The Southern Romance languages are a primary branch of the

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

. According to the classification of linguists such as Leonard (1980) and Agard (1984), the Southern Romance family is composed of Sardinian, Corsican, and the southern

Lucania Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy, corresponding to the modern-day region of Basilicata. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. It bordered with Samnium and ...

n dialects.Subfamily: Southern Romance, Glottolog
/ref> This theory is far from universally supported. In fact, the majority of linguists classify Corsican, including

Gallurese Gallurese () is a Romance languages, Romance dialect of the Italo-Dalmatian languages, Italo-Dalmatian family spoken in the region of Gallura, northeastern Sardinia. Gallurese is variously described as a distinct southern dialect of Corsican lang ...

and Sassarese as its dialects, as part of

Italo-Dalmatian The Italo-Dalmatian languages, or Central Romance languages, are a group of Romance languages spoken in Italy, Corsica (France), and formerly in Dalmatia (Croatia). Italo-Dalmatian can be split into:Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspe ...

and closely related to Tuscan or the centro-southern Italian dialects,Harris, Martin; Vincent, Nigel (1997), Romance Languages. London: Routlegde. because of the island's considerable degree of tuscanization during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, leaving Sardinian as the only remaining representative of the branch once the

African Romance African Romance, African Latin or Afroromance is an extinct Romance languages, Romance language that was spoken in the various provinces of Africa (Roman province), Roman Africa by the African Romans under the later Roman Empire and its various ...

dialects had gone extinct, unless the southern Lucanian dialects are also classified as part of this branch, as they show some important traits in common with Sardinian.

Classification

Ethnologue and Glottolog, which support the Southern Romance theory, propose the following classification (with Glottolog considering South Lucanian and Sardo-Corsican to be branches of Southern Romance and Ethnologue considering Sardo-Corsican to be synonymous with Southern Romance), which is not endorsed by other linguists in light of the structural differences between these languages. Corsican, for example, is otherwise classified as an Italo-Dalmatian language, and Gallurese, like Sassarese, as a (southern) Corsican dialect (with influences from Logudorese Sardinian) or a transitional variety between Corsican and Sardinian. However, the southern dialects of Corsican as well as Gallurese and Sassarese display Sardinian-like vocalism (see ). *Southern Romance **Sardo-Corsican *** Corsican (''corsu'') in Corsica *** Sardinian (''sardu'') in Sardinia **** Logudorese Sardinian (''sardu logudoresu'') ****

Campidanese Sardinian Campidanese Sardinian (, ) also known as Southern Sardinian () is one of the two written standards of the Sardinian language, which is often considered one of the most, if not the most conservative of all the Romance languages. The orthography ...

(''sardu campidanesu'') **** Gallurese Sardinian (''gadduresu'') **** Sassarese Sardinian (''sassaresu'') ** South Lucanian Other classifications include in the family the extinct group of

, which is known to have been used by populations of North Africa pertaining to the Roman sphere of influence during at least the first centuries after the dissolution of official institutions of the Roman Empire, and developed under the rule of the Byzantine Empire in the area.

Gallery

File:Sardinia Language Map.png, Linguistic map of Sardinia File:Maps of Corsican Dialects.svg, Linguistic map of Corsica and northern Sardinia File:Sardinian_vowels.png, Vowel changes from Latin to Sardinian

References

Romance languages {{romance-lang-stub