GALICIAN: a language of Spain

The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.

SIL code: GLN

ISO 639-1: gl

ISO 639-2: glg

Population	3,173,400 in Spain, 8.2% of the population (1986). Population total both countries 4,000,000 (1999 WA).
Region	Northwest Spain, Autonomous Region of Galicia. Also spoken in Portugal.
Alternate names	GALEGO, GALLEGO
Classification	Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Ibero-Romance, West Iberian, Portuguese-Galician.
Comments	Galician is between Portuguese and Spanish, but closer to Portuguese. Portuguese has about 85% intelligibility to speakers of Galician (R.A. Hall, Jr., 1989). Many dialects. Bilingualism in Spanish. There is an Academy of the Galician Language. It has had many decades of development as a language of serious literature, including poetry, essays on novel, ideological, philosophical, and sociological topics, and for all levels of education, including higher education. A growing sense of ethnic identity and of the Galician language. Investigation needed: intelligibility with dialects on the border with Asturian. Official language. Bible 1989-1992.

Also spoken in:

Portugal

Language name	GALICIAN
Population	15,000 in Tras Os Montes (1994 D. and N. Burns).
Alternate names	GALEGO, GALLEGO
Comments	Galician is between Portuguese and Spanish, but closer to Portuguese. There is an Academy of the Galician Language. There is tension between those in Tras Os Montes Portugal and Spain over dialect differences and identity. There is tension between those in Tras Os Montes Portugal and Spain over orthography. Bible 1989-1992. See main entry under Spain.