Galician spelling conventions (was: Re: Current requests)

[Luc Pardon]

On 20-05-15 19:36, Doug Ewell wrote:
> Re: Current requests
> 
> On May 15, Luc Pardon wrote:
> 
>> I'd like to invite the list members to explicitly state their opinion
>> on this widening, even if they have done so before.
> 
> and I assume that extends to both of his requests.

   Yes, indeed. Thanks for doing so.

> Ethnologue says Galician and Portuguese have about 85% intelligibility,
> which doesn't help me (if the figure were 99% or 50% it would be
> obvious).

   For your info, and assuming you're interested in the background, the
Wikipedia page on "Reintegrationism" may provide more insight (as it did
for me) :

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reintegrationism

  Throwing some snippets into a nutshell:

  "There are two main views in Galicia about the Galician language".

  The "isolationist view considers Galician and Portuguese to be two
distinct languages" and "follows the model of Spanish orthography".

  On the other hand, the "Reintegrationist view considers Galician to be
a variant of the Galician-Portuguese linguistic diasystem", and they
"support the use of spelling rules similar to the ones used in
Portuguese-speaking countries".

  The Reintegrationist view itself is again subdivided in two, as it
"currently accepts two possibilities for writing Galician: either
adopting the standard Portuguese written norm or using a slightly
modified norm following the recommendations of the Asociación Galega da
Lingua (AGAL)".

  The former, i.e. the proponents of the standard Portuguese norm, have
selected the "acordo ortográfico luso-brasileiro de 1943" (i.e. our new
friend colb1943), to be replaced more recently by AO1990 in some cases.

  NB: The mustard in the last paragraph is not from the English WP but
from the Galician WP page at:

    https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortograf%C3%ADa#Ortograf.C3.ADa_do_galego

  Bottom line is that the English WP seems to nail it on the head when
it says that "reintegrationism is a cultural stand as much as a
linguistic position", and it smells like an understatement when it says
that "as with many other aspects of Galician society and culture,
language is deeply politicized in Galicia".

  So I'd think twice before bluntly stating that it is "NOT RECOMMENDED"
to write Galician in ao1990. That was also more or less the position of
the Franco dictatorship at the time...

   Luc Pardon