Sardo campidanese
Encyclopedia
Campidanese Sardinian is a standardised variety
of Sardinian
primarily spoken in the Province of Cagliari
. Traditionally, the name Campidano
refers to the fertile area located around the towns of Guspini
and Villacidro
. Campidanese and its variants of the dialect can be found across the entire Provincia di Cagliari and not just the Province of Medio Campidano
area. Campidanese also extends into parts of Provincia di Nuoro
, notably the Ogliastra area. However, it is at this point that the language merges into Logudorese.
There are approximately 1 million speakers of Campidanese in Sardinia. Outside of the island, the language also exists in Northern Italy
due to the migration that took place after World War II
. Many Sardinians moved to Turin
, Milan
and Genoa
for economic reasons. Outside of Italy
, large Sardinian populations can be found in Australia
and Germany
.
Campidanese Sardinian is intelligible to those from the central to southern part of Sardinia, where Logudorese Sardinian is spoken, and partly unintelligible to those from the extreme north of the island, where Corsican-Sardinian dialects are spoken. Italian speakers can hardly understand Campidanese: Sardinian is not a dialect of Italian
as is often noted.
, Catalan
and Spanish
. The last hundred years have also seen an increase in Italian borrowed words. This is particularly evident with technological words of which there is no Campidanesu equivalent. However, many of the loan words from Italian have been changed phonetically so that they sound Sardinian. Italian loan words that end in an o, are often substituted with the letter u. The strong Campidanesu accent also changes the sound of the word.
s gh (gei-aca) and tz (ti-zeta).
Variety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
of Sardinian
Sardinian language
Sardinian is a Romance language spoken and written on most of the island of Sardinia . It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum....
primarily spoken in the Province of Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
. Traditionally, the name Campidano
Campidano
Campidano is a plain located in the south-western area of Sardinia, Italy, covering approximately 100 kilometres between Cagliari and Oristano....
refers to the fertile area located around the towns of Guspini
Guspini
Guspini is a town and comune of about 13,000 inhabitants in west Sardinia , in the province of Medio Campidano. It is 62 km away from the capital Cagliari and 14.6 km from the railway station at San Gavino Monreale....
and Villacidro
Villacidro
Villacidro is a town and comune in the province of Medio Campidano, Sardinia, Italy. From 2005 it is the administrative seat, with Sanluri, of this new province.-Geography:...
. Campidanese and its variants of the dialect can be found across the entire Provincia di Cagliari and not just the Province of Medio Campidano
Province of Medio Campidano
Medio Campidano is a province in the autonomous region of Sardinia, Italy.It was created in 2005 from part of the province of Cagliari. It contains 28 communities, the largest of which by population are :-Politics:...
area. Campidanese also extends into parts of Provincia di Nuoro
Nuoro
Nuoro is a city and comune in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte Ortobene. It is the capital of the Province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,443 Nuoro is a city and comune (municipality) in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte...
, notably the Ogliastra area. However, it is at this point that the language merges into Logudorese.
There are approximately 1 million speakers of Campidanese in Sardinia. Outside of the island, the language also exists in Northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
due to the migration that took place after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Many Sardinians moved to Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
and Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
for economic reasons. Outside of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, large Sardinian populations can be found in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Campidanese Sardinian is intelligible to those from the central to southern part of Sardinia, where Logudorese Sardinian is spoken, and partly unintelligible to those from the extreme north of the island, where Corsican-Sardinian dialects are spoken. Italian speakers can hardly understand Campidanese: Sardinian is not a dialect of Italian
Italian dialects
Dialects of Italian are regional varieties of the Italian language, more commonly and more accurately referred to as Regional Italian. The dialects have features, most notably phonological and lexical, percolating from the underlying substrate languages...
as is often noted.
Dialects
There are six main sub dialects of Campidanesu: Arborense, Cagliaritano (Casteddaiu), Meridionale, Ogliastrino, Guspinese and Villacidrese. All of these dialects are mutually intelligible. Cagliaritano is the dialect of Campidanesu spoken in the capital Cagliari; however, it extends to most of the neighbouring towns and villages within a 15 km radius of Cagliari.Vocabulary
Campidanesu has some borrowed words from AragoneseAragonese language
Aragonese is a Romance language now spoken in a number of local varieties by between 10,000 and 30,000 people over the valleys of the Aragón River, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza in Aragon, Spain...
, Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. The last hundred years have also seen an increase in Italian borrowed words. This is particularly evident with technological words of which there is no Campidanesu equivalent. However, many of the loan words from Italian have been changed phonetically so that they sound Sardinian. Italian loan words that end in an o, are often substituted with the letter u. The strong Campidanesu accent also changes the sound of the word.
Writing system
Campidanesu is written using the Latin alphabet. Like Italian, Campidanesu does not use w and y (y is used in northern Sardinian dialects). However, in contrast with Italian, Campidanesu uses j and k. Campidanesu also uses the special letter Ç (ci truncada), and the digraphDigraph (orthography)
A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
s gh (gei-aca) and tz (ti-zeta).
External links
- Ditzionàriu online - Dizionario della lingua sarda
- Grammatica sardo-campidanese
- La lingua sarda : Storia, spirito e forma, Max Leopold Wagner, a cura di Giulio Paulis, Nuoro 1997
- Accademia De Sa Lingua Sarda Campidanesa - Onlus