Sardinian language

Sardinian (in its own language: sardu, limba sarda) is a Romance language spoken in the greatest part of the island of Sardinia (Italy), excepting the far north (where Corsican is spoken).

This minority language is protected by a regional law of Sardinia and by a state law of Italy, but it remains dominated by Italian, the state language.

Sardinian is often considered as the most conservative Romance language since it has kept some features very similar to Latin. For instance, in some varieties of Sardinian, c and g still keep a velar pronunciation, [k] and [g], before front vowels e and i, as in Classical Latin: Latin centum [ˈkentum] “hundred” > Sardinian chentu [ˈkentu]. All other Romance languages have adopted palatalized or fricative pronunciations in these cases (as in Italian cento [ˈtʃɛnto], Spanish ciento [ˈθjento], Portuguese cento [ˈsẽtu], French cent [sɑ̃], Occitan and Catalan cent [ˈsen]).