Evolution of the Galician Language from Vulgar Latin
Origins of the Galician Language
Galician, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Provençal, Italian, Romanian, and others are Romance languages. These are geographic varieties of Vulgar Latin (spoken Latin). Galician is the result of the evolution of Vulgar Latin in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.
Key Linguistic Concepts
- Substrate: We call the substrate the influence of a native or indigenous language (which is eventually replaced) over another language deployed in the same territory.
- Adstratum: We talk about adstratum to refer to the reciprocal influence between neighboring languages or those that live in the same territory.
- Superstratum: We call superstratum the influence exerted on an aboriginal language by an invasive tongue.
The Pre-Roman Period
Under the name of the pre-Roman period, we encompass the centuries preceding the arrival of Latin culture in our land. Their languages are generically called pre-Roman or pre-Romanic languages. The arrival of the Romans in the peninsula marks the beginning of a process of cultural assimilation.
The pre-Roman substrate, i.e., the set of traces left by indigenous pre-Roman languages, notably influenced the peculiar "accent" of Latin used in different parts of Hispania. These pre-Roman languages left traces in the toponymy and lexicon.
Attributable traces of the pre-Roman substrate include:
- The maintenance of the root carr- and root cos- (cause).
- The suffixes -asco-, -usco-, and -ego-.
- Toponyms ending in -obre, -apen, and -ebre.
The Romanization Process
We call Romanization or Latinization the historical process of assimilation and incorporation of the Iberian world into the Roman cultural sphere. This process extends from the arrival of the Roman legions (3rd–2nd century BC) to the disintegration of the Roman Empire (5th century).
Romanization was a gradual process that was not realized simultaneously across the peninsula. In Gallaecia, we recognize three stages within this cultural assimilation:
- By the end of the first century BC: Characterized by the hostility of the attacking people.
- From 29 BC to the third century of our era: The indigenous population commenced to express their desire to aspire to Roman citizenship. The earliest inscriptions in Latin appear in Gallaecia.
- From the 3rd century onwards: The final establishment of Vulgar Latin as the sole official language throughout the territory, from which Galician arose.
The Romanization of the language in Gallaecia came to be complete and deleted any trace of the languages before.