Sardinian language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
| Sardinian (Sardu, Saldu) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Sardinia, Italy |
| Region: | Southern Europe |
| Total speakers: | 2 million |
| Ranking: | not in top 100 |
| Genetic classification: | Indo-European Italic |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | Sardinia |
| Regulated by: | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | sc |
| ISO 639-2 | srd |
| SIL | |
| See also: Language – List of languages | |
Sardinian (Sardu, Saldu) is the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, and is one of the most conservative Romance languages.
Contents |
History and origins
The particular history of the island, practically isolated from the Continent for thousands of years, and only in recent times allowed to easily communicate with the mainland, allows us to see quite vividly the distinct traces of the linguistic invasions or influences on the Sardinian language. These external influences presumably came in contact with language of the Nuragici people, the island's original inhabitants, and interacted with it to build the essential structure of Sardinian.
These cultural contacts are roughly identified as follows:
- Mediterranean influences
- Etruscan
- Phoenician and Euro-African
- Protohiberian and Hispano-Caucasican
- Ligurian
- Latin
- Catalan
- Spanish
- Italian
Early origins
The basic 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 Ages. Thus, the research done cannot rely only on linguistic investigation, but must use other scientific resources to research contacts between Sardinia and other peoples: the result will be a common study in structural comparison. It must be underlined that substantial differences distinguish the many theories about the development of Sardinian, so opposite results are sometimes produced.
Many studies have attempted to discover the origin of some obscure roots that today could legitimately be defined as endemic. First of all, the root of sard, present in many toponyms and distinctive of the ethnic group, is supposed to have come from a mysterious people known as the Shardana, "the people 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, therefore being both Indo-European languages, as a consequence of the alleged provenance of Etruscans/Tirrenii 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; this idea requires much further investigation, although it has been initially well-received.
It has been said that Paleosardinian should be expected to have notable similarities with the Iberian language and the Siculian language: the suffix -'ara, for example, in proparoxitones (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 surname Bonnànnaro). Rohlfs, Butler and Craddock add the suffix -/ini/ (as in the surname 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). 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 -/itani/ and -/etani/ (as in the Sardinian Sulcitani) have been noted as other Paleosardinian elements (viz Terracini, Ribezzo, Wagner, Hubschmid, Faust, et al).
Romans
The Roman domination, beginning in 238 BC, obviously brought Latin to Sardinia, but Latin was not able to completely supplant the Palaeo-Sardinan 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 Nuoro and many other toponyms). Roman culture, on the other hand, was undoubtedly dominant; even the Barbagia, the rebellious inner area of the island, derives its name from the beards that Sardinians wore: their land officially became Barbaria (this name was attributed to other areas of the Roman empire too, for exactly the same reasons: shaving was a Roman habit, and not widespread in other cultures). Cicero, who called Sardinians latrones matrucati (thieves with rough sheep-woolcloaks) to emphasise Roman superiority, helped to spread this conception.
Romans also constructed a system of roads in Sardinia, Romans were able found Roman towns which they filled with Roman inhabitants from the mainland. Traces of these migrations were found in ethnological studies of the 1920s which found some ethnic features of the original Roman race (red hair, blue eyes, rosé skin and strong necks) in some smaller villages in the area of Bitti.
Other Influences
During this time period, there was a reciprocal influence between Corsica 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 AC, 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 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 AC, 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 and archaic phonetic and morphosyntactic phenomena.The influence of Italic populations (Faliscans, Osco-Umbrians, Messapics and Etruscans too) has been pointed up particularly in the last researchs by Prof. Alberto Areddu [1],who by exploring some forgotten glosses and scolia has been able to explain some sardinian words, not clearly explained before (as for instance launeddas[[2]]). For the same scholar many sardinian words, considered as coming from the late byzantine greek, are indeed “greek-italic” lexemes of the Roman age.
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 Condaghes, 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.
Sardinian dialects
The Sardinian language can be divided into the following main dialect groupings separated by isogloss bundles:
- Sardinian proper, uses articles derived from the Latin IPSUM
- Northern, -- sas limbas = the languages; sas abbas = the waters -- for example the dialect of Nuoro
- Central, -- is limbas = the languages; is abbas = the waters -- for example the dialect of Samugheo
- Southern, -- is linguas = the languages; is acuas = the waters -- for example the dialect of Cagliari
- "Corso-Sardinian", uses articles derived from the Latin ILLUM
- Sassarese, eba = water; g-shape (meat = garri; I say = eu digu)
- Gallurese, e'a = water; c-shape (meat = carri; I say = eu dicu)
In addition to these, there are other language varieties in Sardinia:
- Algueres, the Catalan dialect of Alghero
- Tabarchin, the dialect of San Pietro and the northern part of Sant'Antioco, of Ligurian origins
Sardinian and Corsican
Many modern linguists consider Gallurese and Sassarese to be dialects of Corsican, rather than Sardinian. The plural form in -i (and not in -s like in Sardinian proper) and many other syntactic forms are offered as evidence.
Sardinian Phonemes
Sardinian has the following consonant phonemes (according to Blasco Ferrer, today perhaps the most relevant expert in Sardinian language):
Plosives
- /p/
- /b/
- /f/
- /t/
- /d/
- /ɖ/ (retroflex d)
- /ɟ/ a voiced palatal plosive > /g/
- /k/
- /g/
Fricative
- /θ/ like English TH in thing, an unvoiced interdental fricative (now no longer used, Mensching p. 115, Blasco Ferrer 69) > /s/
Nasals
- /m/
- /n/
- /ɲ/ like Spanish ñ, Catalan ny, Italian and French gn; palatal nasal
Liquids
- /l/
- /ʎ/ retroflex (Old Sardinian, now d cacuminale) (Blasco Ferrer 69)
- /ɾ/
- /r/ trilled as in Spanish, Catalan or Basque rr
Affricates
/ʦ/ /ʣ/ /ʧ/ (from Italian, now also a phoneme) /ʤ/ (ditto)
It is has been said that /θ/ like Castilian /θ/ developed from /ts/ and is in some modern Sardinian idioms pronounced as /s/ as in South American and Andalusian Castilian.
Typical of Sardinian (Logudorese) phonology is the fricativisation and weakening of /p t k/ to /β ð ɣ/ in the interior of sentences.
Cultural Status
The Sardinian language is one of the principal elements of Sardinian cultural heritage, and there is great activity of late dedicated to studying the language and acknowledging its importance. The recognition of the Sardinian language as a characteristic ethnic element is supported not only by independentist movements, but is also supported by a wide percentage of local population as a whole, as well as the international support of the Sardinian diaspora.
The Sardinian language has recently been recognised as an official regional language by the Sardinian Special Region; it can therefore be used for official purposes on the island. The debate as to its legality had became quite dramatic by the 1980s: at Alghero's Fertilia international airport, in a Sardinian Catalan-speaking region, an employee was heard over the loudspeakers (provocatively) announcing the flights in Italian, English and Sardinian Catalan. 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. (Note that it must be said that in Alghero the need of diversifying the cultural position was perhaps even more urgent, since in its origins and its history are the distinctive signs of an ethnic enclave surrounded by a Sardinian culture, which in turn has been oppressed by an external culture.)
The Sardinian language in Italy
The national anthem of the Kingdom of Sardinia (and Piedmont) 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, foreign 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 foreign language in Italy without risking prison, because, as a fundamental part of the Royal Family's tradition, it could not be forbidden.
Sardinians took advantage of this possibility to express their opposition to Fascism by singing the Hymn, as did King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy on several official occasions, when the Crown needed to remind Mussolini of its superior position. To reduce this potentially dangerous bit of "propaganda" which was being "innocently" whistled and sung in Sardinian streets, Mussolini was forced to find urgent remedies: Achille Storace (national secretary of the Fascist party) "genially" imposed the use of Orbace (a poor Sardinian wool) as the national cloth for the uniforms of the Militia, while on a cultural level Mussolini himself officially recognised on repeated occasions the effective value of Sardinian poets and writers, still on the border of the limits of the law. These cautious attentions for the island also included the saning of wide areas of the region (bonifiche) and the implementation of commerce and industry.
The Catholic priests too, friendly to Fascism after the Concordato of 1929, started explaining that Latin (which was allowed), although very similar to Sardinian, was not Sardinian (the Holy Mass was still in Latin) and practiced a strict obstructionism against on-the-fly poetry, a genre of popular art expressed in public shows in Sardinia, in which 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 infantry corps of Brigata Sassari (Sassari's Brigade) was the sole unit allowed to have a separate hymn in the Sardinian language (Dimonios - ancient local pagan devils), being the brigade composed exclusively by Sardinian soldiers, the only such brigade in Italy. As a form of respect to Brigata Sassari, who performed well in WWI, any military important operation in Sardinia is named after the last words of Dimonios: Fortza Paris (loosely, let's combine our strength).
External links
- Ditzionàriu Online - An excellent dictionary for the Sardinian language.
- University of Berlin - Contains many links and other information about the language.
- Ethnologue:
