SARDÌNNIA: SIX LANGUAGES TO SPEAK AND PROTECT

During her visit to Nuras (Nora), The Grandma discovered the history of the Nora Stone and she increased her interest in all the languages spoken in Sardinia.

The Nora Stone or Nora Inscription is an ancient inscription found at Nora on the south coast of Sardinia in 1773. Though its precise finding place has been forgotten, it has been dated by palaeographic methods to the late 9th century to early 8th century BCE and is still considered the oldest Phoenician inscription yet found in Sardinia. It is conserved at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Casteddu (Cagliari).

More information: Progetto Artistico Sa Sartiglia

The Grandma loves languages. Visiting Sardinia is a fantastic opportunity to enjoy and learn languages. In this island you can listen to six different ones like Sardinian, Catalan, Sassarese, Gallurese, Ligurian and Italian.

The Nora Stone & The Languages of Sardìnnia

Each language has a history and a real reason of this existence in this land. Language is the main witness of History. Like stones, languages are the best proofs of the existence of communities with their extinction; we lose a whole community their livings and experiences.

We must protect all languages and all their speakers; we must protect and love strongly each one of them but especially those which are under danger of extinction.

Language is communication, history and culture and a place with different languages living together in harmony and respect is the evidence of an advanced society which respects its inhabitants. Be proud of your languages; be proud of your culture. Protect it, respect it and conserve it. Your culture is the best treasure that you can leave to your descendants.

The Grandma and her friends have visited the Università di Cagliari today. A University is a centre of culture and knowledge and they are very interested in learning more things about all languages that you can speak in Sardinia.

Before this visit, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Grammar 6).

More information: Present Continuous & Present Simple

Sardinian or Sard is the primary indigenous Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on most of the island of Sardinia. It is considered one of the closest genealogical descendants, if not the closest, to Latin by many Romance linguists. However, it also incorporates a Pre-Latin, mostly Paleo-Sardinian and, to a much lesser degree, Punic, substratum, as well as a Byzantine Greek, Catalan, Spanish and Italian superstratum due to the political membership of the island, first becoming a Byzantine possession followed by a significant period of self-rule, then falling into the Iberian sphere of influence in the late Middle Ages, and in the 18th century towards the Italian one.

 

Sardinian Language

The Sardinian language is traditionally thought to consist of two mutually intelligible varieties, Campidanese and Logudorese, spoken respectively in the Southern half and in the North-Central part of Sardinia; the view of there being a dialectal boundary separating the two has been subjected to more recent research, that shows on the contrary a fluid linguistic continuum from the Northern to the Southern ends of the island.

Such perception of the Sardinian dialects, rather than pointing to an actual isogloss, is in fact the result of a psychological adherence to the way Sardinia was administratively subvidided into a Cabu de Susu and a Cabu de Jossu by the Spanish.

In 1997, Sardinian was recognized by a regional law, along with other languages spoken on the island; since 1999, Sardinian is also one of the twelve historical language minorities of Italy, being granted recognition by the national Law no. 482/1999. However, the vitality of the Sardinian-speaking community is threatened and UNESCO classifies the language as definitely endangered, although an estimated 68.4 percent of the islanders report to have a good oral command of Sardinian.

While the level of language competence is in fact relatively high among the older generation beyond retirement age, it has been estimated to have dropped to around 13 percent among children, with Sardinian being kept as a heritage language.

More information: NativLang

Sassarese, Sassaresu or Turritanu is an Italo-Dalmatian language and transitional variety between Corsican and Sardinian. It is regarded as a Corsican–Sardinian language because of Sassari's historic ties and neighborhood with Tuscany and Corsica.

Sassarese Language

Despite the heavy Sardinian influences, especially in the vocabulary and phonetics, it still keeps its Tuscan roots, which closely relate it to Gallurese.

The latter is regarded as a Corsican dialect despite the geographic location, although this attribution is a matter of controversy. It can be considered a transitional language between Italo-Dalmatian languages and Sardinian. It has several similarities to Italian and in particular the old dialects of Italian from Tuscany.

Sassarese is spoken by approximately 100,000 people, out of a total population of 175,000, in the northwest coastal areas of Sardinia. Large Sassarese-speaking communities are present in Sassari, Stintino, Sorso, and Porto Torres. Sassarese's transition varieties towards Gallurese, known as the Castellanesi dialects, can be heard in Castelsardo, Tergu, and Sedini.

Sassarese emerged as an urban language of commerce in the latter part of the age of the Giudicati, 13th–14th century; it is based on a mixture of different languages, namely Corsican, Tuscan, and Ligurian; a strong Logudorese influence can be felt in its phonetics, syntax, and vocabulary; a minor influence in vocabulary was exercised by Catalan and Spanish. There exist many modern and older works both on and in Sassarese, and a number of cultural, social, and theatre events are held regularly in connection with it.

More information:  UNESCO

Gallurese or Gadduresu is an Italo-Dalmatian Romance lect spoken in the region of Gallura, in the northeastern part of Sardinia. It is often considered a dialect of southern Corsican, or even a transitional language between Corsican and Sardinian.

Gallurese Language

Gallurese's morphology and vocabulary are close to those of Corsican, in particular with the southern dialects of Sartene and Porto-Vecchio, whereas its phonology and syntax are similar to those of Sardinian.

One third of Gallurese vocabulary is also influenced by Logudorese Sardinian, Catalan, and Spanish.

The Sassarese language, spoken in the area of Sassari, shares similar transitional traits between Tuscan, Corsican and Sardinian.

Download Atlas os the World's Languages in Danger by UNESCO

Ligurian, Ligure or Lengua Ligure is a Gallo-Italic language spoken in Liguria in Northern Italy, parts of the Mediterranean coastal zone of France, Monaco and in the villages of Carloforte and Calasetta in Sardinia where is known as Tabarchino. 

It is part of the Gallo-Italic and Western Romance dialect continuum. The Genoese (Zeneize), spoken in Genoa, the capital of Liguria, is the language's prestige dialect on which the standard is based and it's also known as Genoese.

Ligurian Language

Because of the importance of Genoese trade, Ligurian was once spoken well beyond the borders of the modern province. It has since given way to standard varieties, such as Standard Italian and French. In particular, the language is traditionally spoken in coastal, northern Tuscany, southern Piedmont (part of the province of Alessandria), western extremes of Emilia-Romagna (some areas in the province of Piacenza), in a small area of southern Sardinia (the so-called Tabarchino), where its use is ubiquitous and increasing.

Until recently, it was also spoken in the department of the Alpes-Maritimes of France (mostly the Côte d'Azur from the Italian border to and including Monaco), in a township at the southern tip of the French island of Corsica (Bonifacio) and by a large community in Gibraltar (UK). It has been adopted formally in Monaco as the Monégasque dialect; or locally, Munegascu, without the status of official language (that is French).

Monaco is the only place where a variety of Ligurian is taught in school.

Ligurian does not enjoy an official status in Italy. Hence, it is not protected by law. Historically, Genoese (the dialect spoken in the city of Genoa) is the written koine, owing to its semi-official role as language of the Republic of Genoa, its traditional importance in trade and commerce and its vast literature. 

More information: Omniglot

Catalan is a Western Romance language derived from Vulgar Latin and named after the medieval Principality of Catalonia. It is the only official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia, where the language is known as Valencian. It also has semi-official status in the Sardinian commune of Alghero. It is also spoken in the eastern strip of Aragon, in some villages of Region of Murcia called Carche and in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France. These territories are often called Països Catalans or Catalan Countries.

Catalan Language

By the 9th century, Catalan had evolved from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the eastern end of the Pyrenees, as well as the territories of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis to the south.

From the 8th century onwards the Catalan counts extended their territory southwards and westwards at the expense of the Muslims, bringing their language with them. This process was given definitive impetus with the separation of the County of Barcelona from the Carolingian Empire in 988.

In the 11th century, documents written in macaronic Latin begin to show Catalan elements, with texts written almost completely in Romance appearing by 1080. Old Catalan shared many features with Gallo-Romance, diverging from Old Occitan between the 11th and 14th centuries.

During the 11th and 12th centuries the Catalan rulers expanded up to north of the Ebro river, and in the 13th century they conquered the Land of Valencia and the Balearic Islands. The city of Alghero in Sardinia was repopulated with Catalan speakers in the 14th century. The language also reached Murcia, which became Spanish-speaking in the 15th century.

More information: Institut Ramon Llull

Italian is a Romance language. Italian is by most measures, together with the Sardinian language, the closest language to Vulgar Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City and western Istria, in Slovenia and Croatia.

It used to have official status in Albania, Malta, Monaco, and some parts of France, such as Corsica, Nice, Savoie, Greece (Ionian Islands and Dodecanese), and Montenegro (Kotor), where it is still widely spoken, as well as in former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa regions where it plays a significant role in various sectors. 

Italian Language

Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. It has official minority status in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Romania. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages.

Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society.

Its development was also influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent, by the Germanic languages of the post-Roman invaders. The incorporation into Italian of learned words from its own ancestor language, Latin, is another form of lexical borrowing through the influence of written language, scientific terminology and the liturgical language of the Church.

Throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, most literate Italians were also literate in Latin; and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing, and eventually speech, in Italian. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian. 

As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive but, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latin's contrast between short and long consonants. Almost all words and syllables finish with pure vowels, a factor that makes Italian a natural musical language. 

More information: Dilit

 If words are not things, or maps are not the actual territory, then, obviously, the only possible link between the objective world and the linguistic world is found in structure, and structure alone.

Alfred Korzybski