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Reintegrationism ( Galician and pt, reintegracionismo; , ) is the
linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
and cultural movement in
Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...
which advocates for the unity of Galician and Portuguese as a single language. In other words, the movement postulates that Galician and Portuguese languages did not only share a common origin and literary tradition, but that they are in fact
variants Variant may refer to: In arts and entertainment * ''Variant'' (magazine), a former British cultural magazine * Variant cover, an issue of comic books with varying cover art * ''Variant'' (novel), a novel by Robison Wells * "The Variant", 2021 e ...
of the same language even today. According to this, Galicia should re-integrate into the
Community of Portuguese Language Countries The Community of Portuguese Language Countries ( Portuguese: ''Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa''; abbreviated as the CPLP), also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth (''Comunidade Lusófona''), is an international organization and pol ...
. The opposite view holds that Portuguese and Galician should be viewed as distinct languages, which is called Isolationism.


Controversy

There are two main views in Galicia about the Galician language: * The ''isolationist'' considers Galician and Portuguese to be two distinct languages, although they are 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 might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...
and its own traditional conventions, which converge with it in some aspects. This view is held by the majority of public and Government organizations. Its standard norm, the "NOMIGa", is elaborated by the (Royal Galician Academy) and the (Institute for Galician Language). : Among other criteria, isolationism argues that since the majority of the Galician population was educated in Spanish only (as official use of Galician was forbidden for centuries, especially in
Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...
), 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 is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
and colloquial speech. * The ''reintegrationist'' view considers Galician to be a variant of a shared
Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle ...
linguistic
diasystem In the field of dialectology, a diasystem or polylectal grammar is a linguistic analysis set up to encode or represent a range of related varieties in a way that displays their structural differences. The term ''diasystem'' was coined by linguis ...
, as evidenced by the common origin,
grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes doma ...
,
syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
,
vocabulary A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the ...
, morphology and overall high level of
mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as ...
. Therefore, reintegrationists support the use of spelling rules similar to the ones used in Portuguese-speaking countries. This is supported by the AGAL (Galician Association of the Language), Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language, Brazilian Academy of Letters,
Lisbon Academy of Sciences The Lisbon Academy of Sciences ( pt, Academia das Ciências de Lisboa) is Portugal's national academy dedicated to the advancement of sciences and learning, with the goal of promoting academic progress and prosperity in Portugal. It is one of Po ...
, and a number of civic and cultural associations both in Galicia and
Portuguese-speaking countries The Community of Portuguese Language Countries ( Portuguese: ''Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa''; abbreviated as the CPLP), also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth (''Comunidade Lusófona''), is an international organization and pol ...
. : In this fashion, it is argued that Galician would be faithful to its history and
etymology Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...
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 In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties a ...
). : Reintegrationism is a cultural stand as much as a linguistic position. Its supporters believe that Galicia rightfully belongs to
Lusophony Lusophones ( pt, Lusófonos) are peoples that speak Portuguese as a native or as common second language and nations where Portuguese features prominently in society. Comprising an estimated 270 million people spread across 10 sovereign countries a ...
since, in fact, modern Portuguese originated in what is today Galicia and northern Portugal (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 __NOTOC__ Luís Filipe Lindley Cintra (5 March 1925 – 18 August 1991) 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 t ...
,
Manuel Rodrigues Lapa Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * Manu ...
,
Fernando Venâncio Fernando Venâncio (Mértola, Portugal, born 1944) is a Portuguese born writer, intellectual, literary critic, linguist and academic. At present he holds Dutch nationality. Fernando Venâncio spent his childhood in Lisbon and completed his seconda ...
, 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 (Revival), in the nineteenth century, when Galician began to be systematically written again in Galicia 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 used officially. Hence, 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 a Spanish-based 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, 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
Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...
in 1975, and with the
Spanish transition to democracy Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries ** Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...
shortly afterwards, Galicia became an
autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...
with the Statute of Autonomy of 1981, with Galician as its official language (alongside Spanish). Establishing a fixed standard form then became urgent. Claims for Galician-Portuguese linguistic unity had already been produced, as evidenced with the (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 Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...
Professor
Ricardo Carballo Calero Ricardo Carballo Calero ( Ferrol, 1910 – Santiago de Compostela, 1990), self-styled as Ricardo Carvalho Calero from 1981 onward, was a Spanish philologist, academic and writer. He was the first Professor of Galician Language and Literature at ...
. These norms recommended a gradual approach to Portuguese, often allowing for a number of different solutions in the case of uncertainty. 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.


Practicalities

Reintegrationism accepts two possibilities for writing Galician: either adopting the standard Portuguese written norm or using a slightly modified norm following the recommendations of AGAL. In any case, reintegrationism 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 A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
, namely
colloquialisms Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conver ...
. In writing, the most obvious differences from the official norm (NOMIGa) are (according to AGAL): * Use of instead of the letter to represent the
palatal nasal The voiced 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 ...
sound. For example: ''caminho'' instead of ''camiño'' (way). * Use of instead of to represent the
velar nasal The voiced velar nasal, also known as agma, from the Greek word for 'fragment', is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is the sound of ''ng'' in English ''sing'' as well as ''n'' before velar consonants as in ''Englis ...
sound. For example: ''algumha'' instead of ''algunha''. * Use of the digraph instead of to represent the
palatal lateral The voiced 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 (not to be confused with lowercas ...
sound. For example: ''coelho'' instead of ''coello'' (rabbit) * Use of / and / instead of the suffix and . For example: ''associaçom''/''associação'' instead of ''asociación'' and ''associaçons''/''associações'' instead of ''asociacións'' (association, associations) * Preference for the use of suffixes and over and or even . For example: ''livraria'' instead of ''librería'' (bookshop); ''incrível'' instead of ''incrible'' or ''incríbel'' (incredible) * Use of between vowels, when appropriate, instead of the simplified for all cases. For example: ''associação'' instead of ''asociación'' * Use of either , or preceding or , according to the etymology of the word, instead of for all cases. For example: ''hoje'' instead of ''hoxe'' (today), ''geral'' instead of ''xeral'' (general), but ''exército'' as in ''exército'' (army) * Use of instead of 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 Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
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 The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...
(such as
José Posada José Domingo Posada González (May 9, 1940 - January 14, 2013), of Galicia, Spain, was a member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999 and is the president of Galician Coalition (a regionalist political party now integrated in Commitment ...
,
Camilo Nogueira Camilo is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Camilo Albornoz (born 2000), Argentine footballer * Camilo Cascolan (born 1964), Filipino law enforcement officer * Camilo Castelo Branco, Portuguese writ ...
and
Xosé Manuel Beiras Xosé Manuel Hixinio Beiras Torrado (born 7 April 1936) 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. He is ...
) 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 The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
. 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 The Assembly of the Republic ( Portuguese: ''Assembleia da República'', ), commonly referred to as simply Parliament ( Portuguese: ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the parliame ...
when discussing the new spelling norms for Portuguese language.


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 Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...
" in the creation of the Galician norm. This being the philosophy behind the "official standard", NOMIGa and AGAL share an initial starting point, but it is often argued that the NOMIGa are far removed from the usual speech of day-to-day and older Galician speakers, in addition to "isolating" Galician (hence the term ''isolationist'') 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 is a group of specialized words and respective meanings in a particular field, and also the study of such terms and their use; the latter meaning is also known as terminology science. A ''term'' is a word, compound word, or multi-wo ...
and
neologisms A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...
.


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 independence, 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.Outeiro
, op. cit.


See also

* *
Castrapo Castrapo (a portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words
*
Community of Portuguese Language Countries The Community of Portuguese Language Countries ( Portuguese: ''Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa''; abbreviated as the CPLP), also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth (''Comunidade Lusófona''), is an international organization and pol ...
* Galician language *
Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle ...
* Partido da Terra *
Portuguese language Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, ...
*
Ricardo Carvalho Calero Ricardo Carballo Calero ( Ferrol, 1910 – Santiago de Compostela, 1990), self-styled as Ricardo Carvalho Calero from 1981 onward, was a Spanish philologist, academic and writer. He was the first Professor of Galician Language and Literature at ...
*
Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the ...
*
Spelling reform A spelling reform is a deliberate, often authoritatively sanctioned or mandated change to spelling rules. Proposals for such reform are fairly common, and over the years, many languages have undergone such reforms. Recent high-profile examples a ...


Notes

{{Reflist


Further reading


''Nova Proposta de Classificação dos Dialectos Galego-Portugueses''
Luís F. Lindley Cintra, in ''Boletim de Filologia'', 1971, Lisboa, Centro de Estudos Filológicos * ''A Galiza, o galego e Portugal'', Manoel Rodrigues Lapa, 1979, Sá da Costa, Lisboa * ''Estudo crítico das normas ortográficas e morfolóxicas do idioma galego'', AGAL 1983 and 1989, Corunha * ''Prontuário ortográfico galego'', AGAL, 1985, Corunha * ''Sobre o problema da Galiza, da sua cultura e seu idioma'', Manoel Rodrigues Lapa, in ''Agália'' no. 29, 1992
''A língua portuguesa da Galiza''
compiled for students of Portuguese language at
University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one o ...
, Xoán M. Paredes, 2006
''"I see my language everywhere": On linguistic relationship between Galicia and Portugal''
Fernando Venâncio (conference), 2006
''O conflicto ortográfico do galego no CMI Galiza''
2006
''Reintegracionismo lingüístico: identidade e futuro para o galego''
from the magazine ''Voz Própria'', 2007

Júlio César Barreto Rocha, Universidade Federal da Rondônia, (date unknown; 2000?)


External links


''Associaçom Galega da Língua''''Movimento Defesa da Língua''''Associação de Amizade Galiza-Portugal''''Irmandades da Fala da Galiza e Portugal''''ADIGAL''
– reintegracionist association in Argentina
''Academia Galega da Língua Portuguesa''
Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language
''Novas da Galiza''
– newspaper in AGAL norm
''FAQ do Reintegracionismo''
– "FAQ on Reintegracionism", b
Gentalha do PichelConference by Professor Martinho Monteiro Santalha
where he argues for the linguistic unity of Galician and Portuguese – from minute 04:09
''Amostra comparativa''
– comparison between Galician, Portuguese and Brazilian-Portuguese pronunciation (with sound files)
''Reportagem sobre a língua galega''
– short documentary about Galician language on Portuguese national television ( RTP); 8:21 total running time Galician language Portuguese language Spelling reform Sociolinguistics