Sardinian phonology

All dialects of Sardinian have phonetic features that are archaic relative to other Romance languages. The degree of archaism varies, with the dialect spoken in the Province of Nuoro being considered the most conservative. Medieval evidence indicates that the language spoken on Sardinia and Corsica at the time was similar to modern Nuorese. The remaining dialects are thought to have innovated as the result of Italian and Spanish influences.

The examples listed below are from the Logudorese dialect:
 * The Latin short vowels and  have preserved their original sound; in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese they became  and, respectively (for example, siccus > sicu, "dry" (Italian secco, Spanish seco).
 * Preservation of the plosive sounds and  before front vowels  and  in many words; for example, centum > kentu, "hundred"; decem > dèke, "ten" and gener > gheneru, "son-in-law" (Italian cento, dièci, genero with  and ).
 * Absence of diphthongizations found in other Romance languages; for example, potest > podet, "he can" (Italian può, Spanish puede); bonus > bónu, "good" (Italian buono, Spanish bueno)

Sardinian contains the following phonetic innovations:
 * Change of the Latin -ll- into a retroflex, shared with Sicilian; for example, corallus > coraddu, "coral" and villa > bidda, "village, town"
 * Similar changes in the consonant clusters -ld- and -nd-: soldus > (money), abundantia >  (abundance)
 * Evolution of pl-, fl and cl into pr, fr and cr, as in Portuguese and Galician; for example, platea > pratza, "plaza" (Portuguese praça, Galician praza, Italian piazza), fluxus > frúsciu, "flabby" (Portuguese and Galician frouxo) and ecclesia > cresia, "church" (Portuguese igreja, Galician igrexa and Italian chiesa)
 * Rearrangements like abbratzare > abbaltzare (to embrace)
 * Vowel prothesis before an initial r in Campidanese, similar to Basque and Gascon: regem > urrei = re, gurrèi (king); rotam > arroda (wheel) (Gascon arròda); rivum > Sardinian and Gascon arríu (river)
 * Vowel prothesis in Logudorese before an initial s followed by consonant, as in the Western Romance languages: scriptum > iscrítu (Spanish escrito, French écrit), stellam > isteddu, "star" (Spanish estrella, French étoile)
 * Except for the Nuorese dialects, intervocalic Latin single voiceless plosives became voiced approximant consonants. Single voiced plosives  were lost:  >  (or its soft counterpart, ): locum >  (Italian luògo), caritatem >  (It. carità). This also applies across word boundaries: porku (pig), but su borku (the pig); domo (house), but sa omo (the house).

Although the latter two features were acquired during Spanish rule, the others indicate a deeper relationship between ancient Sardinia and the Iberian world; the retroflex d, l and r are found in southern Italy, Tuscany and Asturias, and were probably involved in the palatalization process of the Latin clusters -ll-, pl-, cl- (-ll- > Castilian and Catalan -ll-, Gascon -th ; cl- > Galician-Portuguese ch- , Ital. chi- ).

According to Eduardo Blasco Ferrer, Sardinian has the following phonemes:

Vowels
The fourteen vowels, without length differentiation.

Consonants
There are three series of plosives or corresponding approximants: In Cagliari and neighboring dialects, the soft is assimilated to the rhotic consonant : digitus > didu = diru (finger).
 * Voiceless stops derive from their Latin counterparts in composition after another stop. They are reinforced (double) in initial position, but this reinforcement is not written because it does not produce a different phoneme.
 * Double voiced stops (after another consonant) derive from their Latin equivalents in composition after another stop.
 * Weak voiced "stops", sometimes transcribed $\langle\rangle$ (approximants after vowels, as in Spanish), derive from single Latin stops (voiced or voiceless).

The double-voiced retroflex stop (written dd) derives from the former retroflex lateral approximant.

Fricatives

 * The labiodentals (sometimes pronounced  or  in initial position) and
 * Latin initial v becomes b (vipera > bibera, "viper")
 * In central Sardinia the sound disappears, evoking the  >  transformation in Gascon and Castilian.
 * , written th (as in the English thing, the voiceless dental fricative), is a restricted dialectal variety of the phoneme.
 * : For example, ipsa > íssa
 * : Pronounced at the beginning of a word, otherwise  =, and is written sc(i/e). The voiced equivalent, , is often spelled with the letter x.
 * : Pronounced at the beginning of a word, otherwise  =, and is written sc(i/e). The voiced equivalent, , is often spelled with the letter x.

Affricates

 * (or ), a denti-alveolar affricate consonant written tz, corresponds to Italian z or ci- (a natural evolution of before ).
 * (or ), written z, corresponds to Italian gi- or ggi- respectively.
 * , written c(i/e) or ç
 * , written g(e/i) or j
 * , written g(e/i) or j

Nasals

 * , written nny (the palatal nasal for some speakers or dialects, although for most the pronunciation is )
 * , written nny (the palatal nasal for some speakers or dialects, although for most the pronunciation is )
 * , written nny (the palatal nasal for some speakers or dialects, although for most the pronunciation is )

Liquids
Some permutations of l and r are seen; in most dialects, a preconsonant l (for example, lt or lc) becomes r: Latin "altum" > artu, marralzu = marrarzu, "rock".
 * (or ), double initially
 * , a flap written r
 * , a trill written rr

In palatal context, Latin l changed into, ,  or , rather than the  of Italian: achizare (Italian accigliare), *volia > bòlla = bòlza = bòza, "wish" (Italian vòglia), folia > fogia = folla = foza, "leaf" (Italian foglia), filia > filla = fidza = fiza, "daughter" (Italian figlia).