Reintegrationism (Galician and ; , ) is the linguistic and cultural movement in Galicia which advocates for the unity of Galician and Portuguese as a single language. In other words, the movement postulates that Galician and Portuguese languages not only shared a common origin and literary tradition, but that they are in fact variants of the same language even today. According to this, Galicia should re-integrate into the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.
The opposite view holds that Portuguese and Galician should be viewed as distinct languages, which is called Isolationism.
Controversy
There are two main views in Galicia about the Galician language:
The isolationist considers Galician and Portuguese to be two distinct languages, although they are closely related. Isolationists favour differentiated rules of writing and spelling between Galician and Portuguese. In this fashion, Galician spelling follows the model of Spanish orthography and its own traditional conventions, which converge with it in some aspects. This view is held by the majority of public and Government organizations. Its standard norm, the "NOMIGa", is elaborated by the (Royal Galician Academy) and the (Institute for Galician Language).
Among other criteria, isolationism argues that since the majority of the Galician population was educated in Spanish only (as official use of Galician was forbidden for centuries, especially in Francoist Spain), it is easier to create a Galician written norm which is closer to Spanish, therefore more "familiar", regardless of other considerations. It is also alleged that since the Spanish language had such a vast influence in modern Galician its contribution should not be simply disregarded. This influence is noticeable in some aspects of Galician phonetics and colloquial speech.
The reintegrationist view considers Galician to be a variant of a shared Galician-Portuguese linguistic diasystem, as evidenced by the common origin, grammar, syntax, vocabulary, morphology and overall high level of mutual intelligibility. Therefore, reintegrationists support the use of spelling rules similar to the ones used in Portuguese-speaking countries. This is supported by the AGAL (Galician Association of the Language), Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language, Brazilian Academy of Letters, Lisbon Academy of Sciences, and a number of civic and cultural associations both in Galicia and Portuguese-speaking countries.
In this fashion, it is argued that Galician would be faithful to its history and etymology and subsequently its written norm would be more scientific and precise. Thus, it would allow Galician speakers to have direct access to a world culture and it would also clarify some spelling problems of the isolationist norm (for example in terms of accentuation).
Reintegrationism is a cultural stand as much as a linguistic position. Its supporters believe that Galicia rightfully belongs to Lusophony since, in fact, modern Portuguese originated in what is today Galicia and northern Portugal (see History of Portuguese, Galician-Portuguese period). They aim for stronger cultural and economic ties with the Portuguese-speaking countries using the common language as a tool for direct communication.
From the Portuguese side, a number of relevant linguists and authors such as Luís Lindley Cintra, Manuel Rodrigues Lapa, Fernando Venâncio, Carlos Reis or Malaca Casteleiro have expressed their agreement with the reintegrationist views.
Genesis of the debate
The divergences between isolationism and reintegrationism can be traced back to the time of the Galician (Revival), in the nineteenth century, when Galician began to be systematically written again in Galicia for the first time since the Middle Ages. Up to that time, written Galician was either forbidden or simply dismissed by the Spanish authorities, and certainly not used officially. Hence, Galician writers realized they did not "know" how Galician should be spelled properly. There were three possible options: to infer it from the Medieval forms; to use a Spanish-based spelling, which was already known to all; or to use the Portuguese spelling, feeling that written Portuguese was "what Galician would have been if it had not been forbidden". Authors such as Castelao, among others, stated that Galician should gradually merge with Portuguese, namely in its written form. The reality was that until the 1980s Galician was often written using a mix of the three options.