GALICIAN VOICE OVER TALENTS NATIVE SPEAKERS - PAGE 1

Galician language
Native to: Galicia
Native speakers: 2,355,000
Writing system: Latin script (Galician alphabet)
Capital city: Santiago de Compostela
Currency: Euro (EUR)
Dialing code: +34 98
Country code: ES-GA
Population: 2,765,940
Galician is a Romance language spoken by about 2,4 million people in Galicia, in the north-west corner of Spain. Galician is more or less mutually intelligible with Portuguese but uses Spanish spelling conventions. In fact, whether Galician and Portuguese are separate languages or dialects of the same language, is a question that has been hotly debated for decades, and is loaded with political and cultural implications. Galician emerged as a standardised literary language during the 19th century when there was a revival (rexurdimento) in the language and culture of Galicia. One person who was particularly active in the revival movement was Frei Martín Sarmiento. The publication in 1863 of Rosalía de Castro's poem Cantares Gallegos, which was written entirely in Galician, marked the beginning of the revival in the fortunes of Galician. During early 20th century, an organisation known as the Irmandades da Fala (Brotherhoods of the Language) was set up to defend, promote and dignify the Galician language and a number of Galician language journals began to appear. An attempt in the 1930s to give autonomy to Galicia and official status to Galician was never promulgated due to the Civil War (1936-1939), and speaking of Galician in public was banned during Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975). Galician gained official status in 1978 and is recognised as one of Spain's five official languages (lenguas españolas), along with Spanish (Castilian), Catalan, Basque and Aranese. Primary and secondary schools in Galicia teach bilingually in Galician and Spanish, and Galician is the main medium of instruction in universities in Galicia.