I agree with you on the physical description Fernando (some really do look Irish...and you're right it's something to do with the white skin and ruddy cheeks), but I have to differ regarding the linguistic relationship with Gaelic. As far as I know, there are little if any visible remains of the Celtic language in Gallego. And I don't think there is any relationship between it and Gaelic (aside from maybe the name!! )

The culture is there, as well as the Celtic ruins, but I think I read once that no Celtic words have survived to this day, except for maybe some place-names. I kind of find that hard to believe, to be honest, but it might be true. I'm going to Galicia for a wedding this weekend, so I can double-check. In any event, Gallego is a romance language whose roots are purely (as far as know) Latin-based.

Vale!

Sorry guys! I spaced yesterday and didn't read the second page and I now realize you were already saying what I put. :o Anyway, I see if I can't find out some more info this weekend.

Well I'm back and did a little investigating while inspired by the langostinos, almejas a la marinera, vieiras and vino blanco!

From the people I spoke to and the books I saw, there is no doubt the language is a Romance language, with about 75% of the words come from Latin. But some Celtic words have survived, as have some words from other pre-Romanic languages, though I wasn't able to find out which ones. Many are related to nature, which makes sense. My friend whose a teacher of Galego was going to send me a list, so if there's anything interesting there, I'll add to this.

So, that's all I can say for now. By the way, the wedding was fun, exhausting and loooong...dinner alone lasted four hours!

Hello!!
I'm new in this foro (é asi??).I'm Galician, and I'm a Murdy's friend too. I play chess with him.
Bye

Hello Avo, I know who you are. And you're getting very good at chess I might add. Thanks for joining the message board; it's a wonderful surprise.

Well, to follow up on what I said before, I did get a list of words from Celtic or pre-Roman languages. Not so surprisingly, they mostly had to do with nature and rural life; those wonderfully descriptive words that city-folk probably wouldn't know. Still, there were a few everyday words that I could recognize like "tolo" which means "loco" and "bico" which means "kiss". Definitely two good words to learn in any language.

By the way, I also learned that the Celtic origins of modern Galicians are still being disputed. No one really knows for sure just how much influence, if any, the Celts had on this land. I was pretty surprised to find that out. No one questions that different peoples didn't inhabit Galicia before the arrival of the Romans, but who they were exactly is still a matter of debate.

Avo, welcome to the board!

Murdy, how interesting that some are questioning if there's any connection between modern Galicians and the Celtic culture. However, are they questioning if there's any kind of genetic connection or just cultural connection?

The music is definitely Celtic, so there's a cultural connection. Also, "there is evidence that the last Galician Celtic speaker died in the 15th century" (Wikipedia). So it is possible for the kids and grandkids of the members of the disappearing Celtic tribes to have stayed in Galicia and later be forced to speak a different language through history. Who knows!!

I suppose if you live outside Galicia, when you visit you notice there's something different about some Galician people. Obviously not everyone in (modern) Galicia has to have Celtic or even Galician roots.

Those are good questions Jabch and the kind I ask myself. To be honest, I don't know a lot about the debate because it's kind of new to me. I always thought the Celts were somewhere back there in the roots of Galicia, but from what I gather the issue is yet to be satisfactorily answered. But there are a few things that are certain:

The whole Celtic origin story grew during the 19th Century when Galicia enjoyed a huge cultural and linguistic renaissance, and it was fashionable to feel nostalgic about one's past. A man named Murguía, who was the husband of the famous writer Rosalía de Castro, was responsible for creating the Celtic myth. That doesn't mean he made it all up, but he probably exaggerated things a bit and gave people the impression Galicia was almost entirely Celtic. Why he did so is unclear. He may have sincerely believed it, but chances are it was more of a way of separating Galicia culturally and racially from Castile. Romantic visions of one's culture were pretty popular back then too.

Then came some revisionist theories which claimed the Celtic theory was all a lie, but once again that might have been motivated by anti-Galeguista sentiment trying to ridicule regional pride.

Nowadays people tend to find a middle-of-the-road approach. Still, there are a lot of questions to be worked out. That's why people sometimes refer to these tribes as pre-Roman rather than Celtic. There were definitely a lot of similarities between the different tribes of the west coast of Europe. Were they all Celts? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe there were several different tribes cohabitating in Galicia.

I think the Celts must have had some influence on Galician culture and its people (Celtic blood), but that's a personal opinion, and this is just one of the many questions on the issue.

For more, try this:

http://www.bvg.udc.es/ficha_obra.jsp?id=OB_Acudaced1&alias=Xo%E1n+Bern%E1rdez+Vilar

It's also a good way to practise your gallego. If you know Spanish but not Gallego, you shouldn't have too many problems, just remember one thing: the word "no" in Gallego means "en el"
in Spanish. It can be source of great confusion if you don't know that.

Boa Sorte!

Thanks.I don't know "falar de ningún de eses temas dos que falades", but I read "Boa sorte",and I have an examen next Friday. Good lucky for me.
I write in "¿Tú de donde eres?" too.
Good bye.

Can anyone tell me the proper pronuciation of the "X" in Galaecian.

I'm a Spanish native speaker so please take that into account.

Does it sound like "J" or "Ts" or "Sh"???

Does it sound always the same way? For example will it sound the same in Xunta and Ximena?

Thanks!