Today we are going to talk about Galician phonology, a topic that has captured the attention of people around the world. Galician phonology is a concept that has been the subject of debate and discussion in different areas, from politics to popular culture. In this article, we will explore the different facets of Galician phonology and its impact on today's society. From its origin to its day-to-day implications, we will dive into a detailed analysis of Galician phonology to better understand its importance and relevance in the modern world. Without a doubt, Galician phonology is a topic that leaves no one indifferent, and its influence continues to grow as time progresses. Join us on this fascinating journey to discover more about Galician phonology!
This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Galician language.
Galician has seven vowel phonemes, which are represented by five letters in writing. Similar vowels are found under stress in standard Catalan and Italian. It is likely that this 7-vowel system was even more widespread in the early stages of Romance languages.
Phoneme (IPA) | Grapheme | Examples |
---|---|---|
/a/ | a | nada |
/e/ | e | tres |
/ɛ/ | ferro | |
/i/ | i | min |
/o/ | o | bonito |
/ɔ/ | home | |
/u/ | u | rúa |
Some characteristics of the vocalic system:
Galician language possesses a large set of falling diphthongs:
falling | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
caixa | 'box' | autor | 'author' | ||
papeis | 'papers' | deu | 'he/she gave' | ||
queixo | 'cheese' | bateu | 'he/she hit' | ||
bocoi | 'barrel' | ||||
loita | 'fight' | pouco | 'little' |
There are also a certain number of rising diphthongs, but they are not characteristic of the language and tend to be pronounced as hiatus.
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||
Plosive/Affricate | p | b | t | d | tʃ | ɟ | k | ɡ | ||
Fricative | f | θ | s | ʃ | ||||||
Approximant | w | l | j | |||||||
Trill | r | |||||||||
Flap | ɾ |
Phoneme (IPA) | Main allophones | Graphemes | Example |
---|---|---|---|
/b/ | , | b, v | bebo '(I) drink', alba 'sunrise', vaca 'cow', cova 'cave' |
/θ/ | (dialectal ) | z, c | macio 'soft', cruz 'cross' |
/tʃ/ | ch | chamar 'to call', achar 'to find' | |
/d/ | , | d | vida 'life', cadro 'frame' |
/f/ | f | feltro 'filter', freixo 'ash-tree' | |
/ɡ/ | , (dialectal ) | g, gu | fungo 'fungus', guerra 'war', o gato 'the cat' |
/ɟ/ | , , | ll, i | mollado 'wet' |
/k/ | c, qu | casa 'house', querer 'to want' | |
/l/ | l | lúa 'moon', algo 'something', mel 'honey' | |
/m/ | , | m | memoria 'memory', campo 'field', álbum |
/n/ | , , | n | niño 'nest', onte 'yesterday', conversar 'to talk', irmán 'brother' |
/ɲ/ | ñ | mañá 'morning' | |
/ŋ/ | nh | algunha 'some' | |
/p/ | p | carpa 'carp' | |
/ɾ/ | r | hora 'hour', coller 'to grab' | |
/r/ | r, rr | rato 'mouse', carro 'cart' | |
/s/ | (dialectal ) | s | selo 'seal, stamp', cousa 'thing', mesmo 'same' |
/t/ | t | trato 'deal' | |
/ʃ/ | x | xente 'people', muxica 'ash-fly' |
Voiced plosives (/ɡ/, /d/ and /b/) are lenited (weakened) to approximants or fricatives in all instances, except after a pause or a nasal consonant; e.g. un gato 'a cat' is pronounced , whilst o gato 'the cat' is pronounced .
During the modern period, Galician consonants have undergone significant sound changes that closely parallel the evolution of Spanish consonants, including the following changes that neutralized the opposition of voiced fricatives / voiceless fricatives:
For a comparison, see Differences between Spanish and Portuguese: Sibilants. Additionally, during the 17th and 18th centuries the western and central dialects of Galician developed a voiceless fricative pronunciation of /ɡ/ (a phenomenon called gheada). This may be glottal , pharyngeal , uvular , or velar .
The distribution of the two rhotics /r/ and /ɾ/ closely parallels that of Spanish. Between vowels, the two contrast (e.g. mirra 'myrrh' vs. mira 'look'), but they are otherwise in complementary distribution. [ɾ] appears in the onset, except in word-initial position (rato), after /l/, /n/, and /s/ (honra, Israel), where [r] is used.
As in Spanish, /ɟ/ derives from historical /ʎ/ (yeísmo) and from syllable-initial /j/. In some dialects, it lenites to approximant [ʝ˕] in the same environments where /b, d, ɡ/ lenite. It may also be realized as [ɟʝ] where it derives from /j/. The realization remains in select older speakers in isolated regions.