Sicilian language

Sicilian (Lu Sicilianu, Lingua Siciliana) is the Romance language spoken in Sicily and southern Italy. Sicilian dialects (or dialects comprising the Italiano_meridionale-estremo language group) are spoken on the island of Sicily (and all of its satellite islands), as well as in the southern and central sections of Calabria ("southern Calabro") and Puglia ("Salentino") on the Italian mainland. Ethnologue (see section below) describes Sicilian as being "distinct enough from Standard Italian to be considered a separate language".

Ethnologue report on Sicilian

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Alternate names

The alternate names of Sicilian are: Calabro-Sicilian, Sicilianu, Siculu. The term "Calabro-Sicilian" refers to the fact that a form of Sicilian, or a dialect closely related to Sicilian, is spoken in the far south of Calabria. Sicilianu is the name of the language in Sicilian. The term "Siculu" describes one of the larger prehistoric groups living in Sicily before the arrival of Greeks in the 8th century BC (see below). It can also be used as an adjective to qualify, or further elaborate on, the origins of a person, for example: Siculo-american (siculu-miricanu) or Siculo-australian.

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Dialects of Sicilian

As a language, Sicilian has its own dialects. Ethnologue lists the following main groupings:

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• Western Sicilian (Palermo, Trapani, Central-Western Agrigentino)
• Central Metafonetica
• Southeast Metafonetica
• Eastern Nonmetafonetica (which includes the province of Catania, the second largest city in Sicily)
• Messinese (the province of Messina)
• Isole Eolie (the Aeolian islands)
• Pantesco (the island of Pantelleria
• Southern Calabro (southern and central sections of Calabria)
• Southern Pugliese (called "Salentino" is reportedly a dialect of Sicilian on the peninsular section of Puglia).

Other observations

Sicilian is described as being "vigorous", although most Sicilians are described as being bilingual (obviously being fluent in Italian as the official language of Italy). It refers to the strong French influence in the language (elaborated on further below) and raises the prospect that it may be better classified as "Southern Romance" rather than "Italo-Western".

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