Linguistic Ideology in Galician Factual Radio Broadcasts: towards the Castilianisation of Galician Pronunciation Traits?

Abstract

This chapter explores the impact of dominant linguistic ideologies in Spain regarding the use of language(s) in one specific media context since political devolution. Such ideologies generally promote the use of the Castilian standard above that of any minority language. To this end, my approach is a case study of the ‘Castilianisation’ of Galician pronunciation in the institutional setting of Galician broadcasts on the public radio station Radio Galega. Given the presence at all levels of deeply embedded prejudices towards the autochthonous language held by non-Galician as well as Galician speakers, the socio-historical and socio-political contexts from which Galician has emerged as an officially recognised language variety alongside Castilian are essential to an overall understanding of the contemporary situation. My intention here, however, is purely to delineate the main concerns that the democratically appointed government of Galicia faced in the 1970s and 1980s regarding the use of both Galician and Castilian Spanish in diglossia, since these influence current ideologies regarding language use in public institutional settings as well as general attitudes towards language use and the role of such as an identity marker.