Galician, the vernacular of Galicia, is together with Spanish the official language of the Galician Community. Legal recognition of this status was granted only recently and was parallel to the re-establishment of democracy in the Spanish state as a whole.

The Law for Linguistic Standardisation passed unanimously in the Spanish Parliament on 15 June 1983 develops the statutory mandate and covers the rights of the citizens to use the Galician language, with special application to the fields of administration, education and the media.

After the promulgation of this Law, further regulations were passed to complete the legal framework and to ensure the full recovery of the use of the Galician language in local administration, the judiciary, the armed forces, etc.

As a result of the creation of this legal framework, any communication in the local language with the various administrative bodies acting in Galicia is valid for all purposes, all place names are given in Galician only, the autonomous and local administration is under the obligation to write its official documents in Galician, the Galician language was introduced into education from the primary level and the promotion of Galician is guaranteed wherever there are nuclei of emigrants and in the areas bordering the Autonomous Community.

Over the past years significant advances have been made in the standardisation of Galician although problems have arisen owing to the inevitable difficulties involved in the application of the concept of two official languages.