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Bert45

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I found this on pilgrimagetraveler.com: "The Spanish word for thurible, or incense-burner is botafumeiro. In Gallego, the language of the region, it is botafumeiro, just a slight difference in the spelling of the word, yet enough to make it very confusing!" (Read it twice!)
I am confused! What is the word for botafumeiro in galego? (GT says it's the same word.)
 
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I'm sorry, I don't see the difference.
You're right, there is no difference. The word "botafumeiro" is of galego origin, but from what I can tell it's also used in Spanish. In the Spanish-language version of the Wikipedia entry, for example, it's also called "botafumeiro", and then the literal translation "echador de humo" is given. In English, this would be something like "the thing that emits smoke".
 
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The word "botafumeiro" is of galego origin, but from what I can tell it's also used in Spanish.
To add to this, the Galego-Portuguese origin of botafumeiro is indicated by the -eiro ending, which is common in those languages, whereas Castilian Spanish uses -ero endings for equivalent words.

For example, the word 'light' (as in, not heavy or slight or agile) is ligero/a in Spanish, ligeiro/a in Portuguese and lixeiro/a in Galego.
 
The word 'botafumeiro' is a Galician one. The Spanish word is 'incensario'. But, when talking about the big one in the cathedral in Santiago, the Galician word 'botafumeiro' is normally used even in Spanish.
 

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I'm sorry, I don't see the difference.
Exactly! That's kinda why I posted it. But the pilgrimtraveler entry implies that there is a difference in spelling, it's just that they spelt one of them wrong. However, as Wendy and Felipe have pointed out, pilgrimtraveler is wrong and there is no difference in the spelling of 'botafumeiro' between Galician and Spanish.
 
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Exactly! That's kinda why I posted it. But the pilgrimtraveler entry implies that there is a difference in spelling, it's just that they spelt one of them wrong. However, as Wendy and Felipe have pointed out, pilgrimtravveler is wrong and there is no difference in the spelling of 'botafumeiro' between Galician and Spanish.
Sorry, I didn't understand what you meant. Best to ask @Elle Bieling what she meant!
 
Sorry, I didn't understand what you meant. Best to ask @Elle Bieling what she meant!
I have sent a comment to pilgrimtraveler.com. She seems quite definite that the Spanish word is botafumeiro, and that there is just a slight difference in spelling between that and the Galician spelling, which she gives as exactly the same word. So either she made a typo in giving the Spanish spelling or in giving the galego (which she also spelt wrong) spelling.
 
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In Spanish it’s ‘gallego’, in Galego itself it’s ‘galego’. (As a side note, in Romance languages the first letters of languages are not capitalised.)
I didn't know that 'galego' was 'gallego' in Spanish However, it seemed logical to me to refer to the language 'galego' in galego, rather than Spanish. I know that in some languages (I didn't know it was in Romance languages in general) the first letters of languages are not capitalised. It's tricky. As we're writing in English, it seems safer to refer to Galician and Spanish, rather than galego, gallego, or Galego and español. I blame Elle Bieling – she started it. :)
 
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I have sent a comment to pilgrimtraveler.com. She seems quite definite that the Spanish word is botafumeiro, and that there is just a slight difference in spelling between that and the Galician spelling, which she gives as exactly the same word. So either she made a typo in giving the Spanish spelling or in giving the galego (which she also spelt wrong) spelling.
Well, she is wrong. There is absolutely no spelling difference. Spanish borrowed the word from Galician and didn't make any changes to it. The only difference is that in Spanish, 'botafumeiro' is only used to refer to the big thurible in Santiago. The rest are called 'incensario', which is the Spanish word for it. In Galician, you can use the word 'botafumeiro' to refer to any censer, not just the one in the cathedral in Santiago.
 
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Well, she is wrong. There is absolutely no spelling difference. Spanish borrowed the word from Galician and didn't make any changes to it. The only difference is that in Spanish, 'botafumeiro' is only used to refer to the big thurible in Santiago. The rest are called 'incensario', which is the Spanish word for it. In Galician, you can use the word 'botafumeiro' to refer to any censer, not just the one in the cathedral in Santiago.
No, there isn't.
Thanks Maria. As you are a Spaniard living in Galicia, I think that you know what you are talking about!
 
Well, I decided to take a weekend off, and I return to a hailstorm of botafumerio vs botafumeiro - yes there is a difference in the spelling, but somehow, I was confused as well and originally used the "botafumerio" spelling, only on the breadcrumb trail at the top of the page, and the url of the page itself. I stand corrected, as I got it wrong.

In my article, I meant "botafumerio" as the Spanish spelling and botafumeiro as the galego (Gallego) spelling. There is indeed a difference, and I failed to get it right in the article, which is now corrected.

To clarify, I am by no means an expert in either language, but I do perform a lot of research before I write. If you google "botafumerio" and put this spelling into the search, you will find a multitude of websites/references with this spelling, including this Spanish translator: https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/botafumerio. You must put the spelling into quotes or google will default you to the search for botafumeiro, the apparent galego word. Because of this, I would lean on the side that this may be the actual and only correct spelling of the word, whether Spanish or galego.

There is a multitude of people who got it wrong, then, if indeed there is no such word in Spanish as "botafumerio" and I was only following what I thought was correct. But it would be very, very nice if anyone actually knew, as a language expert in both languages what the correct words are!
 
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Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-

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