Editing Sardinian language (section)

===Iberian period – Catalan and Castilian influence===
{{See also|History of Sardinia#Kingdom of Sardinia in the Crown of Aragon and in the Spanish Empire|l1=Kingdom of Sardinia in the Crown of Aragon and in the Spanish Empire}}
The 1297 [[feoffment]] of Sardinia by [[Pope Boniface VIII]] led to the creation of the [[Kingdom of Sardinia]]: that is, of a state which, although lacking in {{Lang|la|summa potestas}}, entered by right as a member in [[personal union]] within the broader Mediterranean structure of the [[Crown of Aragon]], a [[composite state]]. Thus began a long war between the latter and, to the cry of {{lang|sc|Helis, Helis}}, from 1353, the previously allied [[Judicate of Arborea]], in which the Sardinian language was to play the role of an ethnic marker.<ref>Francesco Cesare Casula states that "those who did not speak or understand Sardinian, for fear that they were Aragonese, were killed", reporting the case of two Sicilian jugglers who, finding themselves in Bosa at the time, were attacked because they were "believed to be Iberian because of their incomprehensible language". {{cite book|author=Francesco Cesare Casula|title=Breve storia della scrittura in Sardegna. La "documentaria" nell'epoca aragonese|publisher=Editrice Democratica Sarda|year=1978|pages=56–57|place=Cagliari}}</ref>

The war had, among its motives, a never dormant and ancient Arborean political design to establish "a great island nation-state, wholly indigenous" which was assisted by the massive participation of the rest of the Sardinians, i.e. those not residing within the jurisdiction of Arborea ({{Lang|la|Sardus de foras}}),<ref>{{cite book|author=Francesco Cesare Casula|chapter=Le rivolte antiaragonesi nella Sardegna regnicola, 5|title=Il Regno di Sardegna|date=24 November 2012 |publisher=Logus|isbn=978-88-98062-10-2}}</ref> as well as a widespread impatience with the foreign importation of a feudal regime, specifically "{{lang|la|more Italie}}" and "{{lang|la|Cathalonie}}", which threatened the survival of deep-rooted indigenous institutions and, far from ensuring the return of the island to a unitary regime, had only introduced there "{{Lang|la|tot reges quot sunt ville}}" ({{Gloss|as many petty rulers as there are villages}}),<ref>{{cite book|author=Francesco Cesare Casula|chapter=Guerre fra l'Arborea e l'Aragona, 2|title=Il Regno di Sardegna|date=24 November 2012 |publisher=Logus|isbn=978-88-98062-10-2}}</ref> whereas instead "{{Lang|sc|Sardi unum regem se habuisse credebant}}" ({{Gloss|the Sardinians believed they had one single king}}).

The conflict between the two sovereign and warring parties, during which the Aragonese possessions making up the Kingdom of Sardinia were first administratively split into two separate "halves" ({{lang|la|capita}}) by [[Peter IV the Ceremonious]] in 1355, ended after sixty-seven years with the Iberian [[Battle of Sanluri|victory at Sanluri]] in 1409 and the renunciation of any succession right signed by [[William II of Narbonne]] in 1420. This event marked the definitive end of Sardinian independence, whose historical relevance for the island, likened by Francesco C. Casula to "the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire|end of Aztec Mexico]]", should be considered "neither triumph nor defeat, but the painful birth of today's Sardinia".<ref>{{cite book |author=Casula |first=Francesco Cesare |title=Profilo storico della Sardegna catalano-aragonese |publisher=Edizioni della Torre |year=1982 |location=Cagliari |page=128 |author-link=Francesco Cesare Casula}}</ref>

Any outbreak of anti-Aragonese rebellion, such as the revolt of [[Alghero]] in 1353, that of [[Uras, Sardinia|Uras]] in 1470 and finally that of [[Macomer]] in 1478, celebrated in {{lang|la|De bello et interitu marchionis Oristanei}},<ref>{{Cite book|author=Maria Teresa Laneri|title=Proto Arca Sardo: De bello et interitu marchionis Oristanei|location=Cagliari|publisher=CUEC|year=2003}}</ref> were and would have been systematically neutralised. From that moment, "{{lang|es|quedó de todo punto Sardeña por el rey}}".<ref>{{cite book|author=Max Leopold Wagner|title=La lingua sarda. Storia, spirito e forma|place=Nuoro|publisher=Ilisso|year=1997|pages=68–69}}</ref>

Casula believes that the Aragonese winners from the brutal conflict would then move on to destroy the pre-existing documentary production of the still living Sardinian Judicate, which was predominantly written in Sardinian language along with other ones the chancery was engaged with, leaving behind their trail only "a few stones" and, overall, a "small group of documents",<ref>{{cite book|author=Francesco Cesare Casula|title=Breve storia della scrittura in Sardegna. La "documentaria" nell'epoca aragonese|place=Cagliari|publisher=Editrice Democratica Sarda|year=1978|page=29}}</ref> many of which are in fact still preserved and/or refer to archives outside the island.<ref>{{cite book |author=Casula |first=Francesco Cesare |title=Breve storia della scrittura in Sardegna. La "documentaria" nell'epoca aragonese |publisher=Editrice Democratica Sarda |year=1978 |place=Cagliari |page=28 |author-link=Francesco Cesare Casula}}</ref> Specifically, the Arborean documents and the palace in which they were kept would be completely set on fire on May 21, 1478, as the viceroy triumphantly entered Oristano after having tamed the aforementioned 1478 rebellion, which threatened the revival of an Arborean identity which had been ''de jure'' abolished in 1420 but was still very much alive in popular memory.<ref>{{cite book|author=Francesco Cesare Casula|chapter=La Sardegna catalano-aragonese, 6|title=Il Regno di Sardegna|date=24 November 2012 |publisher=Logus|isbn=978-88-98062-10-2}}</ref>

Thereafter, the ruling class in Sardinia proceeded to adopt [[Catalan language|Catalan]] as their primary language. The situation in [[Cagliari]], a city subject to Aragonese repopulation and where, according to [[Giovanni Francesco Fara]] ({{lang|la|Ioannes Franciscus Fara}} / {{lang|sc|Juanne Frantziscu Fara}}), for a time Catalan took over Sardinian as in [[Alghero]],<ref name="fara">"[Sardinians] speak a peculiar language, Sardinian, and use it to write both in poetry and prose, especially in Logudoro where it has been kept purer, and more elegant and rich. And, since many Spaniards, both Aragonese and Catalan, and Italians immigrated to Sardinia, and keep doing so to trade, Spanish, Catalan and Italian are also spoken; so, all these languages are spoken to a conversational level by a single people. However, those from Cagliari and Alghero usually speak their masters' language, Catalan, whilst the other people retain the genuine language of the Sardinians." Original text: "[Sardi] Loquuntur lingua propria sardoa, tum ritmice, tum soluta oratione, praesertim in Capite Logudorii, ubi purior copiosior, et splendidior est. Et quia Hispani plures Aragonenses et Cathalani et Itali migrarunt in eam, et commerciorum caussa quotidie adventant, loquuntur etiam lingua hispanica et cathalana et italica; hisque omnibus linguis concionatur in uno eodemque populo. Caralitani tamen et Algharenses utuntur suorum maiorum lingua cathalana; alii vero genuinam retinent Sardorum linguam." {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kw1lAAAAcAAJ|page=51|author=Ioannes Franciscus Fara|date=1835|title=De Chorographia Sardiniæ Libri duo. De Rebus Sardois Libri quatuor|location=Torino|publisher=Typographia regia}}</ref> was emblematic, so much so as to later generate [[idioms]] such as {{lang|sc|no scit su catalanu}} ({{Gloss|he does not know Catalan}}) to indicate a person who could not express themselves "correctly".<ref>{{cite book|author=Max Leopold Wagner|title=La lingua sarda. Storia, spirito e forma|place=Nuoro|publisher=Ilisso|year=1997|page=185}}</ref><ref name=FManconi24>{{cite book|title=La Sardegna al tempo degli Asburgo (secoli XVI-XVII)|author=Francesco Manconi|publisher=Il Maestrale|year=2010|page=24}}</ref> [[Alghero]] is still a [[Algherese dialect|Catalan-speaking enclave]] on Sardinia to this day.<ref name="FManconi24" /><ref>{{cite web| url = http://prosodia.upf.edu/coalgueres/en/algueres.html| title = Why is Catalan spoken in L'Alguer? – Corpus Oral de l'Alguerès}}</ref> Nevertheless, the Sardinian language did not disappear from official use: the Catalan juridical tradition in the cities coexisted with that of the Sardinians, marked in 1421 by the Parliamentary extension of the Arborean {{lang|sc|Carta de Logu}} to the feudal areas during the Reign of King [[Alfonso the Magnanimous]].<ref>See {{Cite book|author=J. Dexart|title=Capitula sive acta curiarum Regni Sardiniae|location=Calari|year=1645}} lib. I, tit. 4, cap. 1</ref> Fara, in the same first modern monograph dedicated to Sardinia, reported the lively [[multilingualism]] in "one and the same people", i.e. the Sardinians, because of immigration "by Spaniards and Italians" who came to the island to trade with the natives.<ref name="fara" />

The long-lasting war and the so-called [[Black Death]] had a devastating effect on the island, depopulating large parts of it. People from the neighbouring island of Corsica, which had been already Tuscanised, began to settle en masse in the northern Sardinian coast, leading to the birth of [[Sassarese language|Sassarese]] and then [[Gallurese language|Gallurese]], two [[Italo-Dalmatian languages|Italo-Dalmatian]] lects.<ref>Carlo Maxia, Studi Sardo-Corsi, Dialettologia e storia della lingua fra le due isole</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://maxia-mail.doomby.com/medias/files/atti-convegno-palau-2014-def.pdf| title = Ciurrata di la linga gadduresa, Atti del II Convegno Internazionale di Studi}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable floatright" style="width:25%;"
|-
!
Extract from ''sa Vitta et sa Morte, et Passione de sanctu Gavinu, Prothu et Januariu'' (A. Cano, ~1400)<ref name="Antoni">{{Cite book|url=http://www.filologiasarda.eu/pubblicazioni/pdf/cfsmanca/03edizione.pdf|author=Antoni Cano |editor=Dino Manca |year=2002|title=Sa Vitta et sa Morte, et Passione de sanctu Gavinu, Prothu et Januariu|publisher=CUEC}}</ref>
|-
|<poem>{{lang|sc|O
Deus eternu, sempre omnipotente,
In s'aiudu meu ti piacat attender,
Et dami gratia de poder acabare
Su sanctu martiriu, in rima vulgare,
5. De sos sanctos martires tantu gloriosos
Et cavaleris de Cristus victoriosos,
Sanctu Gavinu, Prothu e Januariu,
Contra su demoniu, nostru adversariu,
Fortes defensores et bonos advocados,
10. Qui in su Paradisu sunt glorificados
De sa corona de sanctu martiriu.
Cussos sempre siant in nostru adiutoriu.
Amen.}}</poem>
|}
Despite Catalan being widely spoken and written on the island at this time, leaving a lasting influence in Sardinia, Sardinian continued to be used in documents pertaining to the Kingdom's administrative and ecclesiastical spheres until the late 17th century.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Max Leopold Wagner|title=La lingua sarda: storia, spirito e forma|location=Bern|publisher=Francke|year=1951|page=186}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Manuale di linguistica sarda. Manuals of Romance linguistics|year=2017 |author=Eduardo Blasco Ferrer |author2=Peter Koch |author3=Daniela Marzo |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|page=33}}</ref> Religious orders also made use of the language. The regulations of the seminary of Alghero, issued by the bishop Andreas Baccallar on July 12, 1586, were in Sardinian;<ref>Antonio Nughes, ''Alghero. Chiesa e società nel XVI secolo, Edizioni del Sole'', 1990, pp. 417-423</ref> since they were directed to the entire [[diocese of Alghero]] and Unions, the provisions intended for the direct knowledge of the people were written in Sardinian and Catalan.<ref>Antonio Nughes, ''Alghero. Chiesa e società nel XVI secolo, Edizioni del Sole'', 1990, p. 236</ref> The earliest catechism to date found in {{Lang|la|lingua sardisca}} from the post-Tridentine period is dated 1695, at the foot of the synodal constitutions of the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cagliari|archbishopric of Cagliari]].<ref>Paolo Maninchedda, [https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/BollStudiSardi/issue/view/265/PDF_15 Il più antico catechismo in sardo]. Bollettino di studi sardi, anno XV n. 15/2022</ref>

The sociolinguistic situation was characterised by the active and passive competence of the two Iberian languages in the cities and of Sardinian in the rest of the island, as reported in various contemporary testimonies: in 1561, the Portuguese [[Jesuit]] Francisco Antonio estimated Sardinian to be «the ordinary language of Sardinia, as Italian is of Italy; in the cities of Cagliari and Alghero the ordinary language is Catalan, although there are many people who also use Sardinian».<ref>Turtas, Raimondo (1981). ''La questione linguistica nei collegi gesuitici in Sardegna nella seconda metà del Cinquecento'', in "Quaderni sardi di storia" 2, p. 60</ref><ref name="FManconi24" /> Cristòfor Despuig, in {{lang|ca|Los Colloquis de la Insigne Ciutat de Tortosa}}, had previously claimed in 1557 that, although Catalan had carved out a place for itself as {{lang|ca|llengua cortesana}}, in many parts of the island the "ancient language of the Kingdom" ("{{Lang|ca|llengua antigua del Regne}}") was still preserved;<ref name="Carbonell">{{Cite book|author=Jordi Carbonell i de Ballester|title=Elements d'història de la llengua catalana|year=2018|publisher=Publicacions de la Universitat de València|chapter=5.2}}</ref> the ambassador and {{lang|es|visitador reial}} Martin Carillo (supposed author of the ironic judgment on the Sardinians' tribal and sectarian divisions: "{{lang|es|pocos, locos, y mal unidos}}" {{Gloss|few, thickheaded, and badly united}}<ref name="auto3">{{cite book |author=Eduardo Blasco Ferrer |author2=Giorgia Ingrassia |title=Storia della lingua sarda: dal paleosardo alla musica rap, evoluzione storico-culturale, letteraria, linguistica. Scelta di brani esemplari commentati e tradotti|year=2009|publisher=Cuec|location=Cagliari|page=92}}</ref>) noted in 1611 that the main cities spoke Catalan and Spanish, but outside these cities no other language was understood than Sardinian, which in turn was understood by everyone in the entire Kingdom;<ref name="Carbonell" /> Joan Gaspar Roig i Jalpí, author of {{lang|ca|Llibre dels feyts d'armes de Catalunya}}, reported in the mid-seventeenth century that in Sardinia "{{lang|ca|parlen la llengua catalana molt polidament, axì com fos a Catalunya}}" ({{Gloss|they speak Catalan very well, as though I was in Catalonia}});<ref name="Carbonell" /> Anselm Adorno, originally from [[Genoa]] but living in [[Bruges]], noted in his pilgrimages how, many foreigners notwithstanding, the natives still spoke their own language ({{lang|la|linguam propriam sardiniscam loquentes}});<ref>{{cite book|title=A Companion to Sardinian History, 500–1500|pages=111–112|location=Leiden, Boston|publisher=Brill|author=Michelle Hobart|year=2017}}</ref>); another testimony is offered by the rector of the Jesuit college of Sassari Baldassarre Pinyes who, in Rome, wrote: "As far as the Sardinian language is concerned, Your Paternity should know that it is not spoken in this city, nor in Alghero, nor in Cagliari: it is only spoken in the towns".<ref>{{cite book|author=Raimondo Turtas|year=2001|publisher=EDES|title=Studiare, istruire, governare. La formazione dei letrados nella Sardegna spagnola|page=236}}</ref>

The 16th century is marked by a new literary revival of Sardinian, starting from the 15th-century {{lang|sc|Sa Vitta et sa Morte, et Passione de sanctu Gavinu, Brothu et Ianuariu}}, written by Antòni Canu (1400–1476) and published in 1557.<ref name="Antoni" /> {{lang|sc|Rimas Spirituales}}, by [[Gerolamo Araolla|Hieronimu Araolla]],<ref name="sardegnaculletorigini">{{Cite web|url=http://www.sardegnacultura.it/j/v/258?s=20328&v=2&c=2695&t=7|title=Sardegna Cultura – Lingua sarda – Letteratura – Dalle origini al '700|website=www.sardegnacultura.it|access-date=24 January 2018|archive-date=25 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125074627/http://www.sardegnacultura.it/j/v/258?s=20328&v=2&c=2695&t=7}}</ref> was aimed at "glorifying and enriching Sardinian, our language" ({{lang|sc|magnificare et arrichire sa limba nostra sarda}}) as the Spanish, French and Italian poets had already done for their own languages ({{lang|fr|la Deffense et illustration de la langue françoyse}} and {{lang|it|Il Dialogo delle lingue}}). This way, Araolla is one of the first Sardinian authors to bind the language to a Sardinian nation,<ref name="araolla">"First attempts at national self-assertion through language date back to the 16th century, when G. Araolla, a speaker of Sassarese, wrote a poem intended to enrich and honour the Sardinian language." {{cite book|title=Bilingualism and Linguistic Conflict in Romance|author=Rebecca Posner, John N. Green|page=286|year=1993|publisher=De Gruyter Mouton}}</ref> the existence of which is not outright stated but naturally implied.<ref>"Intendendo esservi una "naturalità" della lingua propria delle diverse "nazioni", così come v'è la lingua naturale della "nazione sarda", espressione, quest'ultima, non usata ma ben sottintesa." {{cite book|author=Ignazio Putzu, Gabriella Mazzon|title=Lingue, letterature, nazioni. Centri e periferie tra Europa e Mediterraneo|publisher=Franco Angeli Edizioni|year=2013|page=597}}</ref><ref group=note>[[Incipit]] to "Lettera al Maestro" in {{cite book|title=La Sardegna e la Corsica|author=Ines Loi Corvetto|location=Torino|publisher=UTET|year=1993}} {{cite book|author=Hieronimu Araolla |editor=Max Leopold Wagner|year=1915|title=Die Rimas Spirituales Von Girolamo Araolla. Nach Dem Einzigen Erhaltenen Exemplar Der Universitätsbibliothek in Cagliari|publisher=Princeton University|page=76}}: {{lang|sc|Semper happisi desiggiu, Illustrissimu Segnore, de magnificare, & arrichire sa limba nostra Sarda; dessa matessi manera qui sa naturale insoro tottu sas naciones dessu mundu hant magnificadu & arrichidu; comente est de vider per isos curiosos de cuddas.}}</ref> Antonio Lo Frasso, a poet born in [[Alghero]]<ref name="Arce">[https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/906360.pdf J. Arce, La literatura hispánica de Cerdeña]. Revista de la Facultad de Filología, 1956</ref> (a city he remembered fondly)<ref>"... L'Alguer castillo fuerte bien murado / con frutales por tierra muy divinos / y por la mar coral fino eltremado / es ciudad de mas de mil vezinos..." {{cite book|title=España en Cerdeña|author=Joaquín Arce|year=1960|page=359}}</ref> who spent his life in [[Barcelona]], wrote [[lyric poetry]] in Sardinian.<ref>An example of it are the octaves found in Lo Frasso, Antonio (1573). ''Los diez libros de fortuna d'Amor'' "{{lang|sc|Non podende sufrire su tormentu / de su fogu ardente innamorosu. / Videndemi foras de sentimentu / et sensa una hora de riposu, / pensende istare liberu e contentu / m'agato pius aflitu e congoixosu, / in essermi de te senora apartadu, / mudende ateru quelu, ateru istadu&nbsp;...}}" {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R989rHaj58IC|author=Antonio de Lo Frasso|pages=141–144|volume=2|title=Los Cinco Ultimos Libros de Fortuna de Amor|location=Londra|publisher=Henrique Chapel|year=1573–1740}}</ref>

Agreeing with Fara's aforementioned {{lang|la|De rebus Sardois}}, the Sardinian attorney Sigismondo Arquer, author of {{lang|la|Sardiniae brevis historia et descriptio}} in [[Sebastian Münster]]'s [[Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster)|Cosmographia universalis]] (whose report would also be quoted in [[Conrad Gessner]]'s "On the different languages used by the various nations across the globe" with minor variations<ref>{{cite book|author=Conrad Gessner|year=1555|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k938671|title=De differentiis linguarum tum veterum tum quae hodie apud diversas nationes in toto orbe terraru in usu sunt, Sardorum lingua|pages=66–67}}</ref>), stated that Sardinian prevailed in most of the Kingdom, with particular regard for the interior, while Catalan and Spanish were spoken in the cities, where the predominantly Iberian ruling class "occupies most of the official positions";<ref name="FManconi24" /> although the Sardinian language had become fragmented due to foreign domination (i.e. "namely Latins, Pisans, Genoese, Spanish, and Africans"), Arquer pointed to there being many Sardinian words with apparently no traceable origin and reported that Sardinians nevertheless "understand each other perfectly".<ref>"Habuerunt quidem Sardi linguam propriam, sed quum diversi populi immigraverint in eam atque ab exteris principibus eius imperium usurpatum fuerit, nempe Latinis, Pisanis, Genuensibus, Hispanis et Afris, corrupta fuit multum lingua eorum, relictis tamen plurimis vocabulis, quae in nullo inveniuntur idiomate. [...] Hinc est quod Sardi in diversis locis tam diverse loquuntur, iuxta quod tam varium habuerunt imperium, etiamsi ipsi mutuo sese recte intelligant. Sunt autem duae praecipuae in ea insula linguae, una qua utuntur in civitatibus, et altera qua extra civitates. Oppidani loquuntur fere lingua Hispanica, Tarraconensi seu Catalana, quam didicerunt ab Hispanis, qui plerumque magistratum in eisdem gerunt civitatibus: alii vero genuinam retinent Sardorum Linguam." {{cite book|title=Sardiniae brevis historia et descriptio |author=Sigismondo Arquer |author2=Maria Teresa Laneri|year=2008|publisher=CUEC|pages=30–31}}</ref>

Especially through the reorganization of the monarchy led by the [[Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares|Count-Duke of Olivares]], Sardinia would gradually join a broad Spanish cultural sphere. Spanish was perceived as an elitist language, gaining solid ground among the ruling Sardinian class; Spanish had thus a profound influence on Sardinian, especially in those words, styles and cultural models owing to the prestigious international role of the [[Habsburg monarchy]] as well as the [[Court (royal)|Court]].<ref group=note>Jacinto Arnal de Bolea (1636), El Forastero, Antonio Galcerin editor, Cagliari – "....ofreciéndonos a la vista la insigne ciudad de Càller, corte que me dixeron era de aquel reino. ....La hermosura de las damas, el buen gusto de su alino, lo prendido y bien saconado de lo curioso-dandole vida con mil donaires-, la grandeza en los titulos, el lucimientos en los cavalleros, el concurso grande de la nobleza y el agasajo para un forastero no os los podrà zifrar mi conocimiento. Basta para su alavanza el deciros que alcuna vez, con olvido en mi peregrinaciò y con descuido en mis disdichas, discurria por los templos no estrano y por las calles no atajado, me hallava con evidencias grandes que era aquel sitio el alma de Madrid, que con tanta urbanidad y cortesìa se exercitavan en sus nobles correspondencias"</ref><ref name="sardegnaculletorigini" /> Most Sardinian authors would write in both Spanish and Sardinian until the 19th century and were well-versed in the former, like [[Vicente Bacallar y Sanna]] that was one of the founders of the [[Real Academia Española]];<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticia/4228285/20150124/vicenc-bacallar-sard-botifler-origens-real-academia-espanola.html|title=Vicenç Bacallar, el sard botifler als orígens de la Real Academia Española|website=VilaWeb.cat}}</ref> according to Bruno Anatra's estimates, around 87% of the books printed in Cagliari were in Spanish.<ref name="auto3"/> A notable exception was Pedro Delitala (1550–1590), who decided to write in Italian instead.<ref name="Arce" /><ref>Rime diverse, Cagliari, 1595</ref> Nonetheless, the Sardinian language retained much of its importance, earning respect from the Spaniards in light of it being the ethnic code the people from most of the Kingdom kept using, especially in the rural areas.<ref>«Il brano qui riportato non è soltanto illustrativo di una chiara evoluzione di diglossia con bilinguismo dei ceti medio-alti (il cavaliere sa lo spagnolo e il sardo), ma anche di un rapporto gerarchico, tra lingua dominante (o "egèmone", come direbbe Gramsci) e subordinata, che tuttavia concede spazio al codice etnico, rispettato e persino appreso dai conquistatori.» Eduardo Blasco Ferrer, Giorgia Ingrassia (edited by). ''Storia della lingua sarda: dal paleosardo alla musica rap, evoluzione storico-culturale, letteraria, linguistica. Scelta di brani esemplari commentati e tradotti'', 2009, Cuec, Cagliari, p. 99</ref> Sardinian endured, moreover, in religious drama and the drafting of notarial deeds in the interior.<ref>Giancarlo Sorgia, ''Storia della Sardegna spagnola'', Sassari, Chiarella, 1987, p. 168</ref> New genres of popular poetry were established around this period, like the {{lang|sc|[[gosos]]}} or {{lang|sc|gocius}} (sacred hymns), the {{lang|sc|anninnia}} (lullabies), the {{lang|sc|atitu}} (funeral laments), the {{lang|sc|batorinas}} ([[quatrain]]s), the {{lang|sc|berbos}} and {{lang|sc|paraulas}} (curses), and the improvised poetry of the {{lang|sc|[[Mutu (music)|mutu]]}} and {{lang|sc|mutetu}}.

Sardinian was also one of the few official languages, along with Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese, whose knowledge was required to be an officer in the [[Tercio|Spanish ''tercios'']],<ref>{{Citation
| last       =Olaya
| first      =Vicente G.
| year       =2019
| title      =La segunda vida de los tercios
| newspaper  =El País
| url        =https://elpais.com/cultura/2018/12/21/actualidad/1545406261_918691.html
| access-date =4 June 2019
|language=es}}: "Los tercios españoles solo podían ser comandados por soldados que hablasen castellano, catalán, portugués o sardo. Cualquier otro tenía vedado su ascenso, por eso los italianos que chapurreaban español se hacían pasar por valencianos para intentar su promoción."; "The Spanish tercios could only be commanded by soldiers who spoke Castilian, Catalan, Portuguese or Sardinian. Everyone else had his promotion forbidden, that's why the Italians who spoke Spanish badly tried to pass themselves off as Valencians to try to get promoted."</ref> among which the Sardinians were fully considered and counted as ''spanyols'', as requested by the [[Stamenti]] in 1553.<ref>{{cite book|title=La Sardegna al tempo degli Asburgo (secoli XVI-XVII)|author=Francesco Manconi|publisher=Il Maestrale|year=2010|page=35}}</ref>

Ioan Matheu Garipa, a priest from [[Orgosolo]] who translated the Italian {{lang|it|Leggendario delle Sante Vergini e Martiri di Gesù Cristo}} into Sardinian ({{lang|sc|Legendariu de Santas Virgines, et Martires de Iesu Christu}}) in 1627, was the first author to claim that Sardinian was the closest living relative of [[classical Latin]]<ref group=note>"In this Roman Court, having come into possession of a book in Italian, a new edition […] I have translated it into Sardinian to give news of it to the devotees of my homeland who are eager to know these legends. I have translated them into Sardinian, rather than into another language, out of love for the people […] who did not need an interpreter to enunciate them, and also because the Sardinian language is noble by virtue of its participation in Latinity, since no language spoken is as close to classical Latin as Sardinian. […] Since, if the Italian language is much appreciated, and if among all the vernacular languages is in first place for having much followed in the footsteps of Latin, no less should the Sardinian language be appreciated considering that it is not only a relative of Latin, but is largely straightforward Latin. […] And even if this were not so, it is sufficient reason to write in Sardinian to see that all nations write and print books in their natural language, boasting of having history and moral subjects written in the vernacular, so that all may benefit from them. And since the Sardinian Latin language is as clear and intelligible (when written, and pronounced as it should be), if not even more so, than the vulgar ones, since the Italians, and Spaniards, and all those who practice Latin in general understand it." Original text: "{{lang|sc|Sendemi vennidu à manos in custa Corte Romana vnu Libru in limba Italiana, nouamente istampadu, […] lu voltao in limba Sarda pro dare noticia de cuddas assos deuotos dessa patria mia disijosos de tales legendas. Las apo voltadas in sardu menjus qui non-in atera limba pro amore de su vulgu […] qui non-tenjan bisonju de interprete pro bi-las decrarare, & tambene pro esser sa limba sarda tantu bona, quanta participat de sa latina, qui nexuna de quantas limbas si plàtican est tantu parente assa latina formale quantu sa sarda. […] Pro su quale si sa limba Italiana si preciat tantu de bona, & tenet su primu logu inter totas sas limbas vulgares pro esser meda imitadore dessa Latina, non-si diat preciare minus sa limba Sarda pusti non-solu est parente dessa Latina, pero ancora sa majore parte est latina vera. […] Et quando cussu non-esseret, est suficiente motiuu pro iscrier in Sardu, vider, qui totas sas nationes iscriven, & istampan libros in sas proprias limbas naturales in soro, preciandosi de tenner istoria, & materias morales iscritas in limba vulgare, pro qui totus si potan de cuddas aprofetare. Et pusti sa limba latina Sarda est clara & intelligibile (iscrita, & pronunciada comente conuenit) tantu & plus qui non-quale si querjat dessas vulgares, pusti sos Italianos, & Ispagnolos, & totu cuddos qui tenen platica de latinu la intenden medianamente.}}" [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pbBMjcSo_60C Garipa, Ioan Matheu. ''Legendariu de santas virgines, et martires de Iesu Crhistu'', 1627, Per Lodouicu Grignanu, Roma]</ref> and, like Araolla before him,<ref name="araolla" /> valued Sardinian as the language of a specific ethno-national community.<ref>"Totu sas naziones iscrient e imprentant sos libros in sas propias limbas nadias e duncas peri sa Sardigna – sigomente est una natzione – depet iscriere e imprentare sos libros in limba sarda. Una limba – sighit Garipa – chi de seguru bisongiat de irrichimentos e de afinicamentos, ma non est de contu prus pagu de sas ateras limbas neolatinas." ("All the nations write and print books in their native languages and therefore Sardinia – which is a nation – should do so as well, in Sardinian language. A language – follows Garipa – which certainly needs a little enrichment and refinement, but is no less important than the other Neolatin languages"). [https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/3400254.pdf Casula, Francesco. ''Sa chistione de sa limba in Montanaru e oe'']</ref> In this regard, the philologist Paolo Maninchedda argues that by doing so, these authors did not write "about Sardinia or in Sardinian to fit into an island system, but to inscribe Sardinia and its language – and with them, themselves – in a European system. Elevating Sardinia to a cultural dignity equal to that of other European countries also meant promoting the Sardinians, and in particular their educated countrymen, who felt that they had no roots and no place in the continental cultural system".<ref>"...non-scrivono di Sardegna o in sardo per inserirsi in un sistema isolano, ma per iscrivere la Sardegna e la sua lingua – e con esse, se stessi – in un sistema europeo. Elevare la Sardegna ad una dignità culturale pari a quella 
di altri paesi europei significava anche promuovere i sardi, e in particolare i sardi colti, che si sentivano privi di radici e di appartenenza nel sistema culturale continentale." Paolo Maninchedda (2000): ''Nazionalismo, cosmopolitismo e provincialismo nella tradizione letteraria della Sardegna (secc. XV–XVIII)'', in: Revista de filología Románica, 17, p. 178</ref>

[[File:Ploaghe, camposanto, lapidi in logudorese, 02.JPG|thumb|left|Three gravestones dating to the second half of the 19th century in the historic cemetery of [[Ploaghe]] ([[Logudoro]]), wherein a total of 39 gravestones have writings in Sardinian and 3 in Italian<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.comune.ploaghe.ss.it/web/pg/cimitero-antico/17|title=Cimitero antico|website=Ploaghe's official website}}</ref>]]