Algherese dialect

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. 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 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. 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 : : :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 like most Eastern Catalan dialects. :* Unstressed reduces to like most dialects. ;Consonants : :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 . :* Mutation of syllable final (or ) to lateral , and the possible resulting group + consonant is further simplified to : (Eastern Standard), (Algherese) 'oven'. :* 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: == 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 ==