Editing Logudorese Sardinian (section)

==Origins and features==
The origins of Sardinian have been investigated by [[Eduardo Blasco Ferrer]] and others. The language derives from [[Latin]] and a pre-Latin, [[Paleo-Sardinian language|Paleo-Sardinian]] ([[Nuragic civilization|Nuragic]]) substratum, but has been influenced by [[Catalan language|Catalan]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]] due to the dominion of the [[Crown of Aragon]] and later the [[Spanish Empire]] over the island. Logudorese is the northern macro-dialect of the Sardinian language, the southern macro-dialect being [[Campidanese language|Campidanese]], spoken in the southern half of the island. The two dialects share a clear common origin and history, but have experienced somewhat different developments.

Though the language is typically Romance, some words are not of Latin origin, and are of uncertain etymology. One such is "nura", found in "[[nuraghe]]", the main form of pre-Roman building, hence the term for the pre-Roman era as the Nuragic Period. Various place names similarly have roots that defy analysis.

Logudorese Sardinian changed only very slowly from [[Vulgar Latin]] compared to other Romance [[lect]]s, showing certain notably [[Conservative and innovative language|conservative]] phonological features relative to other Romance languages.

For example, linguist [[Mario Pei]] in a 1949 paper measured Logudorese Sardinian's accent vocalization as having diverged less from Vulgar Latin than had French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, or Old Provençal. The paper emphasized, however, that it represented only "a very elementary, incomplete and tentative demonstration" of how statistical methods could measure linguistic change, assigned "frankly arbitrary" point values to various types of stressed-vowel change, and did not compare languages in the sample with respect to any characteristics other than stressed vowels, among other caveats.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pei|first1=Mario|title=Story of Language|isbn=03-9700-400-1}}</ref>

Due to its conservatism, as well as the preservation of many works of traditional literature from the 15th century onwards, Logudorese is often considered to be the most prestigious variety of Sardinian.