Sardinian language
Encyclopedia
Sardinian is a Romance language spoken and written on most of the island of Sardinia
(Italy
). It is considered the most conservative
of the Romance languages
in terms of phonology
and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum
.
The Sardinian language is one of the principal elements of Sardinian cultural heritage, and there is activity dedicated to studying the language and acknowledging its importance; the recognition of the Sardinian language as a prominent element of the cultural identity is diffusely supported by the population.
The Sardinian language has recently been recognised, together with other local languages, as an official regional language
by the Sardinian Region
; it can therefore be used for official purposes on the island. The debate as to its legality had become heated by the 1980s: at Alghero's Fertilia international airport
, in a Sardinian Catalan-speaking area, a politically engaged employee of Alitalia
was heard over the loudspeakers, provocatively announcing the flights in Italian, English and Algherese. The employee was fired and penally condemned, causing widespread Sardinian nationalist sentiment, sometimes including violent political disputes which finally led to the law officialising the language.
In the last decade, the Sardinian language has been legally recognized (with Albanian
, Catalan
, German
, Greek
, Slovene, Croatian
, French
, Franco-Provençal
, Friulian, Ladin
, and Occitan) by the Law 482-1999, yet its actual acknowledgement in the present-day life is hard. For example, in many Italian libraries and universities, the books about Sardinian language are still grouped under the labels Linguistica italiana (Italian linguistics), Dialetti italiani (Italian dialects) or Dialettologia italiana (Italian dialectology), despite its legal recognition as a different language
.
Despite the political campaigns launched in order to put Sardinian on an equal footing with Italian, and any emotive value linked to Sardinian identity, the sociolinguistic situation in Sardinia due to several reasons, mainly political and socioeconomic (the gradual depopulation of the island's interior and rural exodus towards more urbanized and industrialized areas, the forced use of Italian presented as a prerequisite to get jobs and as one of the keys to social advancement, the barriers to communication between the dialectal varieties etc.) has resulted in a constant regression, though it is not homogeneous throughout the island; many Sardinians (especially those born in the towns, far more populated than the villages) are raised in families in which bilingual parents spoke to them predominantly Italian, being the children monolingual and with little proficiency in Sardinian. Nowadays, Sardinian is a language living in an unstable status of diglossia; UNESCO
classifies the language as endangered as "many children learn the language, but some of them cease to use it throughout the school years": there is a serious decline of language ability from one generation to the next, in which Sardinian is being replaced by Italian.
bundles:
The survival of a dialect of Catalan
in the town of Alghero
is a consequence of the domination of the Crown of Aragon
(later subsumed in the Spanish Crown, after the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon
and Isabel of Castile in the 15th century) over Sardinia since the Middle Ages until the 18th century.
. The degree of archaism varies, with Nuorese (central northeast part of the island) considered the most conservative, though in some cases it has innovated. Evidence from medieval documents indicates that the medieval language spoken over the entirety of Sardinia
and Corsica
was similar to modern Nuorese; all of the remaining areas are thought to have innovated as the result of heavy external influence from centuries of colonization by Italian and Spanish speakers.
The examples listed below are from the northwestern Logudorese dialect:
Sardinian also features numerous phonetic innovations, including the following:
While the latter two features were acquired during the Spanish domination, the others reveal deeper relations between ancient Sardinia and the Iberia
n world. Note that retroflex d, l and r are found not only in southern Italy and Tuscany
but also in Asturias
. They were probably involved in the palatalization process of the Latin clusters -ll-, pl-, cl- (-ll- > Cast. and Cat. -ll- [ʎ], Gasc. -th [c]; cl- > Old Port.
ch- [tʃ], Ital. chi- [kj]).
Sardinian has the following phonemes (according to Blasco Ferrer
):
The following three series of plosives or corresponding approximants:
In Cagliari
and neighbouring dialects the soft [d] is assimilated to the rhotic flap [ɾ] : digitus > didu = diru 'finger'.
affricate written tz, that corresponds to Italian z or ci-, natural evolution of /t/ before /i/. (or [ddz]), written z, corresponds to Italian gi- (ggi-, respectively).
and: written c(i/e) or ç. written g(e/i), or j.
for some speakers/dialects, though for most the pronunciation is actually [nːj]
written rr.
Some permutations of l and r can be observed, in that in most dialects preconsonant l (e.g. lt, lc, etc.) becomes r : L. "altum" > artu, marralzu = marrarzu 'rock'.
In palatal context, Latin l changed into [dz], [ts], [ldz], [ll] or [dʒ] rather than the [ʎ] of Italian: achizare (It. accigliare), *volia > bòlla = bòlza = bòza 'wish' (It. vòglia), folia > fogia = folla = foza 'leaf' (It. foglia), filia > filla = fitza = fiza 'daughter' (It. figlia).
Other pre-Latin Sardinian words are presented here:
, relatively isolated from the Europe
an continent up into modern times, led to the development of a distinct Romance language, which even now preserves traces of the indigenous pre-Roman language of the island. The language is of Latin
origin like all Romance languages yet the following substratal
influences are likely:
Adstratal influences include:
. There are substantial differences between the many theories about the development of Sardinian.
Many studies have attempted to discover the origin of some obscure roots that today could legitimately be defined as indigenous, pre-Romance roots. First of all, the root of sard, present in many toponyms and distinctive of the ethnic group, is supposed to have come from the Sherden, one of the so-called Peoples of the Sea.
Massimo Pittau claimed in 1984 to have found in the Etruscan language
the etymology
of many other Latin words, after comparison with the Nuragic
language. If true, one could conclude that, having evidence of a deep influence of Etruscan culture in Sardinia, the island could have directly received from Etruscan many elements that are instead usually considered to be of Latin origin. Pittau then indicates that both the Etruscan and Nuragic languages are descended from the Lydian language
, both therefore being Indo-European languages
, as a consequence of the alleged provenance of Etruscans/Tyrrhenians
from that land (as in Herodotus
), where effectively the capital town was Sardis
. Pittau also suggests, as a historical point, that the Tirrenii landed in Sardinia, whereas the Etruscans landed in modern-day Tuscany
. Massimo Pittau's views however are not representative of most Etruscologists.
It has been said that Paleosardinian should be expected to have notable similarities with Iberic languages and the Siculian language: the suffix -'ara, for example, in proparoxytone
s (Bertoldi and Terracini proposed it indicated plural forms). The same would happen (according to Terracini) for suffixes in -/àna/, -/ànna/, -/énna/, -/ònna/ + /r/ + paragogic vowel (as in the toponym Bonnànnaro). Rohlfs, Butler and Craddock add the suffix -/ini/ (as in the toponym Barùmini) as a peculiar element of Paleosardinian. At the same time, suffixes in /a, e, o, u/ + -rr- seem to find a correspondence in northern Africa
(Terracini), in Iberia
(Blasco Ferrer), in southern Italy and in Gascony
(Rohlfs), with some closer relation to Basque
(Wagner, Hubschmid). However, these early links proposing a link to a precursor of modern Basque
have been discredited by most Basque linguists. Suffixes in -/ài/, -/éi/, -/òi/, and -/ùi/ are common to Paleosardinian and northern African languages (Terracini). Pittau underlined that this concerns terms originally ending in an accented vowel, with an attached paragogic vowel; the suffix resisted Latinization in some toponyms, which show a Latin body and a Nuragic desinence. On this point, some toponyms ending in -/ài/ and in -/asài/ were thought to show Anatolic influence (Bertoldi). The suffix -/aiko/, widely used in Iberia, and perhaps of Celtic origins, as well as the ethnical suffix in -/itanos/ and -/etanos/ (as in the Sardinian Sulcitanos) have been noted as other Paleosardinian elements (viz Terracini, Ribezzo, Wagner, Hubschmid, Faust, et al.).
Linguists like Blasco Ferrer (2009, 2010) or Morvan (2009) have recently attempted to revive the theory of a Basque connection by linking modern surface forms such as Sardinian ospile "fresh natural cover for cattle" and Basque ozpil "id.", Sardinian arrotzeri "vagabond" and Basque arrotz "stranger", Sardinian arru "stone, stony" and Basque arri "stone", Gallurese (South Corsican and North Sardinian) zerru "pig" and Basque zerri "id.".
domination, beginning in 238 BC, brought Latin
to Sardinia, but this language was not able to completely supplant the Pre-Roman Sardinian language. Some obscure roots remained unaltered, and in many cases it was Latin that was made to accept the local roots, such as nur (in nuraghe
, as well as Nugoro
and many other toponyms). Roman culture, on the other hand, became largely dominant; Barbagia derives its name from the Greek word Ό βάρβαρος-ου, which means "stuttering", due to the fact that its people could not speak Latin well. Cicero
, who called Sardinians latrones matrucati ("thieves with rough sheep-wool cloaks") to emphasise Roman superiority, helped to spread this conception.
and a limited area of northern Sardinia. On the southern side, though, the evidence favors contacts with Semitic
and (later) Byzantine
languages. In the 1st century AD, some relevant groups of Hebrews
were deported to Sardinia, bringing various influences; the Christianization
of the island would probably have brought Hebrews to convert to a sort of independent cult of Sant'Antioco
(perhaps a way to preserve some aspects of their ethnicity under a Christian form), still present in Gavoi
. This contact with Hebrews, followed by another deportation of Christians, presumedly lasted for a couple of centuries, and makes it likely that by the 3rd century AD, Vulgar Latin
began to dominate the island.
This eventual Latin cultural domination thus makes Sardinian a Romance language, or more precisely an archaic neo-Latin language, whose main characteristics are an archaic phonetic and morphosyntactic phenomena.
After this domination, Sardinia passed under the control of the Eastern Roman Empire, and more influences are derived from this culture. The Greek language that was the main reference of Byzantines did not, however, enter into the structure of Sardinian (still a Romance language) except for in some ritual or formal formulas that are expressed in Latin using Greek structure. Much evidence for this can be found in the condaghe
s, the first written documents in Sardinian.
Some toponyms show Greek influence as well, such as Jerzu
, commonly presumed to derive from the Greek khérsos (untilled), together with the personal names Mikhaleis, Konstantine, and Basilis.
The national anthem of the Kingdom of Sardinia was the Hymnu Sardu (or Cunservet Deus su Re), the lyrics of which are in the Sardinian language. It was partially substituted by the Savoy
's March when Italy was unified. During the Fascist
period, especially the Autarchy
campaign, regional languages were banned. The restrictions went so far that even personal names and surnames were made to sound more "italian-sounding". During this period, the Sardinian Hymn was the sole chance to speak in a regional language in Italy without risking prison, because, as a fundamental part of the Royal Family's tradition, it could not be forbidden.
as did King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
on several official occasions, when the Crown needed to remind Mussolini
of its superior position. Achille Starace
, national secretary of the Fascist party, imposed the use of orbace, a poor Sardinian wool, as the national cloth for the uniforms of Blackshirts
, while on a cultural level Mussolini himself still on the border of the limits of the law. The policies for the island also included the reclamation of wide areas of the region (bonifiche) and the implementation of commerce and industry.
Catholic priests practiced a strict obstructionism against mutos
, a form of improvised sung poetry where two or more poets are assigned a surprise theme and have to develop it on the spur of the moment in rhymed quatrains.
In the Italian Army
, the mechanized infantry of Brigata Sassari is the sole unit to have a hymn in Sardinian language: Dimonios, written in 1994 by Captain Luciano Sechi. This name comes from the attribute Rote Teufel (German for Red Devils, and Dimonios is Sardinian for Devils) given to them by Austro-Hungaric
enemies during the World War I
, cause of their white and red flashes and their worth in war.
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
(Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
). It is considered the most conservative
Conservative (language)
In linguistics, a conservative form, variety, or modality is one that has changed relatively little over its history, or which is relatively resistant to change...
of the Romance languages
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
in terms of phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum
Substratum
In linguistics, a stratum or strate is a language that influences, or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum is a language which has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum is the language that has higher power or prestige. Both substratum and superstratum...
.
Number of speakers and cultural status
The Sardinian language has recently been recognised, together with other local languages, as an official regional language
Regional language
A regional language is a language spoken in an area of a nation state, whether it be a small area, a federal state or province, or some wider area....
by the Sardinian Region
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
; it can therefore be used for official purposes on the island. The debate as to its legality had become heated by the 1980s: at Alghero's Fertilia international airport
Fertilia Airport
Alghero Airport is an international airport situated north-northwest of the city of Alghero, in northern Sardinia, Italy. It is also known as Fertilia Airport or Alghero-Fertilia Airport, named for the nearby village of Fertilia...
, in a Sardinian Catalan-speaking area, a politically engaged employee of Alitalia
Alitalia
Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. , in its later stages known as Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. in Extraordinary Administration, was the former Italian flag carrier...
was heard over the loudspeakers, provocatively announcing the flights in Italian, English and Algherese. The employee was fired and penally condemned, causing widespread Sardinian nationalist sentiment, sometimes including violent political disputes which finally led to the law officialising the language.
In the last decade, the Sardinian language has been legally recognized (with Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
, Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Slovene, Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Franco-Provençal
Franco-Provençal language
Franco-Provençal , Arpitan, or Romand is a Romance language with several distinct dialects that form a linguistic sub-group separate from Langue d'Oïl and Langue d'Oc. The name Franco-Provençal was given to the language by G.I...
, Friulian, Ladin
Ladin
Ladin is a language consisting of a group of dialects spoken in the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy in the border regions of the provinces Trentino, South Tyrol and Belluno...
, and Occitan) by the Law 482-1999, yet its actual acknowledgement in the present-day life is hard. For example, in many Italian libraries and universities, the books about Sardinian language are still grouped under the labels Linguistica italiana (Italian linguistics), Dialetti italiani (Italian dialects) or Dialettologia italiana (Italian dialectology), despite its legal recognition as a different language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
.
Despite the political campaigns launched in order to put Sardinian on an equal footing with Italian, and any emotive value linked to Sardinian identity, the sociolinguistic situation in Sardinia due to several reasons, mainly political and socioeconomic (the gradual depopulation of the island's interior and rural exodus towards more urbanized and industrialized areas, the forced use of Italian presented as a prerequisite to get jobs and as one of the keys to social advancement, the barriers to communication between the dialectal varieties etc.) has resulted in a constant regression, though it is not homogeneous throughout the island; many Sardinians (especially those born in the towns, far more populated than the villages) are raised in families in which bilingual parents spoke to them predominantly Italian, being the children monolingual and with little proficiency in Sardinian. Nowadays, Sardinian is a language living in an unstable status of diglossia; UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
classifies the language as endangered as "many children learn the language, but some of them cease to use it throughout the school years": there is a serious decline of language ability from one generation to the next, in which Sardinian is being replaced by Italian.
Dialects
The Sardinian language can be divided into the following main subregional language groups clearly identified by isoglossIsogloss
An isogloss—also called a heterogloss —is the geographical boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or use of some syntactic feature...
bundles:
- Sardinian proper, characterised by a plural in -s and definite articles derived from the Latin IPSUM
- Northern (Logudorese-Nuorese Sardinian), the most conservative dialect, with Nuorese (Nugoresu) being the most extremely conservative of all:
- sas limbas – 'the languages';
- sas abbas – 'the waters'.
- Central (Sardu de mesania), considered to be a transitional dialect between Northern and Southern Sardinian:
- is limbas – 'the languages';
- is abbas – 'the waters'.
- Southern (Campidanese Sardinian), more influenced by Spanish and continental Italian according to Max Leopold Wagner:
- is linguas – 'the languages';
- is acuas – 'the waters'.
- Northern (Logudorese-Nuorese Sardinian), the most conservative dialect, with Nuorese (Nugoresu) being the most extremely conservative of all:
- Corso-Sardinian dialects, spoken in the extreme north of Sardinia, are sometimes considered as independent languages or to be part of the Corsican languageCorsican languageCorsican is a Italo-Dalmatian Romance language spoken and written on the islands of Corsica and northern Sardinia . Corsican is the traditional native language of the Corsican people, and was long the vernacular language alongside the Italian, official language in Corsica until 1859, which was...
rather than Sardinian. They are characterised by a plural in -i and definite articles derived from the Latin ILLUM.- Sassarese (G-shape):
- eba – 'water';
- garri – 'meat';
- eu digu – 'I say'.
- Gallurese (C-shape):
- e'a – 'water';
- carri – 'meat';
- eu dicu – 'I say'.
- Sassarese (G-shape):
The survival of a dialect of Catalan
Alguerese
Algherese is the variant of the Catalan language spoken in the city of Alghero , in the northwest of Sardinia....
in the town of Alghero
Alghero
Alghero , is a town of about 44,000 inhabitants in Italy. It lies in the province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the sea.-History:The area of today's Alghero has been settled since pre-historic times...
is a consequence of the domination of the Crown of Aragon
Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon Corona d'Aragón Corona d'Aragó Corona Aragonum controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern Spain and southeastern France, as well as some of the major islands and mainland possessions stretching across the Mediterranean as far as Greece...
(later subsumed in the Spanish Crown, after the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...
and Isabel of Castile in the 15th century) over Sardinia since the Middle Ages until the 18th century.
Phonology
All dialects of Sardinian feature archaic phonetic features when compared to other Romance languagesRomance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
. The degree of archaism varies, with Nuorese (central northeast part of the island) considered the most conservative, though in some cases it has innovated. Evidence from medieval documents indicates that the medieval language spoken over the entirety of Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
and Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
was similar to modern Nuorese; all of the remaining areas are thought to have innovated as the result of heavy external influence from centuries of colonization by Italian and Spanish speakers.
The examples listed below are from the northwestern Logudorese dialect:
- The LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
short vowels [i] and [u] have preserved their original sound (in ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
they became [e] and [o], respectively; in PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
[u] was also kept but written as an 'o'). For example: siccus > sicu 'dry' (Italian secco, Spanish seco). - Preservation of the plosive sounds [k] and [ɡ] before front vowels [e] and [i] in many (though not all) words. For example: centum > kentu 'hundred'; decem > dèghe 'ten' or gener > gheneru 'son in law' (Italian cento, dièci, genero with [tʃ] and [dʒ]).
- Absence of diphthongDiphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
izations found in other Romance languages. For example: potest > podet 'he can' (Italian può, Spanish puede); bonus > bónu 'good' (Italian buono, Spanish bueno).
Sardinian also features numerous phonetic innovations, including the following:
- The transformation of Latin -ll- into a retroflexRetroflex consonantA retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...
[ɖɖ]. For example: bellus > beddu 'pretty', villa > bidda 'village, town'. - The consonant clusters -ld- and -nd- were similarly affected: soldus > [ˈsoɖ.ɖu] 'money'; abundantia > [ab.boɳ.ˈɖan.tsi.a] 'abundance'.
- The evolution of pl-, fl, cl- into pr-, fr, cr- as in Portuguese and GalicianGalician languageGalician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
; for example: platea > pratza 'plaza' (Portuguese praça, Galician praza, Italian piazza), fluxus > frúsciu 'flabby' (Port. and Gal. frouxo), ecclesia > cresia 'church' (Port. igreja, Gal. igrexa, It. chiesa). - TransformationsMetathesis (linguistics)Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...
like abbratzare > abbaltzare 'to embrace'. - Vowel prothesisProsthesis (linguistics)In linguistics, prosthesis is the addition of a sound or syllable at the beginning of a word without changing the word's meaning or the rest of its structure. The alternative spelling prothesis was first used in post-classical Latin, based on Greek próthesis "placing before" or "in public"...
before an initial r in Campidanese like in BasqueBasque languageBasque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
or GasconGascon languageGascon is usually considered as a dialect of Occitan, even though some specialists regularly consider it a separate language. Gascon is mostly spoken in Gascony and Béarn in southwestern France and in the Aran Valley of Spain...
: regem > urrei = re, gurrèi 'king'; rotam > arroda 'wheel' (Gascon arròda); rivum > Sard. and Gasc. arríu 'river'. - Vowel prothesis in Logudorese before an initial s followed by consonant, like in Western Romance: scriptum > iscrítu (Spanish escrito, FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
écrit), stellam > isteddu 'star' (Spanish estrella, French étoile). - Except for the Nuorese dialects, Latin single voiceless plosives [p, t, k] in intervocalic position became voiced approximantsApproximant consonantApproximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no...
, and single voiced plosives [b, d, ɡ] were lost: [t] > [d] (or rather its soft counterpart [ð]): locum > [ˈlo.ɡu] (It. luògo), caritatem > [ka.ri.ˈda.de] (It. carità). Note that these processes also apply across word boundaries: porku (pig) but su borku (the pig); domo (house) but sa omo (the house).
While the latter two features were acquired during the Spanish domination, the others reveal deeper relations between ancient Sardinia and the Iberia
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
n world. Note that retroflex d, l and r are found not only in southern Italy and Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
but also in Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
. They were probably involved in the palatalization process of the Latin clusters -ll-, pl-, cl- (-ll- > Cast. and Cat. -ll- [ʎ], Gasc. -th [c]; cl- > Old Port.
Galician-Portuguese
Galician-Portuguese or Old Portuguese was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was first spoken in the area bounded in the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and the Douro River in the south but it was later extended south...
ch- [tʃ], Ital. chi- [kj]).
Sardinian has the following phonemes (according to Blasco Ferrer
Eduardo Blasco Ferrer
Eduardo Blasco Ferrer is a Spanish-Italian linguist, currently a professor at the University of Cagliari, Sardinia. He is best known as the author of several studies about the Sardinian language.-Books:...
):
Consonants
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Labio- dental Labiodental consonant In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.-Labiodental consonant in IPA:The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental | Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Post- alveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... |
Retroflex Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m /m/ | n /n/ | nny /ɲ/ | |||||
| Plosive | p /p/ b /b/ | t /t/ d /d/ | dd /ɖ/ | k /k/ g /ɡ/ | ||||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
tz /ts/ z /dz/ | ch, c /tʃ/ g /dʒ/ | ||||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
b /β/ | f /f/ v /v/ | (th /θ/) d /ð/ | s, ss /s/ s /z/ | sc /ʃ/ x /ʒ/ | g /ɣ/ | ||
| Tap | r /ɾ/ | |||||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
rr /r/ | |||||||
| Lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
l /l/ | |||||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
j /j/ |
The following three series of plosives or corresponding approximants:
- Voiceless stops derive from their Latin homologue in composition after another stop; they are reinforced (double) in initial position but this reinforcement is not written since it does not produce a different phonemePhonemeIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
. - Double voiced stops (after another consonant) derive from their Latin homologue in composition after another stop;
- Weak voiced "stops", sometimes transcribed , which are in fact approximants [β, ð, ɣ] after vowels, as in Spanish. They derive from single Latin stops either voiced or not.
In Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
and neighbouring dialects the soft [d] is assimilated to the rhotic flap [ɾ] : digitus > didu = diru 'finger'.
| Articulation point | labio-dental | dentoalveolar | retroflex | palatal | velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... | from Latin Latin Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless | p | t | k | double voiceless | ||
| double voiced | bb | dd | ɖɖ | – | kw > bb, bd > dd, etc. | |
| approximants | b [β] | d [ð] | ɡ [ɣ] | single stops |
- Retroflex /ɖɖ/ (written dd) derives from a former retroflex lateral /ɭɭ/.
- A former voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ (like the Hungarian gy) > /ɡ/
Fricatives
- The labiodental /f/ (sometimes pronounced [ff] or [v] in initial position) and /v/;
- Latin initial 'v' becomes 'b' (vipera > bibera 'viper')
- In central Sardinian the sound /f/ disappears: a behavior that evokes the transformation /f/ > /h/ known in Gascon and Castilian. written th (like in English thing), the voiceless dental fricativeVoiceless dental fricativeThe voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English speakers as the 'th' in thing. Though rather rare as a phoneme in the world's inventory of languages, it is encountered in some of the most widespread and influential...
, is a restricted dialectal variant of the phoneme /ts/. e.g. ipsa > íssa pronounced [ʃ] at the beginning of a word, otherwise [ʃʃ] = [ʃ.ʃ], is written sc(i/e). The voiced equivalent, [ʒ], which is often spelled with the letter x.
- In central Sardinian the sound /f/ disappears: a behavior that evokes the transformation /f/ > /h/ known in Gascon and Castilian. written th (like in English thing), the voiceless dental fricative
- Latin initial 'v' becomes 'b' (vipera > bibera 'viper')
Affricates
(or [tts]) a denti-alveolarDenti-alveolar
In linguistics, a denti-alveolar consonant is a consonant that is articulated with a flat tongue against the alveolar ridge and upper teeth, such as and in languages such as Spanish and French...
affricate written tz, that corresponds to Italian z or ci-, natural evolution of /t/ before /i/. (or [ddz]), written z, corresponds to Italian gi- (ggi-, respectively).
and: written c(i/e) or ç. written g(e/i), or j.
Nasals
, /mm/, /nn/ written nny, the palatal nasalPalatal nasal
The palatal nasal is a type of consonant, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase letter n with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom of the left stem of the letter. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J...
for some speakers/dialects, though for most the pronunciation is actually [nːj]
Liquids
(or [ll]), double when initial a flap written r a trillAlveolar trill
The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r. It is commonly called the rolled R, rolling R, or trilled R...
written rr.
Some permutations of l and r can be observed, in that in most dialects preconsonant l (e.g. lt, lc, etc.) becomes r : L. "altum" > artu, marralzu = marrarzu 'rock'.
In palatal context, Latin l changed into [dz], [ts], [ldz], [ll] or [dʒ] rather than the [ʎ] of Italian: achizare (It. accigliare), *volia > bòlla = bòlza = bòza 'wish' (It. vòglia), folia > fogia = folla = foza 'leaf' (It. foglia), filia > filla = fitza = fiza 'daughter' (It. figlia).
Morphology
The main distinctive features of Sardinian are :- The plural markerMarker (linguistics)In linguistics, a marker is a free or bound morpheme that indicates the grammatical function of the marked word, phrase, or sentence. In analytic languages and agglutinative languages, markers are generally easily distinguished. In fusional languages and polysynthetic languages, this is often not...
is -s (from the Latin accusative plural) as in the Western Romance languagesWestern Romance languagesThe Western Romance languages are one of the primary subdivisions of the Romance languages. They include at least the following:* The Pyrenean–Mozarabic group consists of two languages in two separate branches:**Aragonese**Mozarabic...
(FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Occitan, CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
, SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, and GalicianGalician languageGalician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
): sardu, sardus; pudda, puddas 'hen'; margiane, margianes 'fox'. In Italo-Dalmatian languages such as ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
or in Eastern Romance languages such as RomanianRomanian languageRomanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
, the plural ends with -i or -e. - Sardinian uses a definite article derived from the Latin ipsus: su, sa, plural sos, sas (Logudorese) and is (Campidanese). Such articles are common in Balearic Catalan and used to be common in GasconGascon languageGascon is usually considered as a dialect of Occitan, even though some specialists regularly consider it a separate language. Gascon is mostly spoken in Gascony and Béarn in southwestern France and in the Aran Valley of Spain...
. - A periphrastic constructionPeriphrasisIn linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or grammatical relationship is expressed by a free morpheme , instead of being shown by inflection or derivation...
of the form 'to have to' (late Latin habere ad) is used as future: app'a istàre < appo a istàre 'I will stay' (as in PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
hei de estar, but here as periphrasis for estarei). - For prohibitions, a negative form of subjunctive is used: no bengias! 'don't come!' (compare Spanish no vengas and PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
não venhas, in this language classified as part of the affirmative imperativeImperativeImperative can mean:*Imperative mood, a grammatical mood expressing commands, direct requests, and prohibitions * A morphological item expressing commands, direct requests, and prohibitions...
mood).
Pre-Latin Sardinian words
- Phoenician words:
- míntza (mitza, miza) '(water) spring'
- tzichiría (sichiria, tzirichia) 'dill'
- tzingòrra (zingòrra), kind of small eel
- tzípiri (tzípari) 'rosemary'
- Possible IberianIberian languageThe Iberian language was the language of a people identified by Greek and Roman sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian peninsula. The ancient Iberians can be identified as a rather nebulous local culture between the 7th and 1st century BC...
words:
- cóstiche 'variety of maple'
- cúcuru 'top'; e.g. cucuredhu 'pinnacle', 'mound', etc.
- giágaru (Campidanese) 'hunting dog'(cf. Basque txakur?)
- golósti 'holly' (cf. Basque gorosti)
- sechaju 'year-old lamb'(cf. Basque zekail)
- zerru (gallurese) 'pig' (cf. Basque zerri)
- Illyrian relations:
- eni 'yew' (cf. enjë 'yew' in Albanian)
- thurg-alu 'stream' (cf. çurg 'stream' in Albanian)
- drobbalu 'intestine'(cf. drobolì 'intestine' in Albanian also in South Slavic languages drob
- golostriu 'holly' (cf. ill. *gol (A. Mayer) 'top, spike'+ Slavic ostrь 'thorny')
- zerru 'pig' (gallurese) (cf. derr 'pig' in Albanian, according to M. Morvan)
- Latin words prefixed with the pre-Latin article t(i)-:
- tilichèrta, Camp. tzilikitu 'lizard' (ti + L. lacerta)
- tilingiòne "worm" (ti + L. lumbricum 'earthworm')
- trúcu 'neck'; var. ciugu, túgulu, Camp. tsuguru (t + L. jugulum)
- túgnu, tontonníu 'mushroom' (t + L. fungus)
Other pre-Latin Sardinian words are presented here:
- geographical terms:
- bèga 'damp plainPlainIn geography, a plain is land with relatively low relief, that is flat or gently rolling. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in shrublands, woodland and forest, or...
' probable cognate with PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
veiga, Spanish vega 'fertile plain'. - bàcu 'canyonCanyonA canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...
' - garrópu 'canyon'
- giara 'tableland'
- míntza 'spring' / 'manantial' / 'sorgènte'.
- piteràca, boturinu, terighinu 'way'
- plant names:
- tzaurra 'germ'; intzaurru, 'sproutShootShoots are new plant growth, they can include stems, flowering stems with flower buds, and leaves. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop...
' - araminzu, oroddasu – Cynodon dactylon 'couch grassCynodonCynodon is a genus of nine species of grasses, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Old World. The genus as a whole as well as its species are commonly known as Bermuda Grass or Dog's Tooth Grass.-Species:...
' - arbutu, arbutzu, abrutzu – Asphodelus ramosus 'asphodelAsphodelAsphodelus ramosus, also known as Branched asphodel, is a perennial herb in the Asparagales order. Similar in appearance to Asphodelus albus and particularly Asphodelus cerasiferus, it may be distinguished by its highly branched stem and smaller fruits.In addition, at least on the Catalan coast...
' (although in Latin arbustus means 'bush', 'shrub', preserved in Portuguese arbusto, 'little tree') - atagnda, atzagndda – Papaver rhoeas 'red poppy'
- bidduri – Conium maculatum 'hemlockConiumConium is a genus of two species of highly poisonous perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the family Apiaceae, native to Europe and the Mediterranean region as Conium maculatum, and to southern Africa as Conium chaerophylloides....
' - carcuri – Ampelodesma mauritanica (a Mediterranean grass)
- istiòcoro – PicrisPicrisPicris is a genus in the family Asteraceae .Picris species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, such as the grass moth Diasemia reticularis. Schinia cardui feeds exclusively on P. hieracioides....
echioides - curma – Ruta chalepensis 'rueRueRue is a genus of strongly scented evergreen subshrubs 20–60 cm tall, in the family Rutaceae, native to the Mediterranean region, Macaronesia and southwest Asia. There are perhaps 8 to 40 species in the genus...
' - tinníga, tinnía, sinníga, tsinníga – 'espartoEspartoEsparto, or esparto grass, also known as "halfah grass" or "needle grass", Macrochloa tenacissima and Stipa tenacissima, is a perennial grass grown in northwest Africa and the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula employed for crafts .-Esparto paper:It is also used for fiber production for paper...
' - tiría – Calicotome spinosaCalicotome spinosaCalicotome spinosa is a very spiny, densely-branched shrub of the legume family Fabaceae which can reach up to three metres in height. It grows in the Western Mediterranean region on sunny slopes and dry, rocky ground. It is found in Spain, France, Italy, Croatia and Algeria and has been...
'thorny broom' - tzichiría – Ridolfia segetum (a kind of fennelFennelFennel is a plant species in the genus Foeniculum . It is a member of the family Apiaceae . It is a hardy, perennial, umbelliferous herb, with yellow flowers and feathery leaves...
)
- animal names:
- gròdde, marxani 'foxFoxFox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
' - irbírru, isbírru, iskírru, ibbírru 'martenMartenThe martens constitute the genus Martes within the subfamily Mustelinae, in family Mustelidae.-Description:Martens are slender, agile animals, adapted to living in taigas, and are found in coniferous and northern deciduous forests across the northern hemisphere. They have bushy tails, and large...
' - tilingiòne, tilingròne, tiringoni 'earthwormEarthwormEarthworm is the common name for the largest members of Oligochaeta in the phylum Annelida. In classical systems they were placed in the order Opisthopora, on the basis of the male pores opening posterior to the female pores, even though the internal male segments are anterior to the female...
' - tilipírche, tilibílche 'grasshopperGrasshopperThe grasshopper is an insect of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish it from bush crickets or katydids, it is sometimes referred to as the short-horned grasshopper...
' - tilicúcu, telacúcu, tiligúgu 'geckoGeckoGeckos are lizards belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from 1.6 cm to 60 cm....
', Camp. tsilicitu 'lizard' (pistiloni 'gecko') - tilichèrta, tilighèrta, tilighèlta; calixerta 'lizardLizardLizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...
', cognate with Latin lacertaLacertaLacerta is one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union. Its name is Latin for lizard. A small, faint constellation, it was created in 1687 by the astronomer Johannes Hevelius. Its brightest stars form a "W" shape similar to that of Cassiopeia, and it is thus...
.
History and origins
The history of the island of SardiniaSardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
, relatively isolated from the Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an continent up into modern times, led to the development of a distinct Romance language, which even now preserves traces of the indigenous pre-Roman language of the island. The language is of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
origin like all Romance languages yet the following substratal
Substratum
In linguistics, a stratum or strate is a language that influences, or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum is a language which has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum is the language that has higher power or prestige. Both substratum and superstratum...
influences are likely:
- Illyrian
- EtruscanEtruscan languageThe Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization, in what is present-day Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna...
- BasqueBasque languageBasque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
Adstratal influences include:
- CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
- SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
- ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
Origins
The early origins of the Sardinian language (sometimes called Paleosardinian) are still obscure, due mostly to the lack of documents, as Sardinian appeared as a written form only in the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. There are substantial differences between the many theories about the development of Sardinian.
Many studies have attempted to discover the origin of some obscure roots that today could legitimately be defined as indigenous, pre-Romance roots. First of all, the root of sard, present in many toponyms and distinctive of the ethnic group, is supposed to have come from the Sherden, one of the so-called Peoples of the Sea.
Massimo Pittau claimed in 1984 to have found in the Etruscan language
Etruscan language
The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization, in what is present-day Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna...
the etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of many other Latin words, after comparison with the Nuragic
Nuragic civilization
The Nuragic civilization was a civilization of Sardinia, lasting from the Bronze Age to the 2nd century AD. The name derives from its most characteristic monuments, the nuraghe. They consist of tower-fortresses, built starting from about 1800 BC...
language. If true, one could conclude that, having evidence of a deep influence of Etruscan culture in Sardinia, the island could have directly received from Etruscan many elements that are instead usually considered to be of Latin origin. Pittau then indicates that both the Etruscan and Nuragic languages are descended from the Lydian language
Lydian language
Lydian was an Indo-European language spoken in the region of Lydia in western Anatolia . It belongs to the Anatolian group of the Indo-European language family....
, both therefore being Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
, as a consequence of the alleged provenance of Etruscans/Tyrrhenians
Tyrrhenians
The Tyrrhenians or Tyrsenians is an exonym used by Greek authors to refer to a non-Greek people.- Earliest references :...
from that land (as in Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
), where effectively the capital town was Sardis
Sardis
Sardis or Sardes was an ancient city at the location of modern Sart in Turkey's Manisa Province...
. Pittau also suggests, as a historical point, that the Tirrenii landed in Sardinia, whereas the Etruscans landed in modern-day Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
. Massimo Pittau's views however are not representative of most Etruscologists.
It has been said that Paleosardinian should be expected to have notable similarities with Iberic languages and the Siculian language: the suffix -'ara, for example, in proparoxytone
Proparoxytone
Proparoxytone is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the antepenultimate syllable, e.g the English words cinema and operational. Related terms are paroxytone and oxytone .In English, most nouns of three or more syllables are proparoxtones...
s (Bertoldi and Terracini proposed it indicated plural forms). The same would happen (according to Terracini) for suffixes in -/àna/, -/ànna/, -/énna/, -/ònna/ + /r/ + paragogic vowel (as in the toponym Bonnànnaro). Rohlfs, Butler and Craddock add the suffix -/ini/ (as in the toponym Barùmini) as a peculiar element of Paleosardinian. At the same time, suffixes in /a, e, o, u/ + -rr- seem to find a correspondence in northern Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
(Terracini), in Iberia
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
(Blasco Ferrer), in southern Italy and in Gascony
Gascony
Gascony is an area of southwest France that was part of the "Province of Guyenne and Gascony" prior to the French Revolution. The region is vaguely defined and the distinction between Guyenne and Gascony is unclear; sometimes they are considered to overlap, and sometimes Gascony is considered a...
(Rohlfs), with some closer relation to Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
(Wagner, Hubschmid). However, these early links proposing a link to a precursor of modern Basque
Aquitanian language
The Aquitanian language was spoken in ancient Aquitaine before the Roman conquest and, probably much later, until the Early Middle Ages....
have been discredited by most Basque linguists. Suffixes in -/ài/, -/éi/, -/òi/, and -/ùi/ are common to Paleosardinian and northern African languages (Terracini). Pittau underlined that this concerns terms originally ending in an accented vowel, with an attached paragogic vowel; the suffix resisted Latinization in some toponyms, which show a Latin body and a Nuragic desinence. On this point, some toponyms ending in -/ài/ and in -/asài/ were thought to show Anatolic influence (Bertoldi). The suffix -/aiko/, widely used in Iberia, and perhaps of Celtic origins, as well as the ethnical suffix in -/itanos/ and -/etanos/ (as in the Sardinian Sulcitanos) have been noted as other Paleosardinian elements (viz Terracini, Ribezzo, Wagner, Hubschmid, Faust, et al.).
Linguists like Blasco Ferrer (2009, 2010) or Morvan (2009) have recently attempted to revive the theory of a Basque connection by linking modern surface forms such as Sardinian ospile "fresh natural cover for cattle" and Basque ozpil "id.", Sardinian arrotzeri "vagabond" and Basque arrotz "stranger", Sardinian arru "stone, stony" and Basque arri "stone", Gallurese (South Corsican and North Sardinian) zerru "pig" and Basque zerri "id.".
Romans
The RomanRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
domination, beginning in 238 BC, brought Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
to Sardinia, but this language was not able to completely supplant the Pre-Roman Sardinian language. Some obscure roots remained unaltered, and in many cases it was Latin that was made to accept the local roots, such as nur (in nuraghe
Nuraghe
The nuraghe is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia. Today it has come to be the symbol of Sardinia and its distinctive culture, the Nuragic civilization...
, as well as Nugoro
Nuoro
Nuoro is a city and comune in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte Ortobene. It is the capital of the Province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,443 Nuoro is a city and comune (municipality) in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte...
and many other toponyms). Roman culture, on the other hand, became largely dominant; Barbagia derives its name from the Greek word Ό βάρβαρος-ου, which means "stuttering", due to the fact that its people could not speak Latin well. Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, who called Sardinians latrones matrucati ("thieves with rough sheep-wool cloaks") to emphasise Roman superiority, helped to spread this conception.
Other influences
During this time period, there was a reciprocal influence between CorsicaCorsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
and a limited area of northern Sardinia. On the southern side, though, the evidence favors contacts with Semitic
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
and (later) Byzantine
Medieval Greek
Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe...
languages. In the 1st century AD, some relevant groups of Hebrews
Hebrews
Hebrews is an ethnonym used in the Hebrew Bible...
were deported to Sardinia, bringing various influences; the Christianization
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
of the island would probably have brought Hebrews to convert to a sort of independent cult of Sant'Antioco
Sant'Antioco
Sant'Antioco is the name of both an island and a municipality in southwestern Sardinia, in the Province of Carbonia-Iglesias, in Sulcis zone. With a population of 11,730, the municipality of Sant'Antioco it is the island's largest community...
(perhaps a way to preserve some aspects of their ethnicity under a Christian form), still present in Gavoi
Gavoi
Gavoi is a comune in central Sardinia , part of the province of Nuoro, in the natural region of Barbagia. It overlooks the Lake of Gusana.-History:...
. This contact with Hebrews, followed by another deportation of Christians, presumedly lasted for a couple of centuries, and makes it likely that by the 3rd century AD, Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
began to dominate the island.
This eventual Latin cultural domination thus makes Sardinian a Romance language, or more precisely an archaic neo-Latin language, whose main characteristics are an archaic phonetic and morphosyntactic phenomena.
After this domination, Sardinia passed under the control of the Eastern Roman Empire, and more influences are derived from this culture. The Greek language that was the main reference of Byzantines did not, however, enter into the structure of Sardinian (still a Romance language) except for in some ritual or formal formulas that are expressed in Latin using Greek structure. Much evidence for this can be found in the condaghe
Condaghe
A condaghe , from the medieval Sardinian kondake , was an administrative document in use in Sardinia between the 11th and 13th centuries...
s, the first written documents in Sardinian.
Some toponyms show Greek influence as well, such as Jerzu
Jerzu
Jerzu is a comune in the Province of Ogliastra in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 70 km northeast of Cagliari and about 20 km southwest of Tortolì. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 3,287 and an area of 102.5 km²...
, commonly presumed to derive from the Greek khérsos (untilled), together with the personal names Mikhaleis, Konstantine, and Basilis.
Sardinian in Italy
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
's March when Italy was unified. During the Fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
period, especially the Autarchy
Autarky
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...
campaign, regional languages were banned. The restrictions went so far that even personal names and surnames were made to sound more "italian-sounding". During this period, the Sardinian Hymn was the sole chance to speak in a regional language in Italy without risking prison, because, as a fundamental part of the Royal Family's tradition, it could not be forbidden.
as did King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
Victor Emmanuel III was a member of the House of Savoy and King of Italy . In addition, he claimed the crowns of Ethiopia and Albania and claimed the titles Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Albania , which were unrecognised by the Great Powers...
on several official occasions, when the Crown needed to remind Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
of its superior position. Achille Starace
Achille Starace
Achille Starace was a prominent leader of Fascist Italy prior to and during World War II.-Early life and career:Starace was born in Gallipoli in southern Italy near Lecce. He was son of a wine and oil merchant....
, national secretary of the Fascist party, imposed the use of orbace, a poor Sardinian wool, as the national cloth for the uniforms of Blackshirts
Blackshirts
The Blackshirts were Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy during the period immediately following World War I and until the end of World War II...
, while on a cultural level Mussolini himself still on the border of the limits of the law. The policies for the island also included the reclamation of wide areas of the region (bonifiche) and the implementation of commerce and industry.
Catholic priests practiced a strict obstructionism against mutos
Mutu (music)
A mutu is a type of improvised sung poetry found in Sardinia. These are traditionally sung mostly by women in response to the male for of this type of improvisation called Battorinas....
, a form of improvised sung poetry where two or more poets are assigned a surprise theme and have to develop it on the spur of the moment in rhymed quatrains.
In the Italian Army
Italian Army
The Italian Army is the ground defence force of the Italian Armed Forces. It is all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 108,355 in 2010. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft...
, the mechanized infantry of Brigata Sassari is the sole unit to have a hymn in Sardinian language: Dimonios, written in 1994 by Captain Luciano Sechi. This name comes from the attribute Rote Teufel (German for Red Devils, and Dimonios is Sardinian for Devils) given to them by Austro-Hungaric
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
enemies during the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, cause of their white and red flashes and their worth in war.
External links
- SardegnaCultura lingua sarda – The section "Lingua Sarda" in the official cultural site from the Regional Sardinia administration.
- University of Berlin – Contains many links and other information about the language.
- Su limbazu Mamujadinu - Mamoiada.net
- EthnologueEthnologueEthnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
: - Limbasarda – Grammar for beginners
- A mailing list for Sardinian-speakers
- Legge n. 482 – 15 Dicembre 1999, "Norme in materia di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche storiche" – Italy's Law on regional and minority languages (in Italian)
- Legge regionale n. 26, del 15 ottobre 1997, "Promozione e valorizzazione della cultura e della lingua della Sardegna" – Sardinia Regional law on the protection of Sardinian language (in Italian)
- Accademia campidanese di lingua sarda (in Campidanese)
- Sa limba sarda
- Memorie in lingua sarda Sardegna Digital Library
- Sardinian language's office – University of Cagliari
- Blog of Sardinian language's office – University of Cagliari: news about sardinian language and culture