Re: Galego and Spanish on the Camino Frances

[AlexanderCook]

Good afternoon, all:

My apologies if this question is answered in another post.

I am walking the Camino Frances in three weeks from Sarria to Santiago de Compostela and would appreciate any advice as to whether it's advisable to learn Galego (Galician) prior to starting the Camino. Do locals on the Camino primarily speak Galego, Spanish, both?

I already speak Spanish (intermediate level, not fluent by any means) but would like to know whether I should learn some Galician as well.

Thank you for any and all advice. Buen camino.

 

[J Willhaus]

Everyone will speak Spanish. Amongst themselves they will speak Galego. Some signage in one or both languages.

 

[AlexanderCook]

Everyone will speak Spanish. Amongst themselves they will speak Galego. Some signage in one or both languages.

Thank you very much for the reply. Great - a good reason to practice my (admittedly rusty) Spanish. Cheers.

 

[Former member 22438]

Galego is a kind of mix of Portuguese and Spanish aka Castillano .
Initially I learned Castillano for my work. I used to work in Catalunya .Do not speak Catalán . After my retirement now 15 years ago, as a hobby I started learning
( Brasilian ) Portuguese and did some courses Português Continental aka Portuguese from Portugal.
Now as a volunteer , I teaching Brazilian, Portuguese and Spanish people the Dutch language as I am born and raised Dutch.
One of my pupils is a guy from Muiños nearby Vigo and with him I speak Portuguese and he answers back in Galego what I understand very easy.

As volunteer at the Pilgrims Office in Santiago I speak Portuguese with the professional members and they answer in either Castillano or Galego.

Grammatically Castillano and Portuguese have the same base so it is fairly easy to switch between both languages , anyway that is my opinion but I am raised mulitilingualy.
Most Dutch , next to Dutch also learn English and German at school and some like myself French .
Later doing business in e.g. Argentina and Spain I started learning Castillano .
In my job as salesman in heavy transport trailers I worked during 5 years in Scandinavia and found out that learning Swedish was the easiest and fastest way to make me understandable for my customers in Denmark, Norway , Sweden and a part of Finland. .
That said , use what is the easiest for you, Spanish , I assume you learned , Spanish spoken in the Americas. And the Galegos will understand you perfectly.

Bom caminho or in Galego : Bo camiño

 

[Pelegrin]

I am Galego speaker and always use this language when walking Caminos in Galicia but this situation is rather unusual because Galician pilgrims are mostly from cities and use Spanish.

 

[RibbonRomanceAuthor]

I was generally ok with my intermediate Spanish. When trying to speak to my AirBnB hostess in Bilbao, I enlisted the help of a very young man as he sat in a car with his father, who granted permission for him to help me. When the hostess appeared, she and I used Google to talk and that worked!

 

[dick bird]

Galego is not a mixture of Castilian and Portuguese any more than Catalan is a mixture of Castilian and French. It could even be argued that Castilian and Portuguese are derivatives of Galego. But that won’t win you any friends.

 

[MariaSP]

Everybody speaks Spanish, but if you want to throw a couple of Galician words in the mix and impress people, check this post: https://www.spanishforcamino.com/2018/10/12/o-camino-de-santiago/

 

[Former member 22438]

Galego is not a mixture of Castilian and Portuguese any more than Catalan is a mixture of Castilian and French. It could even be argued that Castilian and Portuguese are derivatives of Galego. But that won’t win you any friends.

How similar are gallego and Portuguese?


It is a language closely related to Portuguese, both of which had virtually the same history until the middle of the 16th century. Despite a divergent history since the Middle Ages, even today Galician and Portuguese are mutually intelligible almost without effort.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Often you may read that Gallego is a dialect of Portuguese but more accurate would be that the two are sister languages with a common mother (and somewhere in the family is Spanish).

 

[Gringazolana]

I spoke my Latin American Spanish with everyone in Galicia, and surprised the heck out of two shop clerks and some old dudes in a bar when I joined in their galego conversations using my rusty Brasilian Portuguese. Almost everybody who works with tourists speaks English too. You will be fine!

 

[Pelegrin]

Galego spoken ( not normative) has a lot of Spanish words but surprisingly has a high uniformity across Galicia. For example people say " oito" ( eight) and "oitocentos" ( eighthundred) but also say Spanish " ochenta" ( eighty) when obviously must be " oitenta". And this happens everywhere in Galicia.

 

[howardd5]

Good afternoon, all:

My apologies if this question is answered in another post.

I am walking the Camino Frances in three weeks from Sarria to Santiago de Compostela and would appreciate any advice as to whether it's advisable to learn Galego (Galician) prior to starting the Camino. Do locals on the Camino primarily speak Galego, Spanish, both?

I already speak Spanish (intermediate level, not fluent by any means) but would like to know whether I should learn some Galician as well.

Thank you for any and all advice. Buen camino.

You will get by , they understand many languages on the Camino , the signs may be different ( Basque & Galacian) but understandable

 

[David Tallan]

You will get by , they understand many languages on the Camino , the signs may be different ( Basque & Galacian) but understandable

Alexander probably won't see much Basque on his Camino from Sarría.

 

[Bradypus]

Alexander probably won't see much Basque on his Camino from Sarría.

I'm in Arcade on the Camino Portugues today. Almost everything except bars and restaurants is closed for a public holiday to celebrate Galician language and literature. A huge change since my first Camino when regional languages were actively suppressed, all official signs were in castellano, and you could tell where you were in the country by the way the road signs were defaced with regional spellings. Or in the Basque region completely different words altogether...

 

[jungleboy]

Often you may read that Gallego is a dialect of Portuguese but more accurate would be that the two are sister languages with a common mother (and somewhere in the family is Spanish).

I would probably go one step further and say that Galego is the parent language of Portuguese.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I would probably go one step further and say that Galego is the parent language of Portuguese.

It's a good thing there's no passport control or else you might not ever see Portugal again.

 

[jungleboy]

It's a good thing there's no passport control or else you might not ever see Portugal again.

And lucky they already gave me a passport!

 

[Marc-P]

I would even dare to mention that (for me at least) Galego is the prettiest language in the world. I just sounds so good.

 

[AlexanderCook]

Galego is a kind of mix of Portuguese and Spanish aka Castillano .
Initially I learned Castillano for my work. I used to work in Catalunya .Do not speak Catalán . After my retirement now 15 years ago, as a hobby I started learning
( Brasilian ) Portuguese and did some courses Português Continental aka Portuguese from Portugal.
Now as a volunteer , I teaching Brazilian, Portuguese and Spanish people the Dutch language as I am born and raised Dutch.
One of my pupils is a guy from Muiños nearby Vigo and with him I speak Portuguese and he answers back in Galego what I understand very easy.

As volunteer at the Pilgrims Office in Santiago I speak Portuguese with the professional members and they answer in either Castillano or Galego.

Grammatically Castillano and Portuguese have the same base so it is fairly easy to switch between both languages , anyway that is my opinion but I am raised mulitilingualy.
Most Dutch , next to Dutch also learn English and German at school and some like myself French .
Later doing business in e.g. Argentina and Spain I started learning Castillano .
In my job as salesman in heavy transport trailers I worked during 5 years in Scandinavia and found out that learning Swedish was the easiest and fastest way to make me understandable for my customers in Denmark, Norway , Sweden and a part of Finland. .
That said , use what is the easiest for you, Spanish , I assume you learned , Spanish spoken in the Americas. And the Galegos will understand you perfectly.

Bom caminho or in Galego : Bo camiño

Yes, I learned the Spanish spoken in the Americas, although I wish I'd learned Castillano as well. Gracias para su consejo.

 

[AlexanderCook]

I spoke my Latin American Spanish with everyone in Galicia, and surprised the heck out of two shop clerks and some old dudes in a bar when I joined in their galego conversations using my rusty Brasilian Portuguese. Almost everybody who works with tourists speaks English too. You will be fine!

That's great that you also speak Brasilian Portuguese - I'll admit that I have some trouble with Portuguese for some reason, but I think it's a beautiful language.

 

[AlexanderCook]

Everybody speaks Spanish, but if you want to throw a couple of Galician words in the mix and impress people, check this post: https://www.spanishforcamino.com/2018/10/12/o-camino-de-santiago/

Thank you, I'll check out the link.

 

[AlexanderCook]

I'm in Arcade on the Camino Portugues today. Almost everything except bars and restaurants is closed for a public holiday to celebrate Galician language and literature. A huge change since my first Camino when regional languages were actively suppressed, all official signs were in castellano, and you could tell where you were in the country by the way the road signs were defaced with regional spellings. Or in the Basque region completely different words altogether...

Buen camino!

 

[Baldensperger]

One language-related thing that I noticed but never have seen written by anyone else: Even before you enter Galicia, you will see defaced signs where someone has used paint to change spelling. There seems to be some disagreement on two fronts: (1) whether to use the Castilian or the Gallego (or maybe Leonese) name for a place, and (2) how to spell words in Gallego (for example, is the big river the Miño or the Minho?).

Also, in the city of Leon itself, at least one plaza (Plaza del Caño de Santa Ana) is double-signed also as "Praza del Caño del Santa Ana." Based on what saw in Santiago, praza is the Gallego word for plaza, but in Gallego they use "do" instead of "del." Again, maybe it's Leonese. https://www.google.com/maps/@42.595...try=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDgyMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw==

An example of the spelling change is west of Villafranca (but well east of the border with Galicia), where someone has altered the town sign that was printed "Pereje." It now says "Perexe," which looks like Gallego to me but may be Leonese or maybe something else: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.624...try=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDgyMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw==

 

[MariaSP]

One language-related thing that I noticed but never have seen written by anyone else: Even before you enter Galicia, you will see defaced signs where someone has used paint to change spelling. There seems to be some disagreement on two fronts: (1) whether to use the Castilian or the Gallego (or maybe Leonese) name for a place, and (2) how to spell words in Gallego (for example, is the big river the Miño or the Minho?).

Also, in the city of Leon itself, at least one plaza (Plaza del Caño de Santa Ana) is double-signed also as "Praza del Caño del Santa Ana." Based on what saw in Santiago, praza is the Gallego word for plaza, but in Gallego they use "do" instead of "del." Again, maybe it's Leonese. https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5950506,-5.5667158,3a,16.4y,289.84h,99.43t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sa6GhIRPyWJqfgptAndR1fg!2e0!6shttps://streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com/v1/thumbnail?cb_client=maps_sv.tactile&w=900&h=600&pitch=-9.431940780025514&panoid=a6GhIRPyWJqfgptAndR1fg&yaw=289.8365166956538!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDgyMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw==

An example of the spelling change is west of Villafranca (but well east of the border with Galicia), where someone has altered the town sign that was printed "Pereje." It now says "Perexe," which looks like Gallego to me but may be Leonese or maybe something else: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.6247715,-6.8414088,3a,37.5y,319.92h,76.68t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sFaaEuJQJ3jFK2KvKrL2L4w!2e0!6shttps://streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com/v1/thumbnail?cb_client=maps_sv.tactile&w=900&h=600&pitch=13.323635055154753&panoid=FaaEuJQJ3jFK2KvKrL2L4w&yaw=319.917560562518!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDgyMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw==

Miño is Galician/Spanish. Minho is Portuguese.

I don't know anything about Leonese, so I can't comment on the Praza del Caño.

Regarding Pereje/Perexe, there's a movement in the Bierzo region campaigning for Bierzo to become part of Galicia instead of Castilla-León. I saw some graffiti to that effect in Ponferrada a few years ago. The spelling change from Pereje to Perexe could be related to that.

 

[Pelegrin]

One language-related thing that I noticed but never have seen written by anyone else: Even before you enter Galicia, you will see defaced signs where someone has used paint to change spelling. There seems to be some disagreement on two fronts: (1) whether to use the Castilian or the Gallego (or maybe Leonese) name for a place, and (2) how to spell words in Gallego (for example, is the big river the Miño or the Minho?).

Also, in the city of Leon itself, at least one plaza (Plaza del Caño de Santa Ana) is double-signed also as "Praza del Caño del Santa Ana." Based on what saw in Santiago, praza is the Gallego word for plaza, but in Gallego they use "do" instead of "del." Again, maybe it's Leonese. https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5950506,-5.5667158,3a,16.4y,289.84h,99.43t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sa6GhIRPyWJqfgptAndR1fg!2e0!6shttps://streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com/v1/thumbnail?cb_client=maps_sv.tactile&w=900&h=600&pitch=-9.431940780025514&panoid=a6GhIRPyWJqfgptAndR1fg&yaw=289.8365166956538!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDgyMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw==

An example of the spelling change is west of Villafranca (but well east of the border with Galicia), where someone has altered the town sign that was printed "Pereje." It now says "Perexe," which looks like Gallego to me but may be Leonese or maybe something else: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.6247715,-6.8414088,3a,37.5y,319.92h,76.68t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sFaaEuJQJ3jFK2KvKrL2L4w!2e0!6shttps://streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com/v1/thumbnail?cb_client=maps_sv.tactile&w=900&h=600&pitch=13.323635055154753&panoid=FaaEuJQJ3jFK2KvKrL2L4w&yaw=319.917560562518!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDgyMC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw==

Praza is Galego no Leonés. This is a mistake.
El Bierzo was divided by river Cua in two areas one Leones speaking and the other Galego speaking
Now Leones is completely lost in its area and Galego only remains from Villafranca ( not included) to Galicia. In Vega de Valcarce l have spoken with locals in Galego several times.
Pereje, Trabadelo, (L)a Portela are clearly Galego names. Las Herrerias, Laguna de Castilla, Vega de Valcarce are Spanish names but not the original.

 

[Baldensperger]

Miño is Galician/Spanish. Minho is Portuguese.

I don't know anything about Leonese, so I can't comment on the Praza del Caño.

Regarding Pereje/Perexe, there's a movement in the Bierzo region campaigning for Bierzo to become part of Galicia instead of Castilla-León. I saw some graffiti to that effect in Ponferrada a few years ago. The spelling change from Pereje to Perexe could be related to that.

I am certain you know better than I do about all these languages, but I also saw (in Galicia) the word "Camino" changed to "Caminho" -- on markers with the shell on them. I read somewhere that some are trying to change Galician spelling to mirror Portuguese rather than Castilian. Here's an example that I saw (the photo comes from Google Maps): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.783...try=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDgyNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw==

Praza is Galego no Leonés. This is a mistake.
El Bierzo was divided by river Cua in two areas one Leones speaking and the other Galego speaking
Now Leones is completely lost in its area and Galego only remains from Villafranca ( not included) to Galicia. In Vega de Valcarce l have spoken with locals in Galego several times.
Pereje, Trabadelo, (L)a Portela are clearly Galego names. Las Herrerias, Laguna de Castilla, Vega de Valcarce are Spanish names but not the original.

I don't know any of these languages well, but I don't see how "Praza" could be a mistake on those signs in Leon. It's spelled that way (along with Plaza) on at least two signs at the plaza for which I provided the link above. Each sign says ALL of the following:

"Plaza del Caño de Santa Ana
Praza del Caño de Santa Ana."

 

[Pelegrin]

I don't know any of these languages well, but I don't see how "Praza" could be a mistake on those signs in Leon. It's spelled that way (along with Plaza) on at least two signs at the plaza for which I provided the link above. Each sign says ALL of the following:

"Plaza del Caño de Santa Ana
Praza del Caño de Santa Ana."

Yes, I tred to find a "complicated" explanation for that. The Leonés is Western Asturleones ( there are three variants of Asturleones). Mirandés in Portugal is considered Western Asturleones but it has a lot of Portuguese influence. In Mirandés is "praça" so that they could have considered that " praza" must be correct in Leonés but I have my doubts.