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".

Spanish period to the modern age

By the time the Aragonese crown was joined with the Spanish realm in the late 15th century, the tuscanisation of written Sicilian in the parliamentary and court records had commenced. By the 1543 this process was virtually complete, the new lingua franca of the Italian peninsula had supplanted written Sicilian ? for good.

Related Topics:
Aragonese - 15th century

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Spanish rule had hastened this process in two important ways:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• unike the Aragonese, almost immediately the Spanish placed viceroys on the Sicilian throne. In a sense, the diminishing prestige of the Sicilian kingdom reflected the decline of Sicilian from an official, written language to eventually a spoken language amongst predominantly illiterates; and
• the expulsion of all Jews from all Spanish dominions in 1492 dealt a double blow to Sicily. Not only did the population decline overnight by almost 10%, many of whom were involved in important industries, but these Jews had been Sicilians for 1,500 years and Sicilian was their mother tongue which they used in their schools. Thus the seeds of a possible broad based education system utilising books written in Sicilian was lost to Sicily forever.

Spanish rule lasted over three centuries (not counting the Aragonese and Bourbon periods on either side) and had a significant influence on the Sicilian vocabulary. The following words are of Spanish derivation:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• arricugghìrisi - to return home; (from arrecogerse; but Catalan recollir-se)
• balanza ? scales (from balanza)
• filiccia - arrow (from flecha)
• làstima ? lament, annoyance (from lástima)
• pignata ? pan (from pinada)
• pinzèddu ? brush (from pincel)
• ricivu ? receipt (from recibo)
• spagnari - to be frightened ( cross over of Sic. appagnari with Sp. espantarse)
• spatari - to impede or disarm someone of his sword (from espadar)
• sulità ? solitude (from soledad)