Quaderni di Linguistica e Studi Orientali / Working Papers in Linguistics and Oriental Studies n. 5 (2019), pp. 477-495 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13128/QULSO-2421-7220-25978 Arrègulas: Oral Poetry and Minority Language Standardisation* Rosangela Lai Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (<
[email protected]>) Abstract: Arrègulas is a proposal for the standardisation of Campidanese Sardin- ian approved by the Province of Cagliari, in 2009. It began as a reac- tion to the promotion by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia of one Logudorese-based standard language (Limba Sarda Comuna) to be used across the whole of Sardinia. What is peculiar about Arrègulas is that it is modelled after the koiné language employed by cantadoris, who are extemporaneous poets with a strong following in the Campidanese area. This koiné can be described as a form of Southern Campidanese deprived of its most marked features. The Arrègulas proposal gives this oral language a standard orthography with a comparatively straightfor- ward phoneme-grapheme correspondence. All things considered, the standard has potential for a higher degree of acceptability with respect to Limba Sarda Comuna in the Campidanese area, both among proficient native speakers and among the many heritage speakers of Sardinian. Keywords: Arrègulas, minority language education, oral poetry, Sardin- ian, Standard Campidanese 1. Introduction A standardization effort of a minority language is met with all the ob- stacles and challenges intrinsic to standardization in itself, plus the extra difficulties that come with dealing with so vulnerable a thing as a minority language. In Europe, many if not most minority languages, in spite of enjoy- * The author is grateful to the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung/Foundation for fi- nancial support of this work.