Editing Sardinian language (section)

===Savoyard period – Italian influence===
{{See also|History of Sardinia#Kingdom of Sardinia under the House of Savoy|l1=Kingdom of Sardinia under the House of Savoy|History of Sardinia#Kingdom of Italy|l2=Kingdom of Italy|Italianisation}}
The [[War of the Spanish Succession]] gave Sardinia to Austria, whose sovereignty was confirmed by the 1713–14 treaties of [[Treaty of Utrecht|Utrecht]] and [[Treaty of Rastatt|Rastatt]]. In 1717 a Spanish fleet [[Spanish conquest of Sardinia|reoccupied]] [[Cagliari]], and the following year Sardinia was ceded to [[Victor Amadeus II of Savoy]] in exchange for Sicily. The Savoyard representative, the Count of Lucerna di Campiglione, received the definitive deed of cession from the Austrian delegate Don Giuseppe dei Medici, on condition that the "rights, statutes, privileges of the nation" that had been the subject of diplomatic negotiations were preserved.<ref name="sotgiu65">{{Cite book|author=Manlio Brigaglia|title=La Sardegna|volume=1. La geografia, la storia, l'arte e la letteratura|location=Cagliari|publisher=Edizioni Della Torre|year=1982|page=65}}</ref> The island thus entered the Italian orbit after the Iberian one,<ref>"I territori della casa di Savoia si allargano fino al Ticino; importante è l'annessione della Sardegna (1718), perché la vita amministrativa e culturale dell'isola, che prima si svolgeva in spagnolo, si viene orientando, seppur molto lentamente, verso la lingua italiana". {{Cite book|author=Bruno Migliorini|title=Breve storia della lingua italiana|publisher=Sansoni|location=Firenze|year=1969|page=214}}</ref> although this transfer would not initially entail any social nor cultural and linguistic changes: Sardinia would still retain for a long time its Iberian character, so much so that only in 1767 were the Aragonese and Spanish dynastic symbols replaced by the Savoyard cross.<ref>See {{cite book|author=M. Lepori|title=Dalla Spagna ai Savoia. Ceti e corona della Sardegna del Settecento|location=Roma|year=2003}}</ref> Until 1848, the Kingdom of Sardinia would be a [[composite state]], and the island of Sardinia would remain a separate country with its own traditions and institutions, albeit without ''[[summa potestas]]'' and in [[personal union]] as an overseas possession of the [[House of Savoy]].<ref name="sotgiu65" />

The Sardinian language, although practiced in a state of [[diglossia]], continued to be spoken by all social classes, its linguistic alterity and independence being universally perceived;<ref>{{Cite book|title=Manuale di linguistica sarda|year=2017 |author=Eduardo Blasco Ferrer |author2=Peter Koch |author3=Daniela Marzo |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|page=169}}</ref> Spanish, on the other hand, was the [[Prestige (sociolinguistics)|prestige code]] known and used by the Sardinian social strata with at least some education, in so pervasive a manner that Joaquín Arce refers to it in terms of a paradox: Castilian had become the common language of the islanders by the time they officially ceased to be Spanish and, through their annexation by the House of Savoy, became Italian through Piedmont instead.<ref>{{cite book|author=Joaquín Arce|year=1960|title=España en Cerdeña. Aportación cultural y testimonios de su influjo|location=Madrid|publisher=Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto Jerónimo Zurita|page=128}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Joaquín Arce|title=La literatura hispánica de Cerdeña. Archivum: Revista de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras|volume=6|page=139|url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/906360.pdf}}</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|pages=168–169}}</ref> Given the current situation, the Piedmontese ruling class which held the reins of the island, in this early phase, resolved to maintain its political and social institutions, while at the same time progressively hollowing them out<ref>{{Cite book|title=Manuale di linguistica sarda|year=2017 |author=Eduardo Blasco Ferrer |author2=Peter Koch |author3=Daniela Marzo |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|page=201}}</ref> as well as "treating the [Sardinian] followers of one faction and of the other equally, but keeping them divided in such a way as to prevent them from uniting, and for us to put to good use such rivalry when the occasion presents itself".<ref>{{Cite book|author=Manlio Brigaglia|title=La Sardegna|volume=1. La geografia, la storia, l'arte e la letteratura|location=Cagliari|publisher=Edizioni Della Torre|year=1982|page=64}}</ref>

According to Amos Cardia, this pragmatic stance was rooted in three political reasons: in the first place, the Savoyards did not want to rouse international suspicion and followed to the letter the rules dictated by the Treaty of London, signed on 2 August 1718, whereby they had committed themselves to respect the fundamental laws of the newly acquired Kingdom; in the second place, they did not want to antagonize the hispanophile locals, especially the elites; and finally, they lingered on hoping they could one day manage to dispose of Sardinia altogether, while still keeping the title of Kings by regaining Sicily.<ref>{{cite book|author=Amos Cardia|year=2006|title=S'italianu in Sardìnnia candu, cumenti e poita d'ant impostu: 1720–1848; poderi e lìngua in Sardìnnia in edadi spanniola|publisher=Iskra|location=Ghilarza|pages=86–87}}</ref> In fact, since imposing Italian would have violated one of the fundamental laws of the Kingdom, which the new rulers swore to observe upon taking on the mantle of King, Victor Amadeus II emphasised the need for the operation to be carried out through incremental steps, small enough to go relatively unnoticed ({{lang|it|insensibilmente}}), as early as 1721.<ref>{{cite book|author=Roberto Palmarocchi|title=Sardegna sabauda. Il regime di Vittorio Amedeo II|location=Cagliari|year=1936|page=95|publisher=Tip. Mercantile G. Doglio}}</ref> Such prudence was again noted, when the King claimed that he was nevertheless not intentioned to ban either Sardinian or Spanish on two separate occasions, in 1726 and 1728.<ref>{{cite book|author=Roberto Palmarocchi|year=1936|title=Sardegna sabauda|volume=I|publisher=Tip. Mercantile G. Doglio|location=Cagliari|page=87}}</ref>

The fact that the new masters of Sardinia felt at loss as to how they could better deal with a cultural and linguistic environment they perceived as alien to the Mainland,<ref>Cardia, Amos (2006). ''S'italianu in Sardìnnia candu, cumenti e poita d'ant impostu: 1720–1848; poderi e lìngua in Sardìnnia in edadi spanniola'', Iskra, Ghilarza, p. 86</ref> where Italian had long been the prestige and even official language, can be deduced from the study {{lang|it|Memoria dei mezzi che si propongono per introdurre l'uso della lingua italiana in questo Regno}} ("Account of the proposed ways to introduce the Italian language to this Kingdom") commissioned in 1726 by the Piedmontese administration, to which the Jesuit Antonio Falletti from [[Barolo, Piedmont|Barolo]] responded suggesting the {{lang|la|ignotam linguam per notam expōnĕre}} ("to introduce an unknown language [Italian] through a known one [Spanish]") method as the best course of action for [[Italianisation]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Eduardo Blasco Ferrer, 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=110}}</ref> In the same year, Victor Amadeus II had already said he could no longer tolerate the lack of ability to speak Italian on the part of the islanders, in view of the inconveniences that such inability was putting through for the functionaries sent from the Mainland.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rossana Poddine Rattu|title=Biografia dei viceré sabaudi del Regno di Sardegna (1720–1848)|location=Cagliari|publisher=Della Torre|page=31}}</ref> Restrictions to [[interethnic marriage|mixed marriages]] between Sardinian women and the Piedmontese officers dispatched to the island, which had hitherto been prohibited by law,<ref>{{cite book|author=Luigi La Rocca|title=La cessione del Regno di Sardegna alla Casa Sabauda. Gli atti diplomatici e di possesso con documenti inediti, in "Miscellanea di Storia Italiana. Terza Serie", v.10|year=1905|location=Torino|publisher=[[Fratelli Bocca]]|pages=180–188}}</ref> were at one point lifted and even encouraged so as to better introduce the language to the local population.<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=210}}</ref><ref>On further information as to the role played by mixed marriages in general to spread Italian among the islanders, see {{cite book|author=Ines Loi Corvetto|title=L'italiano regionale di Sardegna|location=Bologna|publisher=Zanichelli|pages=21–25}} ; {{cite book|author=Francesco Bruni|title=L'italiano nelle regioni. Lingua nazionale e identità regionali|location=Torino|publisher=UTET|page=913}}</ref>

[[Eduardo Blasco Ferrer]] argues that, in contrast to the cultural dynamics long established in the Mainland between Italian and the various Romance dialects thereof, in Sardinia the relationship between the Italian language – recently introduced by Savoy – and the native one had been perceived from the start by the locals, educated and uneducated alike, as a relationship (albeit unequal in terms of political power and prestige) between two very different languages, and not between a language and one of its dialects.<ref>"La più diffusa, e storicamente precocissima, consapevolezza nell'isola circa lo statuto di lingua a sé del sardo, ragion per cui il rapporto tra il sardo e l'italiano ha teso a porsi fin dall'inizio nei termini di quello tra due lingue diverse (benché con potere e prestigio evidentemente diversi), a differenza di quanto normalmente avvenuto in altre regioni italiane, dove, tranne nel caso di altre minoranze storiche, la percezione dei propri "dialetti" come "lingue" diverse dall'italiano sembrerebbe essere un fatto relativamente più recente e, almeno apparentemente, meno profondamente e drammaticamente avvertito." {{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=209}}</ref> The plurisecular Iberian period had also contributed in making the Sardinians feel relatively detached from the Italian language and its cultural sphere; local sensibilities towards the language were further exacerbated by the fact that the Spanish ruling class had long considered Sardinian a distinct language, with respect to their own ones and Italian as well.<ref>"La consapevolezza di alterità rispetto all'italiano si spiega facilmente non solo per i quasi 400 anni di fila sotto il dominio ispanico, che hanno agevolato nei sardi, rispetto a quanto avvenuto in altre regioni italiane, una prospettiva globalmente più distaccata nei confronti della lingua italiana, ma anche per il fatto tutt'altro che banale che già i catalani e i castigliani consideravano il sardo una lingua a sé stante, non solo rispetto alla propria ma anche rispetto all'italiano." {{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=210}}</ref> The perception of the alterity of Sardinian was also widely shared among the Italians who happened to visit the island and recounted their experiences with the local population,<ref>"Ma la percezione di alterità linguistica era condivisa e avvertita anche da qualsiasi italiano che avesse occasione di risiedere o passare nell'Isola." {{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=209}}</ref> whom they often likened to the Spanish and the ancient peoples of the Orient, an opinion illustrated by the Duke [[Francis IV, Duke of Modena|Francis IV]] and [[Antonio Bresciani (writer)|Antonio Bresciani]];<ref>"Lingue fuori dell'Italiano e del Sardo nessuno ne impara, e pochi uomini capiscono il francese; piuttosto lo spagnuolo. La lingua spagnuola s'accosta molto anche alla Sarda, e poi con altri paesi poco sono in relazione. [...] La popolazione della Sardegna pare dalli suoi costumi, indole, etc., un misto di popoli di Spagna, e del Levante conservano vari usi, che hanno molta analogia con quelli dei Turchi, e dei popoli del Levante; e poi vi è mescolato molto dello Spagnuolo, e dirò così, che pare una originaria popolazione del Levante civilizzata alla Spagnuola, che poi coll'andare del tempo divenne più originale, e formò la Nazione Sarda, che ora distinguesi non solo dai popoli del Levante, ma anche da quelli della Spagna." {{cite book|author=[[Francis IV, Duke of Modena|Francesco D'Austria-Este]]|title=Descrizione della Sardegna (1812), ed. Giorgio Bardanzellu|year=1993|orig-date=1812|location=Cagliari|publisher=Della Torre|pages=43, 64}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Dei costumi dell'isola di Sardegna comparati cogli antichissimi popoli orientali|url=http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/mmt/fullsize/2009040715122300055.pdf|author=Antonio Bresciani|year=1861|publisher=Giannini Francesco|location=Napoli|access-date=8 March 2021|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414040845/http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/mmt/fullsize/2009040715122300055.pdf}}</ref> a popular assertion by the officer Giulio Bechi, who would participate in a military campaign against [[Sardinian banditry]] dubbed as {{lang|it|caccia grossa}} ("great hunt"), was that the islanders spoke "a horrible language, as intricate as Saracen, and sounding like Spanish".<ref>{{cite book|title=Caccia grossa. Scene e figure del banditismo sardo|author=Giulio Bechi|orig-date=1900|date= 1997 |location=Nuoro|publisher=Ilisso|page=43}}</ref>

However, the Savoyard government eventually decided to directly introduce Italian altogether to Sardinia on the conventional date of 25 July 1760,<ref>"Come data ufficiale per la estensione della lingua italiana in Sardegna viene comunemente citato il 1764, anno in cui fu emanata un'apposita carta reale per le Università, ma questa, in effetti, fu preceduta nel 1760 da un piano regio per le scuole inferiori e seguita nel 1770 da un regio editto per la magistratura. Occorse dunque un periodo di dieci anni per rendere ufficiale, nell'isola, l'adozione dell'italiano, la cui diffusione fu da principio assai lenta anche negli ambienti colti, come attesta l'uso frequente della lingua spagnola in atti e documenti pubblici fino ai primi decenni dell'Ottocento." {{cite book|author=Francesco Corda|year=1994|title=Grammatica moderna del sardo logudorese: con una proposta ortografica, elementi di metrica e un glossario|publisher=Edizioni della Torre|location=Cagliari|pages=6–7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Phonology of Campidanian Sardinian: A Unitary Account of a Self-Organizing Structure |last=Bolognesi |first=Roberto |date=1998 |publisher=Holland Academic Graphics|page=3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Amos Cardia|year=2006|title=S'italianu in Sardìnnia candu, cumenti e poita d'ant impostu: 1720–1848; poderi e lìngua in Sardìnnia in edadi spanniola|publisher=Iskra|location=Ghilarza|pages=88, 91}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Alessandro Mongili|title=Topologie postcoloniali. Innovazione e modernizzazione in Sardegna|year=2015|location=Cagliari|page=Premessa, 18; Postcolonial Sardinia, 65; Mondi post, informatica ed esclusione, 21}}</ref> because of the Savoyards' geopolitical need to draw the island away from Spain's gravitational pull and culturally integrate Sardinia into the orbit of the Italian peninsula,<ref>"L'attività riformatrice si allargò anche ad altri campi: scuole in lingua italiana per riallacciare la cultura isolana a quella del continente, lotta contro il banditismo, ripopolamento di terre e ville deserte con Liguri, Piemontesi, Còrsi." Roberto Almagia et al., [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/sardegna_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/ ''Sardegna'', Enciclopedia Italiana (1936)], Treccani, "Storia"</ref> through the thorough assimilation of the island's cultural models, which were deemed by the Savoyard functionaries as "foreign" and "inferior", to Piedmont.<ref>"L'italianizzazione dell'isola fu un obiettivo fondamentale della politica sabauda, strumentale a un più ampio progetto di assimilazione della Sardegna al Piemonte." {{cite book|author=Amos Cardia|year=2006|title=S'italianu in Sardìnnia candu, cumenti e poita d'ant impostu: 1720–1848; poderi e lìngua in Sardìnnia in edadi spanniola|publisher=Iskra|location=Ghilarza|page=92}}</ref><ref>"Ai funzionari sabaudi, inseriti negli ingranaggi dell'assolutismo burocratico ed educati al culto della regolarità e della precisione, l'isola appariva come qualcosa di estraneo e di bizzarro, come un Paese in preda alla barbarie e all'anarchia, popolato di selvaggi tutt'altro che buoni. Era difficile che quei funzionari potessero considerare il diverso altrimenti che come puro negativo. E infatti essi presero ad applicare alla Sardegna le stesse ricette applicate al Piemonte.". {{cite book|author=Luciano Guerci|year=2006|title=L'Europa del Settecento: permanenze e mutamenti|publisher=UTET|page=576}}</ref><ref>"En aquest sentit, la italianització definitiva de l'illa representava per a ell l'objectiu més urgent, i va decidir de contribuir-hi tot reformant les Universitats de Càller i de Sàsser, bandejant-ne alhora els jesuïtes de la direcció per tal com mantenien encara una relació massa estreta amb la cultura espanyola. El ministre Bogino havia entès que només dins d'una Universitat reformada podia crear-se una nova generació de joves que contribuïssin a homogeneïtzar de manera absoluta Sardenya amb el Piemont." {{cite book|author=Joan Armangué i Herrero|title=Represa i exercici de la consciència lingüística a l'Alguer (ss.XVIII-XX)|publisher=Arxiu de Tradicions de l'Alguer}} Cagliari, I.1</ref><ref group=note>King [[Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia]], Royal Note, 23 July 1760: "Dovendosi per tali insegnamenti (scuole inferiori) adoperare fra le lingue più colte quella che è meno lontana dal materno dialetto ed a un tempo la più corrispondente alle pubbliche convenienze, si è determinato di usare nelle scuole predette l'italiana, siccome quella appunto che non essendo più diversa dalla sarda di quello fosse la castigliana, poiché anzi la maggior parte dei sardi più colti già la possiede; resta altresì la più opportuna per maggiormente agevolare il commercio ed aumentare gli scambievoli comodi; ed i Piemontesi che verranno nel Regno, non avranno a studiare una nuova lingua per meglio abituarsi al servizio pubblico e dei sardi, i quali in tal modo potranno essere impiegati anche nel continente."</ref> In fact, the measure in question prohibited, among other things, "the unreserved use of the Castilian idiom in writing and speaking, which, after forty years of Italian rule, was still so deeply rooted in the hearts of the Sardinian teachers".<ref name="sotgiu1982">{{Cite book|author=Manlio Brigaglia|title=La Sardegna|volume=1. La geografia, la storia, l'arte e la letteratura|location=Cagliari|publisher=Edizioni Della Torre|year=1982|page=77}}</ref> In 1764, the exclusive imposition of the Italian language was finally extended to all sectors of public life,<ref name="Bolognesi">{{cite book|author=Roberto Bolognesi, Wilbert Heeringa|title=Sardegna fra tante lingue|page=25|year=2005|publisher=Condaghes}}</ref><ref name="Salvi1">{{cite book|author=Sergio Salvi|title=Le lingue tagliate. Storia delle minoranze linguistiche in Italia|location=Milano|publisher=Rizzoli|year=1974|page=181}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Martin Maiden |author2=John Charles Smith |author3=Adam Ledgeway |title=The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages|volume=2|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2013|page=302}}</ref> including education,<ref>"In Sardegna, dopo il passaggio alla casa di Savoia, lo spagnolo perde terreno, ma lentissimamente: solo nel 1764 l'italiano diventa lingua ufficiale nei tribunali e nell'insegnamento". {{Cite book|author=Bruno Migliorini|title=La Rassegna della letteratura italiana|publisher=Le Lettere|location=Firenze|year=1957|volume=61|page=398}}</ref><ref>"Anche la sostituzione dell'italiano allo spagnolo non avvenne istantaneamente: quest'ultimo restò lingua ufficiale nelle scuole e nei tribunali fino al 1764, anno in cui da Torino fu disposta una riforma delle università di Cagliari e Sassari e si stabilì che l'insegnamento scolastico dovesse essere solamente in italiano." {{cite book|author=Michele Loporcaro|title=Profilo linguistico dei dialetti italiani|year=2009|publisher=Editori Laterza|page=9}}</ref> in parallel with the reorganisation of the [[University of Cagliari|Universities of Cagliari]] and [[University of Sassari|Sassari]], which saw the arrival of personnel from the Italian mainland, and the reorganisation of lower education, where it was decided likewise to send teachers from Piedmont to make up for the lack of Italian-speaking Sardinian teachers.<ref>{{cite book|author=Amos Cardia|year=2006|title=S'italianu in Sardìnnia candu, cumenti e poita d'ant impostu: 1720–1848; poderi e lìngua in Sardìnnia in edadi spanniola|publisher=Iskra|location=Ghilarza|page=89}}</ref> In 1763, it had already been planned to "send a number of skilled Italian professors" to Sardinia to "rid the Sardinian teachers of their errors" and "steer them along the right path".<ref name="sotgiu1982" /> The purpose did not elude the attention of the Sardinian ruling class, who deplored the fact that "the Piedmontese bishops have introduced preaching in Italian" and, in an anonymous document attributed to the conservative Sardinian Parliament and eloquently called {{lang|it|Lamento del Regno}} ("Grievance of the Kingdom"), denounced how "the arms, the privileges, the laws, the language, University, and currency of Aragon have now been taken away, to the disgrace of Spain, and to the detriment of all particulars".<ref name="Carbonell" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Rivista storica italiana|volume=104|year=1992|page=55|publisher=Edizioni scientifiche italiane}}</ref>

Spanish was replaced as the official language, even though Italian struggled to take roots for a long time: Milà i Fontanals wrote in 1863 that Catalan had been used in notarial instruments from Sardinia well into the 1780s,<ref name="Carbonell" /> together with Sardinian, while parish registers and official deeds continued to be drawn up in Spanish until 1828.<ref>{{cite book|author=Clemente Caria|year=1981|title=Canto sacro-popolare in Sardegna|location=Oristano|publisher=S'Alvure|page=45}}</ref> The most immediate effect of the order was thus the further [[Minoritized language|marginalization]] of the Sardinians' native idiom, making way for a thorough Italianisation of the island.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sardegnacultura.it/j/v/258?s=20329&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/20180125134456/http://www.sardegnacultura.it/j/v/258?s=20329&v=2&c=2695&t=7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/dialetti-sardi_(Enciclopedia-dell%27Italiano)|title=sardi, dialetti in "Enciclopedia dell'Italiano"|website=www.treccani.it}}</ref><ref name="Salvi1" /><ref name="Lubello" /> For the first time, in fact, even the wealthy and most powerful families of rural Sardinia, the {{lang|sc|printzipales}}, started to perceive Sardinian as a handicap.<ref name="Bolognesi" /> Girolamo Sotgiu asserts on the matter that "the Sardinian ruling class, just as it had become Hispanicized, now became Italianised, without ever managing to become Sardinian, that is to say, to draw from the experience and culture of their people, from which it came, those elements of concreteness without which a culture and a ruling class always seem foreign even in their homeland. This was the objective that the Savoyard government had set itself and which, to a good measure, it managed to pursue".<ref name="sotgiu1982" />

Francesco Gemelli, in {{lang|it|Il Rifiorimento della Sardegna proposto nel miglioramento di sua agricoltura}}, depicts the island's linguistic pluralism in 1776, and referring to [[Francesco Cetti]]'s {{lang|it|I quadrupedi della Sardegna}} for a more meticulous analysis of "the character of the Sardinian language ("{{lang|it|indole della lingua sarda}}") and the main differences between Sassarese and Tuscan": "five languages are spoken in Sardinia, that is Spanish, Italian, Sardinian, Algherese, and Sassarese. The former two because of the past and today's domination, and they are understood and spoken through schooling by all the educated people residing in the cities, as well as villages. Sardinian is common to all the Kingdom, and is divided into two main dialects, Campidanese Sardinian and Sardinian from the Upper Half ("{{lang|it|capo di sopra}}"). Algherese is a Catalan dialect, for a Catalan colony is Alghero; and finally Sassarese, which is spoken in [[Sassari]], [[Tempio Pausania|Tempio]] and [[Castelsardo|Castel sardo]] (''sic''), is a dialect of Tuscan, a relic of their Pisan overlords. Spanish is losing ground to Italian, which has taken over the former in the fields of education and jurisdiction".<ref>"Cinque linguaggi parlansi in Sardegna, lo spagnuolo, l'italiano, il sardo, l'algarese, e 'l sassarese. I primi due per ragione del passato e del presente dominio, e delle passate, e presenti scuole intendonsi e parlansi da tutte le pulite persone nelle città, e ancor ne' villaggi. Il sardo è comune a tutto il Regno, e dividesi in due precipui dialetti, sardo campidanese e sardo del capo di sopra. L'algarese è un dialetto del catalano, perché colonia di catalani è Algheri; e finalmente il sassarese che si parla in Sassari, in Tempio e in Castel sardo, è un dialetto del toscano, reliquia del dominio de' Pisani. Lo spagnuolo va perdendo terreno a misura che prende piede l'italiano, il quale ha dispossessato il primo delle scuole, e de' tribunali." {{cite book |title=Rifiorimento della Sardegna proposto nel miglioramento di sua agricoltura|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R-tLz6JWmDkC|author=Francesco Gemelli |location=Torino|publisher=Giammichele Briolo|volume=2|year=1776}}</ref>

The first systematic study on the Sardinian language was written in 1782 by the philologist Matteo Madau, with the title of {{lang|it|Il ripulimento della lingua sarda lavorato sopra la sua antologia colle due matrici lingue, la greca e la latina}}.<ref>Madau, Matteo (1782). ''Saggio d'un opera intitolata Il ripulimento della lingua sarda lavorato sopra la sua analogia colle due matrici lingue, la greca e la latina'', Bernardo Titard, Cagliari</ref> The intention that motivated Madau was to trace the ideal path through which Sardinian could be elevated to the island's proper national language;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/matteo-madao_(Dizionario-Biografico)|title=MADAO, Matteo in "Dizionario Biografico"|website=www.treccani.it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.poesias.it/poeti/madau_matteo/madau.htm|title=Ichnussa – la biblioteca digitale della poesia sarda|website=www.poesias.it}}</ref><ref>[http://www.tdx.cat/bitstream/handle/10803/129737/tmf2.pdf?sequence=3 Un arxipèlag invisible: la relació impossible de Sardenya i Còrsega sota nacionalismes, segles XVIII-XX] – Marcel Farinelli, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Institut Universitari d'Història Jaume Vicens i Vives, p. 285</ref> nevertheless, according to Amos Cardia, the Savoyard climate of repression on Sardinian culture would induce Matteo Madau to veil its radical proposals with some literary devices, and the author was eventually unable to ever translate them into reality.<ref name="Cardia, Amos 2006 pp. 111-112">{{cite book|author=Amos Cardia|year=2006|title=S'italianu in Sardìnnia candu, cumenti e poita d'ant impostu: 1720–1848; poderi e lìngua in Sardìnnia in edadi spanniola|publisher=Iskra|location=Ghilarza|pages=111–112}}</ref> The first volume of comparative Sardinian dialectology was produced in 1786 by the Catalan Jesuit Andres Febres, known in Italy and Sardinia by the pseudonym of {{lang|it|Bonifacio d'Olmi}}, who returned from [[Lima]] where he had first published a book of [[Mapuche language|Mapuche]] grammar in 1764.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sardiniapost.it/culture/cultura/febres-la-prima-grammatica-sul-sardo-a-lezione-di-limba-dal-gesuita-catalano/|title=Febrés, la prima grammatica sul sardo. A lezione di limba dal gesuita catalano|date=8 June 2019|publisher=Sardiniapost.it}}</ref> After he moved to Cagliari, he became fascinated with the Sardinian language as well and conducted some research on three specific dialects; the aim of his work, entitled {{lang|it|Prima grammatica de' tre dialetti sardi}},<ref>Febres, Andres (1786). ''Prima grammatica de' tre dialetti sardi '', Cagliari [the volume can be found in Cagliari's University Library, Baille Collection, ms. 11.2.K., n.18]</ref> was to "write down the rules of the Sardinian language" and spur the Sardinians to "cherish the language of their Homeland, as well as Italian". The government in [[Turin]], which had been monitoring Febres' activity, decided that his work would not be allowed to be published: [[Victor Amadeus III of Savoy|Victor Amadeus III]] had supposedly not appreciated the fact that the book had a bilingual dedication to him in Italian and Sardinian, a mistake that his successors, while still echoing back to a general concept of "Sardinian ancestral homeland", would from then on avoid, and making exclusive use of Italian to produce their works.<ref name="Cardia, Amos 2006 pp. 111-112"/>

At the end of the 18th century, following the trail of the [[French Revolution]], a group of the Sardinian middle class planned to break away from Savoyard rule and institute an independent Sardinian Republic under French protection; all over the island, a number of political pamphlets printed in Sardinian were illegally distributed, calling for a mass revolt against the "Piedmontese" rule and the barons' abuse. The most famous literary product born out of [[Sa die de sa Sardigna|such political unrest]] was the poem {{lang|sc|[[Su patriottu sardu a sos feudatarios]]}}, noted as a testament of the French-inspired democratic and patriotic values, as well as Sardinia's situation under feudalism.<ref>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. 127</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Sergio Salvi|title=Le lingue tagliate. Storia delle minoranze linguistiche in Italia|location=Milano|publisher=Rizzoli|year=1974|pages=182–183}}</ref> As for the reactions that the three-year Sardinian revolutionary period aroused in the island's ruling class, who were now in the process of Italianisation, for Sotgiu "its failure was complete: undecided between a breathless municipalism and a dead-end attachment to the Crown, it did not have the courage to lead the revolutionary wave coming from the countryside".<ref name="sotgiu1982" /> In fact, although pamphlets such as "the Achilles of Sardinian Liberation" circulated, denouncing the backwardness of an oppressive feudal system and a Ministry that was said to have "always been the enemy of the Sardinian Nation", and the "social pact between the Sovereign and the Nation" was declared to have been broken, there was no radical change in the form of government: therefore, it is not surprising, according to Sotgiu, that although "the call for the Sardinian nation, its traditions and identity became stronger and stronger, even to the point of requesting the creation of a stable military force of "Sardinian nationals only"", the concrete hypothesis of abolishing the monarchical and feudal regimes did not "make its way into the consciousness of many".<ref name="auto2">{{Cite book|author=Manlio Brigaglia|title=La Sardegna|volume=1. La geografia, la storia, l'arte e la letteratura|location=Cagliari|publisher=Edizioni Della Torre|year=1982|page=90}}</ref> The only result was therefore "the defeat of the peasant class emerging from the very  core of feudal society, urged on by the masses of peasants and led by the most advanced forces of the Sardinian bourgeoisie"<ref name="auto2"/> and, conversely, the victory of the feudal barons and "of large strata of the town bourgeoisie that had developed within the framework of the feudal order and feared that the abolition of feudalism and the proclamation of the Republic might simultaneously destroy the very basis of their own wealth and prestige".<ref name="sotgiu95">{{Cite book|author=Manlio Brigaglia|title=La Sardegna|volume=1. La geografia, la storia, l'arte e la letteratura|location=Cagliari|publisher=Edizioni Della Torre|year=1982|page=95}}</ref>

In the climate of monarchic restoration that followed [[Giovanni Maria Angioy]]'s rebellion, whose substantial failure marked therefrom a historic watershed in Sardinia's future,<ref name="sotgiu95" /> other Sardinian intellectuals, all characterized by an attitude of general devotion to their island as well as proven loyalty to the House of Savoy, posed in fact the question of the Sardinian language, while being careful enough to use only Italian as a language to get their point across. During the 19th century in particular, the Sardinian intellectuality and ruling class found itself divided over the adherence to the Sardinian national values and the allegiance to the new Italian nationality,<ref>{{cite conference |url=https://www.academia.edu/38298144 |title=Geostorica sarda. Produzione letteraria nella e nelle lingue di Sardegna |book-title=Literature 8.2 |publisher=Rhesis UniCa |author=Maurizio Virdis|page=21}}</ref> toward which they eventually leaned in the wake of the abortive Sardinian revolution.<ref>"Nel caso della Sardegna, la scelta della patria italiana è avvenuta da parte delle élite legate al dominio sabaudo sin dal 1799, in modo esplicito, più che altro come strategia di un ceto che andava formandosi attraverso la fusione fra aristocrazia, nobiltà di funzione e borghesia, in reazione al progetto antifeudale, democratico e repubblicano della Sarda rivoluzione." Mongili, Alessandro. ''Topologie postcoloniali. Innovazione e modernizzazione in Sardegna'', Condaghes, chpt. 1.2 "indicibile è il sardo"</ref> The identity crisis of the Sardinian ruling class, and their strive for acceptance into the new citizenship of the Italian identity, would manifest itself with the publication of the so-called {{lang|it|Falsi d'Arborea}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Maurizio Virdis|title=Prospettive identitarie in Sardegna, in Contarini, Silvia. Marras, Margherita. Pias, Giuliana. L'identità sarda del XXI secolo tra globale, locale e postcoloniale|year=2012|pages=32–33|publisher=Il Maestrale|location=Nuoro}}</ref> by the [[Perfect Fusion|unionist]] Pietro Martini in 1863.

A few years after the major anti-Piedmontese revolt, in 1811, the priest Vincenzo Raimondo Porru published a timid essay of Sardinian grammar, which, however, referred expressively to the Southern dialect (hence the title of {{lang|it|Saggio di grammatica del dialetto sardo meridionale}}<ref>''Saggio di grammatica sul dialetto sardo meridionale dedicato a sua altezza reale Maria Cristina di Bourbon infanta delle Sicilie duchessa del genevese'', Cagliari, Reale stamperia, 1811</ref>) and, out of prudence towards the king, was made with the declared intention of easing the acquisition of Italian among his fellow Sardinians, instead of protecting their language.<ref>"[Il Porru] In generale considera la lingua un patrimonio che deve essere tutelato e migliorato con sollecitudine. In definitiva, per il Porru possiamo ipotizzare una probabilmente sincera volontà di salvaguardia della lingua sarda che però, dato il clima di severa censura e repressione creato dal dominio sabaudo, dovette esprimersi tutta in funzione di un miglior apprendimento dell'italiano. Siamo nel 1811, ancora a breve distanza dalla stagione calda della rivolta antifeudale e repubblicana, dentro il periodo delle congiure e della repressione." {{cite book|author=Amos Cardia|year=2006|title=S'italianu in Sardìnnia candu, cumenti e poita d'ant impostu: 1720–1848; poderi e lìngua in Sardìnnia in edadi spanniola|publisher=Iskra|location=Ghilarza|pages=112–113}}</ref> The more ambitious work of the professor and senator [[Giovanni Spano]], the ''Ortographia sarda nationale'' ("Sardinian National Orthography"),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/mmt/fullsize/2009042212524300097.pdf|title=Ortographia Sarda Nationale o siat Grammatica de sa limba logudoresa cumparada cum s'italiana|author=Johanne Ispanu|year=1840|publisher=Reale Stamperia|location=Kalaris|access-date=27 June 2019|archive-date=26 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626202241/http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/mmt/fullsize/2009042212524300097.pdf}}</ref> although it was officially meant for the same purpose as Porru's,<ref group=note>In Spano's dedication to [[Maria Theresa of Austria (1801–1855)|Charles Albert's wife]], out of devotion to the new rulers, there are several passages in which the author sings the praises of the Savoyards and their cultural policies pursued in Sardinia, such as "It was destiny that the sweet Italian tongue, although born on the pleasant banks of the [[Arno]], would one day also become rich heritage of the [[Tirso (river)|Tirso]]'s inhabitants" (p. 5) and, formulating a vow of loyalty to the new dynasty of regents that followed the Spanish ones, "Sardinia owes so much to the most August HOUSE OF SAVOY, which, once the Hispanic domination had ceased, so wisely promoted the development of science, and also commanded during the middle of the last century, that Tuscan be made the language of the Dicasteries and public education" (p. 6). The Preface, entitled ''Al giovanetto alunno'', states the intention, already common to Porru, to publish a work dedicated to the teaching of Italian, through the differences and similarities provided by another language more familiar to the Sardinian subjects.</ref> attempted in reality to establish a unified Sardinian [[orthography]] based on Logudorese, just like [[Florentine dialect|Florentine]] had become the basis for Italian.<ref>"Il presente lavoro però restringesi propriamente al solo ''Logudorese'' ossia Centrale, che questo forma la vera lingua nazionale, la più antica ed armoniosa e che soffrì alterazioni meno delle altre". Ispanu, Johanne (1840). ''Ortographia sarda nationale o siat grammatica de sa limba logudoresa cumparada cum s'italiana'', p. 12</ref><ref>"[...] Nonetheless, the two works by Spano are of extraordinary importance, as they put on the table in Sardinia the "question of the Sardinian language", the language that should have been the unified and unifying one, to be enforced on the island over its singular dialects; the language of the Sardinian nation, through which the island was keen to project itself onto the other European nations, that already reached or were about to reach their political and cultural actualization in the 1800s, including the Italian nation. And just along the lines of what had been theorized and put into effect in favour of the Italian nation, that was successfully completing the process of linguistic unification by elevating the Florentine dialect to the role of "national language", so in Sardinia the long-desired "Sardinian national language" was given the name of "illustrious Sardinian"." Original: "[...] Ciononostante le due opere dello Spano sono di straordinaria importanza, in quanto aprirono in Sardegna la discussione sul ''problema della lingua sarda'', quella che sarebbe dovuta essere la lingua unificata ed unificante, che si sarebbe dovuta imporre in tutta l'isola sulle particolarità dei singoli dialetti e suddialetti, la lingua della nazione sarda, con la quale la Sardegna intendeva inserirsi tra le altre nazioni europee, quelle che nell'Ottocento avevano già raggiunto o stavano per raggiungere la loro attuazione politica e culturale, compresa la nazione italiana. E proprio sulla falsariga di quanto era stato teorizzato ed anche attuato a favore della nazione italiana, che nell'Ottocento stava per portare a termine il processo di unificazione linguistica, elevando il dialetto fiorentino e toscano al ruolo di "lingua nazionale", chiamandolo ''italiano illustre'', anche in Sardegna l'auspicata ''lingua nazionale sarda'' fu denominata ''sardo illustre''"". {{cite book|author=Massimo Pittau|title=Grammatica del sardo illustre: con la messa cristiana in lingua sarda|location=Sassari|publisher=C. Delfino|year=2005|pages=11–12}} [http://www.pittau.it/Sardo/sardoillustre.html Introduction]</ref>
[[File:SardiniePiemont.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|The [[Kingdom of Sardinia]] in 1856|alt=]]

The jurist Carlo Baudi di Vesme claimed that the suppression of Sardinian and the imposition of Italian was desirable to make the islanders into "civilized Italians".<ref group=note>"Una innovazione in materia di incivilimento della Sardegna e d'istruzione pubblica, che sotto vari aspetti sarebbe importantissima, si è quella di proibire severamente in ogni atto pubblico civile non meno che nelle funzioni ecclesiastiche, tranne le prediche, l'uso dei dialetti sardi, prescrivendo l'esclusivo impiego della lingua italiana. Attualmente in sardo si gettano i così detti pregoni o bandi; in sardo si cantano gl'inni dei Santi (''Goccius''), alcuni dei quali privi di dignità [...] È necessario inoltre scemare l'uso del dialetto sardo ''[sic]'' ed introdurre quello della lingua italiana anche per altri non men forti motivi; ossia per incivilire alquanto quella nazione, sì affinché vi siano più universalmente comprese le istruzioni e gli ordini del Governo,... sì finalmente per togliere una delle maggiori divisioni, che sono fra la Sardegna e i Regi stati di terraferma." {{cite book|author=Carlo Baudi di Vesme|title=Considerazioni politiche ed economiche sulla Sardegna|year=1848|publisher=Dalla Stamperia Reale|pages=49–51|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ko83AAAAcAAJ}}</ref><ref>"In una sua opera del 1848 egli mostra di considerare la situazione isolana come carica di pericoli e di minacce per il Piemonte e propone di procedere colpendo innanzitutto con decisione la lingua sarda, proibendola cioè "severamente in ogni atto pubblico civile non meno che nelle funzioni ecclesiastiche, tranne le prediche". Baudi di Vesme non si fa illusioni: l'antipiemontesismo non è mai venuto meno nonostante le proteste e le riaffermazioni di fratellanza con i popoli di terraferma; si è vissuti anzi fino a quel momento – aggiunge – non in attesa di una completa unificazione della Sardegna al resto dello Stato ma addirittura di un "rinnovamento del novantaquattro", cioè della storica "emozione popolare" che aveva portato alla cacciata dei Piemontesi. Ma, rimossi gli ostacoli che sul piano politico-istituzionale e soprattutto su quello etnico e linguistico differenziano la Sardegna dal Piemonte, nulla potrà più impedire che l'isola diventi un tutt'uno con gli altri Stati del re e si italianizzi davvero". Federico Francioni, ''Storia dell'idea di "nazione sarda"'', in {{cite book|author=Manlio Brigaglia|title=La Sardegna. La cultura popolare, l'economia, l'autonomia|volume=2|location=Cagliari|publisher=Edizioni Della Torre|year=1982|pages=173–174}}</ref> Since Sardinia was, in the words of Di Vesme, "not Spanish, but neither Italian: it is and has been for centuries just Sardinian",<ref name="baudi">{{Cite book|author=Carlo Baudi di Vesme|title=Considerazioni politiche ed economiche sulla Sardegna|year=1848|publisher=Dalla Stamperia Reale|page=306|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ko83AAAAcAAJ}}</ref> it was necessary, at the turn of the circumstances that "inflamed it with ambition, desire and love of all things Italian",<ref name="baudi" /> to promote these tendencies even more in order "to profit from them in the common interest",<ref name="baudi" /> for which it proved "almost necessary"<ref>{{Cite book|author=Carlo Baudi di Vesme|title=Considerazioni politiche ed economiche sulla Sardegna|date=1848 |publisher=Dalla Stamperia Reale|page=305|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ko83AAAAcAAJ}}</ref> to spread the Italian language in Sardinia "presently so little known in the interior"<ref name="baudi" /> with a view to better enable the [[Perfect Fusion]]: "Sardinia will be Piedmont, it will be Italy; it will receive and give us lustre, wealth and power!".<ref>{{Cite book|author=Carlo Baudi di Vesme|title=Considerazioni politiche ed economiche sulla Sardegna|year=1848|publisher=Dalla Stamperia Reale|page=313|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ko83AAAAcAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Sebastiano Ghisu|title=Filosofia de logu|chapter=3, 8|location=Milano|publisher=Meltemi|year=2021}}</ref>

The primary and tertiary education was thus offered exclusively through Italian, and Piedmontese cartographers went on to replace many Sardinian place names with Italian ones.<ref name="Salvi1" /> The Italian education, being imparted in a language the Sardinians were not familiar with,<ref group=note>Andrea Manca dell'Arca, an agronomist from Sassari (a city which, like most of Northern Sardinia, had been historically more exposed via Corsica to the Italian culture than the rest of the island) had so illustrated how Italian was still perceived by the locals: "Italian is as familiar to me as Latin, French or other foreign languages which one only partially learns through grammar study and the books, without fully mastering them" (''È tanto nativa per me la lingua italiana, come la latina, francese o altre forestiere che solo s'imparano in parte colla grammatica, uso e frequente lezione de' libri, ma non si possiede appieno''). ''Ricordi di Santu Lussurgiu di Francesco Maria Porcu in Santu Lussurgiu dalle Origini alla "Grande Guerra"'' – Grafiche editoriali Solinas – Nuoro, 2005</ref> spread Italian for the first time in history to Sardinian villages, marking the troubled transition to the new dominant language; the school environment, which employed Italian as the sole means of communication, grew to become a microcosm around the then-monolingual Sardinian villages.<ref group=note name="Fra">The introduction of Italian as a foreign language to the Sardinian villages is exemplified in a passage from the contemporary Francesco (''[[Francis (given name)|Frantziscu]]'') Masala's ''Sa limba est s'istoria de su mundu; Condaghe de Biddafraigada'' ("The language is the world's history; Biddafraigada's Condaghe"), Condaghes, p. 4: "A sos tempos de sa pitzinnìa, in bidda, totus chistionaiamus in limba sarda. In domos nostras no si faeddaiat atera limba. E deo, in sa limba nadìa, comintzei a connoscher totu sas cosas de su mundu. A sos ses annos, intrei in prima elementare e su mastru de iscola proibeit, a mie e a sos fedales mios, de faeddare in s'unica limba chi connoschiamus: depiamus chistionare in limba italiana, "''la lingua della Patria''", nos nareit, seriu seriu, su mastru de iscola. Gai, totus sos pitzinnos de 'idda, intraian in iscola abbistos e allirgos e nde bessian tontos e cari-tristos." ("When I was a little kid growing up in the village, we all used to speak in the Sardinian language. We did not speak any other language in our homes. And I began to know all the things of the world in the native language. At the age of six, I went to first grade and the school teacher forbade me as well as my peers to speak in the only language we knew: from that moment on, we only had to speak in Italian, "the language of the Fatherland", he told us seriously. Thus, the children of our village would come to school bright and happy, and walk out of school empty-headed and with a gloomy look on our faces.")</ref> In 1811, the canon Salvatore Carboni published in [[Bologna]] the polemic book {{lang|sc|Sos discursos sacros in limba sarda}} ("Holy Discourses in Sardinian language"), wherein the author lamented the fact that Sardinia, "{{lang|sc|hoe provinzia italiana non podet tenner sas lezzes e sos attos pubblicos in sa propia limba}}" ("Being an Italian province nowadays, [Sardinia] cannot have laws and public acts made in its own language"), and while claiming that "{{lang|sc|sa limba sarda, totu chi non uffiziale, durat in su Populu Sardu cantu durat sa Sardigna}}" ("the Sardinian language, however unofficial, will last as long as Sardinia among the Sardinians"), he also asked himself "{{lang|sc|Proite mai nos hamus a dispreziare cun d'unu totale abbandonu sa limba sarda, antiga et nobile cantu s'italiana, sa franzesa et s'ispagnola?}}" ("Why should we show neglect and contempt for Sardinian, which is a language as ancient and noble as Italian, French and Spanish?").<ref>{{cite book|author=Salvatore Carboni|year=1881|title=Sos discursos sacros in limba sarda|location=Bologna|publisher=Imprenta Pontificia Mareggiani}} In {{cite book|author=Sergio Salvi|title=Le lingue tagliate. Storia delle minoranze linguistiche in Italia|location=Milano|publisher=Rizzoli|year=1974|pages=186–187}}</ref>

In 1827, the historical legal code serving as the ''consuetud de la nació sardesca'' in the days of the Iberian rule, the ''[[Carta de Logu]]'', was abolished and replaced by the more advanced Savoyard code of [[Charles Felix of Sardinia|Charles Felix]] "''Leggi civili e criminali del Regno di Sardegna''", written in Italian.<ref name="Salvi2">{{cite book|author=Sergio Salvi|title=Le lingue tagliate. Storia delle minoranze linguistiche in Italia|location=Milano|publisher=Rizzoli|year=1974|page=184}}</ref><ref>"Des del seu càrrec de capità general, Carles Fèlix havia lluitat amb mà rígida contra les darreres actituds antipiemonteses que encara dificultaven l'activitat del govern. Ara promulgava el Codi felicià (1827), amb el qual totes les lleis sardes eren recollides i, sovint, modificades. Pel que ara ens interessa, cal assenyalar que el nou codi abolia la Carta de Logu – la "consuetud de la nació sardesca", vigent des de l'any 1421 – i allò que restava de l'antic dret municipalista basat en el privilegi." Joan Armangué i Herrero, ''Represa i exercici de la consciència lingüística a l'Alguer (ss.XVIII-XX)'', Arxiu de Tradicions de l'Alguer, Cagliari, I.1</ref> The [[Perfect Fusion]] with the Mainland States, enacted under the auspices of a "transplant, without any reserves and obstacles, [of] the culture and civilization of the Italian Mainland to Sardinia",<ref>"Il trapiantamento in Sardegna, senza riserve ed ostacoli, della civiltà e cultura continentale, la formazione d'una sola famiglia civile, composta di Liguri, Piemontesi, Sardi, e Savoiardi, sotto un solo Padre meglio che Re, il Grande Carlo Alberto." {{cite book|author=Pietro Martini|year=1847|title=Sull'unione civile della Sardegna colla Liguria, col Piemonte e colla Savoia|location=Cagliari|publisher=Timon|page=4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5eLSu0NrcHQC}}</ref> would result in the loss of the island's residual autonomy<ref name="Toso">{{Cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/magazine/lingua_italiana/articoli/scritto_e_parlato/Toso8.html|title=Lingue sotto il tetto d'Italia. Le minoranze alloglotte da Bolzano a Carloforte – 8. Il sardo &#124; Treccani, il portale del sapere|website=www.treccani.it}}</ref><ref name="Salvi2" /> and marked the moment when "the language of the "Sardinian nation" lost its value as an instrument with which to ethnically identify a particular people and its culture, to be codified and cherished, and became instead one of the many regional dialects subordinated to the national language".<ref>"...la 'lingua della sarda nazione' perse il valore di strumento di identificazione etnica di un popolo e della sua cultura, da codificare e valorizzare, per diventare uno dei tanti dialetti regionali subordinati alla lingua nazionale." Dettori, Antonietta, 2001. ''Sardo e italiano: tappe fondamentali di un complesso rapporto'', in Argiolas, Mario; Serra, Roberto. ''Limba lingua language: lingue locali, standardizzazione e identità in Sardegna nell'era della globalizzazione'', Cagliari, CUEC, p. 88</ref>

Despite the long-term assimilation policy, the anthem of the Savoyard [[Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia|Kingdom of Sardinia]] would be ''[[S'hymnu sardu nationale]]'' ("the Sardinian National Anthem"), also known as ''Cunservet Deus su Re'' ("God save the King"), before it was ''de facto'' replaced by the Italian ''[[Marcia Reale]]'' as well, in 1861.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ilisso.com/inno/innonazionalesardo.pdf|title=Spanu, Gian Nicola. ''Il primo inno d'Italia è sardo''|access-date=5 July 2016|archive-date=11 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011061344/http://www.ilisso.com/inno/innonazionalesardo.pdf}}</ref> However, even when the island became part of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] under [[Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy|Victor Emmanuel II]] in 1861, Sardinia's distinct culture from the now unified Mainland made it an overall neglected province within the newly proclaimed unitary [[nation state]].<ref>"In 1861 Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of Italy, and the island became part of the unified Italian state. Sardinia's distinct language and culture as well as its geographic isolation from the Italian mainland, made it something of a forgotten province, however." {{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Sardinia-island-Italy/Aragonese-domination#ref333582|title=Sardinia, History, People and Points of Interest. Sardinia in a united Italy|publisher=Britannica}}</ref> Between 1848 and 1861, the island was plunged into a social and economic crisis that was to last until the [[post-war period]].<ref name=Toso2008>{{Cite book|author=Fiorenzo Toso|title=Le minoranze linguistiche in Italia|publisher=Società editrice Il Mulino|location=Bologna|year=2008|isbn=978-88-15-36114-1|chapter=2}}</ref> Eventually, Sardinian came to be perceived as {{lang|sc|sa limba de su famine}} / {{lang|sc|sa lingua de su famini}}, literally translating into English as "the language of hunger" (i.e. the language of the poor), and Sardinian parents strongly supported the teaching of the Italian tongue to their children, since they saw it as the portal to escaping from a poverty-stricken, rural, isolated and underprivileged life.