Campidanese dialect

Campidanese Sardinian (Sardinian: Sardu Campidanesu, Italian: Sardo Campidanese) 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.

Subvariants of the dialect

There are six main sub dialects of Campidanese: Arborense, Cagliaritano (Casteddaiu), Meridionale, Ogliastrino, Guspinese and Villacidrese. All of these dialects are mutually intelligible. Cagliaritano is the dialect of Campidanese 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 Aragonese, 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.

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 digraphs gh (gei-aca) and tz (ti-zeta).

See also

• Sardinian language
• Logudorese Sardinian

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

References