Galician Language Dialects and Classic Dramatic Subgenres

Unity and Variety in the Galician Language

Not everyone who speaks the same language does so in the same way. In Galician, there are differences in how people from one region speak compared to another. For instance, someone from Ourense (an 'auriense') might say a few words differently than someone from Fisterra (a 'fisterrán'), but this does not prevent them from understanding each other, because they speak the same language: Galician. These different ways of speaking a language throughout a territory are called geographic varieties or dialects. This variation exists because Galician is not yet fully standardized across the community of speakers and lacks a single, uniform standard. Linguistic variations can be represented on a map using isoglosses, which are imaginary lines connecting points that share a specific linguistic trait.

Main Dialectal Blocks and Linguistic Phenomena

The distribution of different linguistic phenomena allows us to differentiate three main blocks in Galician: Western, Central, and Eastern.

• Western Bloc: Spoken in the western provinces of A Coruña and Pontevedra. Key features include gheada and seseo. The seseo occurs at the end of a syllable (e.g., lus, des) and, in the westernmost areas, also at the beginning. It also features the termination -an for both genders and plurals in -ns.
• Central Bloc: Spoken in the eastern parts of A Coruña and Pontevedra provinces, and most of Lugo and Ourense. Features include the absence of gheada (except in the west), absence of seseo, terminations in -ao/-á, and plurals in -s.
• Eastern Bloc: Spoken in the east of Lugo and Ourense, and in Galician-speaking areas outside of Galicia. Features include the absence of gheada and seseo, terminations in -ao/-á, plurals in -is, use of the pronoun tu, and verbal forms ending in -is.

Key Linguistic Features: Gheada and Seseo

Gheada

The gheada is the pronunciation of the /g/ sound as a voiceless fricative, similar to an aspirated [h] (as in the English word house).

Seseo

Seseo refers to the phenomenon where the sounds represented by 's' and 'z' (or 'c' before 'e'/'i') are not distinguished and are both pronounced as an /s/ sound. A discontinuous isogloss on a map marks the difference between an eastern area, where 's' and 'z' are distinguished in speech, and a western area, where they are merged into a single /s/ sound. In the west, the sound represented by 'z' in writing is always pronounced as 's'.

The Dramatic Subgenres

The theatrical genre is traditionally distinguished by two main subgenres: comedy and tragedy. A third subgenre, known as tragicomedy or drama, was later added.

Comedy

Comedy reflects daily events in a lighthearted tone, typically resolving with a happy ending. The characters are ordinary people who face relatively unimportant problems.

Tragedy

Tragedy stars heroic characters who fight unsuccessfully against an adverse fate. It has a tragic end, often involving the death of the protagonist and other characters.

Tragicomedy or Drama

This subgenre combines elements of both tragedy and comedy, mixing tragic situations with comic relief. A drama often presents social or ethical questions, intending to make the viewer reflect.