Don't Let It Die

As a preschool child I watched Sesame Street and The Electric Company. They were fun to watch, and I loved to watch Bert and Ernie arguing. They helped me as they helped a lot of other preschool kids with numbers, letters, etc. They also gave me an unintended boost. They helped me understand English.

At home we spoke in galego (Galician), my parents' mother tongue and the language spoken in Galicia, where we were born. It's similar enough to Castilian so that if you understand Galician, you understand Castilian and can usually speak it. It's also similar to Portuguese, but the enunciation changes enough to not ensure understanding spoken Portuguese if you speak Galician. Since at home the only exposure was to Galician, watching those two programs on television made sure I at least understood English. When I began kindergarten I didn't have many problems understanding. Others, however, had problems understanding me, especially at first. A classmate, years later, told me he would never forget the first day of kindergarten when I walked up to him and started speaking in Spanish (Galician). I don't remember that, but I do remember that at the end of the year I was talking to my teacher and the other classmates in English with Spanish r's.

I grew up becoming absolutely bilingual and eventually trilingual, as I easily mastered Castilian. Much like kids here in Galicia. But here we have a problem that didn't exist in the United States. The U.S. is a monolingual country tolerating and encouraging second or third languages among its population, though never as official languages. Galicia is a bilingual region with an original language and an imposed language. And both are co-official. Depending on who is in power, the tug is towards Castilian or towards Galician, with both sides saying they respect the region's language and history and people's decision in using either language. But neither side seems to show much of that respect they profess. Especially, (where else?) in education. 

In most primary and secondary schools almost everything was taught in Galician except English and Castilian, especially in the rural areas where most of the students spoke Galician at home. There were others, mostly in cities and large towns, where that was not the case, but more than half the subjects had to be obligatorily taught in Galician. Now, with the conservative regional government voted in three years ago, besides Castilian lessons, math and one science (in secondary school) have to be taught in Castilian. For the survival of Galician in rural areas this really doesn't affect things. In many small towns and villages Galician has always been the most spoken language. It's in the cities where Castilian has always been eroding the autoctonous language. Ever since the ruling nobles became vassals of the Spanish kings, Castilian had been the official language, imposing itself on the local language, especially in the cities, mostly under direct rule by the nobles. When Franco appeared he tried to stamp out the regional languages and it was easier in the cities to police the population, controlling their speech. To rise in life one needed to speak Castilian. Good jobs were found in cities. Galician was seen as the language of the poor and uneducated. And even now stereotypes persist. To mimic our version of a hillbilly, Galician is used. To mimic a pretentious rich twat, Castilian is used. 

Every year the number of people that speak only Galician in their daily life is going down. And the number of total Castilian-only speakers is going up. And it's more noticeable in the younger age groups. In my age group, 30 to 49, it's Galician speakers 23 percent and Castilian speakers 29 percent. But in the 5 to 14 year olds, it's Galician 13 percent and Castilian 47 percent. And then there's the people who speak more Galician than Castilian and vice versa. But as the years pass it seems our language will someday become a museum exhibit. Those numbers were from 2013, so by now they'll probably be even more weighted in favor of Castilian.

Yes, everyone has the freedom to speak what they wish. But having had a language that has survived hundreds of years of poverty and repression it seems a shame to one day lose it as a daily vehicle of life. 


Comments

  1. Why do people say eu son and not eu sou? For example in Castillian - yo soy and yo estoy. Galego - eu son and eu estou. Doesn't make sense to me.

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  2. Eamon, it's because of language evolution. Galician in many cases is still one step away from Latin while Castilian is two steps away. An example would be facer and hacer, both come from facere. The Galician maintains the f- and the Castilian has evolved to h-. Yo soy and eu son come from ego sum. If you say it out loud, you'll notice the Galician sounds more like the Latin. Estar comes from stare, and yo estoy, eu estou come from ego sto. Again, you can notice the Galician is closer to the Latin.

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