Thinking Thoughts about Things

The title of today's post is a quote from Dr Brewer, my phonetics professor in college. And while this post isn't strictly phonetics-related, I am going to share some of the thoughts I've thunk of about things. Words and so forth.

First, a bit about what people speak here. We're in Spain, so of course, everyone speaks Spanish (Sp: español), or, to be more accurate, and/or exclude all of the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, we can call it Castillian (Sp: castellano) because there are some pretty major differences between "spain-spanish" and "everywhere else-spanish" (but I'm not really going to go into that right now). But, we are also in Galicia, so most people speak Galician (Gl: galego; Sp: gallego). The two are generally mutually intelligible, and I have heard/been part of many conversations where one party is speaking Galician and the other is speaking Spanish. A small percent of the population speak exclusively Spanish, and a small percent speak exclusively Galician, but the majority will switch back and forth depending on who they're with and what they're doing.

Castillian and Galician are two twigs on one branch of the Romance family. I couldn't figure out how to make a nice-looking branching diagram, so here's a venn diagram instead.

But this diagram is missing an important datum: Portuguese. Really, Galician is more closely related to Portuguese than it is to Spanish, and it could be argued that it is more closely related to Spanish than Portuguese is. Hopefully this clarifies:

Really, you could add a bigger circle encompassing all three and call it Latin (it would be green)

Portuguese and Galician were once part of the same Galician-Portuguese language, which is the politically correct term for both "Medieval Galician" and "Old Portuguese" because they were the same thing. About 700 years ago. Then history happened. 

But not too much history, because as the diagram shows, it's all still pretty similar. There are a few differences though, which I'll share next. Bear in mind, this is all just my observations, and I haven't done any real research. Or fake research either (read wikipedia)

• More vowels than Spanish, less than Portuguese. Unlike Spanish, Galician uses /ɔ/ and /ɛ/ (the "ou" in "bought" and the "e" in "bet" respectively) but it does not distinguish between nasal and non-nasal vowels like Portuguese does. 
• Random diphthongs. Most of the time, Galician uses the same vowel sounds as Portuguese, which gets us words like "fóra" and "catro" (/fɔra/ /kɑtɾo/ or /kɑtɾu/) instead of the Spanish "fuera" and "cuatro" (/fu͡eɾɑ/ /ku͡ɑtɾo/) (En: "out" and "four") Sometimes though (and by sometimes I mean very frequently) we get / ei͡/ and /o͡i/ sounds where there would probably just be an /e/ or an /o/ in both Spanish and Portuguese. Or a /u/. For example, we have Gl: "fontaneiro," vs Sp: "fontanero" and Pt: "canalizador" (En: "plumber") Or a better example perhaps: Gl: "escoitar" vs Sp: "escuchar" and Pt: "ouvir" (En: to listen)
• My name is Megang. If it ends in a n, it really ends in a /ŋ/.
• All "j"s are "x"s. Pretty much any time you would use a "J" in Spanish, you get to use an "X" in Galician, which is great because X is the cool letter. (as in X-treme) It's also nice for me, because in Castillian "j" says /χ/ (the coughing-up-a-lung sound) and I have trouble with it. But, "X" says /ʃ/ which is the be-quiet sound, as in "shush."
• Lots of "h"s are "f"s. Or they're not. Sp: "hablar" (/ɑβlɑɾ/) Gl: "falar" Sp: "hombre" Gl: "home" (/omi/ or /ome/)
• Reflexive pronouns. In Spanish, reflexive pronouns come before the verb (me gusta, me levanto...) while in Portuguese, they supposedly come after, but people don't really use them (gosto de, levantou...). Galician uses the Portuguese format, but actually sticks to the plan more frequently (gusta-me, levanto...)
• Contractions. Like English, Galician and Portuguese have a lot of contractions. But they don't use apostrophes, and most of them are of the preposition + article kind. So, where in Spanish you'd (look, a contraction, thanks apostrophe!) have "de las" in Galician you have "das" (En: "of the")
• Memories of Latin. Galician has a few random words that seem to come through a thousand years of linguistic change untouched. Examples: "non" (En: "no") and "can" (En: "dog")
• The my. Like in Portuguese (but unlike English and Spanish), Galician requires that you use the article as well as the possessive. So, you get things like "as miñas chaves" (literally, the my keys).

So, that's what I've learned of Galician. I can do a few basic phrases (like "Tes as chaves?" or "graciñas" En: "Do you have the keys?" "thanks") but that's pretty much it.

Some Spanish Castillian observations: 

• Verbs are tricky. Nouns are comparatively easy. A dog is a dog, a rock is a rock, and existentialism is existentialism. Sometimes there's a double (or triple or 4-tuple) meaning I don't know, but usually they make sense. Chorizo is chorizo, but it's also a dick, and a dick (see what I did there?). Verbs on the other hand require more diagrams.

Or

Or

Besides the meanings, tenses are hard. I called them tenses, but really I mean to say moods. In English, we use "auxiliary verbs" like "can" "should" "would" etc... In Spanish, we have a mix of semi-kinda auxiliary verbs "deber" "poder" (should/must and can/could, more or less) and inflexions, which can be used in conjunction with the auxiliary verbs. There's three (okay, four) kinds of inflexions-- conditional (I would do X), imperative (do X), subjunctive (If I were to do X...) and indicative (I do, am doing, was doing, will do, etc) I guess. I don't really want to count this one because it seems like the "normal" one to me, but that's just my English brain being confused. 

I get two main kinds of problems from these things. 1 is the subjunctive, straight up. For a oversimplified explanation, see the first diagram above. 2 is when the inflections (other than the indicative) are supposed to be used in conjunction with the semi-kinda auxiliary verbs... But I'll not bore you with more complaining. 

Anyway, despite how it may seem, I have learned quite a bit of the two languages, and even had the chance to practice some of my Portuguese listening skills the other day. (there were some Brazilian tourists sitting next to me in a cafe and I may have been a creeper and eavesdropped on them.)

Edit: I forgot! I was going to add some of the ways Spanish has influenced my English (and other American's English), that is to say, some weird "mistakes" I've made/heard.

Not being able to think of the appropriate English word. Like "scale" or "college." "Weighing machine" and "university" just sound odd. 

Odd turns of phrase. "It gives me stress" instead of "I am stressed"

Also, Spanish has some phrases whose translations might seem antiquated or just not commonly said. My favorites: "me da igual" which translates to "it's all the same to me" and is something I probably wouldn't say on a regular basis. But "me da igual"? multiple times every day. "Tengo ganas de..." literally, "I have desire to..." do something. I guess you could say "I'd like to..." but it's not quite the same.