Galician-Portuguese

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Galician-Portuguese (also known as galego-português or galaico-português in Portuguese and as galego-portugués or galaico-portugués in Galician) was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was spoken at first from the Bay of Biscay to the Douro River, but it expanded South with the Christian Reconquest.

1 Galician-Portuguese language
2 Galician-Portuguese Culture and Oral Traditions
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Galician-Portuguese language

It is believed that by the year 600 A.D. Vulgar Latin was no longer spoken in the Iberian Peninsula and a romance form of Galician-Portuguese was already spoken in Gallaecia. In the IX century Galician-Portuguese was the spoken language of the northwest part of the Iberian Peninsula. The oldest known document (found in Portugal) that already has some words in Galician-Portuguese, though otherwise composed in Late Latin, is called Doação à Igreja de Sozello and was written in the year 870 A.D.. Another document from 882 A.D. also writen with some words in Galician-Portuguese is the Carta de dotação e fundação da Igreja de S. Miguel de Lardosa. In fact, many Latin documents written in Portuguese territory contain Romance forms (see Norman P. Sacks, The Latinity of Dated Documents in the Portuguese Territory, Philadelphia: University of Pennsyvlania, 1941). The Notícia de fiadores, written in 1175, is thought by some to be the oldest known document written in Galician-Portuguese. The Pacto dos irmãos Pais, recently discovered (and possibly dating from before 1173), has been said to be even older. But despite the enthusiasm of some scholars, it has been argued (by Ivo Castro, Introdução à História do Português. Geografia da Língua. Português Antigo. [Lisbon: Colibri, 2004], pp. 121-125, and by A. Emiliano, cited by Castro) that neither of these documents can really be said to be written in Galician-Portuguese; they are written in a mixture of Late Latin and Galician-Portuguese phonology, morphology and syntax . The Noticia de Torto of uncertain date (c. 1214?) and the Testamento de D. Afonso II (27 June 1214) are most certainly Portuguese. And the earliest poetic texts (though not the manuscripts in which they are found) date from c. 1195 - c. 1225. So by the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th there are documents in prose and verse written in the local Romance vernacular (for the above mentioned texts with transcriptions, see links below, especially the link to The Oldest Texts Written in Portuguese).

Galician-Portuguese had a special cultural role in the literature of the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, compararable to that of Occitan in France and Italy during the same historical period. The main extant sources of Galician-Portuguese lyric are:

The four extant manuscripts of the Cantigas de Santa Maria
Cancioneiro de Ajuda
Cancioneiro da Vaticana
Cancioneiro Colocci-Brancuti, also known as Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional (Lisbon)

The language was used for literary purposes from the final years of the 12th century until roughly the middle of the 14th century in what are now Spain and Portugal and was, almost without exception, the only language used for the composition of lyric poetry. Over 160 poets are recorded, of whom one might mention a few in particular: Bernal de Bonaval, Pero da Ponte, Johan Garcia de Guilhade, Johan Airas de Santiago, and Pedr'Amigo de Sevilha. The main 'secular' poetic genres were the cantigas d'amor (male-voiced love lyric), the cantigas d'amigo (female-voiced love lyric) and the cantigas d'escarnho e de mal dizer (mainly personal insult). All told, nearly 1,700 poems survive in these three genres. And there is a corpus of over 400 cantigas de Santa Maria (narrative poems about miracles and hymns in honor of the Holy Virgin). The Castilian king Alfonso X composed his Cantigas de Santa Maria and his Cantigas de Escarnio e Maldizer in Galician-Portuguese, even though he used Castilian for prose. King Dinis of Portugal, who also contributed (with 137 extant texts, more than any other author) to the secular poetic genres, made Portuguese the official language in 1290. Until then Latin had been the official (written) language for royal documents; the spoken language did not have a name, being simply known as Língua Vulgar ("common language" or Vulgar Latin) until it was named "Portuguese" in King Dinis' reign. "Galician-Portuguese" and Português Arcaico (Old Portuguese), are modern terms for the common ancestor of modern Portuguese and modern Galician. Compared to the differences in ancient Greek dialects, the alleged differences between 13th century Portuguese and Galician are trivial.

As a result of political isolation, Galician-Portuguese lost its unity when Portugal and Galicia found themselves under different ruling dynasties. The Galician version of the language followed an independent evolution and became influenced by Spanish, which still happens today. Two of the most important cities at the time, Braga and Porto, lie in Portuguese territory, while Santiago de Compostela was already a separate entity before the independence of Portugal. Galician was preserved in Galicia because those who spoke it were rural or 'uneducated', while Spanish was taught as the only "correct" language. Galician was only officially recognized in Spain in the late 20th century, after the Franco regime ended.

The linguistic division (or not) of Galician and Portuguese is still discussed today; there are those, mostly a minority among Galician nationalist groups, who demand their reunification, as well as Portuguese and Galician philologists who believe that both are dialects of the same language. Galician is still spoken by more than three million people in Galicia, while Portuguese continues to grow in use, and today is the sixth most spoken language in the world.

[edit] Galician-Portuguese Culture and Oral Traditions

The Galician-Portuguese region is a territory that encompasses Galicia and Northern Portugal, a region where can be found many forms of a common culture, a common folklore. The Galician-Portuguese Oral Traditions were proposed as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by a joint candidacy of the governments of Portugal and Spain in 2005. The work to document and transmit the common culture involves several schools, universities and organizations.

The Galician-Portuguese folklore is very rich in oral traditions which include the “cantigas ao desafio” or “regueifas”, improvised duels of sung poems, a varied number of legends, stories, sung poems, romances, folk songs, sayings and riddles and the ways of speech that still retain a lexical, phonetic, morphological and syntactic similitude.

Also part of the common heritage of oral traditions are the markets and festivals of patron saints and processions, religious celebrations such as the "magusto", "Entrudo" or Corpus Christi with ancient dances and tradition like the one where Côca the dragon fights with saint George; The traditional clothing, and adornments, crafts' skills, working tools, carved vegetable lanterns, superstitions, ancient knowledge about plants and animals. All makes part of a common heritage that is considered in danger of extinction as the traditional way of living is substituted by modern life, and the jargon used by fisherman, even the name of tools in traditional crafts or the oral traditions that are part of the celebrations are slowly forgotten.

[edit] References

Manuscripts containing Galician-Portuguese ('secular') lyric (cited from Cohen 2003 [see below under critical editions]):

A = “Cancioneiro da Ajuda”, Palácio Real da Ajuda (Lisbon).

B = Biblioteca Nacional (Lisbon), cod. 10991.

Ba = Bancroft Library (University of California, Berkeley) 2 MS DP3 F3 (MS UCB 143)

N = Pierpont Morgan Library (New York), MS 979 (= PV).

S = Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (Lisbon), Capa do Cart. Not. de Lisboa, N.º 7-A, Caixa 1, Maço 1, Livro 3.

V = Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, cod. lat. 4803.

Va = Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, cod. lat. 7182, ff. 276rº - 278rº

Manuscripts containing the Cantigas de Santa Maria:

E = Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo (El Escorial), MS B. I. 2.

F = Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (Florence), Banco Rari 20.

T = Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo (El Escorial), MS T. I. 1.

To = Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid), cod. 10.069 (“El Toledano”)

Critical editions of individual genres of Galician-Portuguese poetry (note that the cantigas d'amor are split between Michaëlis 1904 and Nunes 1932):

Cohen, Rip (2003). 500 Cantigas d’ Amigo: Edição Crítica / Critical Edition(Porto: Campo das Letras).

Lapa, Manuel Rodrigues (1970). Cantigas d’escarnho e de mal dizer dos cancioneiros medievais galego-portugueses. Edição crítica pelo prof. –. 2nd ed. Vigo: Editorial Galaxia [1st. ed. Coimbra, Editorial Galaxia, 1965] with “Vocabulário”).

Mettmann, Walter (1959-1972). Afonso X, o Sabio. Cantigas de Santa Maria. 4 vols [“Glossário”, in vol. 4]. Coimbra: Por ordem da Universidade (rpt. 2 vols. [“Glossário” in vol. 2] Vigo: Edicións Xerais de Galicia, 1981; 2nd ed.: Alfonso X, el Sabio, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Edición, introducción y notas de –. 3 vols. Madrid: Clásicos Castália, 1986-1989).

Michaëlis de Vasconcellos, Carolina (1904). Cancioneiro da Ajuda. Edição critica e commentada por –. 2 vols. Halle a.S., Max Niemeyer (rpt. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional - Casa de Moeda, 1990).

Nunes, José Joaquim (1932). Cantigas d’amor dos trovadores galego-portugueses. Edição crítica acompanhada de introdução, comentário, variantes, e glossário por –. Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade (Biblioteca de escritores portugueses) (rpt. Lisboa: Centro do Livro Brasileiro, 1972).

On the biography and chronology of the poets and the courts they frequented, the relation of these matters to the internal structure of the manuscript tradition, and myriad relevant questions in the field, please see:

Oliveira, António Resende de (1987). “A cultura trovadoresca no ocidente peninsular: trovadores e jograis galegos”, Biblos LXIII: 1-22.

____ (1988). “Do Cancioneiro da Ajuda ao Livro das Cantigas do Conde D. Pedro. Análise do acrescento à secção das cantigas de amigo de O”, Revista de História das Ideias 10: 691-751.

____ (1989). “A Galiza e a cultura trovadoresca peninsular”, Revista de História das Ideias 11: 7-36.

____ (1993). “A caminho de Galiza. Sobre as primeiras composições em galego-português”, in O Cantar dos Trobadores. Santiago de Compostela: Xunta de Galicia, pp. 249-260 (rpt. in Oliveira 2001b: 65-78).

____ (1994). Depois do Espectáculo Trovadoresco. a estrutura dos cancioneiros peninsulares e as recolhas dos séculos XIII e XIV. Lisboa: Edições Colibri (Colecção: Autores Portugueses).

____(1995). Trobadores e Xograres. Contexto histórico. (tr. Valentín Arias) Vigo: Edicións Xerais de Galicia (Universitaria / Historia crítica da literatura medieval).

____ (1997a). “Arqueologia do mecenato trovadoresco em portugal”, in Actas do 2º Congresso Histórico de Guimarães, 319-327 (rpt. in Oliveira 2001b: 51-62).

____ (1997b). “História de uma despossessão. A nobreza e os primeiros textos em galego-português”, in Revista de História das Ideias 19: 105-136.

____ (1998a). “Le surgissement de la culture troubadouresque dans l’occident de la Péninsule Ibérique (I). Compositeurs et cours”, in (Anton Touber, ed.) Le Rayonnement des Troubadours, Amsterdam, pp. 85-95 (Internationale Forschungen zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft) (Port. version in Oliveira 2001b: 141-170).

____ (1998b). “Galicia trobadoresca”, in Anuario de Estudios Literarios Galegos 1998: 207-229 (Port. Version in Oliveira 2001b: 97-110).

____ (2001a). Aventures i Desventures del Joglar Gallegoportouguès (tr. Jordi Cerdà). Barcelona: Columna (La Flor Inversa, 6).

____ (2001b). O Trovador galego-português e o seu mundo. Lisboa: Notícias Editorial (Colecção Poliedro da História).

For Galician-Portuguese prose, the reader might begin with:

Cintra, Luís F. Lindley (1951-1990). Crónica Geral de Espanha de 1344. Edição crítica do texto português pelo –. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa de Moeda (vol. I 1951 [1952; rpt. 1983]; vol II 1954 [rpt. 1984]; vol. III 1961 [rpt. 1984], vol. IV 1990) (Academia Portuguesa da História. Fontes Narrativas da História Portuguesa).

Lorenzo, Ramón (1977). La traduccion gallego de la Cronica General y de la Cronica de Castilla. Edición crítica anotada, con introduccion, índice onomástico e glosario. 2 vols. Orense: Instituto de Estudios Orensanos ‘Padre Feijoo’.

There is no up-do-date historical grammar of Galician-Portuguese. But see:

Huber, Joseph (1933). Altportugiesisches Elementarbuch. Heidelberg: Carl Winter (Sammlung romanischer Elementar- und Händbucher, I, 8) (Port tr. [by Maria Manuela Gouveia Delille] Gramática do Português Antigo. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1986).

A recent work centered on Galician containing information on medieval Galician-Portuguese is:

Ferreiro, Manuel. (2001). Gramática Histórica Galega, 2 vols. [2nd ed.], Santiago de Compostela: Laiovento.

An old reference work centered on Portuguese is:

Williams, Edwin B. (1962). From Latin to Portuguese. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (1st ed. Philadelphia, 1938).

Latin Lexica:

Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus. Lexique Latin Médiévale-Francais/Anglais. A Medieval Latin-French/English Dictionary. composuit J. F. Niermeyer, perficiendum curavit C. van de Kieft. Abbreviationes et index fontium composuit C. van de Kieft, adiuvante G. S. M. M. Lake-Schoonebeek. Leiden-New York-Köln: E. J. Brill 1993 (1st ed. 1976).

Oxford Latin Dictionary. ed. P. G. W. Glare. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1983.

Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin:

Michael Weiss, Outline of the Comparative Grammar of Latin (forthcoming). Ann Arbor, MI: Beechstave Press.

On the early documents cited from late 12th century please see Ivo Castro, Introdução à História do Português. Geografia da Língua. Português Antigo. (Lisbon: Colibri, 2004), pp. 121-125 (with references).