Language attitudes in Galicia: using the matched-guise test among high school students

Abstract

Adolescents' attitudes towards standard Galician, non-standard Galician and Spanish are examined in this study using a matched-guise test. Results show that adolescents perceive standard and non-standard Galician differently and that different values are attached to the three linguistic varieties investigated. Our findings confirm that certain stigmas are still attached to speaking non-standard Galician and to having a Galician accent when speaking Spanish. Finally, results provide evidence of gender-related trends in regard to standard and non-standard Galician, and also reveal a covert social disapproval of women.

Keywords:

• Galician
• Spanish
• standard
• adolescents
• matched-guise

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Irene Moyna, Virgina Fajt, Frances Getwick, Jill Zarestky, and Georgianne Moore for their extensive feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. We are also very grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their detailed comments and valuable observations. Of course, all errors are our own.

Notes

1. For a typology of minority language situations, see Edwards (1997, 2010).

2. http://www.xunta.es/linguagalega/noticias/2148

3. For a comprehensive sociolinguistic history of Galician, see Mariño Paz (1998), Rodríguez (1991) and Beswick (2007).

4. Mariño Paz (1998) and Monteagudo Romero (1999) point out that a Galician-Portuguese koiné was spoken in the west of the Iberian Peninsula up until the thirteenth century.

5. http://www.congreso.es/consti/constitucion/indice/

6. http://galego.org/lexislacion/xbasica/3-83titI.html

7. The Real Academia Galega ‘Galician Royal Academy’ and the Instituto da Lingua Galega ‘Galician Language Institute’ collaborate in the standardisation and publication of the standard variety.

8. For further information regarding standardisation in Galicia, see Regueira (1999, 2004) and Beswick (2007).

9. http://www.xunta.es/linguagalega/arquivos/Ref.ED_5.pdf

10. http://escolasinfantis.net/

11. http://www.xunta.es/hemeroteca/-/nova/001206/feij%C3%B3o-avanza-novo-modelo-educativo-trilingue-que-blinda-equilibrio-entre-linguas

12. http://www.edu.xunta.es/web/node/939

13. The Galician vocalic system comprises seven oral vowel phonemes in tonic and pretonic position (/o/, //, /a/, //, /e/, /i/, and /u/), while Spanish comprises five (/o/, /a/, /e/, /i/, and /u/).

14. For an account of the differences between standard and non-standard varieties of Galician, see Beswick (2007, 131–7) and Regueira (1999, 2004).

15. Participants were given the option to fill out a standard Galician and a Spanish version of the rating sheet.

16. The grouping was done a priori and not based on responses, thus no further statistical testing was needed.

17. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte: http://www.educacion.gob.es