Languagle #41: Sardinian
Su mundu est tundu, e chie non ischit navigare falat a fundu
"The world is round, and whoever can't navigate goes to the bottom."
What it means
The world changes, and those who cannot adapt will sink. A seafaring image for an island language: the world is round, and anyone who cannot navigate it goes to the bottom. The internal rhyme (tundu, fundu) makes it memorable.
How to say it
soo MOON-doo est TOON-doo, eh KEE-eh non ISS-kit na-vi-GA-reh FA-lat a FOON-doo
Ch is a hard k, as in Italian. Every vowel is said clearly.
Word by word
- Su mundu soo MOON-doo: the world
- est est: is
- tundu TOON-doo: round
- e chie eh KEE-eh: and whoever
- non ischit non ISS-kit: doesn't know how to
- navigare na-vi-GA-reh: sail
- falat FA-lat: goes down
- a fundu a FOON-doo: to the bottom
Mundu, tundu and fundu all rhyme.
Where it was found
In Sardinian a proverb is a ditzu. This one is from contusu.it, which gives it with an Italian translation.
How to recognise Sardinian
Sardinian can pass for Italian at first glance, but look at the endings. Where Italian ends a word in -o, Sardinian often uses -u (mundu, not mondo), and its plurals end in -s, as in sos and sas. The words for 'the' are su and sa, and many words start with is-, like ischit (knows). Venetian, another language of Italy, drops final vowels and uses x.
About the Sardinian language
Sardinian is a Romance language spoken on the island of Sardinia, Italy, and is officially recognised as a minority language. It is a separate language from Italian, not a dialect of it, and is often described as the closest living Romance language to Latin in its sounds: 'house' is 'domo', from Latin 'domus'. Its two main written varieties are Logudorese and Campidanese. It is endangered, as younger speakers increasingly use Italian.
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