156-519: Sari-Solenzara ( French pronunciation: [saʁi sɔlɛntsaʁ(a)] ; Corsican : Sari è Sulinzara ; formerly in French : Sari-de-Porto-Vecchio , Italian : Sari di Porto Vecchio , Corsican : Sari di Portivechju ) is a commune and municipality in the French department of Corse-du-Sud , on the island of Corsica . It is delineated by several natural borders: the Tyrrhenian Sea to its east,
312-414: A Basque precursor have been questioned by some Basque linguists. According to Terracini, suffixes in - /ài/ , - /éi/ , - /òi/ , and - /ùi/ are common to Paleo-Sardinian and northern African languages . Pittau emphasized that this concerns terms originally ending in an accented vowel, with an attached paragogic vowel; the suffix resisted Latinization in some place names, which show a Latin body and
468-493: A paragogic vowel (such as the toponym Bunnànnaru ). Rohlfs, Butler and Craddock add the suffix - /ini/ (such as the toponym Barùmini ) as a unique element of Paleo-Sardinian. Suffixes in / a , e , o , u / + - rr - found a correspondence in north Africa (Terracini), in Iberia (Blasco Ferrer) and in southern Italy and Gascony (Rohlfs), with a closer relationship to Basque (Wagner and Hubschmid). However, these early links to
624-721: A "definitely endangered language." The Corsican language is a key vehicle for Corsican culture, which is notably rich in proverbs and in polyphonic song. When the French Assembly passed the Deixonne Law in 1951, which made it possible for regional languages to be taught at school, Alsatian , Flemish and Corsican were not included on the ground of being classified as dialectes allogènes of German, Dutch and Italian respectively, i.e. dialects of foreign languages and not languages in themselves. Only in 1974 were they too politically recognized as regional languages for their teaching on
780-526: A : i letta , i solda , i ponta , i foca , i mura , i loca , i balcona ; imperfect tense like cantàiami , cantàiani ). Sassarese derives from the Italian language and, more precisely, from ancient Tuscan, which by the 12th century had slowly grown to become the parlance of the commoners, at a time when the bourgeois and nobles still spoke Logudorese Sardinian. During the age of the Free Commune (1294–1323),
936-638: A Nuragic suffix . According to Bertoldi, some toponyms ending in - /ài/ and - /asài/ indicated an Anatolian influence. The suffix - /aiko/ , widely used in Iberia and possibly of Celtic origin, and the ethnic suffix in - /itanos/ and - /etanos/ (for example, the Sardinian Sulcitanos ) have also been noted as Paleo-Sardinian elements (Terracini, Ribezzo, Wagner, Hubschmid and Faust). Some linguists, like Max Leopold Wagner (1931), Blasco Ferrer (2009, 2010) and Arregi (2017 ) have attempted to revive
1092-574: A Sardinian variety, or a variety very similar to Sardo-Romance, might have been originally spoken in Corsica prior to the island's Tuscanisation under Pisan and Genoese rule. The matter is controversial in light of the historical, cultural and particularly strong linguistic bonds that Corsica had traditionally formed with the Italian Mainland from the Middle Ages until the 19th century: in contrast to
1248-617: A casa che il sole era già calato, all'ora di cena. Quando faceva buio noi ragazzi ci mandavano a fare granchi, con la luce, che serviva per mettere l'esca agli ami per pescare. Ne raccoglievamo in quantità poi in casa li mettevamo in un sacchetto chiuso in cucina. Una mattina in cui ci eravamo alzati che era ancora buio, quando siamo andati a prendere il sacchetto era vuoto e i granchi giravano per tutte le camere e c'è voluta più di mezz'ora per raccoglierli tutti. Sò nato in Corsica e c'hajo passato li méglio anni de la mi' giovinezza. Mi mentovo quand'èremo bàmboli che le nosse ma' ci mandàveno da ssoli
1404-572: A change of register to communicate in an official setting. "Tuscanising" their tongue, or as the Corsican elites would have once said, parlà in crusca ("speaking in crusca ", from the name of the Academy dedicated to the standardisation of the Italian language), allowed for a practice not of code-switching , but rather of code-mixing which is quite typical of the Mainland Italian dialects. Italian
1560-461: A city subject to Aragonese repopulation and where, according to Giovanni Francesco Fara ( Ioannes Franciscus Fara / Juanne Frantziscu Fara ), for a time Catalan took over Sardinian as in Alghero , was emblematic, so much so as to later generate idioms such as no scit su catalanu ( ' he does not know Catalan ' ) to indicate a person who could not express themselves "correctly". Alghero
1716-439: A fa' 'l bagno. Allora la piaggia era piena di rena, senza scogli né greppe e stàvemo in mare fino a quando ingrozzichiti c'andàvemo a rivorta' 'n chidda rena bollente dal sole. Poi l'urtimo ciutto pe' levacci la rena attaccata a la pella e tornàvemo 'n casa che 'l sole era già ciuttato, a l'ora di cena. Quando veniva buio a no' bàmboli ci mandàveno a fa' granchi, colla luce, che ci voléveno pe' mette' l'ami pe' pescà. Ne aricogliévemo
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#17331056455181872-466: A fa' u bagnu. Allora la piagghia ère piena di réna, senza scógghi né rocce e ci stève in mare dill'òre finu a quandu paunazzi da u freddu po' ci andèvami a rivòrtule in quella réna bullènte da u sole. Po' l'urtimu ciuttu pe' levacci la réna attaccata a la pella e riturnèvamì in casa chi u sole ère ghià calatu, a l'ora di cena. Quandu fève bugghiu a no'zitèlli ci mandèvani a fa' granchi, cu la lusa, chi ci vulèvani pe' annésche l'ami pe' pèsche. Ne ricugghièvami
2028-400: A fatzi lu bagnu a la sora. Tandu l'ippiaggia era piena di rena, chena ischogliu né rocca e si isthazìa a mogliu ori fintz'a candu, biaìtti da lu freddu, andàziami a rudduratzi in chidda rena buddendi da lu sori. A dabboi l'ùlthimu cabutzoni pa bugganni la rena attaccadda a la peddi e turràbami a casa chi lu sori era già caraddu, a l'ora di tzinà. Candu si fazìa buggiu a noi pitzinni tzi mandàbani
2184-518: A first language. Corsican is classed as a regional language under French law. It is almost universally agreed that Corsican is typologically and traditionally Italo-Romance , but its specific position therein is more controversial. Some scholars argue that Corsican belongs to the Centro-Southern Italian dialects, while others are of the opinion that it is closely related to, or as part of, Italy's Tuscan dialect varieties. Italian and
2340-928: A fàcci lu bagnu . Tandu la spiagghja era piena di rena, senza scogli né rocchi e si sthaggia ori finz'a candu, biàtti da lu freddu andagiami a vultulacci in chidda rena buddendi da lu soli. Dabboi l'ultima cabucina pà buggacci la rena attaccadda a la pèddi e turravami in casa chi lu soli era ghjà caladdu, a l'ora di cena. Candu fagia bughju à noi piccinni ci mandavani a fà ganci, cù la lugi chi vi vulia pà inniscà l'àmi pà piscà. Ni pigliavami assai e daboi in casa li mittìami drent'a un saccheddu sarraddu in cucina. Un mangianu chi ci n'erami pisaddi chi era sempri bugghju, candu semmu andaddi à piglià lu sacchettu era boiddu é li ganci ghjiràvani pàl tutti li càmmari è v'é vuludda più di mezz'ora pà accuglinnili tutti. Soggu naddu in Còssiga e v'aggiu passaddu l'anni più beddi di la pitzinnìa mea. M'ammentu, cand'érami minori, chi li mammi nosthri tzi mandàbani
2496-467: A fàcci lu bagnu. Tandu la piaghja éra piena di rèna, senza scóddi e né ròcchi e si stagghjìa in mari ori fin'a candu, biaìtti da lu fritu andaghjìami a vultulàcci in chidda rèna buddènti da lu soli. Dapoi, l'ultima capuzzina pa' bucàcci la réna attaccata a la péddi e turràami in casa chi lu soli éra ghjà calatu, a l'ora di cena. Candu facìa bugghju a noi stéddi ci mandàani a fa' granchi, cù la luci, chi vi vulìa pa' accindì(attivà) l'ami pa' piscà. N'accapitàami
2652-800: A fàcci u bagnu. Tandu a piaghja ghjéra piena di rèna, senza scódda né ròcchi è si staghjìa in mari ori fin'a quandu, viola da u fritu andàghjìami a vultulàcci in quidda rèna buddènti da u soli. Dapo', l'ultima capuzzina pa' livàcci a réna attaccata a à péddi e turràiami in casa chì u soli era ghjà calatu, à l'ora di cena. Quandu facìa bughju à no' zitéddi ci mandàiani à fà granci, cù a luci, chi ci vulìa par inniscà l'ami pà piscà. N'arricuglivàmi à mandili pieni è dapoi in casa i mittìami drent'à un sacchettu chjusu in cucina. Una matìna chì ci n'érami pisàti chi ghjéra sempri bughju, quandu sèmu andati à piddà u sacchéttu iddu éra biotu è i granci ghjiràiani pà tutti i càmari e ci hè vuluta più di méz'ora pà ricapizzulàlli tutti. Socu natu in Corsica è v'aghju passatu i megliu anni di
2808-415: A guaro, po' 'n casa li mettévemo in de 'n sacchetto chiuso 'n cucina. Una matina che c'èremo levati ch'era sempre buio, quando simo andati a piglià 'l sacchetto era voto e li granchi giràveno pe' ttutte le càmmere e c'è voluto più di mezz'ora ad aricoglieli tutti. Sigghi natu in Corsica e g'hagghi passatu li mégghiu anni di la me ghiuvinézza. Ricordu quandu èrami zitèlli chi le nosse ma' ci mandèvani da ssòli
2964-533: A high level of political organization, and would manage to only partly supplant the pre-Latin Sardinian languages, including Punic . Although the colonists and negotiatores (businessmen) of strictly Italic descent would later play a relevant role in introducing and spreading Latin to Sardinia, Romanisation proved slow to take hold among the Sardinian natives, whose proximity to the Carthaginian cultural influence
3120-524: A knowledge of what other peoples say about them"). The Muslim geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi , who lived in Palermo , Sicily at the court of King Roger II , wrote in his work Kitab Nuzhat al-mushtāq fi'khtirāq al-āfāq ( ' The book of pleasant journeys into faraway lands ' or, simply, ' The book of Roger ') that "Sardinians are ethnically Rūm Afāriqah , like the Berbers ; they shun contacts with all
3276-504: A line uniting the villages of Piana , Vico , Vizzavona , Ghisoni and Ghisonaccia , and also covering the subgroups from the Cap Corse (which, unlike the rest of the island and similarly to Italian, uses lu , li , la , le as definite articles), Bastia (besides i > e and a > e, u > o: ottanta , momentu , toccà , continentale ; a > o: oliva , orechja , ocellu ), Balagna, Niolo and Corte (which retain
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#17331056455183432-399: A long war between the latter and, to the cry of Helis, Helis , from 1353, the previously allied Judicate of Arborea , in which the Sardinian language was to play the role of an ethnic marker. The war had, among its motives, a never dormant and ancient Arborean political design to establish "a great island nation-state, wholly indigenous" which was assisted by the massive participation of
3588-498: A luci, chì ci vulìa par inniscà l'ami pà piscà. N'arricugliìami à mandigli pieni è dopu in casa i mittìami drent'à un sacchettu chjusu in cucina. Una matina chì ci n'erami pisati chì era sempri bughju, quandu semu andati à piglià u sacchettu era biotu è i granci ghjiraiani pà tutti i cammari e ci hè vulsuta più d'una mez'ora pà ricapizzulà li tutti. Sòcu natu in Còssiga e v'agghju passatu li mèddu anni di la mè ciuintù. M'ammentu candu érami stéddi chi li nostri mammi ci mandàani da pal noi
3744-443: A mandilate piene po' in casa li mettivami in de un sacchéttu chiòsu in cusina. Una matìna chi c'èrami orzati chi ère sempre bugghiu, quandu simmi andati a pigghie u sacchéttu ère vòtu e li granchi ghirèvani pe' ttutte le càmmare e c'è vulutu più di mezz'ora a ricugghiàli tutti. Sò natu in Corsica è c'aghju passatu i più belli anni di a mio giuventù. M'arricordu quand'èramu zitelli chì e nostre mamme ci mandavanu soli à fà u bagnu. Tandu
3900-447: A mandili pieni e dapoi in casa li mittìami indrent'a un sacchéddu chjusu in cucina. Una matìna chi ci n'érami pisàti chi éra sempri lu bugghju, candu sèmu andati a piddà lu sacchéddu iddu éra bòitu e li granchi ghjràani pa' tutti li càmbari e v'è vuluta più di mez'ora pa' accapitàlli tutti. Soggu naddu in Còssiga e v'agghju passaddu li megli'anni di la mè ghjuivintù. M'ammentu cand'èrami piccinni chi li nosthri mammi ci mandavani da pal noi
4056-467: A me ghjuvantù. Mi rammentu quand'erami ziteddi chì i nosci mammi ci mandaiani da par no à fàcci u bagnu. Tandu a piaghja era piena di rena, senza scogli nè rocchi è si staia in mari ori fin'à quandu, viola da u fretu andaiami à vultugliàcci in quidda rena buddenti da u soli. Dapoi, l'ultima capuzzina pà livàcci a rena attaccata à a peddi è turraiami in casa chì u soli era ghjà calatu, à l'ora di cena. Quandu facìa bughju à no ziteddi ci mandaiani à fà granci, cù
4212-407: A number of speakers between 86,800 and 130,200, out of a total population amounting to 309,693 inhabitants. 28% of the overall population was able to speak Corsican well, while an additional 14% had a capacity to speak it "quite well." The percentage of those who had a solid oral understanding of the language varies between a minimum of 25 percent in the 25–34 age group and the maximum of 65 percent in
4368-494: A number of traces of the linguistic substratum predating the Roman conquest of the island: several words and especially toponyms stem from Paleo-Sardinian and, to a lesser extent, Phoenician - Punic . These etyma might refer to an early Mediterranean substratum, which reveal close relations with Basque . In addition to the aforementioned substratum, linguists such as Max Leopold Wagner and Benvenuto Aronne Terracini trace much of
4524-474: A period of almost five centuries, the Greek language only lent Sardinian a few ritual and formal expressions using Greek structure and, sometimes, the Greek alphabet. Evidence for this is found in the condaghes , the first written documents in Sardinian. From the long Byzantine era there are only a few entries but they already provide a glimpse of the sociolinguistical situation on the island in which, in addition to
4680-490: A pesca. N'arricuglìamu à mandilate piene po' in casa i punìamu nu un sacchéttu chjosu in cucina. Una mane chì c'èramu arritti ch'èra sempre bughju, quandu simu andati à piglià u sacchettu ellu èra biotu è i granchi giravanu per tutte e camere è ci hè vulsuta più di méz'ora à ricoglieli tutti. Sòcu natu in Còrsica e v'agghju passatu i mèddu anni di a me ghjuvintù. M'ammentu quand'érami zitéddi chì i nosci mammi ci mandàiani da par no'
4836-424: A piaghja era piena di rena, senza scogli né cotule é ci ne stàvamu in mare per ore fin'à quandu, viola per u freddu, dopu ci n'andavamu a vultulàcci in quella rena bullente da u sole. Po' l'ultima capiciuttata per levacci a rena attaccata à a pelle è vultavamu in casa chì u sole era digià calatu, à ora di cena. Quand'ellu facìa bughju à noi zitèlli ci mandàvanu à fà granchi, cù u lume, chì ci vulìa per innescà l'ami per
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4992-428: A piglià granchi, cu' la luzi chi vi vurìa pa innischà l'amu pa pischà. Ni pigliàbami unbè e dabboi in casa li punìami drentu a un sacchettu sarraddu i' la cuzina. Un manzanu chi tzi n'érami pisaddi chi era ancora buggiu, candu semmu andaddi a piglià lu sacchettu eddu era bioddu e li granchi giràbani pa tutti l'appusenti, e v'è vurudda più di mez'ora pa accuglinniri tutti. The situation of Corsican with regard to French as
5148-426: A scant and fragmentary knowledge of their native and once first spoken language, limited in both scope and frequency of use, Sardinian has been classified by UNESCO as "definitely endangered ". In fact, the intergenerational chain of transmission appears to have been broken since at least the 1960s, in such a way that the younger generations, who are predominantly Italian monolinguals, do not identify themselves with
5304-475: A score of expeditions to the island, from which they would get considerable booty and a hefty number of Sardinian slaves, the Arab assailants were in fact each time forcefully driven back and would never manage to conquer and settle on the island. Although the surviving texts come from such disparate areas as the north and the south of the island, Sardinian then presented itself in a rather homogeneous form: even though
5460-675: A script that had long fallen out of use on the European continent and F. Casula believes may have been adopted by the Sardinians of Latin culture as their own "national script" from the 8th until the 12th century, prior to their receiving outside influence from the arrival of mainly Italian notaries. Old Sardinian had a greater number of archaisms and Latinisms than the present language does, with few Germanic words, mostly coming from Latin itself, and even fewer Arabisms, which had been imported by scribes from Iberia; in spite of their best efforts with
5616-526: A theoretical connection with Basque by linking words such as Sardinian idile ' marshland ' and Basque itil ' puddle ' ; Sardinian ospile ' fresh grazing for cattle ' and Basque hozpil ' cool, fresh ' ; Sardinian arrotzeri ' vagabond ' and Basque arrotz ' stranger ' ; Sardinian golostiu and Basque gorosti ' holly ' ; Gallurese (Corso-Sardinian) zerru ' pig ' (with z for [dz] ) and Basque zerri (with z for [s] ). Genetic data have found
5772-547: A voluntary basis. The 1991 Joxe Statute, in setting up the Collectivité Territoriale de Corse, also provided for the Corsican Assembly , and charged it with developing a plan for the optional teaching of Corsican. The University of Corsica Pasquale Paoli at Corte, Haute-Corse took a central role in the planning. At the primary school level Corsican is taught up to a fixed number of hours per week (three in
5928-612: Is a Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia . Many Romance linguists consider it, together with Italian , as the language that is the closest to Latin among all Latin's descendants. However, it has also incorporated elements of Pre-Latin (mostly Paleo-Sardinian and, to a much lesser degree, Punic ) substratum , as well as a Byzantine Greek , Catalan , Castilian , and Italian superstratum . These elements originate in
6084-494: Is a group typologically different from Sardinian, it has long been a subject of debate whether the two should be included as dialects either of Corsican or of Sardinian or, in light of their historical development, even considered languages of their own. It has been argued that all these varieties should be placed in a single category, Southern Romance , but such classification has not garnered universal support among linguists. On 14 October 1997, Article 2 Item 4 of Law Number 26 of
6240-421: Is an uninflected chì in Corsican. The only unifying, as well as distinctive, feature which separates the Corsican dialects from the mainland Tuscan ones, with the exception of Amiatino, Pitiglianese, and Capraiese, is the retention of word-final o - u . For example, the Italian demonstrative pronouns questo "this" and quello "that" become in Corsican questu or quistu and quellu or quiddu : this feature
6396-438: Is assimilated to ⟨m⟩ before ⟨p⟩ or ⟨b⟩ ) and the palatal nasal consonant represented by ⟨gn⟩ . The nasal vowels are represented by the vowel plus ⟨n⟩ , ⟨m⟩ or ⟨gn⟩ . The combination is a digraph or trigraph indicating the nasalized vowel. The consonant is pronounced in weakened form. The same combination of letters might not be
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6552-417: Is equal to the Sardinians' own force ' ). Dante Alighieri wrote in his 1302–05 essay De vulgari eloquentia that Sardinians were strictly speaking not Italians ( Latii ), even though they appeared superficially similar to them, and they did not speak anything close to a Neo-Latin language of their own ( lingua vulgaris ), but resorted to aping straightforward Latin instead. Dante's view on
6708-463: Is not straightforward. As in Italian, the grapheme ⟨i⟩ appears in some digraphs and trigraphs in which it does not represent the phonemic vowel. All vowels are pronounced except in a few well-defined instances. ⟨i⟩ is not pronounced between ⟨sc/sg/c/g⟩ and ⟨a/o/u⟩ : sciarpa [ˈʃarpa] ; or initially in some words: istu [ˈstu] Vowels may be nasalized before ⟨n⟩ (which
6864-715: Is still a Catalan-speaking enclave on Sardinia to this day. Nevertheless, the Sardinian language did not disappear from official use: the Catalan juridical tradition in the cities coexisted with that of the Sardinians, marked in 1421 by the Parliamentary extension of the Arborean Carta de Logu to the feudal areas during the Reign of King Alfonso the Magnanimous . Fara, in the same first modern monograph dedicated to Sardinia, reported
7020-639: Is the most widespread on the island and standardised as well, and is spoken in North-West Corsica around the districts of Bastia and Corte. The dialects of Bastia and Cap Corse belong to the Western Tuscan dialects; they being, with the exception of Florentine , the closest to standard Italian. All the dialects presenting, in addition to what has already been stated, the conditional formed in -ebbe (e.g. (ella) amarebbe "she would love") are generally considered Cismontani dialects, situated north of
7176-674: The Basques to be close to the Sardinians . Since the Neolithic period, some degree of variance across the island's regions is also attested. The Arzachena culture , for instance, suggests a link between the northernmost Sardinian region ( Gallura ) and southern Corsica that finds further confirmation in the Natural History by Pliny the Elder . There are also some stylistic differences across Northern and Southern Nuragic Sardinia, which may indicate
7332-534: The Etruscans , who asserted their presence on the island in as early as 500 BC. In 40 AD, the natives of Corsica reportedly did not speak Latin. The Roman exile, Seneca the Younger , reported that both coast and interior were occupied by natives whose language he was not able to understand. More specifically, Seneca claimed that the island's population was the result of the stratification of different ethnic groups, such as
7488-598: The Genoese too started carving their own sphere of influence in northern Sardinia, both through the mixed Sardinian-Genoese nobility of Sassari and the members of the Doria family. A certain range of dialectal variation is then noted. A special position was occupied by the Judicate of Arborea , the last Sardinian kingdom to fall to foreign powers, in which a transitional dialect was spoken, that of Middle Sardinian. The Carta de Logu of
7644-533: The Gravona area, Bastelica (which would be classified as Southern, but is also noted for its typical rhotacism: Basterga ) and Solenzara, which did not preserve the Latin short vowels: seccu , peru , rossu , croci , pozzu . The Southern Corsican macro variety ( Suttanacciu , Suttanu , Pumuntincu or Oltramontano ) is the most archaic and conservative group, spoken in the districts of Sartène and Porto-Vecchio. Unlike
7800-682: The Greeks , the Ligures (see the Ligurian hypothesis ) and the Iberians, whose language had long since stopped being recognizable among the population due to the intermixing of the other two groups. The occupation of the island by the Vandals around the year 469 marked the end of authoritative influence by Latin speakers. (See Medieval Corsica .) If the natives of that time spoke Latin , they must have acquired it during
7956-667: The Iberian and the Italian peninsula . In the eighth and seventh centuries, the Phoenicians began to develop permanent settlements, politically arranged as city-states in similar fashion to the Lebanese coastal areas. It did not take long before they started gravitating around the Carthaginian sphere of influence, whose level of prosperity spurred Carthage to send a series of expeditionary forces to
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#17331056455188112-576: The Italian peninsula , and thus is related to the Florentine -based standard Italian . Under the long-standing influence of Tuscany's Pisa , and the historic Republic of Genoa , over Corsica, the Corsican language once filled the role of a vernacular , with Italian functioning as the island's official language until France acquired the island from the Republic of Genoa (1768); by 1859, French had replaced Italian as Corsica's first language so much so that, by
8268-762: The Italian-American linguist Mario Pei , analyzing the degree to which six Romance languages diverged from Vulgar Latin with respect to their accent vocalization, yielded the following measurements of divergence (with higher percentages indicating greater divergence from the stressed vowels of Vulgar Latin): Sardinian 8%, Italian 12%, Spanish 20%, Romanian 23.5%, Occitan 25%, Portuguese 31%, and French 44%. The study emphasized, however, that it represented only "a very elementary, incomplete and tentative demonstration" of how statistical methods could measure linguistic change, assigned "frankly arbitrary" point values to various types of change, and did not compare languages in
8424-467: The Mediterranean island of Corsica , a territory of France , and in the northern regions of the island of Sardinia , an autonomous region of Italy . Corsica, the island proper, is situated approximately 123.9 km (77.0 miles; 66 nautical miles ) off the western coast of Tuscany ; and with historical connections, the Corsican language is considered a part of Tuscan varieties , from that part of
8580-588: The Nuragic language (s). Etruscan elements, formerly thought to have originated in Latin, would indicate a connection between the ancient Sardinian culture and the Etruscans. According to Pittau, the Etruscan and Nuragic language(s) are descended from Lydian (and therefore Indo-European ) as a consequence of contact with Etruscans and other Tyrrhenians from Sardis as described by Herodotus . Although Pittau suggests that
8736-568: The Sardinian language , are spoken in the neighbouring island of Sardinia . Gallurese is spoken in the extreme north of the island, including the region of Gallura , while Sassarese is spoken in Sassari and in its neighbourhood, in the northwest of Sardinia . Their geographical position in Sardinia has been theorised to be the result of different migration waves from the already tuscanized Corsicans and
8892-587: The Serbo-Croatian and the Albanian that are spoken in various Calabrian and Sicilian villages. The question, however, takes on a different nature when considered from a linguistic perspective. Sardinian cannot be said to be closely related to any dialect of mainland Italy; it is an archaic Romance tongue with its own distinctive characteristics, which can be seen in its rather unique vocabulary as well as its morphology and syntax, which differ radically from those of
9048-746: The Sherden , one of the Sea Peoples . Other sources trace instead the root s(a)rd from Σαρδώ , a legendary woman from the Anatolian Kingdom of Lydia , or from the Libyan mythological figure of the Sardus Pater Babai ("Sardinian Father" or "Father of the Sardinians"). In 1984, Massimo Pittau claimed to have found the etymology of many Latin words in the Etruscan language , after comparing it with
9204-512: The Teatru Paisanu , which produced polyphonic musicals, 1973–1982, followed in 1980 by Michel Raffaelli's Teatru di a Testa Mora , and Saveriu Valentini's Teatru Cupabbia in 1984. Modern prose writers include Alanu di Meglio, Ghjacumu Fusina, Lucia Santucci, and Marcu Biancarelli. There were writers working in Corsican in the 1700s and 1800s. Ferdinand Gregorovius , a 19th-century traveller and enthusiast of Corsican culture, reported that
9360-460: The acute accent is sometimes found on stressed ⟨e⟩ , the circumflex on stressed ⟨o⟩ , indicating respectively ( /e/ ) and ( /o/ ) phonemes. Corsican has been regarded as a dialect of Italian historically, similar to the Romance lects developed on the Italian peninsula, and in writing, it also resembles Italian (with the generalised substitution of - u for final - o and
9516-533: The late Middle Ages into the Iberian sphere of influence , during which Catalan and Castilian became the island's prestige languages and would remain so well into the 18th century. Finally, from the early 18th century onward, under the Savoyard and contemporary Italian one, following the country's linguistic policies which, to the detriment of Sardinian and the local Catalan, led to diglossia . The original character of
SECTION 60
#17331056455189672-813: The 1080 "Logudorese Privilege", the 1089 Torchitorius' Donation (in the Marseille archives), the 1190–1206 Marsellaise Chart (in Campidanese Sardinian) and an 1173 communication between the Bishop Bernardo of Civita and Benedetto, who oversaw the Opera del Duomo in Pisa. The Statutes of Sassari (1316) and Castelgenovese ( c. 1334 ) are written in Logudorese Sardinian. The first chronicle in lingua sive ydiomate sardo , called Condagues de Sardina ,
9828-480: The 17th century. An undated corpus of proverbs from communes may well precede it (see under External links below). Corsican has also left a trail of legal documents ending in the late 12th century. At that time the monasteries held considerable land on Corsica and many of the churchmen were notaries . Between 1200 and 1425 the monastery of Gorgona , which belonged to the Order of Saint Benedict for much of that time and
9984-625: The Alta Rocca district of the Corsican Regional Nature Reserve . This Corse-du-Sud geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Corsican language Corsican ( corsu , pronounced [ˈkorsu] , or lingua corsa , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa ˈɡorsa] ) is a Romance language consisting of the continuum of the Tuscan Italo-Dalmatian dialects spoken on
10140-482: The Aragonese winners from the brutal conflict would then move on to destroy the pre-existing documentary production of the still living Sardinian Judicate, which was predominantly written in Sardinian language along with other ones the chancery was engaged with, leaving behind their trail only "a few stones" and, overall, a "small group of documents", many of which are in fact still preserved and/or refer to archives outside
10296-519: The Autonomous Region of Sardinia granted "the Sassarese and Gallurese dialects" (« al dialetto sassarese e a quello gallurese ») equal legal status with the other languages indigenous to Sardinia . Thus, even though they would technically not be covered by the national law pertaining to the historical linguistic minorities, among which is Sardinian, Sassarese and Gallurese are nonetheless recognized by
10452-668: The Byzantines were fully focused on reconquering southern Italy and Sicily, which had in the meanwhile also fallen to the Muslims , their attention on Sardinia was neglected and communications broke down with Constantinople ; this spurred the former Byzantine province of Sardinia to become progressively more autonomous from the Byzantine oecumene , and eventually attain independence. Pinelli argues that "the Arab conquest of North Africa separated Sardinia from that continent without, however, causing
10608-574: The Corsican language in French public offices and the regional parliament was legally banned, the existence of the "Corsican people" was also deemed unconstitutional. According to the anthropologist Dumenica Verdoni, writing new literature in modern Corsican, known as the Riacquistu , is an integral part of affirming Corsican identity. Some individuals have returned from careers in continental France to write in Corsican, including Dumenicu Togniotti, director of
10764-418: The Corsican language." In 1990, out of a total population of about 254,000, the percentage had declined to 50 percent, with 10 percent of the island's residents using it as a first language. The language appeared to be in serious decline when the French government reversed its unsupportive stand and initiated some strong measures to save it. The January 2007 estimated population of Corsica was 281,000, whereas
10920-403: The Corsicans knew how to write correctly in Corsican, while about 60 percent of the population did not know how to write in Corsican. While 90 percent of the population was in favor of a Corsican-French bilingualism, 3 percent would have liked to have only Corsican as the official language in the island, and 7 percent would have preferred French to have this role. UNESCO classifies Corsican as
11076-431: The Italian dialects. As an insular language par excellence, Sardinian is considered the most conservative Romance language , as well as one of the most highly individual within the family; its substratum ( Paleo-Sardinian or Nuragic) has also been researched. In the first written testimonies, dating to the eleventh century, Sardinian appears as a language already distinct from the dialects of Italy. A 1949 study by
11232-601: The Kingdom of Arborea, one of the first constitutions in history drawn up in 1355–1376 by Marianus IV and the Queen, the ' Lady Judge ' ( judikessa in Sardinian, jutgessa in Catalan, giudicessa in Italian) Eleanor , was written in this transitional variety of Sardinian, and would remain in force until 1827. The Arborean judges' effort to unify the Sardinian dialects were due to their desire to be legitimate rulers of
11388-540: The Northern varieties and similarly to Sardinian, the group retains the distinction of the Latin short vowels ĭ and ŭ (e.g. pilu , bucca ). It is also strongly marked by the presence of the voiced retroflex stop , like Sicilian (e.g. aceddu , beddu , quiddu , ziteddu , famidda ), and the conditional mood formed in -ìa (e.g. (idda) amarìa "she would love"). All the Oltramontani dialects are from an area located to
11544-517: The River Solenzara to its north, and to its west the Aiguilles de Bavella , a beautiful mountain at the heart of the island. A rural district, it essentially consists of two settlements: the larger seaside village of Solenzara, and the smaller hilltop village of Sari. Smaller outlying hamlets include Togna, Canella, Tarcu and Favona. Highly mountainous and forested, Sari-Solenzara falls partially within
11700-458: The Romance idioms; George Bossong summarises thus: "be this as it may, from a strictly linguistic point of view there can be no doubt that Sardinian is to be classified as an independent Romance language, or even as an independent branch inside the family, and so it is classed alongside the great national languages like French and Italian in all modern manuals of Romance linguistics". Sardinia's relative isolation from mainland Europe encouraged
11856-482: The Sardinian government on a regional level. Sono nato in Corsica e vi ho passato gli anni migliori della mia giovinezza. Ricordo, quando eravamo ragazzi, che le nostre mamme ci mandavano da soli a fare il bagno. Allora la spiaggia era piena di sabbia, senza scogli né rocce e si stava in mare delle ore fino a quando, paonazzi dal freddo poi ci andavamo a rotolare in quella sabbia bollente dal sole. Poi l'ultimo tuffo per levarci la sabbia attaccata alla pelle e ritornavamo
12012-537: The Sardinian language among the Romance idioms has long been known among linguists. After a long strife for the acknowledgement of the island's cultural patrimony, in 1997, Sardinian, along with the other languages spoken therein, managed to be recognized by regional law in Sardinia without challenge by the central government. In 1999, Sardinian and eleven other "historical linguistic minorities", i.e. locally indigenous, and not foreign-grown, minority languages of Italy ( minoranze linguistiche storiche , as defined by
12168-438: The Sardinian language with regard to the politically dominant ones did not change until fascism and, most evidently, the 1950s. The origins of ancient Sardinian, also known as Paleo-Sardinian, are currently unknown. Research has attempted to discover obscure, indigenous, pre-Romance roots . The root s(a)rd , indicating many place names as well as the island's people , is reportedly either associated with or originating from
12324-455: The Sardinian rebels latrones mastrucati ( ' thieves with rough wool cloaks ' ) or Afri ( ' Africans ' ) to emphasize Roman superiority over a population mocked as the refuse of Carthage. A number of obscure Nuragic roots remained unchanged, and in many cases Latin accepted the local roots (like nur , presumably cognate of Norax , which makes its appearance in nuraghe , Nurra , Nurri and many other toponyms). Barbagia ,
12480-540: The Sardinians believed they had one single king ' ). The conflict between the two sovereign and warring parties, during which the Aragonese possessions making up the Kingdom of Sardinia were first administratively split into two separate "halves" ( capita ) by Peter IV the Ceremonious in 1355, ended after sixty-seven years with the Iberian victory at Sanluri in 1409 and the renunciation of any succession right signed by William II of Narbonne in 1420. This event marked
12636-564: The Sardinians, however, is proof of how their language had been following its own course in a way which was already unintelligible to non-islanders, and had become, in Wagner's words, an impenetrable "sphinx" to their judgment. Frequently mentioned is a previous 12th-century poem by the troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras , Domna, tant vos ai preiada ("Lady, so much I have endeared you"); Sardinian epitomizes outlandish speech therein, along with non-Romance languages such as German and Berber , with
12792-522: The Sassarese dialect was nothing more than a contaminated Pisan, to which Sardinian, Corsican and Spanish expressions had been added; it is therefore not an indigenous dialect, but rather a continental one and, to be more specific, a mixed Tuscan dialect with its own peculiarities, and different from the Corsican-imported Gallurese. Some Italo-Romance languages that might have originated from Southern Corsican, but are also heavily influenced by
12948-591: The South of Porticcio, Bastelica , Col di Verde and Solenzara. Notable dialects are those from around Taravo (retroflex - dd - only for historical -ll- : frateddu , suredda , beddu ; preservation of the palatal lateral approximant : piglià , famiglia , figliolu , vogliu ; does not preserve the Latin short vowels: seccu , peru , rossu , croci , pozzu ), Sartène (preserving the Latin short vowels: siccu , piru , russu , cruci , puzzu ; changing historical -rn- to -rr- : forru , carri , corru ; substituting
13104-520: The Tirrenii landed in Sardinia and the Etruscans landed in modern Tuscany , his views are not shared by most Etruscologists. According to Bertoldi and Terracini, Paleo-Sardinian has similarities with the Iberic languages and Siculian ; for example, the suffix - ara in proparoxytones indicated the plural. Terracini proposed the same for suffixes in - /àna/ , - /ànna/ , - /énna/ , - /ònna/ + /r/ +
13260-594: The Tuscans, who then proceeded to settle in Sardinia and slowly displace the indigenous Logudorese Sardinian varieties spoken therein (at present, Luras is the only town in the middle of Gallura that has retained the original language). On the Maddalena archipelago , which was culturally Corsican but had been annexed to the Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia a short while before Corsica was ceded by Genoa to France in 1767,
13416-671: The Vandal presence had "estranged Sardinia from Europe, linking its own destiny to Africa's territorial expanse" in a bond that was to strengthen further "under Byzantine rule, not only because the Roman Empire included the island in the African Exarchate, but also because it developed from there, albeit indirectly, its ethnic community, causing it to acquire many of the African characteristics" that would allow ethnologists and historians to elaborate
13572-505: The Way of Straw ' ) also recurs in the Berber languages . To most Italians Sardinian is unintelligible, reminding them of Spanish, because of the way in which the language is acoustically articulated; characterized as it is by a sharply outlined physiognomy which is displayed from the earliest sources available, it is in fact considered a distinct language, if not an altogether different branch, among
13728-474: The aforementioned Cartas and condaghes . The first document containing Sardinian elements is a 1063 donation to the abbey of Montecassino signed by Barisone I of Torres. Another such document (the so-called Carta Volgare ) comes from the Judicate of Cagliari and was issued by Torchitorio I de Lacon-Gunale in around 1070, written in Sardinian whilst still employing the Greek alphabet . Other documents are
13884-405: The articles u and a for il/lo and la respectively; however, both the dialect of Cap Corse and Gallurese retain the original articles lu and la ). On the other hand, the phonemes of the modern Corsican dialects have undergone complex and sometimes irregular phenomena depending on phonological context, so the pronunciation of the language for foreigners familiar with other Romance languages
14040-558: The broader Italian sphere, considering Corsican "one of the lowest, impure dialects of Italy". It was the Italian Fascist aggressive claims to the island in the 20th century, followed by their invasion , that provoked a popular backlash, estranging the native islanders from standard Italian and, if anything, only accelerated their shifting to the French even further. By the Liberation of France , any previously existing link between
14196-520: The community's everyday Neo-Latin language, Greek was also spoken by the ruling classes. Some toponyms, such as Jerzu (thought to derive from the Greek khérsos , ' untilled ' ), together with the personal names Mikhaleis , Konstantine and Basilis , demonstrate Greek influence. As the Muslims made their way into North Africa , what remained of the Byzantine possession of the Exarchate of Africa
14352-438: The country's national language is analogous to that of many other French regions and provinces, which have or used to have a traditional language of their own, even though the islanders' switch from their local idiom to regional French has happened relatively later and the presence of Corsican, albeit declining, is still strongly felt among the population. In 1980, about 70 percent of the island's population "had some command of
14508-640: The definitive end of Sardinian independence, whose historical relevance for the island, likened by Francesco C. Casula to "the end of Aztec Mexico ", should be considered "neither triumph nor defeat, but the painful birth of today's Sardinia". Any outbreak of anti-Aragonese rebellion, such as the revolt of Alghero in 1353, that of Uras in 1470 and finally that of Macomer in 1478, celebrated in De bello et interitu marchionis Oristanei , were and would have been systematically neutralised. From that moment, " quedó de todo punto Sardeña por el rey ". Casula believes that
14664-500: The development of a Romance language that preserves traces of its indigenous, pre-Roman language(s). The language is posited to have substratal influences from Paleo-Sardinian , which some scholars have linked to Basque and Etruscan ; comparisons have also been drawn with the Berber languages from North Africa to shed more light on the language(s) spoken in Sardinia prior to its Romanization . Subsequent adstratal influences include Catalan , Spanish, and Italian. The situation of
14820-467: The dialects of Corsican (especially Northern Corsican) are in fact very mutually intelligible . Southern Corsican, in spite of the geographical proximity, has as its closest linguistic neighbour not Sardinian (a separate group with which it is not mutually intelligible), but rather the Extreme Southern Italian dialects like Siculo - Calabrian . It has been theorised, on the other hand, that
14976-597: The dignity of Sardinian for official purposes was such that, in the words of Livio Petrucci, a Neo-Latin language had come to be used "at a time when nothing similar can be observed in the Italian peninsula" not only "in the legal field" but also "in any other field of writing". A diplomatic analysis of the earliest Sardinian documents shows that the Judicates provided themselves with chanceries , which employed an indigenous diplomatic model for writing public documents; one of them, dating to 1102, displays text in half-uncial ,
15132-524: The digraph or trigraph but might be just the non-nasal vowel followed by the consonant at full weight. The speaker must know the difference. Example of nasal: ⟨pane⟩ is pronounced [ˈpãnɛ] and not [ˈpanɛ] . The Northern and central dialects in the vicinity of the Taravo river adopt the Italian seven-vowel system, whereas all the Southern ones around the so-called "archaic zone" with its centre being
15288-511: The distinctive Latin character of Sardinia to the languoids once spoken by the Christian and Jewish Berbers in North Africa, known as African Romance . Indeed, Sardinian was perceived as rather similar to African Latin when the latter was still in use, giving credit to the theory that vulgar Latin in both Africa and Sardinia displayed a significant wealth of parallelisms. J. N. Adams is of
15444-477: The entire island under a single state ( republica sardisca ' Sardinian Republic ' ); such political goal, after all, was already manifest in 1164, when the Arborean Judge Barison ordered his great seal to be made with the writings Baresonus Dei Gratia Rei Sardiniee ( ' Barison, by the grace of God, King of Sardinia ' ) and Est vis Sardorum pariter regnum Populorum ( ' The people's rule
15600-497: The evolution of Corsican starting from about the year 1950, whereas "distanciated Corsican" refers to an idealized variety of Corsican following linguistic purism , by means of removing any French-derived elements. The two most widely spoken forms of the Corsican language are the groups spoken in the Bastia and Corte area (generally throughout the northern half of the island, known as Haute-Corse , Cismonte or Corsica suprana ), and
15756-553: The existence of Corsican as the island's native vernacular did not take anything away from Paoli's claims that Corsica's official language was Italian. Today's Corsican is the result of these historical vicissitudes, which have morphed the language to an idiom that bears a strong resemblance to the medieval Tuscan once spoken at the time of Dante and Boccaccio , and still existing in peripheral Tuscany ( Lucca , Garfagnana , Elba , Capraia ). The correspondence of modern Corsican to ancient Tuscan can be seen from almost any aspect of
15912-449: The existence of a Sardinian Koine which pointed to a model based on Logudorese. According to Eduardo Blasco Ferrer , it was in the wake of the fall of the Judicates of Cagliari and Gallura , in the second half of the 13th century, that Sardinian began to fragment into its modern dialects, undergoing some Tuscanization under the rule of the Republic of Pisa ; it did not take long before
16068-429: The existence of two other tribal groups ( Balares and Ilienses ) mentioned by the same Roman author. According to the archeologist Giovanni Ugas, these tribes may have in fact played a role in shaping the current regional linguistic differences of the island. Around the 10th and 9th century BC, Phoenician merchants were known to have made their presence in Sardinia, which acted as a geographical mediator in between
16224-449: The fact that any official text was written solely in Sardinian from the very beginning and completely excluded Latin, unlike what was happening – and would continue to happen – in France, Italy and Iberia at the same time; Latin, although co-official, was in fact used only in documents concerning external relations in which the Sardinian kings ( judikes , ' judges ' ) engaged. Awareness of
16380-547: The family sphere, is illustrated by the Euromosaic report, in which Sardinian "is in 43rd place in the ranking of the 50 languages taken into consideration and of which were analysed (a) use in the family, (b) cultural reproduction, (c) use in the community, (d) prestige, (e) use in institutions, (f) use in education". As the Sardinians have almost been completely assimilated into the Italian national mores, including in terms of onomastics , and therefore now only happen to keep but
16536-569: The figure for the March 1999 census, when most of the studies—though not the linguistic survey work referenced in this article—were performed, was about 261,000. Only a fraction of the population at either time spoke Corsican with any fluency. According to an official survey run on behalf of the Territorial Collectivity of Corsica which took place in April 2013, in Corsica, the Corsican language had
16692-528: The first century BC. In terms of vocabulary, Sardinian retains an array of peculiar Latin-based forms that are either unfamiliar to, or have altogether disappeared in, the rest of the Romance-speaking world. The number of Latin inscriptions on the island is relatively small and fragmented. Some engraved poems in ancient Greek and Latin (the two most prestigious languages in the Roman Empire ) are seen in
16848-419: The future, being referred to by linguists as the mere substratum of the now-prevailing idiom, i.e. Italian articulated in its own Sardinian-influenced variety , which may come to wholly supplant the islanders' once living native tongue. Now the question arises as to whether Sardinian is to be considered a dialect or a language. Politically speaking, of course, it is one of the many dialects of Italy, just like
17004-444: The general Corsican traits: distinu , ghjinnaghju , sicondu , billezza , apartu , farru , marcuri , cantaraghju , uttanta , mumentu , tuccà , cuntinentale , aliva , arechja , acellu ). Across the Northern and Southern borders of the line separating the Northern dialects from the Southern ones, there is a transitional area picking up linguistic phenomena associated with either of
17160-515: The groups spoken around Sartène and Porto-Vecchio (generally throughout the southern half of the island, known as Corse-du-Sud , Pumonti or Corsica suttana ). The dialect of Ajaccio has been described as in transition. The dialects spoken at Calvi and Bonifacio ( Bonifacino ) are dialects of the Ligurian language . This division along the Girolata-Porto Vecchio line was due to
17316-472: The indigenous tongue, which is now reduced to the memory of "little more than the language of their grandparents". As the long- to even medium-term future of the Sardinian language looks far from secure in the present circumstances, Martin Harris concluded in 2003 that, assuming the continuation of present trends to language death , it was possible that there would not be a Sardinian language of which to speak in
17472-534: The island's inhabitants. As a result of this protracted and prolonged process of Romanisation, the modern Sardinian language is today classified as Romance or neo-Latin, with some phonetic features resembling Old Latin . Some linguists assert that modern Sardinian, being part of the Island Romance group, was the first language to split off from Latin, all others evolving from Latin as Continental Romance. In fact, contact with Rome might have ceased from as early as
17628-611: The island. Specifically, the Arborean documents and the palace in which they were kept would be completely set on fire on May 21, 1478, as the viceroy triumphantly entered Oristano after having tamed the aforementioned 1478 rebellion, which threatened the revival of an Arborean identity which had been de jure abolished in 1420 but was still very much alive in popular memory. Thereafter, the ruling class in Sardinia proceeded to adopt Catalan as their primary language. The situation in Cagliari ,
17784-1020: The island; although they were initially repelled by the natives, the North African city vigorously pursued a policy of active imperialism and, by the sixth century, managed to establish its political hegemony and military control over South-Western Sardinia. Punic began to be spoken in the area, and many words entered ancient Sardinian as well. Words like giara 'plateau' (cf. Hebrew yaʿar 'forest, scrub'), g(r)uspinu ' nasturtium ' (from Punic cusmin ), curma ' fringed rue ' (cf. Arabic ḥarmal ' Syrian rue '), mítza 'spring' (cf. Hebrew mitsa , metza 'source, fountainhead'), síntziri ' marsh horsetail ' (from Punic zunzur ' common knotgrass '), tzeúrra 'sprout' (from * zerula , diminutive of Punic zeraʿ 'seed'), tzichirìa ' dill ' (from Punic sikkíria ; cf. Hebrew šēkār 'ale') and tzípiri ' rosemary ' (from Punic zibbir ) are commonly used, especially in
17940-465: The language, ranging from the phonetics, morphology, lexicon to the syntax. One of the characteristics of standard Italian is the retention of the - re infinitive ending, as in Latin mittere "send"; such infinitival ending is lost in Tuscan as well as Corsican, resulting in the outcome mette / metta , "to put". Whereas the relative pronoun in Italian for "who" is chi and "what" is che / (che) cosa , it
18096-462: The last century. The Sardinian adult population today primarily uses Italian, and less than 15 percent of the younger generations were reported to have been passed down some residual Sardinian, usually in a deteriorated form described by linguist Roberto Bolognesi as "an ungrammatical slang". The rather fragile and precarious state in which the Sardinian language now finds itself, where its use has been discouraged and consequently reduced even within
18252-480: The late empire. Modern Corsican has been influenced by the languages of the major powers taking an interest in Corsican affairs; earlier by those of the medieval Italian powers, such as the Papal States (828–1077), the Republic of Pisa (1077–1282) and the Republic of Genoa (1282–1768), and finally by France which, since 1859, has promulgated the official Parisian French. The term " gallicised Corsican" refers to
18408-525: The latter to rejoin Europe" and that this event "determined a capital turning point for Sardinia, giving rise to a de facto independent national government". Historian Marc Bloch believed that, owing to Sardinia being a country which found itself in "quasi-isolation" from the rest of the continent, the earliest documentary testimonies, written in Sardinian, were much older than those first issued in Italy. Sardinian
18564-509: The latter, due to the fierce resistance of the Sardinians, were not able to spread to the island, as they had in Africa". Michele Amari , quoted by Pinelli, writes that "the attempts of the Muslims of Africa to conquer Sardinia and Corsica were frustrated by the unconquered valour of the poor and valiant inhabitants of those islands, who saved themselves for two centuries from the yoke of the Arabs". As
18720-554: The legislator) were similarly recognized as such by national law (specifically, Law No. 482/1999). Among these, Sardinian is notable as having, in terms of absolute numbers, the largest community of speakers. Although the Sardinian-speaking community can be said to share "a high level of linguistic awareness", policies eventually fostering language loss and assimilation have considerably affected Sardinian, whose actual speakers have become noticeably reduced in numbers over
18876-419: The lively multilingualism in "one and the same people", i.e. the Sardinians, because of immigration "by Spaniards and Italians" who came to the island to trade with the natives. The long-lasting war and the so-called Black Death had a devastating effect on the island, depopulating large parts of it. People from the neighbouring island of Corsica, which had been already Tuscanised, began to settle en masse in
19032-475: The local dialect (called isulanu or maddaleninu ) was brought by fishermen and shepherds from Bonifacio over a long period of immigration in the 17th and 18th centuries. Though influenced by Gallurese, it has maintained the original characteristics of Southern Corsican. In the dialect of maddalenino , as it is known in Italian, there are also numerous words of Genoese and Ponzese origin. Although Gallurese and Sassarese both belong to Italo-Dalmatian , which
19188-473: The massive immigration from Tuscany which took place in Corsica during the lower Middle Ages: as a result, the northern Corsican dialects became very close to a central Italian dialect like Tuscan, while the southern Corsican varieties could keep the original characteristics of the language which make it much more similar to Sicilian and, only to some extent, Sardinian . The Northern Corsican macro variety ( Supranacciu , Supranu , Cismuntincu or Cismontano )
19344-628: The modern Sardinian varieties of the Campidanese plain , while proceeding northwards the influence is more limited to place names, such as the town of Magomadas , Macumadas in Nuoro or Magumadas in Gesico and Nureci , all of which deriving from the Punic maqom hadash ' new city ' . The Roman domination began in 238 BC, but was often contested by the local Sardinian tribes, who had by then acquired
19500-431: The monastery closed its doors and were published there. Research into earlier evidence of Corsican is ongoing. Corsican is written in the standard Latin script , using 21 of the letters for native words. The letters j, k, w, x, and y are found only in foreign names and French vocabulary. The digraphs and trigraphs chj , ghj , sc and sg are also defined as "letters" of the alphabet in its modern scholarly form (compare
19656-549: The mountainous central region of the island, derives its name from the Latin Barbaria (a term meaning ' Land of the Barbarians ' , similar in origin to the now antiquated word Barbary ), because its people refused cultural and linguistic assimilation for a long time: 50% of toponyms of central Sardinia, particularly in the territory of Olzai , are actually not related to any known language. According to Terracini, amongst
19812-419: The neighbouring Sardinia , Corsica's installment into a diglossic system with Italian as the island's prestige language ran so deep that both Corsican and Italian might be even, and in fact were, perceived as two sociolinguistic levels of a single language. Corsican and Italian traditionally existed on a spectrum, and the dividing lines between them were blurred enough that the locals needed little else but
19968-463: The opinion that similarities in many words, such as acina ( ' grape ' ), pala ( ' shoulder blade ' ) and spanu(s) (' reddish-brown '), prove that there might have been a fair amount of vocabulary shared between Sardinia and Africa. According to Wagner, it is notable that Sardinian is the only Romance language whose name for the Milky Way ( (b)ía de sa báza, (b)ía de sa bálla , '
20124-461: The orthographic differences between Logudorese and Campidanese Sardinian were beginning to appear, Wagner found in this period "the original unity of the Sardinian language". In agreement with Wagner is Paolo Merci, who found a "broad uniformity" around this period, as were Antonio Sanna and Ignazio Delogu too, for whom it was the islanders' community life that prevented Sardinian from localism. According to Carlo Tagliavini, these earlier documents show
20280-490: The other Rūm nations and are people of purpose and valiant that never leave the arms". According to Wagner, the close relationship in the development of Vulgar Latin between North Africa and Sardinia might not have only derived from ancient ethnic affinities between the two populations, but also from their common political past within the Exarchate of Africa . What literature is left to us from this period primarily consists of legal and administrative documents, besides
20436-510: The over-65 age group: almost a quarter of the former age group reported that they were not able to understand Corsican, while only a small minority of the older people did not understand it. While 32 percent of the population of Northern Corsica was reported to speak Corsican quite well, this percentage dropped to 22 percent for Southern Corsica. Moreover, 10 percent of the population of Corsica spoke only French, while 62 percent code-switched between French and at least some Corsican. 8 percent of
20592-508: The political history of Sardinia , whose indigenous society experienced for centuries competition and at times conflict with a series of colonizing newcomers: before the Middle Ages , the island was for a time a Byzantine possession ; then, after a significant period of self-rule with the Judicates , when Sardinian was officially employed in accordance with documentary testimonies, it came during
20748-458: The preferred form of the literary tradition of his time was the vocero , a type of polyphonic ballad originating from funeral obsequies. These laments were similar in form to the chorales of Greek drama except that the leader could improvise. Some performers were noted at this, such as the 1700s Mariola della Piazzole and Clorinda Franseschi. However, the trail of written popular literature of known date in Corsican currently goes no further back than
20904-404: The presence of ch or ll in the old Spanish alphabet) and appear respectively after c , g and s . The primary diacritic used is the grave accent , indicating word stress when it is not penultimate . In scholarly contexts, disyllables may be distinguished from diphthongs by use of the diaeresis on the former vowel (as in Italian and distinct from French and English). In older writing,
21060-603: The rediscovery of Corsican culture. Nationalist calls for Corsican to be put on the same footing as French led the French National Assembly, in 1974, to extend the 1951 Deixonne Law, which initially recognized only a few languages ( Breton , Basque , Catalan and Occitan ), to including Corsican as well, among others, not as a dialect of Italian, but as one of France's full-fledged regional languages.(See governmental support .) The common relationship between Corsica and central Italy can be traced from as far back as
21216-402: The regions in Europe that went on to draw their language from Latin, Sardinia has overall preserved the highest proportion of pre-Latin toponyms. Besides the place names, on the island there are still a few names of plants, animals and geological formations directly traceable to the ancient Nuragic era. By the end of the Roman domination, Latin had gradually become however the speech of most of
21372-568: The rest of the Sardinians, i.e. those not residing within the jurisdiction of Arborea ( Sardus de foras ), as well as a widespread impatience with the foreign importation of a feudal regime, specifically " more Italie " and " Cathalonie ", which threatened the survival of deep-rooted indigenous institutions and, far from ensuring the return of the island to a unitary regime, had only introduced there " tot reges quot sunt ville " ( ' as many petty rulers as there are villages ' ), whereas instead " Sardi unum regem se habuisse credebant " ( '
21528-399: The sample with respect to any characteristics or forms of divergence other than stressed vowels, among other caveats. The significant degree to which the Sardinian language has retained its Latin base was also noted by the French geographer Maurice Le Lannou during a research project on the island in 1941. Although its lexical base is mostly of Latin origin, Sardinian nonetheless retains
21684-500: The so-called "Viper's Cave" ( Gruta 'e sa Pibera in Sardinian, Grotta della Vipera in Italian, Cripta Serpentum in Latin), a burial monument built in Caralis ( Cagliari ) by Lucius Cassius Philippus (a Roman who had been exiled to Sardinia) in remembrance of his dead spouse Atilia Pomptilla; we also have some religious works by Eusebius and Saint Lucifer , both from Caralis and in
21840-606: The stop for the palatal lateral approximant: piddà , famidda , fiddolu , voddu ; imperfect tense like cantàvami , cantàvani ; masculine plurals ending in a : l'ochja , i poma ; having eddu/edda/eddi as personal pronouns), the Alta Rocca (the most conservative area in Corsica, being very close to the varieties spoken in Northern Sardinia), and the Southern region located between the hinterlands of Porto-Vecchio and Bonifacio (masculine singulars always ending in u : fiumu , paesu , patronu ; masculine plurals always ending in
21996-642: The theory of the Paleo-Sardinians' supposed African origin, now disproved. Casula is convinced that the Vandal domination caused a "clear breaking with the Roman-Latin writing tradition or, at the very least, an appreciable bottleneck" so that the subsequent Byzantine government was able to establish "its own operational institutions" in a "territory disputed between the Greek- and the Latin-speaking world". Despite
22152-434: The time of the Liberation of France (1945), nearly every islander had at least a working-knowledge of French. The 20th century saw a vast language shift , with the islanders adapting and changing their communications to the extent that there were no monolingual Corsican-speakers left by the 1960s. By 1995, an estimated 65% of islanders had some degree of proficiency in Corsican, and a minority of around 10% used Corsican as
22308-667: The town of Sartène (including the Gallurese dialect spoken in Northern Sardinia) resort to a five-vowel system without length differentiation, like Sardinian . The vowel inventory, or collection of phonemic vowels (and the major allophones), transcribed in IPA symbols, is: Sardinian language Sardinian or Sard ( endonym : sardu [ˈsaɾdu] , limba sarda , Logudorese : [ˈlimba ˈzaɾda] Sardinian : [ˈlimba ˈzaɾða] (Nuorese), or lìngua sarda , Campidanese : [ˈliŋɡwa ˈzaɾda] )
22464-413: The troubadour having the lady say " No t'entend plui d'un Todesco / Sardesco o Barbarì " ("I don't understand you more than a German or Sardinian or Berber "); the Tuscan poet Fazio degli Uberti refers to the Sardinians in his poem Dittamondo as " una gente che niuno non-la intende / né essi sanno quel ch'altri pispiglia " ("a people that no one is able to understand / nor do they come to
22620-859: The two groups, with some local peculiarities. Along the Northern line are the dialects around Piana and Calcatoggio , from Cinarca with Vizzavona (which form the conditional as in the South), and Fiumorbo through Ghisonaccia and Ghisoni, which have the retroflex [ɖ] sound (written -dd- ) for historical -ll- ; along the Southern line, the dialects of Ajaccio (retroflex -dd- , realized as - ghj -, feminine plurals ending in i , some Northern words like cane and accattà instead of ghjacaru and cumprà , as well as ellu / ella and not eddu / edda ; minor variations: sabbatu > sabbitu , u li dà > ghi lu dà ; final syllables often stressed and truncated: marinari > marinà , panatteri > panattè , castellu > castè , cuchjari > cuchjà ),
22776-432: The two linguistic varieties and with Italy altogether had been severed; any promotion of Corsican, which had been politicized by the local collaborators with the regime, would be met with popular criticism and even suspicion of potentially harboring irredentist sentiments. From then on, Corsican would grow independently of Italian to become, later in the 1970s, a centerpiece of the Riacquistu ("reacquisition") movement for
22932-468: The writing style of whom may be noted the lexicon and perifrastic forms typical of Sardinian (e.g. narrare in place of dicere ; compare with Sardinian nàrrere or nàrri(ri) ' to say ' ). After a period of 80 years under the Vandals , Sardinia would again be part of the Byzantine Empire under the Exarchate of Africa for almost another five centuries. Luigi Pinelli believes that
23088-594: The year 2000) and is a voluntary subject at the secondary school level, but is required at the University of Corsica. It is available through adult education. It can be spoken in court or in the conduct of other government business if the officials concerned speak it. The Cultural Council of the Corsican Assembly advocates for its use, for example, on public signs. In 2023, in a judgement initiated by local prefect and going in opposite direction of recent trends, usage of
23244-585: Was also typical of the early Italian texts during the Middle Ages. Even after the acquisition of Corsica by Louis XV , Italian continued to be the island's language of education, literature, religion and local affairs. The affluent youth still went to Italy to pursue higher studies. (It has been estimated that Corsican presence in Pisa amounted to a fourth of the University 's total student body in 1830.) Local civil registers continued to be written in Italian until 1855; it
23400-449: Was in the territory of Pisa , acquired about 40 legal papers of various sorts related to Corsica. As the church was replacing Pisan prelates with Corsican ones there, the legal language shows a transition from entirely Latin through partially Latin and partially Corsican to entirely Corsican. The first known surviving document containing some Corsican is a bill of sale from Patrimonio dated to 1220. These documents were moved to Pisa before
23556-540: Was noted by Roman authors. Punic continued to be spoken well into the 3rd–4th century AD, as attested by votive inscriptions, and it is thought that the natives from the most interior areas, led by the tribal chief Hospito , joined their brethren in making the switch to Latin around the 7th century AD, through their conversion to Christianity. Cicero , who loathed the Sardinians on the ground of numerous factors, such as their outlandish language, their kinship with Carthage and their refusal to engage with Rome, would call
23712-592: Was on 9 May 1859, that Italian was replaced by French as the island's official language, although the latter would start to take root among the islanders from 1882 onwards, through the Jules Ferry laws aimed at spreading literacy across the French provinces. Even so, a specifically homegrown Corsican (rather than Italian) literature in Corsica only developed belatedly and, in its earliest phase, there were no autonomous cultural instances; Corsican writers, such as Salvatore Viale, even prided themselves on their affiliation to
23868-573: Was only the Balearic Islands and Sardinia . Pinelli believes that this event constituted a fundamental watershed in the historical course of Sardinia, leading to the definitive severance of those previously close cultural ties between Sardinia and the southern shore of the Mediterranean: any previously held commonality shared between Sardinia and Africa "disappeared, like mist in the sun, as a result of North Africa's conquest by Islamic forces, since
24024-466: Was perceived as different from Corsican, but not as much as the differences between the two main isoglosses of Northern and Southern Corsican, as spoken by their respective native speakers. When Pasquale Paoli found himself exiled in London, he replied to Samuel Johnson 's query on the peculiar existence of a "rustic language" very different from Italian that such a language existed only in Sardinia; in fact,
24180-518: Was published anonymously in the 13th century, relating the events of the Judicate of Torres . The 1297 feoffment of Sardinia by Pope Boniface VIII led to the creation of the Kingdom of Sardinia : that is, of a state which, although lacking in summa potestas , entered by right as a member in personal union within the broader Mediterranean structure of the Crown of Aragon , a composite state . Thus began
24336-538: Was the first Romance language of all to gain official status, being used by the four Judicates , former Byzantine districts that became independent political entities after the Arab expansion in the Mediterranean had cut off any ties left between the island and Byzantium . The exceptionality of the Sardinian situation, which in this sense constitutes a unique case throughout the Latin-speaking Europe, consists in
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