Are Portuguese just Spaniards?

[Bell Beaker]

¿Por qué le sigues el juego a ese turco? ¿crees que está realmente interesado en Olivenza, o más bien que lo que quiere es crear discordia entre españoles y portugueses, hombre?

Não quero descer ao nível dele.....

[albie]

I'm not sure. Paula is a portuguese first name. I see de Paula listed as a portuguese surname but i've never seen it here.

Paula is a Roman name, nothing to do with Portugal. Anyone from Portugal, Spain, Italy or whatever can have Paula as a name. I am Spanish, and know some Paulas...

[Cristiano viejo]

Paula is a Roman name, nothing to do with Portugal. Anyone from Portugal, Spain, Italy or whatever can have Paula as a name. I am Spanish, and know some Paulas...

No, in Italy is Paolo, afaik.

[Hyoga7]

Paula is a Roman name, nothing to do with Portugal. Anyone from Portugal, Spain, Italy or whatever can have Paula as a name. I am Spanish, and know some Paulas...

At least in Portugal, Paula is a female name, so not "Anyone from Portugal" can have Paula as a name.
Well, nowadays a Paulo can turn into a Paula and vice-versa.

[Hyoga7]

No, in Italy is Paolo, afaik.

Origin of the name Paula: Feminine form of Paul, which is derived from Paulus, a Roman surname taken from the Latin paulus (small).
Origin of the name Paola: Feminine form of Paolo, the Italian cognate of Paul, which is from the Latin Paulus, a name originating as a Roman surname derived from paulus (small).

[Cristiano viejo]

Origin of the name Paula: Feminine form of Paul, which is derived from Paulus, a Roman surname taken from the Latin paulus (small).
Origin of the name Paola: Feminine form of Paolo, the Italian cognate of Paul, which is from the Latin Paulus, a name originating as a Roman surname derived from paulus (small).

Yeah, for sure the origin is the same or similar or whatever, but nowadays the names are different. Paulo is Paulo, Pablo is Pablo, Paul is Paul and Paolo is Paolo.
In Spain nobody is called Paul or Paolo, it is Pablo, and in a lesser extent, Paulino. Paula does exist, and Paulina.

If I see to someone with the name Paulo I will think he is from Portugal, if it is Paolo from Italy.

[Morena]

No.

[El_Abominacion]

Genetically they're similar but distinguishable (to an extent). As previously said Iberians are Iberians no matter what country, and it's not like the Balkans where comparisons such as these will get you a knife in the back of your hand.

RE: Galicia, Galicia is linguistically slightly different to the rest of Spain. Gallego is split off from the same language branch as Portuguese and arguably more closely related to modern day Portuguese than modern day Spanish (apparently Southern Brazilians and Galicians speak their native languages almost identically?). A speaker of Portuguese will likely be able to understand most of, if not all of Gallego, but that's not to say that culturally Galicia is alienated from the rest of Spain. If you go to Galicia you'll find that you can easily get by with run of the mill Spanish because most Galicians are fluent in both Spanish and Gallego. Now turn this around and say you want to get by only speaking Gallego in somewhere like Madrid - it won't work out so well. My grandma showed me a book once that was written in Gallego - Many of the words I could not understand and I only grew up around regular Spanish.

[Sebastianus Rex]

RE: Galicia, Galicia is linguistically slightly different to the rest of Spain. Gallego is split off from the same language branch as Portuguese and arguably more closely related to modern day Portuguese than modern day Spanish (apparently Southern Brazilians and Galicians speak their native languages almost identically?). A speaker of Portuguese will likely be able to understand most of, if not all of Gallego, but that's not to say that culturally Galicia is alienated from the rest of Spain. If you go to Galicia you'll find that you can easily get by with run of the mill Spanish because most Galicians are fluent in both Spanish and Gallego. Now turn this around and say you want to get by only speaking Gallego in somewhere like Madrid - it won't work out so well. My grandma showed me a book once that was written in Gallego - Many of the words I could not understand and I only grew up around regular Spanish.

Southern Brazilians and Gallegos don't speak alike. Imo southern Brazilian accents are in some ways closer to mainland Portuguese than other Brazilian accents but not similar at all to Galician.

Northern Portuguese regional accents are still somewhat close to Gallego, for example old timers from Minho and from Galicia will speak in a way quite close to each other, the younger generations less, since because of the media and education system the language has been trough a process of standartization at the cost of regional accents.

But yeah, in general terms we understand each other pretty well, the degree of mutual inteligibility is very high, no sweat about it.

[Cristiano viejo]

My grandma showed me a book once that was written in Gallego - Many of the words I could not understand and I only grew up around regular Spanish.

Any non-Galician Spanish could understand any book writen in Galician, it is not that difficult. Only, as you said, some words can vary, but as a whole it is pretty easy.

The same with Galician spoken.