We continue to discuss the nature of this project and work and the ways in which how it is called reflect that emerging and adapting work. Below is some text about one possible name: Abà.
As we slowly begin to understand this place we are caring for, words start to matter differently.
In Sassarese – the Romance language spoken in northwestern Sardegna – the word abà means now or right now. It is a deictic adverb, meaning its reference depends directly on the speaker’s context. In this sense abà is more embodied or situational than the Italian qui. It feels more like ‘here, where I am now’. The word derives from Latin ab hac (‘from this place’ or ‘on this side’), and is part of Sassarese phrases like d’abà (‘from now on’) and par abà (‘for now / for the moment’).
Abá has no etymological connection with the Sarda word abba (water) though there is clear phonetic overlap, and Sardegnan place names frequently reference water – springs, streams, wells and the sea. For example, abbacurrente means “running water”.
You can begin to see what we are playing with here. We have a single word ‘abà’ that echoes the sound of ‘abba’ in Abbacurrente: the area in which the farm is located; a farm that is still referred to as Abbacurrente by the Solinas-Viale family that owns the land, and noting also that the farm was originally called Tenuta Agricola Abbacurrente. Yet with ‘abà’ we bring this phonetic contact into an embodied sense of now. Here, in this land, we are working together for the moment (par abà) while keeping a gentle eye on the future (d’abà).
In the rhythm of Sassarese, perhaps abà reminds us that every utterance is anchored to the present – that the farm, its water, and our work are all part of the same fleeting moment even as we imagine different futures for the land.