The Development and Standardization of the Galician Language (Galego)

Pre-War Foundations of Galician Language (1906-1923)

Significant events occurred during the subsequent years:

• 1906: Foundation of the Real Academia Galega (Royal Galician Academy).
• 1916: Creation of the first Irmandades da Fala (Brotherhoods of the Language) in A Coruña. These associations sought to defend, diffuse, and promote the use of Galician. With them, Galician nationalism emerged, fostering a tendency to use the language systematically and exclusively for all types of writings.
• 1920: Creation of the magazine Nós, which gave its name to the group that founded it, defining a literary generation and a historical period of Galician culture.
• 1923: Constitution of the Seminario de Estudos Galegos (Seminar of Galician Studies) in Santiago de Compostela, reflecting the concerns of the academic sector in Galicia.

It is also important to highlight the appearance of many publications concerned with the resurgence of Galician, including the Boletín da Real Academia Galega, A Nosa Terra, El Pueblo Gallego, and Arquivos do Seminario de Estudos Galegos, alongside publishing houses such as Lar and Nós.

Key linguistic studies were undertaken, such as the Diccionario galego Castelo da AGR (Galician Dictionary of the RGA), elements of historical Galician grammar, the Galician-Castilian dictionary, and grammar of the Galician language.

The Standardization Process of Galician in the 20th Century

The 20th century marked the final phase of elaborating a definitive writing model for the Galician language. This model is connected to standard varieties and is based on the following criteria:

• Consideration of all historical stages of the language.
• Selection of aspects identified and used by the majority of native speakers.
• Morphological similarity and solidarity with other related languages (i.e., Portuguese/Castilian).

Pre-Standardization Tendencies (Pre-War Era)

During the pre-war stage, the prevailing tendency in Galician writings was to establish distance from Castilian (Spanish), confirming that the two languages were independent and distinct. This was manifested through:

• The aim of establishing a supradialectal Galician.
• The expulsion of Castilianisms.
• The choice of Portuguese as a model for literary tradition.
• The use of missing autochthonous forms, archaisms, lusismos (Portuguese influences), hipergaleguismos (over-corrections), and pseudo-evolutions.

Post-War and Pro-Standardization Stage

In the post-war stage, literary production in Galician increased. This period is also known as the Pro-Standardization phase, focusing on the creation of a unique linguistic standard. It was characterized by:

• Orthographic simplification.
• Hesitation between supradialectalism and vernacularism in morphology.
• A non-lexical purist tendency.

Contemporary Galician: Normalization and Standardization

Currently, the Galician language has changed remarkably and has become the object of extensive philological studies and research. Solutions are being found for deviations produced in previous stages that deteriorated the language. A stable standard has been achieved. This contemporary Galician is characterized by:

• Expungement of dialectal features.
• The requirement of purity and correctness.
• Adaptation of Galician to new areas of use.
• Normalization and standardization efforts.