Origins and history Galician-Portuguese

map showing historical retreat , expansion of galician (galician-portuguese) within context of linguistic neighbours between year 1000 , 2000.

galician-portuguese developed in region of former roman province of gallaecia, vulgar latin (common latin) had been introduced roman soldiers, colonists , magistrates during time of roman empire. although process may have been slower in other regions, centuries of contact vulgar latin, after period of bilingualism, extinguished native languages, leading evolution of new variety of latin few gallaecian features.

gallaecian , lusitanian influences absorbed local vulgar latin dialect, can detected in galician-portuguese words in placenames of celtic , iberian origin bolso. in general, more cultivated variety of latin spoken hispano-roman elites in roman hispania had peculiar regional accent, referred hispano ore , agrestius pronuntians. more cultivated variety of latin coexisted popular variety. assumed pre-roman languages spoken native people, each used in different region of roman hispania, contributed development of several different dialects of vulgar latin , these diverged increasingly on time, evolving romance languages of iberia.

it believed 600, vulgar latin no longer spoken in iberian peninsula. form of galician-portuguese spoken in kingdom of suebi , year 800 galician-portuguese had become vernacular of northwestern iberia. first known phonetic changes in vulgar latin, began evolution galician-portuguese, took place during rule of germanic groups, suebi (411–585) , visigoths (585–711). , galician-portuguese inflected infinitive (or personal infinitive ) , nasal vowels may have evolved under influence of local celtic languages (as in old french). nasal vowels phonologic characteristic of vulgar latin spoken in roman gallaecia, not attested in writing until after 6th , 7th centuries.

the oldest known document contain galician-portuguese words, found in northern portugal, called doação à igreja de sozello , dated 870 otherwise composed in late/medieval latin. document, 882, containing galician-portuguese words carta de dotação e fundação da igreja de s. miguel de lardosa. in fact, many latin documents written in portuguese territory contain romance forms. notícia de fiadores, written in 1175, thought oldest known document written in galician-portuguese.

the pacto dos irmãos pais, discovered (and possibly dating before 1173), has been said older, despite enthusiasm of scholars, has been shown documents not written in galician-portuguese in fact mixture of late latin , galician-portuguese phonology, morphology , syntax. noticia de torto, of uncertain date (c. 1214?), , testamento de d. afonso ii (27 june 1214) galician-portuguese. earliest poetic texts (but not manuscripts in found) date c. 1195 c. 1225. thus, end of 12th century , beginning of 13th there documents in prose , verse written in local romance vernacular.