THE GALICIAN LANGUAGE TODAY
The Galician linguistic community is made up of speakers living in the historically Galician-speaking territory within the region of Galicia as well as small pockets of communities living over the border. It is a community that exists in a context of linguistic contact, both within Galicia and outside it, with Galician and Spanish co-existing. The information provided here comes from a survey on households by the Galician Statistical Institute, IGE.
A detailed description of the sociolinguistic situation is given, based on a series of key indicators such as ‘first language’ (the language(s) in which people learn to speak),’usual language’ (the language(s) people speak on a regular basis), ‘language skills’ (listening comprehension, speaking, reading comprehension and writing) and ‘linguistic attitudes’ (the language speakers’ ideas and opinions on the languages).
Below, there is a short description of the sociolinguistic situation in Galicia based on these parameters.