Galician Language - Dialects

Dialects

It is usually asserted that Galician possesses no real dialects. Despite this, Galician local varieties are collected in three main dialectal blocks, each block comprising a series of areas, being local linguistic varieties all mutually intelligible. Some of the main features which tells apart the three blocks are:

• The resolution of medieval nasalized vowels and hiatus: these hiatus turned sometimes into diphthongs in the east, whilst in the centre and west the vowels in the hiatus were sometimes assimilated. Later, in the eastern —with the exception of Ancarese Galician— and central blocks, the nasal trait was lost, whilst in the west the nasal trait usually developed into an implosive nasal consonant /ŋ/. In general, these led to important dialectal variability in the inflection in genre and number of words ended in a nasal consonant. So, from medieval irmão 'brother', ladrões 'robbers', irmãas 'sisters' we have eastern Galician irmao, ladrois, irmás; central Galician irmao, ladrós, irmás; western Galician irmán, ladróns, irmáns.

An exception to this rule is constituted by the hiatus in which the first vowel was a nasalized i or u. In those cases, a palatal /ɲ/ or a velar /ŋ/ antihiatical nasal was usually generated: űa 'a / one (fem.)' > unha (Portuguese uma), -ina > -îa - > -iña (Portuguese -inha). Nevertheless, in Ancarese and Asturian Galician, this process was not culminated: vecía vs. veciña '(female) neighbor' (Port. vizinha), ua vs. unha (Port. uma).

• The resolution of hiatus formed by oral vowels had similar developments, most notably those derived of the lost of /l/, which again had important consequence on the declension of words ended in /l/. So, Medieval Galician animaes 'animals' (sing. animal); central and western Galician animás; eastern Galician animais; Asturian Galician animales (/l/ is preserved).
• In the west, /ɡ/ is rendered as a fricative /ħ/, /h/ or /x/ (gheada), except after a nasal, where it can become a stop /k/.
• Stressed vowel metaphony is most notable in the west and centre, whilst in the east it is unknown. It is triggered by a final /o/, which tends to close open-mid vowels, or by a final /a/ which tend to open close-mid ones.
• There are three main sibilant systems, all derived from medieval Galician one, which were richer and more complex:
  • The common one, extended in the eastern and center regions, presents an opposition /ʃ/ – /s/ – /θ/. In westernmost areas the opposition of /s/ and /θ/ is lost in postnuclear position, in the coda, being both produced /s/.
  • In the coastal western areas the opposition is /ʃ/ – /s/, /s/ being produced in some regions as a laminal or in some others as an apical. Sometimes this system is even further reduced to just a single /s/. On the other hand, in some areas final /s/ is produced as /ʃ/.
  • In the Limia Baixa region an old six sibilant system is still preserved, with voiced/voiceless opposition: /ʃ/ – /ʒ/; /z/ – /s/ (apical) and /s/ – /z/ (laminal).

Each dialectal area is then further defined by these and other more restricted traits or isoglosses:

• Eastern Galician: Asturian area (Eonavian), Ancares area, Zamora area and Central-Eastern area.
• Central Galician: Mindoniense area, Lucu-auriense area, Central Transitional area, and Eastern Transitional area.
• Western Galician: Bergantiños area, Fisterra area, Pontevedra area and Lower Limia area.

Standard Galician is usually based in Central Galician characteristics, but it also incorporates western and eastern traits and features.