The dialect has its roots in 1372, when Catalan-speaking colonists were allowed to repopulate Alghero and expel thenative population, after several revolts.[3] Catalan was replaced as the official language bySpanish, then byItalian in the mid-18th century. Today the language has semi-official recognition alongside Italian.
Studies give an approximate number of 20,000 to 30,000 native speakers of the language worldwide. In communities where Algherese is spoken,Italian andLogudoreseSardinian are often used as well.[1]
Algherese is a regional dialect spoken by anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 individuals, most of whom reside in the town ofAlghero, located in the northwest ofSardinia.[4][1] The language, though distinct, is initially derived from, and thus considered a variant of, theCatalan language.[1] The origins of the language can be traced back to 1372, when Catalan invaders repopulated the city ofAlghero after exiling the indigenous populations inSardinia.[1] Despite the city's increasingItalianisation, the use of this Catalan dialect remained widespread until at least the 1970s.[5]
As a result of the city's extensive Italianisation,Italian is now the predominant language in Alghero,[6] being estimated by a 2004 survey to be first language of close to 60% of those surveyed.[7][6] The use of the dialect in schools and media, to name a few, remains sparse. Teaching of the dialect in school is also rare. However, in an attempt to reverse the trend, the Regional Council of Sardinia officially recognised "Algherese Catalan" as a separate language in 1997, in order to promote its use and circulation.[6] According to the 2004 survey, Algherese was used by approximately 14% of the population for daily interactions.[8] The dialect is mostly a local language, often used to supplementItalian and/orSardinian in relatively small circles.[9]
The following figures were obtained from theEnquesta d'usos lingüístics a l'Alguer ("Survey of linguistic usage in Alghero", EULAL) of 2004[10] and theEls usos lingüístics a l'Alguer of 2015 (EULA 2015),[11] both of which were studies conducted in the town of Alghero about the general use of Algherese in several media.
In 1999, Catalan and Sardinian were among the twelve minority languages officially recognised as Italy's "historical linguistic minorities" by the Italian State under Law No. 482/1999.[12] Prior to this, the Regional Council of Sardinia had passed the Regional Law No. 26 of 15 October 1997 which, aside from promoting the equality in dignity of the Sardinian language with the Italian language throughout the island, provided that the other languages of smaller scope be afforded the same treatment as the aforementioned languages, among which Catalan is cited, in the city of Alghero.[13] The city council, for its part, promulgated its protection and standardisation in its city statute.[14]
The close-mid and mid-close vowels/ɛ,e/ and/ɔ,o/ merge intomid vowels ([e̞] and[o̞], here transcribed without diacritics) in Modern Alguerese.
Coalescing of unstressed vowels/a/, (/ɛ/) and/e/ to [ä ~ɐ] (transcribed as/a/) unlike the rest ofEastern Catalan, which uses[ə] or even[ɐ] (transcribed as /ə/):aura ('aura')[ˈawɾə] (Eastern Standard),[ˈawɾa] (Algherese).
Unstressed/o/ (/ɔ,o/) reduces to[u] like most Eastern Catalan dialects.
Algherese preserves/v/ as a distinct phoneme from/b/, likeBalearic and most ofValencian:viu ('he/she lives')[viw] (Algherese).
Mutation of intervocalic/d/ and/l/ to[ɾ]:Barceloneta[bəɾsəluˈnɛtə] (Eastern Standard),[balsaɾuˈneta] (Algherese) 'Barcelonette'; andvila ('town') andvida ('life') are homophones in Algherese[ˈviɾa].
Mutation of syllable final/r/ (or[ɾ]) to lateral[l], and the possible resulting group/r/ +consonant is further simplified to[l]:forn[ˈfoɾn] (Eastern Standard),[ˈfol] (Algherese) 'oven'.
Depalatalisation of syllable final sonorants: lateral/ʎ/ to[l], nasal/ɲ/ to[n]:ball[ˈbaʎ] (Eastern Standard),[ˈbal] (Algherese) 'dance';any[ˈaɲ] (Eastern Standard),[ˈan] (Algherese) 'year'.
The simple past is replaced by the present perfect (present ofhaver "to have" + past participle), possibly by Italian influence.
The imperfect past preserves etymological -v- in all conjugations: 1st -ava, 2nd -iva, 3rd -iva unlike modern Eastern and Western Standard Catalan, which use 1st -ava, 2nd -ia, 3rd -ia, a feature shared with theRibagorçan dialect.
The following abbreviations are used: m. (masculine), f. (feminine), pl. (plural), f. pl. (feminine plural), inf. (informal), f. (formal).The following phrases were gathered from a Catalan translation set, but the common phrases in Algherese are similar:[16]
ThePremi Rafael Sari, organised by theObra Cultural de l'Alguer,[17] is a series of prizes awarded in September each year to the best literary works of poetry and prose written in Algherese Catalan.
Notable poets includeRafael Sari,Pasquale Scanu andMaria Chessa Lai. There is also a long tradition of writing and performing songs in Algherese Catalan and thePremi Pino Piras[18] is awarded for new songs written in the language. Notable singer-songwriters includePino Piras andFranca Masu.
^Salminen, Tapani (2007). "Europe and North Asia". In Moseley, Christopher (ed.).Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages. London: Routledge. p. 235.ISBN978-0-7007-1197-0.
^Generalitat de Catalunya, Secretaria de Política Lingüística (2004).Enquesta d'usos lingüístics a l'Alguer [Survey of linguistic usage in Alghero](PDF) (Report) (in Catalan). Generalitat de Catalunya, Secretaria de Política Lingüística.
^Law No. 482 of 15 December 1999. "Rules on the protection of historical linguistic minorities". Article 2. Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 297. 20 December 1999
Marongiu, Antonietta Maria (2007).Language Maintenance and Shift in Sardinia: A Case Study of Sardinian and Italian in Cagliari (PhD thesis). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.hdl:2142/86151.
Corbera Pou, Jaume (2000).Caracterització del lèxic alguerès. Palma (Balears): Universitat de les Illes Balears.
Scala, Luca (2003).Català de l'Alguer. Criteris de llengua escrita (1st ed.). Barcelona: Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat.ISBN978-84-8415-463-1.
Tufi, Stefania (2013). "Language Ideology and Language Maintenance: The Case of Sardinia".International Journal of the Sociology of Language (219):145–160.doi:10.1515/ijsl-2013-0009.S2CID143748495.
