Galicia

From: Bruno Oliveira Maroneze
Message: 3717
Date: 2000-09-15

Hello all,
Final N is pronounced in Galician. I asked if intervocalic N is dropped,
like in portuguese. An example: lat. luna > port. lua; lat. germanus >
port. irmão (with nasalization). I read in a galician text the word
"alemana" (german female); in portuguese it is "alemã". I wish to know if
there are more examples, or it is a unique case.
About the status of language for the galician: it was considered a spanish
dialect, but it isn't. If it is a dialect (I don't think so), it is a
portuguese dialect. One of the greatest portuguese philologists, Lindley
Cintra, thinks galician is in fact a portuguese dialect. The confusion is
due to the fact that Galicia is in spanish territory.
Bye,
Bruno

>Welcome to the list, Bruno!
>
>I'm just back from Santiago de Compostela. Final /n/ is doing fine in
Galicia, just as you think. For example, the Galego version of "Juan" is
Xoan, with the /n/ pronounced, though my impression is that most speakers
velarise their final nasals especially before a pause or a word beginning
with a vowel, so that Xoan may actually sound like "shuang".
>
>While in Santiago, I learnt lots of interesting things about Galician, one
of the least known officially recognised languages of Europe.
>
>Piotr
>

>I didn't know it had the status of a full language. I've always heard it
described as a 'Spanish dialect', even by a co-worker I had, whose parents
were Gallegos.