Title

World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Spain : Galicians

Publisher

Minority Rights Group International

Publication Date

2008

Cite as

Minority Rights Group International, World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Spain : Galicians, 2008, available at:
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/49749ca92d.html [accessed 3 September 2010]

World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Spain : Galicians

Profile

Galicia, in the far north-west of Spain consists of four provinces (La Coruña, Lugo, Orense and
Pontevedra). The capital is Santiago de Compostela, a place of pilgrimage for Christians and, in the past,
Muslims. Galician is also spoken in the Franxa Exterior, on border of Asturias and Castilla-León. More
than 90 per cent of the 2.8 million Galicians and half of the 70,000 in Franxa Exterior speak Galego
(Galician), which is closer to Portuguese than Spanish. Another 550,000 Galician-speakers live elsewhere
in Spain, in Europe and Latin America. Galician is an official language. Galician-speakers also speak
Castilian Spanish. The present language dates from the tenth century and is a combination of Latin and
Celtic language, with Germanic and Arabic influences. Its recent standardization has caused further
change, as it adapts to the modern world. Culture includes the playing of bagpipes and a tradition of
lyric poetry.

Long one of Spain's poorest regions, the landowning patterns prevalent in Galicia have resulted in a
highly dispersed and impoverished rural population. Agriculture and services are the main occupations.
There has been steady emigration since the 1950s, but also migration within the region to the more
developed coastal areas of La Coruña and Pontevedra.

Historical context

Galicia has some Roman and Moorish influence, but was too remote to be dominated by these invaders.
It was an independent kingdom in the tenth and eleventh centuries, but from the thirteenth century it
was ruled by Castile. Until the mid-fourteenth century Galician was the administrative, judicial, social
and business language. But Castilian replaced it in public life. The region was neglected and
impoverished by the system of feudal privileges, the last of which were only abolished in 1973. There
was a cultural revival from the nineteenth century and literature flourished. The Real Academia da
Lingua Galega was founded in 1904 to standardize the language, but it did not complete its work.
Regional political autonomy was approved by the government of the Second Republic in 1931 but was cut
short by the Civil War from 1936. The Franco regime, which emerged victorious from the Civil War in
1939, centralized power and heavily suppressed the Galician language.

Industrialization in the 1950s coincided with the expansion of education and of the Castilian media,
breaking the hold of Galician on the mainly rural community.

The Galician Autonomy Statute of 1981 established the autonomous region of Galicia with its own
policies, laws, judiciary and supreme court. Galician was recognized as an official language of Galicia
together with Castilian. The Galician government guarantees its use in all areas of activity and promotes
knowledge of the language. Linguistic standards were published in 1982 and the Language
Standardization Act was passed in 1983. The Act specifies that standards will be set by the Real
Academia Galega. It also requires the Galician government to take part in the process of linguistic
standardization in the Franxa Exterior and in offering cultural and linguistic services to Galician
emigrants. However, the autonomy laws of Asturias and Castile-León, the regions which govern Franxa
Exterior, make no reference to the Galician language.

Also in 1983 Radio Televisión Galega was set up, and Galician has been taught in schools from the 1983/4
academic year.

The Bloque Nacionalista Galego (Galician Nationalist Party) wants independence for Galicia. It won 17
seats in the Galician Parliament in the 2001 elections, making it the second largest party ahead of the
Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE). In the 2005 elections they lost four seats, lagged behind the PSOE but
formed a coalition government with the socialists, their first experience in government.

Current issues

Galician is spoken more in the rural areas, among older and poorer people. Very few town dwellers claim
Galician as their mother tongue, although most can understand it and over 90 per cent speak it.
Bilingualism has taken over. Galician is required for jobs in the public sector but not in the private
sector. However, little is apparently done to ensure that civil servants posted to Galicia from elsewhere
are familiar with the Galician language. The majority of Galicians marry other Galician-speakers, which
offers hope for the language. Galician taught in schools since 1983 is having an effect on the new
generation of young adults, who are beginning to give it a revival.

Galician and Castilian are compulsory in school, in teacher training and adult education. The three
universities of the region offer courses, conduct research and publish in Galician.

Institutional advertising is mostly done in Galician. The commercials broadcast by the Galician
Government-run media are exclusively in Galician on radio and partly in Galician on television. The
advertising broadcast by national state-owned channels and private channels is entirely in Castilian.

The daily press in Galicia is largely in Castilian, the Galician element amounting usually to only 5 per
cent of the total copy. There are four daily newspapers, La Voz de Galicia, Xornal de Galicia, El Correo
Galego and Faro de Vigo. Galician is limited to certain types of article – reviews of regional culture,

opinion pieces, radio and television programmes, death notices, etc. Under an agreement signed in 1991,
the Galician government offers grants to newspapers and Galician press agencies with a view to raising
the profile of Galician, but the results have not been spectacular.

There are several weekly, monthly and quarterly magazines and journals published entirely in Galician
on topics including culture, economics, religious life and the environment.

The Galician broadcasting authority's radio station, Radio Galega, broadcasts 24 hours a day in Galician
to some 152,000 listeners. Radio Nacional de España has two stations and commercial radio three
stations which broadcast programmes in Galician for a few hours per week. Around ten local radio
stations broadcast entirely in Galician while others put out some Galician programmes.

Televisión de Galicia (TVG) transmits programmes almost entirely in Galician for about 100 hours per
week. One channel of public broadcaster Televisión Española puts out several hours a week in Galician.
One of the three commercial TV channels transmits occasional special reports in Galician. Some local
television stations also offer programmes in Galician.

There are some accounting and library-management computer programs in Galician. The word-processing
package WordPerfect offers a spellcheck option in Galician, financed by the regional government.

The book publishing sector mainly produces school textbooks, children's books, poetry, stories and
novels. The number of translations of foreign works is on the increase.

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