Sardo logudorese

From Freepedia

Logudorian (Logudorian Sardu logudoresu) a standardised dialect of Sardinian, and it is without any doubt the most conservative of all Romance languages.

Latin G and K before /i, e/ were not palatalized in it, in stark contrast from all other Romance languages. Compare Logudorese chentu with Italian cento /'tʃento/, Spanish ciento /θiento/ and French cent /sã/ (/θ/ and /s/ from /ts/).

Location and Distribution

The name refers to the area of Logudoro (literally "golden place") in which it is spoken; it is a central-eastern subregion of the island of Sardinia and mainly defers to Ozieri (Othieri) and Nuoro (N`ugoro) for culture and language, as well as for history. Roughly it is an area of 150 × 100 km, with some 500 000–700 000 inhabitants.

Origins and Features

The language's origins have been investigated by several authors: Eduardo Blasco Ferrer's investigation is one of the most thorough. Studies show the language to be related to Etruscan, Latin, and Spanish (due to Aragon's domain in the island). Some roots, however, still cannot be deciphered, as they might come from the language of the Nuragici people. Also, the mysterious people of Shardana would be expected to have played an important role in the island's evolution, but only mere hypotheses are available on this matter. Comparisons have been made with Sardo campidanese, the other main variant of the Sardinian language, spoken on the southern side of the island, and it seems obvious that the two variants share common roots but have experienced different evolutions, even if Campidanese has clearer relationships with Southern Mediterranean languages.

One root of uncertain etymology is "nur", in "Nuraghe" for example (the main Sardinian ancient monument, from which an era is called) and in many names of places (not only thorps).

The most interesting feature of Logudorian is perhaps that, due to the particular history of the area, it has suffered very little contamination and has changed very slowly, preserving traces of every innovation.

Dialects

Logudorian has a number of dialects (see: Sardinian language), perhaps one per village, with differences that may sometimes be relevant; nevertheless, there appear to be no communication problems amongst these.

Writers

Most of Sardinian poetry and literature are composed in Logudorian. See this list of authors.