Italian VS Sicilian

Here I will discuss how similar the vocabulary, the pronunciation, the grammar, and the usage of the language really are, or are not at all similarly related. You will see there are some similarities but also quite a few differences. Later, in a different post I will take more time to discuss the cultural and political differences, and what is really going on, why Sicilians call Sicilian a dialect but some scholars want to call Sicilian a language. This post is dedicated to the physical similarities and differences.

In this upcoming section, I want to discuss a more historical account of both Sicilian and Italian, differences and similarities between grammar, spelling, and structure. If technologically possible, I will also include audio samples of both Sicilian and Italian. I might not be able to find the same phrases in both Italian and Sicilian to do a complete "apples to apples" comparison, but it will allow listeners to hear distinct differences that equate to more of just an accent of the same language but rather something completely different.

I would like to give a brief history lesson between Sicilian and Italian. In itself, the history could be an entire book, but for our purposes, I want readers to grasp a basic understanding of the origins of Italian and then Sicilian.

First, I will share a brief history excerpt of Italian and its origins taken from about.com.

Origins

"Linguistically speaking, the Italian language is a member of the Romance group of the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. It is spoken principally in the Italian peninsula, southern Switzerland, San Marino, Sicily, Corsica, northern Sardinia, and on the northeastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, as well as in North and South America. Considered a single language with numerous dialects, Italian, like the other Romance languages, is the direct offspring of the Latin spoken by the Romans and imposed by them on the peoples under their dominion. Of all the major Romance languages, Italian retains the closest resemblance to Latin. The struggle between the written but dead language and the various forms of the living speech, most of which were derived from Vulgar Latin, was nowhere so intense or so protracted as in Italy" (www.about.com).

Next, let's look at some very brief history of Sicilian from Lifeinitaly.com.

The Sicilian Language: Brief History

Thousands of years ago the island of Sicily was occupied by the original Sicilians, the most well-known being the Siculi. These people spoke a language that has not been spoken for millennia, but some words (mainly local names for plants) still survive in modern Sicilian. Once the Phoenicians and later the Ancient Greeks arrived, the indigenous peoples and their language were eventually supplanted. Dialects of Greek were mainly spoken in Sicily until the arrival of the Romans after the First Punic War. It was then that Sicilian received a substantial Latin influence but Greek continued to be the main language for centuries.

With the fall of Rome and the conquests of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, Greek was further solidified as the Lingua Franca for most of Sicily. However a new layer would be added to the Sicilian language with the arrival of the Saracens from North Africa. The invasions did not stop there of course as the Normans, Hohenstaufens, Angevins and Aragonese all took turns ruling Sicily. While not every conqueror influenced the local language, most of the major occupiers have at least bequeathed a few words and phrases which have helped to make Sicilian so colorful.

It is easy to see that both Sicilian and Italian are influenced from different sets of languages, people, cultures and countries. Sicilian is influenced greatly by Arabic, Greek, and multiple African languages where as Italian is more greatly influenced by northern European countries and the ancient language of Latin.

Now, I want to show actual differences between the language. The word on the left is written in Sicilian, the word on the right is the Italian version. Both words mean the same and the translation is the English word on the right hand side. Notice the Sicilian "U" is used in place of the Italian long "O".

parrinu instead of prete (priest)
beddu for bello (beautiful)
iddu for egli (he) and idda for ella (she)
babbaluci instead of lumache (snails)
picciottu instead of giovanotto (young man)
cacoccila for carciofo (artichoke)
chiddu for esso (it)
chisstu for questo (this)

Notice how similar some of the words are to each other, like beddu and bello or chisstu and questo but yet how different words can be such as babbaluci and lumache (meaning snail). The words are completely different based on their origins. Babbaluci has Arabic influence where lumache has more of a northern European influence from romance languages. Notice the spelling as well, look how similar caroccila is to carciofo.

One can already get the idea on how similar some words are when it comes to spelling and actual word choice. Now, lets expand and look at some simple sentences and look at the practical use of both Italian and Sicilian.

Below I have compared a sample poem, first in Sicilian, then in Italian, and finally the English version. Below the poem you will find a link to take you to more examples as well as recordings of the poem in Sicilian.

Picchì Diu criau lu primu all'omu? Chi Dici? A cui putissi dumannari? "Diu lu fici, ci detti lu nomu, e cu nuddu si vosi cunsigghiari. Si c'era Eva, Diu di frunti a chidda, o sì o no, l'avia a diri idda!"

Perché Dio ha creato l'uomo primo? Che cosa ne pensi? Chi potrebbe chiedere? "Dio ha fatto di lui, gli ha dato un nome, e nessuno ha chiesto un consiglio. Eva era stato lì, di fronte a Dio la sua, senza dubbio, avrebbe avuto l'dire!

Why did God create man first? What do you think? Who could I ask? "God made him, gave him a name, and sought no one's advice. Had Eve been there, God facing her, no doubt, she would have had the say!"

The structure of where nouns, adjectives, and verbs fall remains the same in both cases as well as some of the words are the same in both poems. The differences though are that the words that mean the same in both poems, are completely different. Click the link below to see more poems and hear the poems read in Sicilian.
http://www.dieli.net/SicilyPage/SicilianLanguage/SicilianLang.html

So, although a short and simplistic history of Sicilian versus Italian, it is important to see and note that there is no clear cut and dry way to define whether or not Sicilian is a dialect of Italian, or a completely different language. There are too many similarities in words, structure but also an equal amount of differences. So, although there are scholars and websites that say Sicilian is too different to be a dialect so therefor it is a language, why do many in Italy (and Sicily) consider Sicilian a dialect and not a language?

This is the reason why I have created this post. I want to sort out, setting aside academia and linguistics and understand just why Sicilian is accepted as a dialect and not a language. I want to see the changes Sicilian has made culturally and politically, and the results of these changes. I had the opportunity to communicate with Sicilians via the Internet and ask probing questions. I wanted to know what is going on and how does technology play a vital role into this whole mess of "dialects versus language."