Sociolinguistic development of Galicia, 1950-2010: Galician language loss and recovery

The main objective of this project is to analyse the way the sociolinguistic situation of Galician has developed over the last sixty years, focusing on changes in basic demo- and sociolinguistic variables relative to social processes. The essential information, which is demolinguistic in nature, will come from existing sociolinguistic statistics, chiefly the Mapa Sociolingüístico de Galicia (Real Academia Galega, 1992) and the sections that concern knowledge and use of Galician of the ‘Family Living Conditions’ surveys carried out in 2003 and 2008 by the Galician Institute of Statistics. These surveys make it possible to develop projections in apparent time through which to simulate the course of the fundamental sociolinguistic parameters of first language, usual language and linguistic competence. Special attention will be paid to language change in the course of inter-generational transmission and during individuals’ lifetimes, attempting to identify the social variables that display greatest explanatory power concerning such changes: language desertion and language recovery.