Spanish bagpipes
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Spain has a variety of regional piping styles; this page is an overview.
Terminology
Gaita is a generic term for "bagpipe" in Spanish, Portuguese, Galego, and Asturian, for distinct bagpipes used in Galicia (Spain), Asturias (Spain), Sanabria (Spain), Catalonia, Minho (Portugal) and Trás-os-Montes (Portugal). Just like "Northumbrian smallpipe"' or "Great Highland Bagpipe", each country and region attributes its toponym to the respective gaita name: gaita Galega (Galicia, Spain), gaita Transmontana (Trás-os-Montes, Portugal), gaita Asturiana (Asturias, Spain), gaita Sanabresa (Sanabria, Spain), Sac de Gemecs (Catalunya), etc. Most of them have a conical chanter with a partial second octave, obtained by overblowing. Folk groups playing these instruments have become popular in recent years, and pipe bands for some models.According to Joan Corominas, gaita is presumed to derive from a Gothic root meaning goat (gait or gata), as the bag is a whole, case-skinned goat hide; Gothic was spoken in Spain as late as the eighth century due to Visigothic invasions. The word may also be derived from the Latin "caetras", or "gaethas", an instrument attributed to the Celts in the Iberian Roman Provence of Gallaecia, by Silius Italicus. It is also possible, however, that the name originates with the ghaita (also spelled rhaita in Morocco and algaita in Niger) a North African oboe similar to the zurna whose name derives from an Arabic word meaning "farm," and that the Gothic connection is an example of folk etymology. Bagpipes in some parts of Eastern Europe bear similar names, such as gaida, gajda, and gajdy, but the linguistic relationship, if any, between these instruments is still unclear.
See also
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