Symbols
91Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Galician alphabet
Accented letters sit next to their base letter, so the acute á é í ó ú and the diaeresis ï ü line up. Ñ ñ is a letter of its own, sorted after N. J, K, W and Y are not part of the 23-letter Galician alphabet and appear only in foreign words and names.
Galician punctuation
Currency and where it's spoken
Largest first by CLDR speaker estimates. Galicia is an autonomous community of Spain, just north of Portugal.
Galicia in emoji
There is no Galician flag emoji; its white field and blue band can be written as 🤍💙.
On the map
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The Galician alphabet: 23 letters and a few borrowed ones
Galician (galego) is a Romance language of northwestern Spain, written in the Latin alphabet according to the Normas ortográficas e morfolóxicas do idioma galego of the Real Academia Galega and the Instituto da Lingua Galega, first published in 1982 and revised in 2003. The alphabet has 23 letters: a b c d e f g h i l m n ñ o p q r s t u v x z. Ñ ñ is a letter of its own and sorts right after N.
J, k, w and y are missing on purpose. They turn up only in foreign words and names (jazz, kiwi, Kenya), which is why they still appear in CLDR’s list and in the symbol grid above. In many related words, Galician x corresponds to Spanish j or soft g: Xosé for José and xamón for jamón; Xunta is the name of the Galician government.
Galician also uses the digraphs ch, ll, rr, gu, qu and nh; Aranese also writes nh, but for a different sound. In Galician, nh appears only in unha (a, one, feminine), algunha, ningunha and their plurals, and represents a velar n sound, like the ng of English sing followed by a vowel.
Galician letters and accents: á é í ó ú, ï ü and ñ
The acute accent á é í ó ú marks stress according to Galician spelling rules: café and árbore need one, while Ourense does not. A stressed i or u beside an unstressed vowel takes an accent to mark a hiatus, not a diphthong: lúa (moon), aínda (still), saír (to go out), país (country). Capitals keep their accents: A CORUÑA, LÚA.
A few short words take a diacritic accent only to tell them apart from a twin: é (is) and e (and), máis (more) and mais (but), nós (we) and nos (us). Adding a pronoun to a verb can move the stress back, so the accent appears: quero (I want) but quérote (I love you).
Ü shows that the u is pronounced in güe and güi: pingüín, lingüística. Ï is much rarer: it marks that an unstressed i after a vowel is a syllable of its own, telling the imperfect saïamos (we used to go out) from the subjunctive saiamos.
Ñ sounds like the ny in canyon: viño (wine), camiño (way), A Coruña. It is the letter Portuguese writes as nh (vinho, caminho), and it does not always sit where Spanish has it: the Galician for year is ano, Spanish año. X is the sh sound of English in native words: xente (people), Xunta, xeito (way, knack).
Galician punctuation: « », the optional ¿ ¡ and º ª
Galician closes questions and exclamations with ? and !. The opening ¿ and ¡ are optional: they are worth using in long sentences where the question would otherwise only become clear at the end, and they can be left out in short ones: Como estás? as well as ¿Como estás?
For quotations Galician texts use the angle quotes « » (comiñas angulares) and the high quotes “ ”, with ‘ ’ for quotes inside quotes. Dialogue in novels opens with a dash —. Ordinal numbers are abbreviated with a dot and a raised letter: 1.º (primeiro), 2.ª (segunda), written with the real º and ª, not a degree sign.
How to type Galician accents and ñ
The Spanish (Spain) keyboard, the standard layout in Spain, has its own Ñ key, a dead accent key next to it (press then a vowel for á; Shift that key gives for ü and ï), the º ª key at the top left and ¿ ¡ next to the 0. Windows with any layout: hold Alt and type on the number pad á 0225, é 0233, í 0237, ï 0239, ó 0243, ú 0250, ü 0252, ñ 0241, Á 0193, É 0201, Í 0205, Ï 0207, Ó 0211, Ú 0218, Ü 0220, Ñ 0209, ¿ 0191, ¡ 0161, « 0171, » 0187, º 0186, ª 0170. On the United States-International layout type ' then a vowel for á, " then i for ï, then n for ñ.
Mac: hold the letter and pick from the pop-up, or press Option E then a vowel for the acute, Option U then a vowel for the diaeresis, Option N then n for ñ; Option 0 gives º and Option 9 gives ª. Phones: long-press a, e, i, o, u, n, ? or !, and add Galician (Galego) as a keyboard language for its spell-checker. HTML: á, ï, ü, ñ, º, ª, « and ».
Where Galician is spoken, and its ties to Portuguese and Spanish
Galician is spoken in Galicia, the rainy Atlantic corner of Spain north of Portugal, where it is co-official with Spanish, and in neighbouring strips of Asturias, León and Zamora. CLDR estimates around 3.3 million speakers, nearly all of them in Spain, and a small community of about 14,000 in Portugal . Galicia pays in euros, written after the number: 20 .
Galician and Portuguese grew from one medieval language, Galician-Portuguese, the language of the troubadours’ cantigas, and they are still largely understandable to each other: Galician Bo día, grazas, irmá against Portuguese Bom dia, obrigado, irmã. The official spelling follows Spanish habits (ñ, ll, no ã or ç), while the reintegrationist movement writes Galician with Portuguese-style nh, lh and ç. See the Portuguese, Spanish and Asturian collections for their letters.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyGalician Alphabet & Letters combos
14Worth knowing
- Día das Letras Galegas, a public holiday in Galicia every 17 May, commemorates Rosalía de Castro’s 1863 Cantares gallegos, whose dedication is dated 17 May (the exact publication date is unknown); since 1963 each year’s celebration has honored a Galician writer or, in some years, a group of contributors to Galician letters and culture.
- Galician and Portuguese share a medieval ancestor: the hundreds of Cantigas de Santa María collected at the court of King Alfonso X of Castile were written in Galician-Portuguese, not in Castilian.
- Galician has its own internet domain, .gal, created for the Galician language and culture community.
- Galicia has no emoji flag: among subdivisions, Unicode’s recommended flag emoji cover only England, Scotland and Wales, so people can write or instead.
Questions people ask
8What letters are in the Galician alphabet?
Twenty-three: A B C D E F G H I L M N Ñ O P Q R S T U V X Z, with the accented vowels Á É Í Ó Ú and the diaeresis letters Ï Ü. J, K, W and Y appear only in foreign words and names.
Does Galician have ñ?
Yes. Ñ is a letter of its own, sorted after N, and sounds like the ny in canyon: viño, camiño, A Coruña. Portuguese writes the same sound as nh.
How do you pronounce x in Galician?
In native words x is the sh of English: xente (people), Xunta, Xosé. In related words, it often corresponds to Spanish j or soft g.
Does Galician use ¿ and ¡?
They are optional. Questions and exclamations always close with ? and !; the opening ¿ and ¡ help in long sentences, and they can be dropped in short ones.
How do I type Galician accents?
On a Spanish keyboard press the key then a vowel, and use the Ñ key. On Windows use Alt codes (á 0225, ñ 0241, ü 0252, ï 0239); on a Mac Option E then a vowel, Option N then n; on a phone long-press the letter. Or copy them from this page.
What is the difference between Galician and Portuguese?
They come from one medieval language and are still close, but official Galician spelling follows Spanish habits (ñ, ll, x) while Portuguese writes nh, lh, j and uses ã õ ç. Galician also has many words of its own.
Is Galician a language or a dialect of Spanish?
A language of its own. It developed from Latin alongside Spanish, is closest to Portuguese, and is co-official with Spanish in Galicia.
How many people speak Galician?
CLDR estimates around 3.3 million speakers, nearly all in Galicia and its borderlands in Spain. Estimates vary with how fluency is counted.
