Algherese Dialect - Differences From Standard Catalan

Differences From Standard Catalan

The Algherese variant is classified in the Eastern Catalan block, but it has many differences from Central Catalan. Some of the most obvious:

Phonetics

• Like in other languages of Sardinia /ɛ/, /e/, /ɔ/, and /o/ may merge into mid vowels and, respectively.
• Coalescing of unstressed vowels /a/, /ɛ/ and /e/ to (unlike the rest of Eastern Catalan that uses ).
• Algherese preserves /v/ as a distinct phoneme from /b/, like Balearic and most of Valencian.
• Mutation of intervocalic /d/ or /l/ to ; e.g. 'Barceloneta' (little Barcelona): Eastern Standard, Algherese ; and vila ('town') and vida ('life') are homophones in Algherese .
• Mutation of syllable final /r/ to lateral, and the possible resulting group /r/ + consonant is further simplified to ; e.g. forn ('furnace, oven'): Standard, Algherese .
• Depalatalization of syllable final sonorants: lateral /ʎ/ to, nasal /ɲ/ to ; e.g. any ('year'): Standard, Algherese .
• Unlike most Catalan dialects, /l/ is never velarized in Algherese; e.g. sol ('sun'): Standard, Algherese .

Morphology

• Simple past has been replaced by present perfect (present of haver "to have" + past participle), possibly due to Italian influence.
• Imperfect Past preserves etymological -v- in all the conjugations: 1st -ava, 2nd -iva, 3rd -iva (unlike modern eastern and western standard Catalan which has 1st -ava, 2nd -ia, 3rd -ia) (a feature shared with Ribagorçan Catalan).
• Large-scale lexical borrowing and calques from Sardinian, Spanish, and Italian.