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Meaning of Galician in English:

Galician

Pronunciation /ɡəˈlɪsjən/

Translate Galician into Spanish

adjective

  • 1Relating to Galicia in north-western Spain, its people, or their language.

    ‘Since his death, and the installation of a democratic regime (parliamentary monarchy) in Spain, however, a revival of Galician language and culture has taken place.’
    • ‘The book is translated from the Galician language of north west Spain.’
    • ‘Given the original play's Galician setting - Spain's craggy north-west - that combination of author, company, adaptor and director make it as Celtic a melange as it's possible to get.’
    • ‘That relatively small slick of about 3,000 tonnes tarred beaches up and down about 125 miles of Spain's Galician coast.’
    • ‘The Galician language has no Celtic roots, being more of a close relation to Portuguese, but it has fought a continuing battle for recognition.’
    • ‘The 26-year-old Prestige was on its way from Latvia to Singapore with a 77,000-tonne oil cargo when it radioed for help off the Galician coast of Spain.’
    • ‘Two oil slicks have already washed ashore in the Galician region of Spain, contaminating one of the most productive ocean fisheries and shellfish beds in Europe.’
    • ‘The fishing ban extends southward along Spain's Galician coast to the Mino river - the border with Portugal - and up to Cedeira, 100 kilometres north of La Coruna.’
    • ‘Less than three weeks after the tanker Prestige sank off Spain's Galician coast, the European Commission has published a blacklist of 66 dangerous merchant vessels it wants banned from European waters.’
    • ‘The capital of the Galician province at the north-west point of Spain now exports more immigrants to Argentina than any other and is allegedly one of the main European gateways for the fast-expanding South American drugs industry.’
    • ‘Spain's passionate exponent of the native Galician bagpipes, who first came to international attention with The Chieftains, will be doing his usual one-man band act with his whistles and recorders.’
    • ‘The political separation induced slow differentiation of Galician-Portuguese into today's Galician and Portuguese languages, though there are still lots of commonalities.’
    • ‘Shellfish are also part of the staple diet in Galicia and the many crustaceans, of which ‘percebes’ is a particular example, will give you an indication of a Galician delicacy.’
    • ‘There are rias in several other regions of the world as well as near by the Galician ones in such a way that, per example, it is possible to find rias in Norway known as fjords, in Scotland known as lochs, and in Brittany known as abers.’
    • ‘The master of the gaita (the Galician version of the bagpipe), Nunez embraces a range of influences including the Celtic strains of Ireland, Scotland and Brittany.’
    • ‘What the journalist wrote: The sinking of the oil tanker Prestige and the subsequent threat to the Galician coastline is the latest in a seemingly endless catalogue of crimes against the environment.’
    • ‘The slick close to Spain's shores was bigger than the 5,000 tons of fuel oil spilled when the Prestige was holed off the Galician coast on November 13.’
    • ‘Spain's central government also issued the first details of its own rescue plans, including a publicity campaign plugging Galician fish and seafood as safe to eat.’
    • ‘In particular, I want to drive up the Douro valley from Porto to the vineyards where the grapes for port wine are grown, and I want to see more of the estuaries of the Galician coast.’
    • ‘Spain said yesterday it had spotted four oil slicks, including one near the wreckage, about 150 miles off the Galician coast.’

  • 2Relating to Galicia in east central Europe.

    ‘The central role that Catholicism plays in Galician culture is also evident in the tall stone crosses called cruceiros found throughout the region.’
    • ‘In 1921 Jewish democratic organizations supported Galician intellectual circles in their demands to establish Ukrainian university in Lviv.’
    • ‘We don't know the woman's name, but simply that she was killed in the Tarnopol Ghetto along with the rest of the 500,000-strong community of Galician Jews.’

noun

  • 1A native or inhabitant of Galicia in north-western Spain.

    ‘The Galicians are descended from Spain's second wave of Celtic invaders (from the British Isles and western Europe) who came across the Pyrenees mountains in about 400 BC.’
    • ‘Before the trip to northern Spain for the return leg against the Galicians, Celtic have to face Hibernian on Wednesday night and then Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday.’
    • ‘Spanish communities in the United States, in keeping with their strong regional identification in Spain, have established centers for Galicians, Asturians, Andalucians, and other such groups.’
    • ‘This involved in particular the Basques, the Bretons, the Galicians, the Catalans, the Occitanians, the Welsh and the the Irish.’
    • ‘The other groups are the Galicians, Basques, Catalans, Levante, and Andalusians.’
    • ‘His is a thesis that coastal peoples Celts, Bretons, and Galicians, to name a few from Iceland to Gibraltar had more in common with one another than they did with their inland kin.’
    • ‘It is what gives lie to the delusion the Basques - and the Catalans and some Galicians - have that they are culturally different from their Iberian neighbours.’
    • ‘Since the death of Franco, a Galician not particularly sympathetic to his native land, the regional language and literature have undergone a revival that patriotic commentators compare to the golden age of the troubadours.’
    • ‘His complaints may, in fact, reflect an Iberian phenomenon - the enslavement of Basques and Galicians - which he transplanted to France.’
    • ‘Cape Bretoners, Galicians, Basques and Quebecois will all be arriving.’
    • ‘The Catalans followed in 1983 and the Galicians in 1984.’
    • ‘They have been joined by three other Spanish groups, the Basques, Galicians and Valencians who also want their languages officially recognised.’
    • ‘Vigo beat the European champions AC Milan in the last group game to seal their knockout place and the Galicians should give Arsenal a stiff test, especially in Vigo itself.’
    • ‘Leeds United would recall how only the frame of the goal prevented the Galicians from threatening something similar after a 3-deficit from the first leg of their 2000-1 quarter-final.’
    • ‘The Galicians themselves believe their most characterful wine comes from Condado de Salvatierra and El Rosal, bordering the River Miño and the Portuguese frontier.’
    • ‘The transplanted Irish tradition flowered in New York, that of the Galicians in Cuba.’
    • ‘Dionika was started up by a Galician named Juan Blanco, who came to Scotland as a fish buyer.’
    • ‘Like their neighbors in other parts of Spain, the vast majority of Galicians are Roman Catholic.’
    • ‘Most Galicians will go home for lunch and have a large meal followed by a period of relaxation.’
    • ‘And Galicians are the mean, but hardworking type, not the let's do-fiesta-all-night-long type.’
    1. 1.1mass noun The language of Galicia in north-western Spain, a Romance language closely related to Portuguese. It is spoken by about 3 million people, most of whom also speak Spanish.
      ‘Portuguese is a Romance language that is most closely related to the Spanish dialect Galician.’
      • ‘Similar examples can also be found in Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, Romanian, Sardinian; and Spanish.’
      • ‘One of the oddest feature of the cantigas is that, though they were composed and sung at court, their language is provincial Galician - the language subsequently Latinised to constitute the Portuguese of Luís de Camões.’
      • ‘The Romans also bequeathed Galicia a precious gift, its two languages: Spanish, which is now spoken by over 400 million people worldwide, and Galician, spoken by some 2.8 million people.’
      • ‘It's written in Galician, a dialect of Spanish.’
      • ‘The European Union also granted semiofficial status Monday to three other regional languages: Basque, Catalan and Galician.’
      • ‘No complete translation of Shakespeare into Galician has been produced so far, the various versions being either individual attempts or providing the scripts for stage performance in that language.’
      • ‘Sue wanted the girls to learn classic Castilian - the most widely used form of Spanish - versus Catalan, Galician, or Basque.’
      • ‘Castilian is a Romance (Latin-based) language, as are most of the other regional languages, including Catalan and Galician.’
      • ‘Catalan broadcasts reach into the linguistically-related Occitan areas of France, and Galician can be heard in northern Portugal.’
      • ‘Catalan, Basque and Galician received a different status which stops short of recognising them as official languages.’
      • ‘The couple are now finalising the purchase of a three-bedroom house near Muros, a pretty fishing village not far from Finisterre, or Fisterra - Galician for Land's End.’
      • ‘During the Franco years, effectively Catalan, Galician and Basque didn't exist, weren't allowed to be spoken or used in any public manner at all, or taught.’
      • ‘You're invited to travel through our language's history, read its main facts, learn how some English words are said in Galician and visit other webs of interest about this subject.’

  • 2A native or inhabitant of Galicia in east central Europe.