Galician-Portuguese
Quick Summary
Galician-Portuguese was a single Romance language until around the 15th century, spoken in what is now Galicia, Spain, and Portugal. It was the language of courtly lyric poetry across the Iberian Peninsula until about 1400. By 1500, Castilian Spanish became the official language of Galicia, and Galician began to lose ground.
Today, Galician is spoken by about four million people, primarily in Galicia, and is influenced by Spanish. Portuguese, spoken by over 200 million people worldwide, is closely related to Galician. While distinct, they share similarities as Romance languages, with Portuguese being the second most spoken Romance language after Spanish.12
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