Logudorese Sardinian ( sc, sardu logudoresu, it, sardo logudorese) is one of the two written standards of the
Sardinian language
Sardinian or Sard ( , or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia.
Many Romance linguists consider it the language that is closest to Latin among all its genealogica ...
, which is often considered one of the most, if not the most
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
of all
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
. The orthography is based on the spoken dialects of central northern
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
, identified by certain attributes which are not found, or found to a lesser degree, among the Sardinian dialects centered on the other written form,
Campidanese
Campidanese Sardinian ( sc, sardu campidanesu, it, sardo campidanese) is one of the two written standards of the Sardinian language, which is often considered one of the most, if not the most conservative of all the Romance languages. The ort ...
. Its
ISO 639-3
ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for i ...
code is ''src''.
Characteristics
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and before , are not palatalized in Logudorese, in stark contrast with all other Romance languages. Compare Logudorese ' with Italian ' , Spanish ' and French ' . Like the other varieties of Sardinian, most subdialects of Logudorese also underwent
lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonority hierarchy, sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronic analysis, s ...
in the intervocalic plosives of --, --, and --/ (e.g. Lat. > "fire", > "shore, bank", > "wheel"). Logudorese also turns medial and into and and , respectively (e.g. Lat. > and > "leaf"). Finally, Logudorese shifts the Latin labiovelars and into medially and word-initially (Lat. > "tongue", > "what").
Logudorese is intelligible to those from the southern part of Sardinia, where
Campidanese Sardinian
Campidanese Sardinian ( sc, sardu campidanesu, it, sardo campidanese) is one of the two written standards of the Sardinian language, which is often considered one of the most, if not the most conservative of all the Romance languages. The orth ...
is spoken,
but it is not to those from the extreme north of the island, where
Corsican–Sardinian dialects are spoken.
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
speakers do not understand Logudorese, like any other dialect of the Sardinian language: Sardinian is an autonomous linguistic group rather than an
Italian dialect as it is often noted because of its morphological, synctatic, and lexical differences from Italian.
Location and distribution
The area of
Logudoro
The Logudoro (meaning "Golden Place") is a large traditional region Sardinia, Italy. The name of Logudoro today is linked to the Logudorese dialect, which covers a large area of northern-central Sardinia.
The first denomination of the area is ...
(the term originated as a
blend
A blend is a mixture of two or more different things or substances; e.g., a product of a mixer or blender.
Blend
Blend may also refer to:
* Blend word, a word formed from parts of other words
* ''Blend'' (album), a 1996 album by BoDeans
* ...
of the kingdom's name of
Logu de Torres), in which it is spoken, is a northern subregion of the island of
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
with close ties to
Ozieri
Ozieri ( sc, Otieri) is a town and ''comune'' of approximatively 11,000 inhabitants in the province of Sassari, northern Sardinia (Italy), in the Logudoro historical region.
Its cathedral of the Immacolata is the episcopal see of the Roman Cath ...
(''Othieri'') and
Nuoro
Nuoro ( or less correctly ; sc, Nùgoro ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) 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 36,347 (2011), ...
(''Nùgoro'') for culture and language, as well as history, with important particularities in the western area, where the most important town is
Ittiri
Ittiri ( sc, Itiri Cannedu) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Sassari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about northwest of Cagliari and about south of Sassari. It is part of the Logudoro traditional region.
Ittiri is locat ...
. It is an area of roughly 150 × 100 km with some 500,000–700,000 inhabitants.
Origins and features
The origins of Sardinian have been investigated by
Eduardo Blasco Ferrer
Eduardo Blasco Ferrer (Barcelona, 1956 – Bastia, 12 January 2017) was a Spanish-Italian linguist and a professor at the University of Cagliari, Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , ...
and others. The language derives from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and a pre-Latin,
Paleo-Sardinian (
Nuragic) substratum, but has been influenced by
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
due to the dominion of the
Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon ( , ) an, Corona d'Aragón ; ca, Corona d'Aragó, , , ; es, Corona de Aragón ; la, Corona Aragonum . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of B ...
and later the
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
over the island. Logudorese is the northern macro-dialect of the Sardinian language, the southern macro-dialect being
Campidanese
Campidanese Sardinian ( sc, sardu campidanesu, it, sardo campidanese) is one of the two written standards of the Sardinian language, which is often considered one of the most, if not the most conservative of all the Romance languages. The ort ...
, spoken in the southern half of the island. The two dialects share a clear common origin and history, but have experienced somewhat different developments.
Though the language is typically Romance, some words are not of Latin origin, and are of uncertain etymology. One such is "nura", found in "
nuraghe
The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian , Italian ), or also nurhag in English, is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 B.C. ...
", the main form of pre-Roman building, hence the term for the pre-Roman era as the Nuragic Period. Various place names similarly have roots that defy analysis.
Logudorese Sardinian changed only very slowly from
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve ...
in comparison to other Romance
lect
In sociolinguistics, a variety, also called an isolect or lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles, or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety.Meecham, M ...
s, with Linguist
Mario Pei
Mario Andrew Pei (February 16, 1901March 2, 1978) was an Italian-born American linguist and polyglot who wrote a number of popular books known for their accessibility to readers without a professional background in linguistics. His book ''The Sto ...
reporting an 8% degree of separation from Latin in the Nuorese subdialect, the most conservative compared to other
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
.
Because of this reason, as well as the preservation of many works of traditional literature from the 15th century onwards, Logudorese is often considered to be the most prestigious variety of Sardinian.
Subdialects
Logudorese Sardinian has multiple subdialects, some confined to individual villages or valleys. Though such differences can be noticeable, the dialects are
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
, and share mutual intelligibility with the neighbouring Campidanese dialects as well.
Northern Logudorese
Spoken in the north of Sardinia, this subdialect contains the following features:
* , , changes to , , (Lat. ''plovere'' > ''piòere'' "rain", ''florem'' > ''fiore'' "flower", ''clavem'' > ''kiae'' "key");
* > in an intervocalic, pre-consonantal position (Northern ''Saldigna'' vs Southern ''Sardigna'').
Central (Common) Logudorese
Spoken in Central Sardinia, this subdialect contains the following features:
* , , changes to , , (Lat. ''plovere'' > ''pròere'' "rain", ''florem'' > ''frore'' "flower", ''clavem'' > ''crae'' "key");
* > in an intervocalic, pre-consonantal position (Northern ''altu'' vs Southern ''artu'' "high").
Nuorese
The Nuorese dialect is spoken in three historical regions: Baronìa, Nuorese and Barbàgia of Ollolài. The three sub-varieties are quite different from one another, and each one of them includes some distinctive features not found anywhere else in Sardinia, many of which demonstrate the conservative nature of these dialects:
*No lenition of intervocalic plosives (e.g. Lat. ''focum'' > ''focu'' "fire", ''ripa'' > ''ripa'' "shore, bank", ''rota'' > ''rota'' "wheel" – Barbagian : ''ròda'');
*No palatal realisation of and , instead turning into and , respectively (e.g. Lat. ''Sardinia'' > ''Sardinna'' and ''folium'' > ''foza'' "leaf");
*Preservation of intervocalic , , and (Lat. ''augustus'' "August" > Log. ''austu'' but Nuo. ''agustu'', Lat. ''credere'' "to believe" > Log. ''creere'' but Nuo. ''credere'', Lat. ''novem'' "nine" > Log. ''noe'' vs Nuo. ''nobe''/''nove'' < ''nove'');
*Deletion of the initial ''f'', except when preceded by other consonants – and in the local dialects spoken in the towns of Nuoro and Ottàna (e.g. ''ocu'' "fire", ''àchere'' "to do");
*Baronìa: presence of the conjugations that end in ''-ta'' and ''-tu'' (e.g. ''tancàtu'' "closed"; ''achirràtu'' "went down"; ''baitàtu'' "watched"; ''muttìtu'' "called");
*Barbàgia di Ollolài: conjugations end in ''-à'' (instead of ''-ada'') and ''-u'' (e.g. ''nàu/naràu'' "said"; ''muttìu'' "called"); presence of
glottal stops
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents th ...
in place of the hard c (''k'') found in the other Nuorese dialects (e.g. ''inòhe'' "here"; ''ohu'' "fire"; ''àhere'' "to do"; ''hìtho'' "early"; ''vòhe'' "voice");
*Persistence of the Latin pronouns: Lat. ''ego'' > ''jeo, eo, ego, dego'' (the latter being once used in the city of Nuoro, and with the form ''ego'' most prominently used in the towns of Olièna, Gavòi and Ollolài, less frequent but still present in the village of Mamoiàda); Lat. ''ipse'' > ''issu, isse'' (particularly in the villages of Bitti and Onanì);
*
Betacism
In historical linguistics, betacism (, ) is a sound change in which (the voiced bilabial plosive, as in ''bane'') and (the voiced labiodental fricative , as in ''vane'') are confused. The final result of the process can be either /b/ → or ...
of in Nuoro but not in Baronia and Barbàgia;
*Latin before yod to in Nuorese (''plateam'' "square, courtyard" > ''pratha''), albeit in some places the sound is in the process of becoming (''pratza'').
Writers
A large body of Sardinian poetry, songs and literature is composed in Logudorese.
See also
*
Sardinian language
Sardinian or Sard ( , or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia.
Many Romance linguists consider it the language that is closest to Latin among all its genealogica ...
**
Campidanese Sardinian
Campidanese Sardinian ( sc, sardu campidanesu, it, sardo campidanese) is one of the two written standards of the Sardinian language, which is often considered one of the most, if not the most conservative of all the Romance languages. The orth ...
References
External links
Ditzionàriu in línia de sa limba e de sa cultura sardaSardinian Grammar of Oliena's dialectA iscola de sardu - Sassari.tvLogudorese basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical DatabaseSardinian basic phrases
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sardo Logudorese
Logudorese dialect
Logudorese Sardinian ( sc, sardu logudoresu, it, sardo logudorese) is one of the two written standards of the Sardinian language, which is often considered one of the most, if not the most conservative of all Romance languages. The orthography ...