Algherese dialect

Algherese or Alguerese (autonym: )Template:Efn is the variety of Catalan spoken in the city of Alghero ( in Catalan), in the northwest of Sardinia, Italy.

The dialect has its roots in 1372, when Catalan-speaking colonists were allowed to repopulate Alghero and expel the native population, after several revolts. Catalan was replaced as the official language by Spanish, then by Italian 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 and Logudorese Sardinian are often used as well.

History

Algherese is a regional dialect spoken by anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 individuals, most of whom reside in the town of Alghero, located in the northwest of Sardinia. The language, though distinct, is initially derived from, and thus considered a variant of, the Catalan language. The origins of the language can be traced back to 1372, when Catalan invaders repopulated the city of Alghero after exiling the indigenous populations in Sardinia. Despite the city's increasing Italianisation, the use of this Catalan dialect remained widespread until at least the 1970s.

Present status

As a result of the city's extensive Italianisation, Italian is now the predominant language in Alghero, being estimated by a 2004 survey to be first language of close to 60% of those surveyed. 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. According to the 2004 survey, Algherese was used by approximately 14% of the population for daily interactions. The dialect is mostly a local language, often used to supplement Italian and/or Sardinian in relatively small circles.

The following figures were obtained from the Enquesta d'usos lingüístics a l'Alguer ("Survey of linguistic usage in Alghero", EULAL) of 2004 and the Els usos lingüístics a l'Alguer of 2015 (EULA 2015), both of which were studies conducted in the town of Alghero about the general use of Algherese in several media.

Language status

	2004	2015
Oral Comprehension	90.1% (Sardinian oral comprehension: 69.7%)	88.2%
Oral Expression	61.3% (Sardinian oral expression: 33.9%)	50.5%
Written Comprehension	46.6% (Sardinian written comprehension: 35.4%)	35.6%
Written Expression	13.6% (Sardinian written expression: 15.4%)	8.1%
First Language	22.4% (59.2% Italian)	17.5%
Habitual Language	13.9%	9.1%

Official recognition

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. 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. The city council, for its part, promulgated its protection and standardisation in its city statute.

Phonology

Vowels

Template:No wrap

	Front	Back
Close	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Close-mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Open-mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Open	Template:IPA link

Template:No wrap

	Front	Back
Close	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Open	Template:IPA link

Notes:

• The close-mid and mid-close vowels and merge into mid vowels (Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink, here transcribed without diacritics) in Modern Alguerese.
• Coalescing of unstressed vowels , () and to [[[:Template:IPAlink]] ~ Template:IPAlink] (transcribed as ) unlike the rest of Eastern Catalan, which uses Template:IPAblink or even Template:IPAblink (transcribed as ): aura ('aura') (Eastern Standard), (Algherese).
• Unstressed () reduces to like most Eastern Catalan dialects.

Consonants

Consonants of Algherese

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)
Plosive	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Affricate	voiceless		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Rhotics	trill		Template:IPA link
	tap
Approximant	central		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	lateral		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link

Notes:

• Algherese preserves as a distinct phoneme from , like Balearic and most of Valencian: viu ('he/she lives') (Algherese).
• Mutation of intervocalic and to Template:IPAblink: Barceloneta (Eastern Standard), (Algherese) 'Barcelonette'; and vila ('town') and vida ('life') are homophones in Algherese .
• Mutation of syllable final (or ) to lateral Template:IPAblink, and the possible resulting group + consonant is further simplified to Template:IPAblink: forn (Eastern Standard), (Algherese) 'oven'.
• Depalatalisation of syllable final sonorants: lateral to Template:IPAblink, nasal to Template:IPAblink: ball (Eastern Standard), (Algherese) 'dance'; any (Eastern Standard), (Algherese) 'year'.

Morphology

• The simple past is replaced by the present perfect (present of haver "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 the Ribagorçan dialect.
• Large-scale lexical borrowing and calques from Sardinian, Spanish and Italian: nearly half of the vocabulary is not from Catalan.

Differences from Standard Catalan

The Algherese variant is Eastern Catalan, but it has many differences from Central Catalan, with some of the most obvious ones as follows:

Vocabulary

File:Monument langue Alghero.jpg

Monument to the unitat de la llengua in Alghero

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:

English	Catalan	Algherese
Welcome	Benvingut (m.) Benvinguda (f.) Benvinguts (pl.) Benvingudes (f. pl.)	Benvingut (m.) Benvinguda (f.) Benvinguts (pl.) Benvingudes (f. pl.)
Hello	Hola	Txau
My name is ...	Em dic ...	Me aquirr ... Me dic ...
Where are you from?	D'on ets? (inf.) D'on és vostè? (f.)	De ont ses? (inf.) De ont és vostè? (f.)
Good morning	Bon dia	Bon dia

Literature

File:Poster for Premi Rafael Sari 2008.jpg

Poster for the Premi Rafael Sari 2008

The Premi Rafael Sari, organised by the Obra Cultural de l'Alguer, 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 include Rafael Sari, Pasquale Scanu and Maria Chessa Lai. There is also a long tradition of writing and performing songs in Algherese Catalan and the Premi Pino Piras is awarded for new songs written in the language. Notable singer-songwriters include Pino Piras and Franca Masu.

In 2015 Carla Valentino published an Algherese translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.

See also

• Catalan dialects and varieties
  • Balearic
  • Valencian
  • Central Catalan
  • Northern Catalan

External links

• Diccionari d'alguerés
• Associació per a la Salvaguarda del Patrimoni Historico-cultural de l'Alguer
• Interactive Atlas of Romance Intonation, Catalan Alguerese
• Italy's Last Bastion of Catalan Languages Struggles to Keep It Alive, New York Times, 21 November 2016.