page_title: Kingdom of Galicia
section_title: Emergence of the Galician language
hierarchical_section_title: Kingdom of Galicia / Late Middle Ages / Emergence of the Galician language
caption_attribution_description: Galego: Composisión do Foro do Bo Burgo de Castro Caldelas, documento en galego do século XIII (abril de 1228), atopado na Casa de Alba editado polo Consello da Cultura Galega. Documento de Privilexio Real Rodado.
context_page_description: The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded by the Suebic king Hermeric in 409, with its capital established in Braga. It was the first kingdom which adopted Catholicism officially. In 449 it minted its own currency. In 585, it became a part of the Visigothic Kingdom. In the 8th century, Galicia became a part of the newly founded Christian Kingdom of Asturias, which later became the Kingdom of León, and while occasionally achieving independence under the authority of its own kings. Compostela became capital of Galicia in the 11th century, while the independence of Portugal determined its southern boundary. The accession of Castilian King Ferdinand III to the Leonese kingdom in 1230 brought Galicia under the control of the Crown of Castile.
  Galicia resisted central control, supporting a series of alternative claimants, including John of León, Galicia and Seville, Ferdinand I of Portugal and John of Gaunt, and was not brought firmly into submission until the Catholic Monarchs imposed the Santa Hermandad in Galicia.
context_section_description: Latinate Galician charters from the 8th century onward show that the local written Latin was heavily influenced by local spoken romance, yet not until the 12th century do we find evidence for the identification of the local language as a language different from Latin itself. During this same 12th century we can find full Galician sentences being inadvertently used inside Latin texts, whilst its first reckoned use as a literary language dates to the last years of the 12th century.
  The linguistic stage from the 13th to the 15th centuries is usually known as Galician-Portuguese (or Old Portuguese, or Old Galician) as an acknowledgement of the cultural and linguistic unity of Galicia and Portugal during the Middle Ages, as both linguistic varieties differed only in minor dialectal phenomena, and were considered by contemporaries as just one language.
  This language flourished during the 13th and 14th centuries as a language of culture, developing a rich lyric tradition of which some 2000 compositions (cantigas, meaning 'songs') have been preserved—a few hundred even with their musical score—in a series of collections, and belonging to four main genres: Love songs, where a man sings for his love; Cantiga de amigo, where a woman sings for her boyfriend; crude, taunting and sexual Songs of Scorn; and religious songs.
  Its most notable patrons—themselves well-known authors—were kings Dom Dinis in Portugal, and Alfonso X the Learned in Galicia, who was a great promoter of both Galician and Castilian Spanish languages. The noble houses of both countries also encouraged literature in Galician-Portuguese, as being an author or bringing famous troubadours into one's home became a way of promoting social prestige; as a result many noblemen, businessmen and clergymen of the 13th and 14th centuries became notable authors, such as Paio Gomes Charinho, lord of Rianxo, and the aforementioned kings.
  Aside from the lyric genres, Galicia also developed a minor tradition of literary prose, most notably translations of European popular series, such as those dealing with king Arthur written by Chretien de Troyes, or those based on the war of Troy, usually commissioned by noblemen who desired to read these romances in their own language. Other genres include history books (either translations of Spanish ones, or original creations like the Chronicle of St. Mary of Iria, by Rui Vasques), religious books, legal studies, and a treatise on horse breeding. Prose literary creation in Galician had stopped by the 16th century, when the printing press became popular; the first complete translation of the Bible was not printed until the 20th century.
  As for other written uses of Galician, legal charters (last wills, hirings, sales, constitutional charters, city council books of acts, guild constitutions, books of possessions, and any type of public or private contracts and inventories) written in Galicia are to be found from 1230 to 1530—the earliest one a document from the monastery of Melon, dated in 1231. Galician was by far the most-used language during the 13th to 15th centuries, in preference to Latin.
  Whilst the written use of Castilian in Galicia had been common since 1400, at least in the documents issued by the offices of foreigners established in the country, since 1500 the open substitution of Galician elites by Castilian officials led to the progressive discrimination against the Galician language and even the Galician people, although public inscriptions in tombstones and foundations were still common during much of the 16th century. These developments led to the appearance of a series of literary and historical works, the goal of which was the vindication of Galician history, language, people and culture, most notably during the 17th and 18th centuries.
  Later Galician language would become a regional language, with just minor literary use up to the 19th century, when a thriving literature developed. As Galician had no official recognition, no legal Galician documents were issued again up to the last quarter of the 20th century.
caption: One of the oldest legal charters written in Galician, the constitutional charter of the Bo Burgo (Good Burg) of Castro Caldelas. Year 1228.
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