Reintegrationism (Galician and Portuguese: reintegracionismo; Galician: [rejnteɣɾaθjoˈnizmʊ, -asjo-], European Portuguese: [ʁɛĩtɨɣɾɐsjuˈniʒmu]) 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.[citation needed]
The opposite view holds that Portuguese and Galician should be viewed as distinct languages, which is called Isolationism.[citation needed]
There are two main views in Galicia about the Galician language:[citation needed]
Authors such as Castelao, among others, stated that Galician should gradually merge with Portuguese, namely in its written form.[7][8]
The Lusitanian and Galician languages are the same.
— Padre Feijóo, Theatro Critico Universal, 1726
There are two opinions on the orthographic norms of our native language: the phonetic ... influenced by the domination of Spanish, and another one ... where etymology is its main and most logical attribute ... because (Portuguese orthography) is the natural orthography of the Galician language, and I cannot understand how there still are not only doubts about this, but even opinions against it ... with no scientific basis.
— Roberto Blanco Torres, La unificación ortográfica del idioma gallego, 1930
There is a reason why our language is the same as in Portugal ... Our languages must become the same one again.
— Otero Pedrayo, Discursos Parlamentarios, 1933
Galician is a wide-spread and useful language which—with small variations—is spoken in Brazil, Portugal and in the Portuguese colonies.
— Castelao, Sempre en Galiza, 1944
However, political issues forced the resignation of Carvalho Calero and, consequently, the 1979 pro-reintegrationist norms were revoked. The new official norms and reforms passed from 1982 onwards would be strongly pro-isolationist.[9]
In writing, the most obvious differences from the official norm (NOMIGa) are (according to AGAL):[10]
Galician members of the European Parliament (such as José Posada, Camilo Nogueira and Xosé Manuel Beiras) have used spoken Galician when addressing the chamber and have used standard Portuguese orthography to encode their Galician speech. In all cases, these interventions and encodings have been accepted by the Parliament as a valid form of Portuguese, that is, an official language of the European Union.[11][12][13]
Furthermore, members of Galician reintegrationist associations have been regularly present at meetings of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries. In 2008, Galician delegates were invited as speakers to the Portuguese Parliament when discussing the new spelling norms for the Portuguese language.[14]
As with many other aspects of Galician society and culture, language is deeply politicized in Galicia.[citation needed] Traditionally, the defence and promotion of the Galician language has been linked to Galician independence, yet this is often considered a simplification.[citation needed] Likewise, different political groups and parties have adopted different approaches to the "isolationism vs reintegrationism" polemic.[citation needed] For example, AGAL members have often expressed that this is merely a linguistic, hence scientific, discussion, and that it should not become the arena for political fights among the community of Galician speakers.[15][16][17]