ON THE ROADS OF THE MOTIVATION AND OF THE GEOLINGUISTICS: THE NAMES OF THE MILKY WAY

Abstract

This article studies the names of our galaxy in the linguistic domain of Galician and Portuguese (spoken in Portugal and Brazil), based mainly on data extracted from the Galician and Portuguese word bank (Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués). We analyse the data from the point of view of motivation, deeply rooted in the ancient beliefs with which human beings integrated this phenomenon into different cultures worldwide. This perspective is particularly relevant in the geographical scope of the Galician-Portuguese linguistic continuum, which extends on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and overlaps with other languages and cultures from very different families. The data is also analysed from a geolinguistic point of view, by showing the relationship between the distance from the original cultural centre, the continuity or loss of motivation, and the changes in the adopted linguistic forms, not overlooking the possibilities of acquisition of new motivations through hybridisation during the territorial expansion.