The Language Of Sardinia

The language of Sardinia is unique and not at all similar to Italian. As some of you might already know, Sardinian is a language of its own, like Italian or French. It is not a dialect like Roman or Tuscan – as many mistakenly think.

Of course I speak it. It’s my mom’s first language, and while my dad is from mainland Italy, I grew up listening to it as my mom speaks it at home, with her sisters and relatives, and we speak it among friends.

Sardinian became one of the official minority languages of Italy, complete with its grammar and lexicon, in 1999 (law 482/1999). It took decades of petitions from the Sardinian speaking community (and the other 11 linguistic minorities of Italy) for the law to be approved.

In this post, I will explain you the importance of the language of Sardinia as a vehicle for the protection of Sardinian culture; I will identify the evolution of Sardinian and talk about the efforts to preserve it; and share a few words you may want to use during your trio to the island.

The Link Between The Language Of Sardinia And The Island’s Culture

Sardinian is, of course, one of the biggest symbols of identity for the island’s people, but it has, throughout the centuries (especially since the Savoy era), acquired an ambivalent status.

On the one hand, locals are very proud of it: many in the villages still speak it at a fluent level and on a daily basis; it’s their first language (such is the case for my mother, for example) and they see it as representative of their persona.

On the other hand, many would demonize the language of Sardinia and depict it as a vulgar, low-class-only language. They did so for such a long time that more and more families stopped speaking it at home. The result was that younger generations are not nearly as fluent in it.

Nevertheless, as of today, older people and generations born until the 1970s and 1980s still know and speak Sardinian. Young adults born in the 1990s often understand it but don’t speak it (this would be “passive knowledge”, by the way). Around 2% of the younger generations have a partial understanding of Sardinian.

Language is one of the many vehicles of cultural identity, and in an effort to preserve and protect the culture and the identity of Sardinia, there have been several campaigns to try and widen the number of active speakers once again – I will tell you more in a bit.

Lets’ now have a look at how Sardinian originated and what makes it a language, rather than a dialect.

Origins And Evolution Of The Language Of Sardinia

At the moment, there are four linguistic areas in Sardinia. Each of them has its own language variant, but only two of these four variants are a proper language and counted as “Sardinian”.

These are:

• Campidano Sardinian – This is the variety we speak at home, in southern Sardinia, in the area that surrounds the Campidano plains;
• The Logudoro Sardinian – This is the “purest” variation of the Sardinian language as it is closer to its ancient roots.

The other two, Sassarese and Gallurese, are a dialect coming from Corsica. This means that they don’t have the same features as Sardinian. Although their origins must have been common, they have evolved differently.

Sardinian has kept a few residues from Nuragic and Punic languages. However, it is a Romance language, which means it got the biggest influence from Latin. It is, in fact, still considered the language that’s closer to Latin still spoken nowadays.

Sardinia has been conquered by several populations throughout the eras, and each of them left their print on the language. Some toponyms and names of animals and plants are related to ancient Nuragic, Punic, or Greek languages.

The grammar is very similar to the Latin one; the spoken inflection is clearly rougher in the Logudorese Sardinian and softer in the Campidanese variant.

This last peculiarity is due to the fact that the Logudoro area, wild and difficult to conquer, historically saw fewer foreigners compared to the Campidano plain. For this reason, its language saw less modifications.

Campidanese on the other hand has had many Spanish and Italian influences and is notoriously easier to understand, according to non-locals.

Sardinia became a Savoy territory in 1720. The new rulers decided that the Island needed to be “cleaned up” and transformed into more of an Italian place. They first tried to sneakily erase the language and traditions, for example by encouraging marriages between locals and people coming from other parts of Italy.

Then they opted for more direct methods such as forbidding the use of Sardinian in schools, churches, and public events. They promoted the idea that Sardinian was the language of farmers and lower, uneducated people. They created a stigma around it that still hasn’t been fully erased.

The almost persecution of the Sardinian language continued, and it came to a point when, during the fascist era, anybody caught speaking Sardinian in public would get a fine.

These strict rules had the purpose to “unite” Italy from a linguistic point of view. They were added to the geopolitical unity and were the main reason the number of speakers decreased. However, at the same time, locals developed the strong sense of identity they still carry nowadays.

The birth and diffusion of radio and especially TV further contributed to the slow disappearance of the language. National TV was obviously all in Italian.

The same was true for books and newspapers: popular and higher culture alike became more and more Italian-centered, and Sardinian only remained as spoken language (the vast majority of locals still can’t write it) to use with family or close friends only.

During the 1970s, some movements started asking for the recognition and safeguard of the many minority languages of Italy. They grew momentum, and, about thirty years later, twelve of these languages became official minority languages of Italy, and with that got protection status.

FURTHER READING: The History Of Sardinia.

Efforts To Preserve The Language Of Sardinia

Since the early 2000s, there have been several projects to preserve the language of Sardinia. The idea is to possibly increase the number of its speakers. Here are the most notable ones.

Teaching Sardinian in local schools

From kindergarten to middle school, many institutes are teaching Sardinian during school hours or as extra-curricular activities.

These activities mainly consist of small theater plays by the students. They also include visiting some structures specializing in Sardinian language and culture, learning songs and poems, and so on. The language is, to put it simply, often taught in the same way the kids learn English, Spanish or French.

TV and Radio shows in Sardinian

The national TV Channel RAITRE devotes a Sunday slot to programs in one of the minority languages of Italy. This obviously includes Sardinian. Other than that there are various local TV channels and Radio channels that run shows entirely in Sardinian. One of them, Atras ìsulas, goes live every Tuesday at 12:25 pm on Rai Radio Uno.

Sardinian art

Music, poems, movies using the language have been a thing for a while now and have a decent number of fans. The most famous Sardinian group is probably Tazenda, but there are many others worth listening to, such as Maria Carta; Istentales; Ratapignata etc.

These artists produce a modern type of music, but many others still perform the traditional type of Sardinian Music such as Tenor Singing. It’s also worth mentioning the more parody-oriented actors Benito Urgu and Jacopo Culling.

Local tours and trips with Sardinian-speaking guides

These are tours where the guides will only speak Sardinian. Visiting some sites nearby while listening to the language has turned out to be quite enjoyable for both children and adults.

Other Linguistic Minorities In Sardinia

There are twelve minority languages in Italy according to Law 482 / 1999 law – eleven other than Sardinian.

One of those languages is Catalan. They speak it in the lovely Alghero. The city still uses this language because during the Catalan domination in the 14th century some anti-Catalan revolution was crudely repressed and ended in a bloodbath. It was followed by the exile of every non-Catalan citizen in Alghero.

Everyone who was allowed to stay had to swear their loyalty to the King. The terror derived from this event led the locals to teach Catalan to their kids for generations onward.

There is yet another minority language in Sardinia. However, this doesn’t have recognition as a minority language yet. This is the language spoken in Carloforte and Calasetta. It originated by a mixture of Genoese dialect and the Arabic variant spoken in the Tunisian island of Tabarka.

Quick Sardinian Phrasebook

Finally, here is a short list of useful Sardinian words and sentences, in case you feel brave and want to try and say a few things to the locals.

One: Unu (oo-noo)
Two: Dusu (doo-soo)
Three: Tresi (treh-zee)
Four: Quattru (qwah-troo)
Five: Cinqui (cheen-qwee)
Six: Sesi (say-zee)
Seven: Setti (seh-tee)
Eight: Ottu (oh-too)
Nine: Noi (naw-ee)
Ten: Dexi (deh-jee)
Eleven: Undixi (oon-dee-jee)
Twelve: Doxi (daw-jee)
Twenty: Binti (been-tee)
Thirty: Trinta (treen-tah)
Forty: Koranta (koh-rahn-tah)
Fifty: Cinquanta (cheen-qwahn-tah)

Please: Po’ prexiei (paw preh-jeh-ee). You may hear it as “po prexeri” too.
Thank you: gratzias (grah-tziahs)
Help me: Axittoriu! (Ah-jee-taw-ryoo)
What time is it?: Itt’e ora è? (eet-tyaw-ray-y)
It hurts here: M’increscidi innoi (Meen kreh-shee-dee een-noey)
My name is…: Mi tzerriu… (mee tzeh-ree-oo)
Nice to meet you: Prexei (preh-jeh-ee)

Final Considerations

For obvious reasons, this is a very simplified version of what the Sardinian language really is, what it means for our culture and identity, and what’s been done to preserve it. Its whole history and situation are way more complex than how I depicted in this post. Still, I hope I managed to underline the basics of this beautiful, unique language!

Pin It For Later!