Galician Language Standardization: History and Norms

Preparation of Standard Historical Perspective

The normalization of a language is a costly process. The first step involves fixing spelling, choosing a standard variety, and preparing dictionaries and grammars. No Galician dictionaries and grammars appear from 1860. However, in the twentieth century, proposals for common standards began to emerge. A clear example is Some Rules for the Unification of the Galician Language, published in 1933 by the Seminar of Galician Studies, followed by the publication of Standards for the Unification of the Galician Language in 1936.

Later, in the 1970s, the Royal Galician Academy (RAG) produced its first results in the standardization process: a Standard Galician Language (1970) and Rules of Spelling and Morphology of the Galician Language (1971). In the same year, the Office of the Galician Language was created in Santiago, which aided in the publication of the earliest methods for learning Galician, such as 1, 2, and 3.

Official Rules: Screening and Qualification

After Galician became an official language, the ILG published norms, and the RAG published the Orthographic and Morphological Characteristics of the Galician Language, which were later declared official by the government. These standards have been updated in 1995 and 2003.

The development of standards requires fixing spelling based on three criteria:

• Phonological Criterion: A single phoneme corresponds to a single spelling (e.g., one sound = one symbol).
• Etymological Criterion: The graphical representation of a phoneme depends on the Latin root of the word.
• Written Traditions: In representing palatal and lateral sounds, spellings like 'ñ' and 'll' were chosen, following the writers of the Rexurdimento period.

When selecting a default variety, one can choose a geographic variety of the language or create a supradialectal variety. When selecting a standard, consider the following:

• The widest geographical extent.
• The number of speakers.
• The degree of use in literature.
• Harmony with other Romance languages (e.g., 'x' was chosen instead of 'j' because it is more common).

The aim of the rules is to eliminate Castilianisms, Lusisms, and hypergalicisms, as well as to avoid the occasional use of Old Galician or Portuguese.