Language

[Richard Ferguson]

Tom is generally correct, but I will say that I did find at least two people in Galicia who replied to a question in Spanish with an answer in Gallego.  Sometimes I understood the answer, sometimes I did not.  I speak good Spanish, but not Portugese or Gallego.  I don't think that they were deliberately not speaking Spanish, they probably were not fluent in Spanish and not comfortable speaking it, but figured I might understand Gallego, since it is similar.

For what it is worth, my impression is that if you are a native speaker, you can probably understand a related language (IE. A native Spanish speaker can usually understand Gallego), but for a non-native speaker like myself, it is difficult to understand a language that you do not speak, even if it is related.

I have seen at least one study that said that Spaniards have the lowest rate of speaking foreign languages in Europe, so don't assume that everyone in Spain speaks English.

Richard



Date:    Sat, 28 Feb 2004 12:02:18 -0700
From:    Tom Priestly <tom.priestlyaUALBERTA.CA>
Subject: Re: language


Thankyou, Sandra in New York! As a language pedant and a
minority-language advocate, I would like to add:

In addition to fully-recognized Catalan (catal=E0), spoken by over 7
million, Galician (galego) - over 2 million, and Basque (euskara) -
over 650,000, there are two more languages which have semi-official
constitutional status in Spain: Asturian (bable), 450,000 speakers,
and Aragonese (fabl=E0), only 30,000. All of these are Romance
languages except the unrelated-to-anything-known Basque.

In any case, Castilian Spanish will be understood by just anyone you
meet, except perhaps (I am guessing here) by older people in small
Basque villages. Minority-language speakers who wish to make a
'statement' may deliberately not understand Castilian Spanish, but
only when addressed by Castilians - not by foreign visitors.

Tom in snowy Edmonton