Algherese or Alguerese (autonym: ) 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. It remained the only language of the city until 1495, when the Edict of Tarazona, which allowed speakers of other languages to return to the city. Despite the city's increasing Italianisation since Sardinia was handed over to the House of Savoy in 1720, 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 language in schools and media, to name a few, remains sparse. Teaching of the language 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 status20042015Oral Comprehension90.1% (Sardinian oral comprehension: 69.7%)88.2%Oral Expression61.3% (Sardinian oral expression: 33.9%)50.5%Written Comprehension46.6% (Sardinian written comprehension: 35.4%)35.6%Written Expression13.6% (Sardinian written expression: 15.4%)8.1%First Language22.4% (59.2% Italian)17.5%Habitual Language13.9%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.Law No. 482 of 15 December 1999. "Rules on the protection of historical linguistic minorities". Article 2. Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 297. 20 December 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.Regional Law No. 26 of 15 October 1997. "Promozione e valorizzazione della culture e della lingua della Sardegna" . Articles 2.1 and 2.4 . Consiglio Regionale della Sardegna The city council, for its part, promulgated its protection and standardisation in its city statute.Communal Statute . Article 9. City of Alghero.
Phonology
Vowels {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |+ ! ! Front ! Back |- style="text-align: center;" ! Close
|- style="text-align: center;" ! Close-mid
|- style="text-align: center;" ! Open-mid
|- style="text-align: center;" ! Open | colspan="2" | |} {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" |+ ! ! Front ! Back |- style="text-align: center;" ! Close
|- style="text-align: center;" ! Mid
|- style="text-align: center;" ! Open | colspan="2" |
Notes: The close-mid and mid-close vowels and merge into mid vowels ( and , here transcribed without diacritics) in Modern Algherese. Coalescing of unstressed vowels , and to [ ~ ] (generally transcribed with ), similar to the rest of Eastern Catalan, which uses or even : aura or (Eastern Standard), (Algherese) 'aura'. Unstressed reduces to similar to most Eastern Catalan dialects. Unstressed reduces to similar to most dialects.
Consonants
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |+ Consonants of Algherese ! colspan=2 | ! Labial ! Dental/Alveolar ! Palatal ! Velar |- ! colspan=2 | Nasal
| () |- ! rowspan=2 | Plosive ! voiceless
| colspan=2 | |- ! voiced
| colspan=2 | |- ! rowspan=2 | Affricate ! voiceless
! voiced
! rowspan=2 | Fricative ! voiceless
! voiced
! rowspan=2 | Approximant ! median
! lateral
! rowspan="2" | Rhotics ! trill | | rowspan="2" |
! tap
Notes: Algherese preserves as a distinct phoneme from , like Balearic and most of Valencian: ('he/she lives') (Algherese). Mutation of intervocalic and to : or (Eastern Standard), (Algherese) 'Barcelonette'; and ('town') and ('life') are homophones in Algherese . This phenomenon is known as rhotacism. Mutation of syllable final (or ) to lateral , and the possible resulting group + consonant is further simplified to : (Eastern Standard), (Algherese) 'oven'. This phenomenon is known as lambdacism or lateralization. Depalatalisation of syllable final sonorants: lateral to , nasal to : (Eastern Standard), (Algherese) 'dance'; (Eastern Standard), (Algherese) 'year'. A cacuminal d is found in Sardinian loanwords (e.g., porqueddu , Cat. 'piglet').
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
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
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 Central Catalan Northern Catalan Valencian
Notes
References
Sources
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.