Reintegrationism (reintegracionismo, , ), or Lusism, is a linguistics movement in Galicia that advocates for the recognition of Galician and varieties of the Portuguese language as a single language. Reintegrationists argue that the different dialects of Galician and Portuguese should be classified as part of the Galician-Portuguese language, rather than two languages within a common branch. The largest reintegrationist association is the Galician Language Association (AGAL).
Background
The reintegrationists also claim that the official orthography of the Galician language, regulated by the Royal Galician Academy, is too Castilianized and artificially separates it from the northern varieties of Portuguese. However, the Spanish influence on Galician dates back to centuries prior to standardization, namely the Dark Centuries, when Galician lost its official recognition and stopped being a written language, thus becoming the spoken language of the lower classes in the region. During the
Rexurdimento, many Galician authors initially found that they did not know how to write Galician, since it did not have a standard form yet. The current Galician grammar is thought to have been influenced by the
Spanish grammar one since it could have been seen as a crucial step for recognition within the Spanish state.
The Galician Language Association (Reintegrationist Galician: Associaçom Galega da Língua) was founded in 1981 under the name " Estudo crítico das normativas ortográficas e morfolóxicas do idioma galego" and officially published its own standard grammar in 1983, which closely resembles the grammar of Old Galician-Portuguese and thus the modern varieties of Portuguese. The main goal of the association is to reinsert Galician, especially in its written form, in a Galician–Portuguese–Brazilian diasystem.
Practicalities
In writing, the most obvious differences from the official norm (NOMIGa) are (according to AGAL):
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Use of instead of the letter to represent the palatal nasal sound. For example: cami nho instead of cami ño (way).
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Use of instead of to represent the velar nasal sound. For example: algu mha instead of algu nha.
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Use of the digraph instead of to represent the palatal lateral sound. For example: coe lho instead of coe llo (rabbit)
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Use of / and / instead of the suffix and . For example: associa çom /associação instead of asocia ción and associaçons/ associa ções instead of asociacións (association, associations)
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Preference for the use of suffixes and over and or even . For example: livr aria instead of librería (bookshop); incrí vel instead of incrible or incrí bel (incredible)
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Use of between vowels, when appropriate, instead of the simplified for all cases. For example: a ssociação instead of a sociación
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Use of either , or preceding or , according to the etymology of the word, instead of for all cases. For example: ho je instead of ho xe (today), g eral instead of xeral (general), but e xército as in e xército (army)
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Use of instead of at the end of a word. For example: so m instead of son (sound)
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Use of a wider range of accentuation signs instead of the simplified single stroke. For example: portugu ês instead of portugu és (Portuguese), coment ário instead of coment ario (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.
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Avoidance of specific lexical choices introduced by Spanish language
Galician members of the European Parliament (such as José Posada, Camilo Nogueira and Xosé Manuel Beiras) 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.[ O galego já é oficial na União Europeia, by José Manuel Barbosa, 2004][ O galego na União Europea, sound file, by Camilo Nogueira, Celso Álvarez Cáccamo et al., 2004][ Interview to Manuel Garcia: "I spoke Galician in the European Parliament" , 2005]
Furthermore, members of Galician reintegrationist associations have been regularly present at meetings of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. In 2008, Galician delegates were invited as speakers to the Portuguese Parliament when discussing the new spelling norms for the Portuguese language.[ Presença galega no parlamento português na comunicaçom social , 2008]
Controversy
The majority of the Galician population was educated in Spanish only (as official use of Galician was rare or even absent for centuries,
[Freitas, M.P. (2008). A represión linguística en Galiza no S.XX. Ed. Xerais.]especially in
Francoist Spain).
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 isolationist norm (for example in terms of stress).[ Accentuation section on the 'Critical Study' to the ILG-RAG norm, by AGAL . Access date 1 September 2011][ Article about the 'Continuum' of the norms in Galicia. Access date 1 September 2011]
A number of Portuguese 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.[ On the opening of the Galician Academy for Portuguese Language. Access date 8 October 2008]
Genesis of the debate
Authors such as Castelao, among others, stated that Galician should gradually merge with Portuguese, namely in its written form.
[ Selected quotes of Castelao and other Galician classics , commenting on Galician language and politics][ Selected quotes Galician classics on Reintegrationism and the Galician-Portuguese issue , commenting on Galician language and politics]
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.[ Biography of Carvalho Calero , explaining the development of the language norm and his implication in it]
See also
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Castrapo
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Community of Portuguese Language Countries
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Galician language
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Galician Language Association
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Galician-Portuguese
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Land Party
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Portuguese language
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Ricardo Carvalho Calero
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Spelling reform
Notes
Further reading
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Nova Proposta de Classificação dos Dialectos Galego-Portugueses, Luís F. Lindley Cintra, in Boletim de Filologia, 1971, Lisboa, Centro de Estudos Filológicos.
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A Galiza, o galego e Portugal, Manoel Rodrigues Lapa, 1979, Sá da Costa, Lisboa.
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Estudo crítico das normas ortográficas e morfolóxicas do idioma galego, AGAL 1983 and 1989, Corunha.
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Prontuário ortográfico galego, AGAL, 1985, Corunha.
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Sobre o problema da Galiza, da sua cultura e seu idioma, Manoel Rodrigues Lapa, in Agália no. 29, 1992.
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A língua portuguesa da Galiza, compiled for students of Portuguese language at University College Cork, Xoán M. Paredes, 2006.
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"I see my language everywhere": On linguistic relationship between Galicia and Portugal, Fernando Venâncio (conference), 2006.
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O conflicto ortográfico do galego no CMI Galiza, 2006.
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Reintegracionismo lingüístico: identidade e futuro para o galego from the magazine Voz Própria, 2007.
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O Brasil fala a língua galega , Júlio César Barreto Rocha, Universidade Federal da Rondônia, (date unknown; 2000?).
External links
