Galician

The roots of the Galician language can be found in the Iberian Peninsula, and the history closely follows the history of the peninsula as well. Early versions of the language find themselves in the form of Galician-Portuguese, a language formed out of Latin, just like other Romance languages. With the passage of time, this language would diverge into two distinct languages: Portuguese and Galician.

The rise of the Spanish language would come to challenge the popularity of Galician, especially with the suppression of regional languages under the Franco dictatorship. Nevertheless, Galician persisted, and it has undergone a revival in the autonomous community of Galicia. In the modern day, it is taught in school and used throughout media.

Languages aren’t just different versions of the same set of words and expressions. They are formed to fit their specific contexts, and the specific needs of the people in different regions and situations. This means that one language might naturally describe one phenomenon that another language has difficulty describing, if it even has the words and expressions to describe it at all.

This is what makes translations so tricky, and what makes direct translations sound so strange. It’s not enough to be able to translate individual words to the target language—it is important to translate the ideas into culturally relevant phrases. This is what makes cultural understanding a necessary part of high quality and accurate translations.