18th century linguistic mentality and history of the Galician language

Abstract

The Iberian Peninsula of the 18th century was characterized by the institutional reinforcement of the ideal of a unified Spain and, on the other side of the border, by the reaffirmation of Portuguese independence after the 16th and 17th century era of submission. In this context, the Galician language played for non-Galician intellectuals the role of an ignored and negated phenomenon, considered by some a simple vulgar variety of Castilian and by others an archaic and rustic form of Portuguese. Galician intellectuals of the time paid attention to the Galician language in a generally circumstantial or anecdotal manner that was transcended only by Padre Sarmiento who, having written a brief yet well-informed history of the Galician language, formulated regenerative projects that could begin to revive the language from its state of prostration. In this article I will provide a critical review of the contributions to the history of the Galician language made during the 18th century by various authors united by a clearly historicist attitude, which was characteristically 18th-century: for them, investigation of the linguistic history of the Peninsula provided precious keys to answering the questions they were asking at that time about Galician, Portuguese, and Castilian.