Southern Romance languages


The Southern Romance languages are a primary branch of the Romance languages.
According to the classification of linguists such as Leonard and Agard, the Southern Romance family is composed of Sardinian, Corsican, and the southern Lucanian dialects. This theory is far from universally supported. In fact, other linguists classify Corsican, including Gallurese and Sassarese as Italo-Dalmatian languages closely related to Tuscan, and indeed closer to standard Italian than are the other Italian languages, leaving Sardinian as a branch of its own.
The philologist Lausberg was the first linguist to divide the Romance-speaking world into a Western group, an Eastern group and a Southern group, which include the extinct African Romance dialects, the extinct Corsican language as it was spoken prior to the island's Tuscanization and, finally, modern Sardinian, today standing as the sole living language of the group.

Classification

Supporters of the Southern Romance theory propose a classification that is not endorsed by other linguists, who classify Corsican as an Italo-Dalmatian language, and Gallurese as a Corsican dialect or a transitional variety between Corsican and Sardinian. Sassarese is also often classified as transitional between Corsican, Tuscan, and Sardinian.