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Place name spellings
A few notes on place names spellings. In this region the languages are
Portuguese (south of the river), and Galician and Spanish (Castilian)
(both north of the river, in Galicia).
The Galician language is written in a few different norms according to the
taste or ideals of the writer: closer to Portuguese (sometimes plain
Portuguese norm) or closer to Spanish. As a variant of the former common
Galician-Portuguese language, it is more logical or appropriate to use an
orthographic norm closer to Portuguese. However, the official norm,
decreed by the Xunta de Galicia (Galician Autonomous Government), is not
the most logical. The Xunta has been always ruled by the Spanish Popular
Party (right wing) that opposes everything that may seem to go against the
"unity" of the Spanish State. The Bloque Nacionalista Galego
(Galician Nationalist Block, left-wing) is nowadays the second party in
Galicia.
Castilian (Spanish) and Galician are both official languages in the
Autonomous Region, but, according to the law, only the Galician versions
of the place names are now official. This is not always followed and
therefore you may find a lot of Spanish versions of the Galician
placenames (or documents or maps issued before the law, in the 1980's I
guess). |
|
| So, here you have some versions of the place
names in the area of the lower Minho River (in this order: |
|
| Official
Galician |
Other
Galician or Portuguese |
Castilian
Spanish |
English |
| Galicia |
Galiza
|
Galicia
|
Galicia |
| Río
Miño |
Rio
Minho |
Río
Miño |
Miño
or Minho River |
| illa
|
ilha |
isla |
island |
| Tui
|
Tui
|
Tuy
|
? |
| Salvaterra
de Miño |
Salvaterra
do Minho |
Salvatierra
de Miño |
? |
| A
Guarda (A Garda, A Guardia) |
A
Guarda |
La
Guardia |
? |
| A
Insua |
Ínsua |
? |
? |
| Sta.
(Santa) Tegra |
Sta.
Tecla |
? |
? |
| Rías
Baixas |
Rias
Baixas |
Rías
Bajas |
? |
| Xunta
de Galicia |
Junta
da Galiza |
Junta
de Galicia |
Galician
Government |
|
|
Text by Francisco Santos.
This page was last time updated 22/08/05 . |
