Editing Sardinian language (section)

==Standardization==
{{See also|Limba Sarda Comuna}}
Until 2001, there was not a unifying orthographic standard available for all the dialects of Sardinian, neither in the literary nor in the oral domain (one designed for the latter does not exist to this day).

After the [[Middle Ages]], where a certain orthographic uniformity can be observed, the only steps to provide the language with a single standard, called "illustrious Sardinian", were undertaken by such writers as Hieronimu Araolla, Ioan Mattheu Garipa and Matteo Madau, who had based their works on the model of medieval Sardinian.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pittau|first=Massimo|title=Grammatica del Sardo Illustre|url=http://www.pittau.it/Sardo/sardoillustre.html |access-date=2021-04-18|language=it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Pittau|first=Massimo|title=Grammatica del sardo illustre: con la messa cristiana in lingua sarda|publisher=Carlo Delfino editore|year=2005|isbn=978-88-7138-372-9|location=Sassari|language=Italian|oclc=238818951}}</ref> However, attempts to formalise and spread this orthography would be hindered by the Iberian and later Savoyard authorities.<ref>"Nel periodo giudicale si osserva una certa unitarietà del modo di scrivere il sardo, ma non-si ha notizia di alcuna regolazione: la sua ufficialità era implicita e data per scontata. Nel XVI e, poi, nel XVIII secolo, nei circoli umanisti e in quelli gesuitici, rispettivamente, si è osservato un tentativo di fornire una regolazione, ma tali tentativi furono non solo ostacolati ma anche repressi dalle autorità coloniali ispaniche e soprattutto sabaude." {{cite book|first1=Paolo |last1=Caretti |first2=Monica |last2=Rosini |first3=Roberto |last3=Louvin |title=Regioni a statuto speciale e tutela della lingua|publisher=G. Giappichelli | location=Turin, Italy |year=2017|pages=75–76 |isbn=978-88-921-6380-5}}</ref>

The dialectally fragmented nature of the language is such that it is popularly contended that Sardinian is divided into two or more groups, which have provided themselves with a series of traditional orthographies already, albeit with many changes over the time. While this belief is not grounded on linguistic considerations, it is however motivated by political and social reasons.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":2" />

In addition to the orthographies commonly referred to as "Logudorese" and "Campidanese", the Nuorese orthography, the Arborense one and even those restricted to individual towns were also developed, sometimes finding common ground with some general rules, such as those required by the Ozieri Award.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://premiozieri.it/index.php/premio-ozieri/antologia-multimediale/regole-ortografiche|title=Regole Ortografiche – Premio Ozieri di Letteratura Sarda|work=premiozieri.it|access-date=18 April 2021|archive-date=25 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725194254/https://premiozieri.it/index.php/premio-ozieri/antologia-multimediale/regole-ortografiche|url-status=dead}}</ref> It is often the case, however, that speakers who are not commonly taught the Sardinian language and are thus literate only in Italian, for lack of a bilingual education, transcribe their local spelling following rules pertaining to the latter rather than the former.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book|last=Corongiu|first=Giuseppe|title=Il sardo: una lingua normale: manuale per chi non ne sa nulla, non conosce la linguistica e vuole saperne di più o cambiare idea|publisher=Condaghes|year=2013|isbn=978-88-7356-214-6|location=Cagliari|oclc=856863696}}</ref>

However, some attempts have been made to introduce a single orthographic form for administrative purposes over the recent decades; said form does not aim to refer to morphology and syntax, which is already fairly homogeneous,<ref>Bolognesi, Roberto (2013). ''Le identità linguistiche dei Sardi'', Condaghes, p. 41 (Le strutture linguistiche comuni del sardo. Sintassi, pp. 42–51; Morfologia, pp. 51–55)</ref> but concerns itself primarily with spelling.

To allow for an effective implementation of the provisions on the language, as per the regional law no. 26/1997 and the national law no. 482/1999, the Sardinian Autonomous Region arranged for a commission of experts to elaborate a standard capable of overcoming the hurdle posed by the dialectal differences and thereby providing a unified writing system. A first proposal (the LSU: ''Limba Sarda Unificada'', published on 28 February 2001) was tabled, which identified a model language of reference (based on the analysis of local varieties of Sardinian and on the selection of the most representative and compatible models) so as to guarantee the necessary characteristics of certainty, coherence, univocity, and supra-local diffusion. The people appointed for the task were [[Eduardo Blasco Ferrer]], Roberto Bolognesi, Diego Salvatore Corraine, Ignazio Delogu, Antonietta Dettori, Giulio Paulis, Massimo Pittau, Tonino Rubattu, Leonardo Sole, Heinz Jürgen Wolf, and Matteo Porru acting as the Committee's secretary. This study, although scientifically valid, has never been adopted at an institutional level: critics argued that it was an "artificial" system "imposed" on Sardinian speakers.<ref>{{cite book|author=Andrea Costale, Giovanni Sistu|year=2016|title=Surrounded by Water: Landscapes, Seascapes and Cityscapes of Sardinia|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|page=119}}</ref>

Nevertheless, the LSU would act as a springboard for a subsequent drafting proposal, this time drawn by a new Committee composed of [[Giulio Angioni]], Roberto Bolognesi, Manlio Brigaglia, [[Michel Contini]], Diego Corraine, Giovanni Lupinu, Anna Oppo, Giulio Paulis, Maria Teresa Pinna Catte and Mario Puddu. The new project continued to be worked on, going by the name of LSC (''[[Limba Sarda Comuna]]''). The new experimental standard proposal, published in 2006, was characterised by taking the ''mesania'' (transitional) varieties as reference,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bolognesi|first=Roberto|date=13 June 2011|title=Finché la barca va…|url=https://bolognesu.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/finche-la-barca-va/|access-date=14 November 2020|website=Bolognesu: in sardu|language=sc}}</ref> and welcoming elements of the spoken language so as to be perceived as a more "natural" mediation; it also ensured that the common orthography would be provided with the characteristics of over-dialectality and supra-municipality, while being open to integrating the phonetic peculiarities of the local variants.<ref>{{Citation|title=Deliberazione n. 20/15 del 9.5.2005: Promozione e valorizzazione della cultura e della lingua della Sardegna. Indagine socio-linguistica sulla lingua sarda.|url=https://www.regione.sardegna.it/documenti/1_45_20050513122932.pdf|publisher=Regione Autonoma della Sardegna}}</ref> Despite this, there was some criticism for this norm as well, both by those who proposed amendments to improve it,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Frias|first=Xavier|title=Proposte di Miglioramento dello Standard Sardo L.S.C.|url=https://www.academia.edu/5336226|website=Academia|language=it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Bolognesi|first=Roberto|date=23 June 2014|title=Sì alla lingua sarda standard, ma con questi emendamenti|url=https://www.vitobiolchini.it/2014/06/23/si-alla-lingua-sarda-standard-ma-con-questi-emendamenti-un-intervento-di-roberto-bolognesi/|access-date=14 November 2020|language=it-IT}}</ref> and by those who preferred to insist with the idea of dividing Sardinian into two macro-variants with their own separate orthographies.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2009|title=Arrègulas po ortografia, fonètica, morfologia e fueddàriu de sa Norma Campidanesa de sa Lìngua Sarda|url=http://www.provincia.cagliari.it/ProvinciaCa/resources/cms/documents/arregulas.pdf|language=sc, it|access-date=17 December 2017|archive-date=15 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815074046/http://www.provincia.cagliari.it/ProvinciaCa/resources/cms/documents/arregulas.pdf}}</ref>

The Sardinian Regional Government, with the resolution of the Regional Council n. 16/14 of 18 April 2006 "Limba Sarda Comuna. Adoption of the reference standards of an experimental nature for the written language output of the Regional Administration", has experimentally adopted the LSC as the official orthography for the acts and documents issued by the Region of Sardinia (even if, as per Article 8 of the national Law no. 482/99, only the text written in Italian has legal value), giving citizens the right to write to the Public Administration in their own variety and establishing the regional language desk ''Ufitziu de sa Limba Sarda''. The resolution does not aim to impose the guide and further notes that it is "open to integrations" and that "all solutions are of equal linguistic value".

In the following years, the Region has abided by the LSC standard in the translation of many documents and resolutions and in many other areas. In addition, the LSC standard has been adopted on a voluntary basis by many other institutions, schools and media, often in a complementary manner with orthographic norms closer to the local spelling. Regarding these uses, a percentage estimate was made, considering only the projects financed or co-financed by the Region for the diffusion of the Sardinian language in the municipal and supra-municipal language offices, for the teaching in schools and the media from 2007 to 2013.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |title=Monitoraggio sull'utilizzo sperimentale della Limba Sarda Comuna 2007–2013 |website=SardegnaCultura |url=http://www.sardegnacultura.it/documenti/7_91_20140418114135.pdf |language=it |access-date=14 November 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924100140/http://www.sardegnacultura.it/documenti/7_91_20140418114135.pdf }}</ref>

The monitoring, by the Sardinian Language and Culture Service of the Department of Public Education, was published on the website of the Sardinian Autonomous Region in April 2014. Regarding the school projects financed in 2013, for example, it appears that there was a clear preference, in schools, for the use of the LSC orthographic standard together with a local spelling (51%), compared to the exclusive use of the LSC (11%) or the exclusive use of a local spelling (33%).<ref name=":8" />

On the other hand, regarding the editorial projects in Sardinian language in the regional media, financed by the Region in 2012, we find a greater presence of the LSC (which could derive from a reward of 2 points in the formation of the rankings to take funding, a reward that was not present in the notice for schools). According to those data, it appears that 35% of textual production in media projects was in LSC, 35% in LSC and in local spellings and 25% in local spellings only.<ref name=":8" />

The local language offices, co-financed by the Regional Government, in 2012 used LSC in 50% of their writing, LSC together with local spelling for 9% and local spellings for 41%.<ref name=":8" />

A recent research on the use of the LSC orthography in schools, carried out in the municipality of [[Orosei]], showed that the students of the local middle school had no problem using that standard despite the fact that the Sardinian they spoke was partly different. No pupil rejected it or considered it "artificial", a thing that proved its validity as a didactic tool. The results were first presented in 2016 and published in an article in 2021.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gobbo|first1=Federico|last2=Vardeu|first2=Laura|year=2021|title=Which Sardinian for education?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fLgREAAAQBAJ&q=sardinian+for+education%3F&pg=PA221|journal=Contested Languages: The Hidden Multilingualism of Europe|series=Studies in World Language Problems |volume=8|page=221|doi=10.1075/wlp.8.13gob|hdl=11245.1/47a7b22b-348a-4bfd-a0f9-180a78970858 |isbn=978-90-272-0804-0 |s2cid=234252106|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first1=Federico|last1=Gobbo|last2=Vardeu|first2=Laura|date=12 May 2016|title=Which Sardinian for education?|url=https://www.slideshare.net/goberiko/which-sardinian-for-education|website=Slideshare}}</ref>