Alxamía

Spanish and Galician written in Arabic letters, based on the Moriscos’ aljamía. A personal journal script.

Part II. The journal system

Lesson 14. Galician

Galician Alxamía is new. Nothing here is historical for Galician. Portuguese aljamía is the nearest real model (Lesson 20).

Feature Spelling Label Note
x /ʃ/ ش [attested] value Old Spanish x and Portuguese x
s س [course rule] Portuguese texts wrote s as ش
c, z /θ/ ث [modern choice]
c, z with seseo س [modern choice]
g غ [attested] value
gheada ح or خ [PROPOSAL, non-historical] [ħ] or [x]
ñ نّ [attested] value Portuguese texts used plain ن
nh /ŋ/ نْغ [PROPOSAL, non-historical] nūn + sukūn, ghayn
eu, ou ـَاوْ, ـُوْ [course rule] falling diphthongs
open e, o (not shown) three marks can't show é/ê or ó/ô
open e fatḥa + ي [PROPOSAL, non-historical] optional
open vs closed e open ـَا, closed ـِ [attested, Portuguese] optional; see below

Contractions

Galician fuses prepositions and articles. Write each as one word, as you'd spell it:

Word Full Shorthand
do, da دُ, دَ دو, ده
no, na نُ, نَ نو, نه
co, coa كُ, كُأَ كو, كوأ
ao, á أَوْ, أَ أَو, أ
polo, pola بُّلُ, بُّلَ بّولو, بّوله
nun, nunha نُنْ, نُنْغَ نون, نونغه
dun, dunha دُنْ, دُنْغَ دون, دونغه

ao is said as one syllable, [aw], so the o is written as a glide, the way the Portuguese texts wrote ao (Lopes: "aum"). [attested, Portuguese] nunha and dunha use your nh proposal. [PROPOSAL, non-historical]

x and s

They stay apart: coxo · كُشُ, coso · كُسُ.

Seseo

cidade · ثِدَدَا with /θ/; cidade · سِدَدَا with seseo.

Gheada

[PROPOSAL, non-historical] Write the g you say: galego · حَلَاحُ instead of galego · غَلَاغُ. Use خ if your gheada sounds like [x].

nh

[PROPOSAL, non-historical] unha · أُنْغَ, algunha · أَلْغُنْغَ.

Watch out: ng in longo · لُنْغُ writes the same way. The sound is close, so the merger costs little.

Open and closed vowels

Galician has seven vowels; the script shows four. é/ê and ó/ô both vanish: óso · أُسُ (bone) and oso · أُسُ (bear) are identical.

[PROPOSAL, non-historical] Optional open e as fatḥa + ي: terra · تَيرَّ, pé · بَّي.

Watch out: this collides with ai. pai · بَّيْ differs from pé only by the sukūn, and shorthand drops it. Skip this proposal in shorthand.

The Portuguese way: open e like a, closed e like i [attested, Portuguese]

The Portuguese letters split e by sound (Lesson 20 has the evidence). Galician has the same open/closed contrast, so it carries over:

e sound Full Shorthand Examples
open é ـَا ا terra · تَارَّ, festa · فَاسْتَ, ela · أَالَ
closed ê, unstressed e ـِ ي mesa · مِسَ, xente · شِنْتِ, neve · نِبِ
eu, meu, Deus ـَاوْ او meu · مَاوْ, Deus · دَاوْسْ

Minimal pair: té · تَا (tea) and te · تِ (you).

The cost: closed e now looks like i, so mesa could read as misa. The Portuguese scribes accepted that; you know your own words.

Use this or your proposal, not both. The Portuguese split is attested and has no pé/pai collision. It is optional; the rest of the course writes every Galician e as ـَا.

Exercises 14

  1. xente
  2. pouco
  3. mesa with the Portuguese e split
  4. unha casa [PROPOSAL, non-historical] for nh
  5. galego with gheada, ح [PROPOSAL, non-historical]
  6. cidade with seseo
  7. terra with the Portuguese e split (the e is open)
  8. coxo and coso: do they look the same?
Answers
  1. xente · شَانْتَا
  2. pouco · بُّوْكُ
  3. mesa · مِسَ [attested, Portuguese]
  4. unha casa · أُنْغَ كَسَ [PROPOSAL, non-historical]
  5. galego · حَلَاحُ [PROPOSAL, non-historical]
  6. cidade · سِدَدَا
  7. terra · تَارَّ [attested, Portuguese]
  8. coxo · كُشُ and coso · كُسُ: different. x is ش, s is س.