Galicia, Portugal, Brazil

A spearhead for dialectology

Abstract

This paper shows the value of linguistic data, with their variation in space and time, and the importance of the work of linguists in revealing the essential information contained in the form and meaning of words, not only for the history of language but also for the history of culture and the connections established in the past between peoples and territories, sometimes very distant. It looks at the vast world of the Galician-Portuguese block, with a focus on Europe (Portugal and Galicia) and America (Brazil), showing the need to take Galician into account in the reconstruction and description of the historical account of this linguistic block as a whole. It is divided into four case studies: the current semantic diversity of dorna sheds light on its origins in a remote, pre-Roman past; the spatial layout of the abundant dialectal forms for port. murras and gal. murnas allows us to speculate on their etymological origin and ways of formal diversification; looking at the northeastern adjective sarolho (PT-BR) in a less local framework, including its variation in Galicia and Portugal, allows us to complete its phonetic and semantic evolution and to highlight the innovation produced in Brazil; finally, changüí illustrates the transatlantic travels, back and forth, between three continents, where it took root with very different meanings.