Reintegrationism is the linguistic and cultural movement in Galicia which advocates for the unity of Galician and Portuguese as a single language. In other words, it postulates that Galician and Portuguese languages did not only share a common origin and literary tradition, but that they are in fact variants of the same language today. According to this, Galicia should re-integrate into the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. The opposite view, which holds that Portuguese and Galician should be viewed as distinct languages, is called isolationism.
Controversy
There are two main views in Galicia about the Galician language:
The isolationist considers Galician and Portuguese to be two distinct languages, although they are closely related. Isolationists favour differentiated rules of writing and spelling between Galician and Portuguese. In this fashion, Galician spelling follows the model of Spanish orthography and its own traditional conventions, which converge with it in some aspects. This view is held by the majority of public and Government organizations. Its standard norm, the "NOMIGa", is elaborated by the Real Academia Galega and the Instituto da Língua Galega.
The divergences between isolationism and reintegrationism can be traced back to the time of the Galician Rexurdimento, in the nineteenth century, when Galician began to be systematically written again in Galicia for the first time since the Middle Ages. Up to that time, written Galician was either forbidden or simply dismissed by the Spanish authorities, and certainly not used officially. Hence, Rexurdimento Galician writers realized they did not "know" how Galician should be spelled properly. There were three possible options: to infer it from the Medieval forms; to use a Spanish-based spelling, which was already known to all; or to use the Portuguese spelling, feeling that written Portuguese was "what Galician would have been if it had not been forbidden". Authors such as Castelao, among others, stated that Galician should gradually merge with Portuguese, namely in its written form. The reality was that until the 1980s Galician was often written using a mix of the three options. Yet, with the end of Francoist Spain in 1975, and with the Spanish transition to democracy shortly afterwards, Galicia became an autonomous community with the Statute of Autonomy of 1981, with Galician as its official language. Establishing a fixed standard form then became urgent. Claims for Galician-Portuguese linguistic unity had already been produced, as evidenced with the Manifesto para a supervivência da cultura galega, first published in 1974. Still, the first draft of the language norms was produced in 1979 under the guidance of linguist Professor Ricardo Carballo Calero. These norms recommended a gradual approach to Portuguese, often allowing for a number of different solutions in the case of uncertainty. However, political issues forced the resignation of Carvalho Calero and, consequently, the 1979 pro-reintegrationist norms were revoked. The new official norms and reforms passed from 1982 onwards would be strongly pro-isolationist.
Practicalities
Reintegrationism accepts two possibilities for writing Galician: either adopting the standard Portuguese written norm or using a slightly modified norm following the recommendations of AGAL. In any case, reintegrationism considers that spoken Galician and all of its characteristic words, expressions, and pronunciation should not be radically substituted by standard Portuguese. The main recommendations of reintegrationism when referring to spoken Galician revolve around the avoidance of unnecessary Spanish loanwords, namely colloquialisms. In writing, the most obvious differences from the official norm are :
Use of nh instead of the letter ñ to represent the palatal nasal sound. For example: caminho instead of camiño.
Use of mh instead of nh to represent the velar nasal sound. For example: algumha instead of algunha.
Use of the digraph lh instead of ll to represent the palatal lateral sound. For example: coelho instead of coello
Use of -çom/-ção and -ções instead of the suffix -ción and -cións. For example: associaçom/associação instead of asociación and associações instead of asociacións
Preference for the use of suffixes -aria and -vel over -ería and -ble or even -bel. For example: livraria instead of librería ; incrível instead of incrible or incríbel
Use of ss between vowels, when appropriate, instead of the simplified s for all cases. For example: associação instead of asociación
Use of either x, j or g preceding e or i, according to the etymology of the word, instead of x for all cases. For example: hoje instead of hoxe, geral instead of xeral, but exército as in exército
Use of m instead of n at the end of a word. For example: som instead of son
Use of a wider range of accentuation signs instead of the simplified single stroke. For example: português instead of portugués, comentário instead of comentario. Note that the official orthography, being a calque of the Spanish one in that respect, does not cater for any difference between open and closed vowels, since Spanish does not have them.
Avoidance of specific lexical choices introduced by Spanish
Even though the reintegrationist norm does not have official status, it has been recognized in courts of law. Furthermore, Galician members of the European Parliament have used spoken Galician when addressing the chamber and have used standard Portuguese orthography to encode their Galician speech. In all cases, these interventions and encodings have been accepted by the Parliament as a valid form of Portuguese, that is, an official language of the European Union. Furthermore, members of Galician reintegrationist associations have been regularly present at meetings of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries. In 2008, Galician delegates were invited as speakers to the Portuguese Parliament when discussing the new spelling norms for Portuguese language.
Common positions
Theoretically, the positions of the standards of NOMIGa and AGAL are not so different. Although usually accused of having pro-Spanish tendencies, it is stated at the introduction of the NOMIGa that "standard choices must be in harmony with those of other languages, especially to those of Romance languages and especially to those of Portuguese". Furthermore, they value "the contribution of Peninsular and Brazilian Portuguese" in the creation of the Galician norm. This being the philosophy behind the "official standard", NOMIGa and AGAL share an initial starting point, but it is often argued that the NOMIGa are far removed from the usual speech of day-to-day and older Galician speakers, in addition to "isolating" Galician from the rest of Portuguese-speaking areas by using a different writing system. In any case, European and Brazilian Portuguese are usually analyzed by both isolationists and reintegrationists as a primary source from which to extract scientific and technical terminology and neologisms.
Political implications
As with many other aspects of Galician society and culture, language is deeply politicized in Galicia. Traditionally, the defence and promotion of Galician language has been linked to Galician nationalism, yet this is often considered a simplification. Likewise, different political groups and parties have adopted different approaches to the "isolationism vs reintegrationism" polemic. Broadly speaking, pro-independence groups have traditionally expressed a greater support for the reintegrationist norm, while others have adopted the isolationist. In any case, all the linguistic organizations behind both reintegrationism and isolationism have attempted to dissociate themselves from the political debate. For example, AGAL members have often expressed that this is merely a linguistic, hence scientific, discussion, and that it should not become the arena for political fights among the community of Galician speakers.
