Gallurese is generally considered asouthern Corsican dialect,[2] sharing close resemblance in morphology and vocabulary with the dialects ofSartene andPorto-Vecchio on Corsica, whereas its phonology and syntax are similar to those of Sardinian.[8] One third of Gallurese vocabulary is also influenced byLogudorese Sardinian,Catalan, andSpanish.[8]
TheSassarese language, spoken in the area ofSassari, shares similar transitional traits betweenTuscan, Corsican and Sardinian but, in comparison with Gallurese, is definitely closer to the Logudorese dialects of Sardinian.
The most ancient literary sources in Gallurese date back to the early 17th century, mainly as poetry and religious odes. Some late Middle Age fragments suggest that the formation of the language could be dated to the early 15th century. The origin and the development of Gallurese are debated.Max Leopold Wagner andMaurice Le Lannou argued that successive migration waves from SouthernCorsica, promoted under theAragonese rule to repopulate an area devastated by famine and pandemics, were crucial in the formation of a transitional language.
the plural form of nouns in-i (ghjanni orpolti 'doors') are like in Corsican and Italian, and not as in-s like in Sardinian (jannas,portas), French, Spanish, Catalan, etc.
Latin 'll' has become-dd- (likecasteddu, coraddu 'castle', 'coral'), the same as in Sardinian, southern Corsican and Sicilian (butcastellu, corallu in northern Corsican);
-r- modified to-l- (poltu 'port', whileportu in Corsican and Sardinian);
-chj- and-ghj- sounds (ghjesgia 'church',occhji 'eyes'), like in Corsican, while Sardinian iscresia, ogros.
articleslu,la,li, like in ancient Corsican dialects (u,a,i in modern Corsican,su,sa,sos,sas in Sardinian);
Gallurese is classified by some linguists as a dialect of Corsican,[9][10][11] and by others as a dialect of Sardinian.[12] In any case, a great deal of similarity exists betweenSouthern Corsican dialects and Gallurese, while there is relatively more distance from the neighbouringSardinian varieties.
Concluding the debate speech, the Sardinian linguist Mauro Maxia stated as follows:
From a historical and geographic point of view, Gallurese might be classed either under Corsican or Sardinian, in light of its presence specific to Sardinia for the last six-seven centuries. From a linguistic point of view, Gallurese might be defined as:
Predominantly Corsican on a phono-morphological level;
Predominantly Sardinian on a syntactic level;
Predominantly Corsican on a lexical level, with a lot of Sardinian, Catalan, and Spanish words, making up around 1/3 of the total vocabulary.
Gallurese is less Corsican than many scholars make it out to be. What makes Gallurese a different language from Corsican, rather than a Corsican dialect, are many grammatical features, especially related to syntax, and the significant number of Sardinian, Catalan and Spanish loanwords.
It can be therefore claimed that, from a grammatical and lexical point of view, Gallurese is a transitional language between Corsican and Sardinian.
— Mauro Maxia, Seminar on the Gallurese language, Palau 2014
^The grouping of Gallurese is disputed, although it is most commonly considered a dialect of Corsican[2] that is also similar or heavily influenced bySardinian,Tuscan orstandard Italian.
^abHarris, Martin; Vincent, Nigel (1997).The Romance Languages. London, England:Routledge. p. 314.ISBN0-415-16417-6.Also the dialects of Gallura and Sassari (spoken along the northern coast) can be classified as varieties of Italian, though they show some affinities with Sardinian. Gallurese is a variety of Southern Corsican whereas Sassarese is a hybrid dialect which evolved during the Middle Ages as a result of the close contact between the native Sardinian population of Sassari and the maritime powers of Pisa and Genoa.
^Venetian is either grouped with the rest of the Italo-Dalmatian or the Gallo-Italic languages, depending on the linguist, but the major consensus among linguists is that in the dialectal landscape of northern Italy, Veneto dialects are clearly distinguished from Gallo-Italic dialects.
