Language as object of research versus language as political object: old and new horizons in the study of Galician

Abstract

The emergence of the study of Galician from a Linguistics perspective occurred quite late (1960’s and 1970’s) compared with the other languages spoken in the Iberian Peninsula but its development has finally helped made Galician into what can be considered a “legitimate object of study” at the local, national, and international levels. This essay highlights the distinction between the effects of works of linguistic research (language as a research object) and works of political interest (language as a political object), while describing the new developments in the study of Galician linguistics which are identifying Galicia as “an authentic linguistic laboratory” to study the situation of minorized languages in contact with languages of power.