The ATM gives you a choice of eight languages, including Catalan, Gallego, Valencia, and Euskara. At first the street signs appear to be in Portuguese, but that is a trick. Other times the dual Spanish and Gallego phrases on the signs are exactly the same.
Gallego as a province [Galicia] reminds some of Nantes, France, and the surrounding area, or of parts of southern Chile.
If you put together Keynesian economics and public choice theory, you get a very nice and indeed downright spacious airport in Santiago de Compostela. More infrastructure here will not jump start growth.
Counterintuitively, Santiago avoids the destruction of its authenticity by relying on tourism. The city has been a major tourist destination since at least the 9th century A.D., so the arrival of tourists — many of them have religious motives — is how the city’s past is preserved. It is the people who stay at home who are ruining the place.
Vigo, the largest city in Gallego, has lovely sea views, lots of refrigeration facilities in its port, and superb seafood. It is slow on a Sunday, especially for its size. Percebes looks like this, and it is a must-try.
“A Coruña is one of only eight pairs of cities in the world that has a near-exact antipodal city.” That would be Christchurch, New Zealand. A Coruña is supposed to be the most prosperous city in Gallego, yet it is scary how many abandoned or boarded up buildings are in the heart of downtown.
The city’s Roman lighthouse is still in use, and it is the world’s oldest active lighthouse.
It is very green in Gallego and it rains a lot, though not as much as in Bergen, Norway.
I strongly recommend a trip to Gallego. There are numerous reasons to go, and few reasons not to go, the only really good one being that you may wish to go somewhere else.
Best Galician contemporary artists:
Angela de la Cruz, Francisco Leiro, Jorge Barbi, Xoán Anleo, Diego Santomé, Carmen Nogueira, Virxilio Vieitez, Berta Cáccamo, Eugenio Granell, Din Matamoro, Vari Caramés
I forgot Ruben Ramos Balsa and Suso Fandiño.
It’s called “Galician” in English.
Following the massive earthquake in February 2011, many buildings in downtown Christchurch have been abandoned, and subsequently demolished. The “downtown” is relocating itself to suburban areas.
It’s neither Keynesian nor public choice theory at work here, it’s pure crony capitalism, in which construction firms, airport operation firms, low-cost carriers and their banks have persuaded a local government with no experience or expertise in airport management that a passenger terminal and infrastructure of that size fit the potential tourist and commercial draw of the region, even advancing the argument that Santiago de Compostela could aspire to seasonal pilgrimage tourism on a near-Meccan scale. (The airport itself, minus the passenger terminal, has a military function as well, so it may be justified on that basis, independent of the icvil side but I don’t have an overview of how serious that military function may be or whether it is pork as well.) The net result is an under-used terminal deep in debt and the greater part of that use is by heavily-subsidized so-called low-cost carriers, which have perfected the art of extorting local agencies with a pay-or-we-go strategy.
Yep, we Germans should go into a banking union with these folks.
Since Berlin maybe we Germans shouldn’t criticize others for their airports anymore.
Sounds like public choice theory to me.
To me too
Gallego would be Galician (for people and language), and the place would be called Galicia.
that’s right Tyler, the region’s name is Galicia.
We have a free iPad app with beautiful pictures of Galicia and text descriptions of the places (in English, Galician and Spanish). http://www.sinaptika.es/galeria/imaxes-de-galicia/ The app itself it’s a little bit dated (it was made for the original iPad), but the photographs are still gorgeous. There are some really great places around here.
A lot of folks consider Galician food to be the best in Iberia, if not in the world. Hope you were able to try to some pulpo gallego.
(“Gallego” is not the place name, btw. It is Galicia. Gallego is Spanish for “Galician”).
Second that. Definitely try pulpo gallego. It’s the most flavorful and tender octopus you’ll ever eat.
Galicia, please. Use the English-language name when writing in English!
Just thought of something. I’ll be in Arlington, Virginia, soon, staying in a cheaper hotel with my family after the June 6 Cato conference. I probably won’t stop by GM, pleasure tho that always is (disorganization, plus family obligations). But you no doubt could do a great “travel notes’ on Arlington.
Sorry, A Coruña, but abandoned and boarded up buildings ain’t nuttin. Down here in your antipodal twin of Christchurch, we’re knocking the whole damn CBD down.
Northern Hemispherre sissies.
http://christchurchearthquakenews.blogspot.co.nz/
You should, of course, change every instance of “Gallego” to “Galicia” in this post, for the benefit of people whom it is driving up the wall (e.g. me). But I am curious about where “Gallego” comes from. According to Wikipedia, in English it’s “Galicia.” In Spanish it’s “Galicia.” In Galego it’s “Galicia.” In Basque it’s “Galizia.” What is going on here?
@William As I said, “gallego” refers both to a person from Galicia and the language they speak (pretty much a portuguese dialect – don’t crucify me, gallegos, it’s true). Also, in a lot of countries in Latin America, it stands for any person from the motherland (pars pro toto or due to past and current strong emigratory tendencies from that region, i don’t know).
Actually Portuguese was born from the Latin spoken in what today is Galicia, which, depending on whom you ask, ended being two modern languages (Portuguese and Galician) or two dialects of Portuguese (“Portuguese” Portuguese and Galician Portuguese). Unfortunately, the question of wheter they are the same language carries plenty of political implications, and hence while the latter position is mostly the consensus among philologists, the former is the official position of the Spanish and Galician governments, and also what is taught at Galician schools.
Thanks for that, very interesting!
You’re welcome!
If you want to read more about the problem Wikipedia offers a good summarisation in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_language#Classification_and_relation_with_Portuguese and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_language#Writing_system
Sorry, I think i misunderstood your question, I guess you were asking for the etymology of the adjcative ‘gallego’. It’s from Latin ‘Gallaecia’, which becomes ‘Galicia’ and ‘gallego’. Also, there are other places called Galicia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia_%28Eastern_Europe%29 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallizien. Pretty confusing.
Thanks for the info! Actually, I was just wondering what was the basis for using “Gallego” to refer to the region.
It’s trying to look a bit too grandiloquent, like Ed Meese.
+1 to anyone who gets that reference….
“There are numerous reasons to go, and few reasons not to go, the only really good one being that you may wish to go somewhere else.”
I can’t decide whether this is a left-handed compliment or a poignant reflection on our own mortality.
Spanish Galicia, like Cornwall and Ireland, is said to be Celtic in some sense.
Are there distinctively “Celtic” characteristics observable in the local Galician culture?
Their use of bagpipes as traditional folk instrument counts?
There is plenty, just like in neighboring Asturias. For starters, you’ll find that the traditional musical instrument of both regions is the bagpipe. It’s also pretty obvious when you just see the people in the area: The shared genetics are easy to see.
I have to admit seeing Galicia repeated referred to as Gallego by someone as intelligent as Tyler is incredibly painful. Imagine “When in Spanish…the largest city in Mexican…the best beach in Brazilian, etc”
These are some of the most ignorant and pathetically whiney comments I have seen here in a long time. The lot of you should be duly embarrassed and ashamed of yourselves. Tyler is very clearly describing what he saw at this ATM machine as four of the eight options. One looks like what we would say in English, Catalan, and another is very close “Valencia,” although we would add an “n” to the end. The giveaway is “Euskara,” which is what we would call “Basque” in English, although it has about six dialects, some of them pretty far apart from each other, so I have read. So, obviously, “Gallego” is what it said on the ATM machine, whatever you semi-hysterical ninnies think he should have written or what you think it should be.
What I am curious about is what are the other four? One has got to be what was almost certainly listed as “Castellano,” which would be “Castiliann Spanish.” As for the other three, well, I think that about uses up the Spanish languages, so I suspect maybe Portuguese, French, and German, or maybe even English in place of one of those, although maybe there are yet more recognized Spanish languages/dialects with enough political clout to get themselves listed on a an ATM machine in Galicia.
Oh, another sign of the Celtic link is that apparently belief in leprechauns used to be widely held there.
Pathetic and whiny, maybe. But most of the commentators aren’t talking about the ATM, they are talking about the 6 separate times that Tyler refers to the Spanish province of Galicia as “Gallego” when he’s not discussing the language. I’m not going to be rude, but maybe you should reread Tyler’s post before getting on your high horse. I tend to side with the whiny commentators – if Tyler is going to write English, then write English.
So, maybe he should have said “Galicia” at some point just to make sure there is no confusion for all the ignorant English speakers here (yes, I am pompous and arrogant). The real question is what the region is called on locale in the local language, which is what is going on in Spain these days, a point that I think Tyler is trying to emphasize by the use of this.
I have been in some other regions of Spain recently and seen some of this, but I have not been to Galicia (will myself attempt to avoid annoying all the English-uber-alles crowd here, given that I have already insulted all of them), but I did some checking, and it may be that these days the Gallegos/Galicians are calling the place “Gallego” in their own language. It is not just the language that gets called Gallego. The cuisine is “comida Gallego.” The nationalist party from there is the Bloque Nationalista Gallego. Really.
And, again, as for “writing in English,” I think Tyler ws trying to make a specific point by this usage, although of course if they do not call the region “Gallego” there, he has overdone it mistakenly.
I would be interested to know the nature of the “some checking” you did to determine that “it may be” that gallegos call the region “Gallego” rather than “Galicia.” This is not about English vs. Spanish, even though some comments have mentioned that. The post is not about Tyler’s experience in the country of “Spanish,” it’s about Spain. That is the nature of the error being alleged in the comments here, it’s as simple as that.
William,
I do not know what you are asking. Excuse me if I say that you are completely incoherent. Different people are whining about different things here, but a lot of them are complaining that since this is a blog in English, Tyler should write “in English,” and in English, there is no question that the region in question is known as “Galicia.”
As to whether or not Galicia is called “Gallego” in Galicia by Galicians, I have said that I do not know the answer to that definitely or not. I only noted that there is some evidence out there that they might. One thing that is clear is that in the Galician language, the language itself is called “Gallego.” There were some complaining here that Galicia is also called that in Spanish, but that does not establish that this is what it is called by native speakers in the region.
Sorry to be unclear. See Cliff Arroyo’s comment.
Dude, fall back… Comida Gallega is called that because gallego is the correct adjective, so if Tyler said “Gallego Food” that would be perfectly fine. It’s not about English über alles (at least not for me), I was just pointing out that the place is definitely NOT called “Gallego” by anyone, but “Galicia”.
Don’t forge mallorquin (though Mallorca is kind of far from Galicia).
Also, it has long been claimed in many circles that a substantial portion of the Celtic invasion/migration of Ireland came from Iberia, particularly Galicia. After all, these were “Gaels,” as in Ireland, as opposed to being “Brythons,” who became the Welsh and the Bretons, q-Celts vs p-Celts. There were probably other sources of the Celtic migration into Ireland, however, as some claim that the Celts brought the blond hair, whereas the Galician ones are sometimes claimed to be the ancestors of the black-haird “black Irish” (think Richard Nixon), although it is quite likely that the latter (and the red heads) may be the remnant of the pre-existing, non-Indo European Erain, thenselves the result of previous waves of immigration by various groups from various directions.
I checked, and according to Wikipedia, the proper “Black Irish” have darker skin as well as black hair, not just black hair. Apparently genetic studies have now been made, and according to them the connection is between the Basques and the Black Irish. So, there was almost certainly migration from Galicia, and some of it may have been by ethnic Celts, but this would have been later and following a substantial earlier migration by pre-Indo-European populations.
I cannot resist one further wrinkle on this that has nothing to do with Tyler was right or wrong to refer to the region as “Gallego.” This is that I suspect it is quite likely that he has some Black Irish ancestry, thus making the matter of the nature of that locale of possible personal interest beyond all the linguistics and funky cultural observations related to the ultimate economic disintegration of Spain, if not of the eurozone and maybe even the EU as a whole as well.
Anyway, it is my understanding that “Cowen” is an Irish name, although I could be mistaken (and it is amusing how many people misspell it as “Cohen” or otherwise think that he is Jewish, although I do not know the ancestry of his mother), and he has the hair color and eyes that fit the stereotype, if not quite the complexion. Maybe he has been playing bagpipes to leprechauns while there,
.
The Spanish language wikipedia refers to the province as Galicia and gallego is the language (or male Galician)
The Galician wikipedia refers to the province as Galicia or Galiza and the language (or man) is galego.
In no language (except perhaps Tylerese) is the place referred to as Gallego….
Tyler, as far as I can tell, never owns up to his mistakes so we are probably beating a dead horse here.
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