Sardinian

## Overview

**Sardinian** or **Sard** is the primary indigenous Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on most of the island of Sardinia (Italy). 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 superstratumdue 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.

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 *Caput Logudori* (*Cabu de Susu*) and a *Caput Calaris* (*Cabu de Jossu*) by the Spanish. Some attempts have been recently made to introduce a standardized writing system for administrative purposes, like the LSU (*Limba Sarda Unificada*, "Unified Sardinian Language") and then the LSC (*Limba Sarda Comuna*, "Common Sardinian Language"), but they have not been generally acknowledged by native speakers.

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.

## Sardinian excerpt from Wikipedia article "Limba sarda"

Si carculat chi la faeddant o la cumprendent, nessi pro carchi fràsia, unos 1.200.000 pessonas de Sardigna prus sos disterrados chi no bi istant. Sos chi la cumprendent e impreant de mèngius manera sunt prus pagos, ma no b'at carchi cherta ispetzialìstiga chi nde tratet; paret peroe, comente pro totu sas limbas de minoria, chi la faeddent mèngius sos betzos, mancari bi sient giòvanos chi l'istùdient e l'impreent meda e bene. Sicund'e un'istùdiu reghente de sa regione, su sardu lu diant connòschere unos 1.495.000 pessones e faeddare unos 1.000.000, a fronte de su 3% ebbia chi naraiat de no lu connòschere, de no lu cumprender e de no lu cherrer imparare. Ant sinnaladu chi, peroe, b'at s'arriscu chi su sardu diat poder andare intre pagu tempus ind unu protzessu de *estintzione*, si no si ponet remèdiu, ca no b'est galu su bilinguismu, bistu chi b'at unu stigma assotziadu a custa limba e in sos ufìtzios pùblicos no s'impreat a favore, oje, de s'italianu ebbia. Custa situatzione letza si depet a s'istadu de diglossia, a livellu sotziològicu, ch'at tentu e galu tenet su sardu dae s'època moderna in susu, ca sos invasores semper ant impostu che ufitziale sa limba issoro (si depet tènner in contu chi in s'ùrtimu perìodu de dominatzione, sa piemontesa, sos Savoias cheriant aunire puru linguisticamente su dominiu issoro); sa cosa si ch'est galu prus imbrutada in sos annos '50 e '60 de su sèculu coladu, cando sos mèdios de comunicatzione e s'istrutzione ufitziale ant fatu a manera chi sos sardos aiant intesu s'italianu che "limba de cultura e zente ischida", detzidende de non imparare a sos fizzos issoro su sardu. In custu perìodu, benit a pizu puru su dualismu tra tzitade e bidda, chi galu sa limba mama cunservat. Pustis de una pelea longa incumintzada dae sos annos '70, si podet nàrrer chi carchi cosa siet cambiada ma solu in su 1997, pro more de una lege regionale chi su sardu l'at postu che limba ufitziale de sa Sardigna impari a s'italianu. Como b'at duas iscolas de pensu: a una banda, chie pensat chi s'irraighinamentu de su sardu dae sa sotziedade siet a unu puntu tale chi si creet oramai bell'iscumpartu e duncas estintu, a un'àtera chie imbetze cheret torrare sa limba a sos sardos chircande de sighire s'esèmpiu dadu dae àteras limbas de minoria, comente su catalanu. B'at una tzerta atividade pro unificare su sardu, partzidu ind una cantidade manna de dialetos (unos 350) chi intra issos si podent cumprèndere, ma pro como est suzeta a crìtica o polèmica (comente at sutzessu pro sa Limba Sarda Unificada e sa Limba Sarda Comuna).