. However, in Galicia and neighboring regions of Asturias and León in 1200–1500, the local languages remained the usual written languages in any type of document, either legal or narrative, public or private. Spanish was progressively introduced through Royal decrees and the edicts of foreign churchmen and officials. This led, from the late 15th century on, to the end of legal documents in Galician; the last ones were issued around 1530. Also, from 1480 on, notaries of the
Crown of Castile were required to obtain their licenses in
Toledo, where they had to prove their mastery of Spanish. 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 linguistic situation in Galicia became one of
diglossia, with Galician as the low variety and Spanish as the high one. In reaction to the relegation of the autochthonous language, a series of literary and historical works (always written in Spanish) appeared in the 17th century through 19th century, meant to vindicate the history, language, people, and culture of Galicia. The period from the 16th century to the early 19th century, when Galician had little literary—and no legal—use, is considered the dark age of Galician language. The Galician spoken and written then is usually referred to as
Middle Galician.
Middle Galician Middle Galician is known mostly through popular literature (songs, carols, proverbs, theatrical scripts, personal letters), but also through the frequent apparition of Galician interferences and personal and place names in local works and documents otherwise written in Spanish. Other important sources are a number of
sonnets and other lyric poetry, as well as other literate productions, including the forgery of allegedly mediaeval scriptures or chronicles under diverse pretensions—usually to show the ancient nobility of the forger's family—being these writings elaborated in an archaic looking Galician which nevertheless could not conceal the state of the language during this period. Middle Galician is characterised by a series of phonetic processes which led to a further separation from Portuguese, and to the apparition of some of the more noteworthy dialectal features, among other phenomenons: emergence of the
gheada or pronunciation of as a pharyngeal fricative; denasalization of nasal vowels in most of Galicia, becoming oral vowels in the east, or a group formed by an oral vowel plus a nasal consonant in the west; reduction of the sibilant system, with the confluence (except in the
Baixa Limia region) of voiced and voiceless fricatives, followed by a process of de-affrication which led to different results in the west and in the east. The most important author during this period of the language was the scholar
Martín Sarmiento, unconditional defender and the first researcher of Galician language (history, evolution, lexicon, etymology, onomastics). His
Elementos etimológicos segun el método de Euclides (1766), written in Spanish but dealing with Galician, was in fact one of the first comprehensive studies on sound change and evolution of any European language. He also defended that teaching in Galicia should be conducted in Galician, since it was the common language of most people.
Rexurdimento (Renaissance) During the 19th century a thriving literature developed, in what was called the
Rexurdimento (Resurgence), of the Galician language. It was headed by three main authors:
Rosalia de Castro, an intimist poet;
Eduardo Pondal, of nationalist ideology, who championed a Celtic revival; and
Manuel Curros Enríquez, a liberal and anticlerical author whose ideas and proclamations were scandalous for part of the 19th-century society. The first political manifest asking for the officialization of Galician date to the late 19th century. An important landmark was the establishment of the
Royal Galician Academy, in 1906, soon followed by that of the
Seminario de Estudos Galegos (1923). The
Seminario was devoted to the research and study of the Galician culture. It was created by a group of students:
Fermín Bouza Brey,
Xosé Filgueira Valverde,
Lois Tobío Fernández, with the collaboration of
Ricardo Carvalho Calero,
Antón Fraguas and
Xaquín Lorenzo Fernández. Following the victory of
Francisco Franco in the
Spanish Civil War, the written or public use of the Galician language was outlawed. Publishing of Galician-language material revived on a small scale in the 1950s.
The Galician language today With the advent of democracy, Galician has been brought into the country's institutions, and it is now co-official with Spanish in Galicia. Galician is taught in schools, and there is a public Galician-language television channel,
Televisión de Galicia. Today, the most common language for everyday use in the largest cities of Galicia is Spanish rather than Galician, as a result of this long process of
language shift. However, Galician is still the main language in rural areas. The
Royal Galician Academy and other Galician institutions celebrate each 17 May as
Galician Literature Day (), dedicated each year to a deceased Galician-language writer chosen by the academy.
Use of the Galician language Use of Galician splits by age, with over half of those over 45 indicating that Galician is their primary language, with lower numbers for the younger population. Those under 45 were more likely than those over 45 to answer that they never use Galician. Use of Galician also varies greatly depending on the regions and municipalities of Galicia. While in two areas of the
Province of A Coruña (
Costa da Morte and the Southeast) more than 90% of the population always or mostly speaks in Galician, only the 15.2% of the population does the same in the city of
Vigo. == Dialects ==