Reintegrationism
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The term reintegrationism (reintegracionismo) refers to the linguistic and cultural movement in Galicia which defends the unity of Galician and Portuguese as a single language. In other words, it postulates that Galician and Portuguese languages did not only share a common origin and literary tradition, but that they are in fact variants of the same language today. According to this, Galicia should officially "re-integrate" into the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.

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

Among other criteria, isolacionism argues that since the majority of the Galician population was initially educated in Spanish only (as official use of Galician was forbidden for centuries, namely 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 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.


In this fashion, it is argued that Galician would be faithful to its history and etymology 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 isolacionist norm (for example in terms of accentuation).

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 [2]. 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, Manuel Rodrigues Lapa, Fernando Venâncio, Carlos Reis or Malaca Casteleiro have expressed their agreement with the reintegrationist views.[1]

Genesis of the debate

The divergences between isolacionism and reintegracionism can be traced back to the time of the Galician Rexurdimento (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: inferring it from the Medieval forms; using the Spanish spelling which was already known to all; or 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[2]. The reality was that until the 1980s Galician was often written using a mix of the three options.

To those who say that gentes is not properly spelled. Written with a g (...) I can only beg them to wait and give time to time.

—Xoán Manuel Pintos, A gaita galega, 1853

Galician is a wide-spread and useful language which - with small variations - is spoken in Brazil, Portugal and in the Portuguese colonies.

—Castelao, Sempre en Galiza, 1944

Yet, with the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1977, Galicia became an autonomous community with Galician as its official language (alongside with 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 (Manifest for the survival of Galician Culture), first published in 1974.[3] Still, the first draft of the language norms was produced in 1979 under the guidance of linguist Professor Ricardo Carvalho Calero. 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-isolacionist, until today.[4]

Practicalities

Reintegrationism currently accepts two possibilities for the writing of Galician: adopting the standard Portuguese written norm or else using a slightly modified norm following the recommendations of AGAL. 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 evident differences from the official norm (NOMIGa) are (according to AGAL):

  • Use of nh instead of the letter ñ to represent the palatal nasal sound. For example: caminho instead of camiño (way)
  • Use of the digraph lh instead of ll to represent 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) - NB. all with the same pronunciation
  • 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)
  • Avoidance of specific lexical choices (namely colloquialisms) introduced by Spanish


Despite the reintegrationist norm not being "official", it has been recognized as acceptable in courts of lawcitation needed. Furthermore, Galician members of the European Parliament (such as José Posada, Camilo Nogueira or Xosé Manuel Beiras) have used spoken Galician when addressing the chamber and have used standard Portuguese writing to encode their Galician talk, and in all cases this has been accepted by the Parliament as a valid form of Portuguese, that is, an official language of the European Union.[5][6][7]

Furthermore, members of Galician reintegracionist associations have been regularly present at the 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 for Portuguese language.[8]

The local government of Corcubión (a Galician municipality) was the first public institution to officially use the AGAL norm, as seen in its website [3], 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 isolacionists and reintegrationists as a primary source from which to extract scientific and technical terminology 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, yet this is often considered a simplification. Likewise, different political groups and parties have adopted different approaches to the "isolacionism vs reintegracionism" polemic[9]. Broadly speaking, pro-independence groups have traditionally expressed a greater support for the reintegracionist norm, while others have adopted the isolacionist. In any case, all the linguistic organizations behind both reintegracionism and isolacionism 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.[10][11][12]

Notes

  1. ^ On the opening of the Galician Academy for Portuguese Language. Access date 8 October 2008
  2. ^ Selected quotes of Castelao and other Galician classics, commenting on Galician language and politics
  3. ^ Manifesto para a supervivência da cultura galega, published in 1974, probably written originally circa 1971-72
  4. ^ Biography of Carvalho Calero, explaining the development of the language norm and his implication in it
  5. ^ O galego já é oficial na Uniom Europeia, by José Manuel Barbosa, 2004
  6. ^ O galego na União Europea, sound file, by Camilo Nogueira, Celso Álvarez Cáccamo et al., 2004
  7. ^ Interview to Manuel Garcia: "I spoke Galician in the European Parliament", 2005
  8. ^ Presença galega no parlamento português na comunicaçom social, 2008
  9. ^ Reintegracioniso e nacionalismo hoje, by José Manuel Outeiro
  10. ^ O reintegracionismo deve rachar com a imagem de marginalidade e seitarismo, Forum da Língua, 2004
  11. ^ Interview to Maurício Castro: O conhecimento e interesse polo reintegracionismo está hoje mais estendido socialmente, 2006
  12. ^ Outeiro, op. cit.

Further reading

External links

See also
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