Gallurese

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Romance language spoken in northeastern Sardinia

title: "Gallurese" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["sardinian-language", "corsican-language", "languages-of-sardinia", "definitely-endangered-languages", "endangered-romance-languages", "endangered-languages-of-europe"] description: "Romance language spoken in northeastern Sardinia" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallurese" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Romance language spoken in northeastern Sardinia ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Gallurese
nativename	gadduresu
pronunciation
ethnicity	Corsicans
Sardinians
states	Italy
region	Gallura (northern Sardinia)
speakers	100,000
date	1999
ref	e19
familycolor	Indo-European
fam2	Italic
fam3	Latino-Faliscan
fam4	Latin
fam5	Romance
fam6	Italo-Western
fam7	Italo-Dalmatian
fam8	Italo-Romance
fam9	Tuscan
fam10	Corsican
minority	Sardinia (Italy)
iso3	sdn
glotto	gall1276
glottorefname	Gallurese Sardinian
lingua	51-AAA-pd
map	Sardinia Language Map.png
mapcaption	Languages and dialects of Sardinia
::

Gallurese (gadduresu) is a Romance dialect of the Italo-Dalmatian family spoken in the region of Gallura, northeastern Sardinia. Gallurese is variously described as a distinct southern dialect of Corsican or transitional language of the dialect continuum between Corsican and Sardinian. "Gallurese International Day" (Ciurrata Internaziunali di la Linga Gadduresa) takes place each year in Palau (Sardinia) with the participation of orators from other areas, including Corsica.

Gallurese is generally considered a southern Corsican dialect, One third of Gallurese vocabulary is also influenced by Logudorese Sardinian, Catalan, and Spanish.

The Sassarese language, spoken in the area of Sassari, shares similar transitional traits between Tuscan, Corsican and Sardinian but, in comparison with Gallurese, is definitely closer to the Logudorese dialects of Sardinian.

History

The most ancient literary sources in Gallurese date back to the early 17th century, mainly as poetry and religious odes. Some late Middle Age fragments suggest that the formation of the language could be dated to the early 15th century. The origin and the development of Gallurese are debated. Max Leopold Wagner and Maurice Le Lannou argued that successive migration waves from Southern Corsica, promoted under the Aragonese rule to repopulate an area devastated by famine and pandemics, were crucial in the formation of a transitional language.

Typical constitutional elements of Gallurese

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Maps_of_Corsican_Dialects.svg" caption="Corsican dialects, including Gallurese."] ::

the plural form of nouns in -i (ghjanni or polti 'doors') are like in Corsican and Italian, and not as in -s like in Sardinian (jannas, portas), French, Spanish, Catalan, etc.
Latin 'll' has become -dd- (like casteddu, coraddu 'castle', 'coral'), the same as in Sardinian, southern Corsican and Sicilian (but castellu, corallu in northern Corsican);
-r- modified to -l- (poltu 'port', while portu in Corsican and Sardinian);
-chj- and -ghj- sounds (ghjesgia 'church', occhji 'eyes'), like in Corsican, while Sardinian is cresia, ogros.
articles lu, la, li, like in ancient Corsican dialects (u, a, i in modern Corsican, su, sa, sos, sas in Sardinian);

Relation to Corsican

Gallurese is classified by some linguists as a dialect of Corsican, and by others as a dialect of Sardinian. In any case, a great deal of similarity exists between Southern Corsican dialects and Gallurese, while there is relatively more distance from the neighbouring Sardinian varieties.

Concluding the debate speech, the Sardinian linguist Mauro Maxia stated as follows:

Predominantly Corsican on a phono-morphological level;
Predominantly Sardinian on a syntactic level;
Predominantly Corsican on a lexical level, with a lot of Sardinian, Catalan, and Spanish words, making up around 1/3 of the total vocabulary.

Gallurese is less Corsican than many scholars make it out to be. What makes Gallurese a different language from Corsican, rather than a Corsican dialect, are many grammatical features, especially related to syntax, and the significant number of Sardinian, Catalan and Spanish loanwords.

It can be therefore claimed that, from a grammatical and lexical point of view, Gallurese is a transitional language between Corsican and Sardinian.|Mauro Maxia, Seminar on the Gallurese language, Palau 2014}}

The Regional Government of Sardinia has recognized Gallurese, along with Sassarese as separate languages, distinct from Sardinian.

Sample of text

An excerpt from a hymn dedicated to the Virgin Mary. ::data[format=table]

Standard Italian	Southern Corsican	Gallurese	Sassarese	Logudorese Sardinian	English translation
{{lang	it		{{lang	co
::

Notes

References

(1997). "The Romance Languages". [[Routledge]].
"Legge Regionale 15 ottobre 1997, n. 26". Regione autonoma della Sardegna – Regione Autònoma de Sardigna.
"Legge Regionale 3 Luglio 2018, n. 22". Regione autonoma della Sardegna – Regione Autònoma de Sardigna.
"Ciurrati Internaziunali di la Linga Gadduresa 2014".
"Ciurrata Internaziunali di la Linga Gadduresa 2015".
"Ciurrata Internaziunali di la Linga Gadduresa 2017".
"Atti Convegno Lingua Gallurese, Palau 2014".
Blasco Ferrer 1984: 180–186, 200
Contini 1987: 1°, 500–503
Dettori 2002
Loporcaro 2009: 159–167
Autonomous Region of Sardinia. (1997-10-15). "Legge Regionale 15 ottobre 1997, n. 26".
"Accademia della lingua gallurese".

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