Phonological variation and change in European Portuguese and Galician

Abstract

Portuguese and Galician are closely related languages, having shared a common medieval period known as Galician–Portuguese. While some continuities between them persist, the phonologies of contemporary Galician and Portuguese have evolved separately. Significant variation phenomena can be examined, illustrating the distinct paths of these languages: gheada, seseo, and coda-/S/ changes for Galician; trill desonorantization and the decline of unstressed vowel reduction (UVR) for Portuguese. Gheada consists of the articulation of /ɡ/ as [h], [ħ], or [x], a change that has not yet been adequately explained. Seseo refers to a nonstandard sibilant system, which lacks the phonological opposition between /s/ and /θ/ present in the standard system. Finally, variation affecting coda-/S/ leads to its realization as a rhotic, an aspirated [h], or a palatal [ʃ]. All these phenomena in contemporary Galician are subject to geographical and social distribution and are notable for their sociolinguistic implications as well as their complexity and theoretical implications within the current phonological framework. In Portuguese, trill desonorantization consists of the realization of the “strong rhotic” /ʀ/ as a fricative. Many variation corpora and dialectal studies suggest fricative allophones of /ʀ/ are becoming predominant. This can trigger a more drastic reorganization of the consonantal system of the language. UVR is generally seen as the most characteristic phonological feature of Portuguese. However, a closer look at recent and older words of the language suggest that its importance might be declining, since newer forms do not undergo vowel reduction as regularly as older words. In conclusion, the phonological divergence between Portuguese and Galician is evidenced by distinct variation phenomena in each language. These variations underscore the separated evolutionary paths of these languages since their shared medieval period, reflecting broader sociolinguistic and theoretical complexities. Furthermore, such variation phenomena illuminate potential trajectories of phonological change, some of which hold significant interest within the context of Iberian and, more broadly, Romance languages.