Castellano vs. Galego

In Galicia, there are two official languages; Castellano(Spanish) and Galego(Galician). According to my observations, most people speak Spanish while a handful of people speak Galician. In most public schools, Galician is the language that is used for the majority of the classes with the exception of other language classes. In my school right now, all the material and textbooks are in Galician, although my History and Philosophy teachers teach in Spanish. In some private schools, they mainly teach in Spanish. My host family speaks Spanish all the time at home and most of my friends speak Spanish when they hang out. (There are some friends that speak Galician at home).

Most of you probably already know what Spanish is, since it is one of the most spoken languages in the world (410 million native speakers) and is an official language in 20 sovereign states.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_Spanish_is_an_official_language

This is just a paragraph from my history textbook about Francisco Franco. (In Spanish)

In Spain, the c's and z's before i's and e's are pronounced with a "th" sound.

Zapatos (shoes): "Th"apatos
Zumo (juice): "Th"umo
Gracias (thank you): Gra"th"ias
Cesped (grass): "Th"esped


If you are wondering what Galician is, it is a romance language just like Spanish, Italian, or French. Apart from popular belief, it is not a dialect of Spanish. Believe it or not, hundreds of years ago, Portuguese and Galician used to be the same language. Spanish and Galician sound really alike. If you barely know any Spanish, you probably cannot tell the difference between the two when listening. For me, reading is a whole lot easier. The first couple weeks of school, I had a hard time telling the difference and I had to ask my friends. It is better now because I can use clues that show whether it is Spanish or Galician.


How I tell the difference from Castellano and Galego

1. If the person is using "sh"  a lot while speaking, it is probably Galician. In Galician, the j's and g's placed before i's and e's are replaced with x's.

English: For example              Biology                   Game                 Chess                 Gym              
Spanish: Por ejemplo              Biología                  Juego                 Ajederez            Gimnasio
Galician: Por exemplo             Bioloxía                  Xogo                  Xadrez               Ximnasio


2. They count differently

       Spanish                   Galician

1      uno                          un
2      dos                          dous
3      tres                          tres
4      cuatro                      catro
5      cinco                       cinco
6      seis                          seis
7      siete                        sete
8      ocho                       oito
9      nueve                      nove
10    diez                         dez


3. Whenever I hear these words:

Galego                                          Castellano                                     English

Mais ou menos                             Más o menos                                More or less
Como te chamas                          Como te llamas                              What is your name
Home                                          Hombre                                          Man
Abaixo                                        Abajo                                             Under
Falar                                           Hablar                                             Speak
Facer                                          Hacer                                              Do/Make
Eu                                               Yo                                                  I
Poñer                                          Poner                                              Put
unha                                            una                                                  A/One
os                                                los                                                  The

English	Galician (Official)	Galician (Reintegrationist)	Portuguese	Spanish
Good morning	Bo día / Bos días	Bom Dia	Bom Dia / Bons dias	Buenos días
What is your name?	Como te chamas?			¿Cómo te llamas?
I love you	Quérote / Ámote	Amo-te		Te quiero / Te amo
Excuse me	Desculpe			Perdón / Disculpe
Thanks / Thank you	Grazas	Obrigado		Gracias
Welcome	Benvido	Bem-vido	Bem-vindo	Bienvenido
Goodbye	Adeus*			Adiós
Yes	Si	Sim		Sí
No	Non	Nom	Não	No
Dog	Can	Cam	Cão	Perro (rarely, Can)[53]
Grandfather	Avó /aˈbo/	Avô[54] /ɐˈvo/		Abuelo
Newspaper	Periódico / Xornal	Jornal		Periódico
Mirror	Espello	Espelho		Espejo

A little bit of Galician from my Economics class

Galician is spoken by around 3 million people but honestly, it is not that useful because you aren't going to use it a lot around the world. (But it can help me get a head start for learning Portuguese). I really want to learn both, but my priority is definitely Spanish.



Hasta Luego!