Early influences Because
Sicily is the largest island in the
Mediterranean Sea and many peoples have passed through it (
Phoenicians,
Ancient Greeks,
Carthaginians,
Romans,
Vandals,
Jews,
Byzantine Greeks,
Arabs,
Normans,
Swabians,
Spaniards,
Austrians,
Italians), Sicilian displays a rich and varied influence from several languages in its lexical stock and grammar. These languages include
Latin (as Sicilian is a
Romance language itself),
Ancient Greek,
Byzantine Greek,
Spanish,
Norman,
Lombard,
Hebrew,
Catalan,
Occitan,
Arabic and
Germanic languages, and the languages of the island's aboriginal
Indo-European and
pre-Indo-European inhabitants, known as the
Sicels,
Sicanians and
Elymians. The very earliest influences, visible in Sicilian to this day, exhibit both prehistoric Mediterranean elements and prehistoric
Indo-European elements, and occasionally a blending of both. Before the
Roman conquest (3rd century BC), Sicily was occupied by various populations. The earliest of these populations were the
Sicanians, considered to be autochthonous. The
Sicels and the
Elymians arrived between the second and first millennia BC. These aboriginal populations in turn were followed by the
Phoenicians (between the 10th and 8th centuries BC) and the
Greeks. The heavy Greek-language influence remains strongly visible, while the influences from the other groups are smaller and less obvious. • – "to dam or block a canal or running water" (but also Spanish "to muddy") At this time the island could be considered a border zone with moderate levels of
bilingualism: Latinisation was mostly concentrated in western Sicily, largely among the upper class, whereas Eastern Sicily remained predominantly Greek. • – "basket" (from ; but also Latin )
Germanic influences From 476 to 535, the
Ostrogoths ruled Sicily, although their presence apparently did not affect the Sicilian language. The few
Germanic influences to be found in Sicilian do not appear to originate from this period. One exception might be or "to hawk goods, proclaim publicly", from
Gothic "to give a signal". in modern Italian). Words that probably originate from this era include: • – "to work in the fields" (from ; but other possible Latin derivations) • – "jar" ( ; but also Latin ) and Spanish ) • – "sesame seed" (from Tunisian or . and Spanish ). • – "leader" ( . • – "canal" (from . • – "
saffron" (type of plant whose flowers are used for medicinal purposes and in Sicilian cooking; from . Cognate of Maltese
żagħfran and English
Saffron) • – "blossom" ( . and Spanish ) • – "
muscat of Alexandria" (type of dried grape; . • – "market" (from ; but also
Aragonese and Spanish . • (the northern gate of
Agrigento; "Gate of the Winds"). •
Gisira – "island" (
jazīra. Cognate of Maltese
gżira)
(archaic) Throughout the Islamic epoch of Sicilian history, a significant Greek-speaking population remained on the island and continued to use the Greek language, or most certainly a variant of Greek influenced by Tunisian Arabic. It was into this climate that the Normans thrust themselves with increasing numbers during the first half of the 11th century.
Norman and French influence When the two most famous of Southern Italy's Norman adventurers,
Roger of Hauteville and his brother,
Robert Guiscard, began their conquest of Sicily in 1061, they already controlled the far south of Italy (
Apulia and
Calabria). It took Roger 30 years to complete the conquest of Sicily (Robert died in 1085). • – "to buy" (from Norman French , • – "to hide" (Old Norman French , Norman French /,
Old French ; but also Greek ) • / "butcher" (from Old French ) • – "godson" (from ) (cognate of Maltese ) • / – blind (from
orb) • – "to rinse" (from ) • – "where" (from
ond) • the names of the days of the week: • – "Monday" (from ) • – "Tuesday" (from ) • – "Wednesday" (from ) • – "Thursday" (from ) • – "Friday" (from )
Occitan influence The origins of another Romance influence, that of
Occitan, had three reasons: • The Normans made
San Fratello a garrison town in the early years of the occupation of the northeastern corner of Sicily. To this day (in ever decreasing numbers) a Siculo-Gallic dialect is spoken in San Fratello that is clearly influenced by Occitan, which leads to the conclusion that a significant number in the garrison came from that part of France. This may well explain the dialect spoken only in San Fratello, but it does not wholly explain the diffusion of many Occitan words into the Sicilian language. On that point, there are two other possibilities: • Some Occitan words have entered the language during the regency of
Margaret of Navarre between 1166 and 1171, when her son,
William II of Sicily, succeeded to the throne at the age of 12. Her closest advisers, entourage and administrators were from the south of France, and many Occitan words entered the language during this period. • – "landowner, citizen" (from ) • – "sparse, thin, infrequent" (from ) • – "equal" (from ).
Sicilian School of Poetry It was during the reign of
Frederick II (or Frederick I of Sicily) between 1198 and 1250, with his patronage of the Sicilian School, that Sicilian became the first of the modern Italic languages to be used as a
literary language. The influence of the school and the use of Sicilian itself as a poetic language was acknowledged by the two great Tuscan writers of the early Renaissance period,
Dante and
Petrarch. The influence of the Sicilian language should not be underestimated in the eventual formulation of a
lingua franca that was to become modern
Italian. The victory of the
Angevin army over the Sicilians at
Benevento in 1266 not only marked the end of the 136-year Norman-
Swabian reign in Sicily but also effectively ensured that the centre of literary influence would eventually move from Sicily to Tuscany. While it is often difficult to determine whether a word came directly from Catalan (as opposed to Occitan), the following are likely to be such examples: • – "to notice, realise" (from ) • – "to be embarrassed" (from ) • – "growth, development" (from ) • – "to be pleased" (from ) Spanish rule had hastened this process in two important ways: • Unlike 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, standarized written language to eventually non-standardized spoken dialects amongst a predominantly illiterate population. • The
expulsion of all Jews from Spanish dominions that began in 1492 altered the population of Sicily. Not only did the population decline, many of whom were involved in important educated industries, but some of these Jewish families had been in Sicily for around 1,500 years, and Sicilian was their native language, which they used in their schools. Thus the seeds of a possible broad-based education system utilising books written in Sicilian were lost. • – "lament, annoyance" (from ) • – "receipt" (from ) This process has quickened since
World War II due to improving educational standards and the impact of mass media, such that increasingly, even within the family home, Sicilian is not necessarily the language of choice. == Phonology ==