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00:00In this video, we're going to talk about the Sicilian language,
00:04which is spoken in Sicily, of course, Italy's southernmost region.
00:08The nation of Italy is home to numerous dialetti,
00:11dialects that can be grouped together with similar ones and classified as languages.
00:15One of those languages is the national language Italian, but there are others like Sicilian.
00:19While Sicily is closer to Malta and Tunisia than it is to Rome,
00:23the Sicilian language is not related to Arabic or its descendant Maltese.
00:26It's an Italo-Romance language, like other languages of central and southern Italy.
00:31So it has a lot in common with standard Italian, which developed from Tuscan dialects,
00:35but has a lot of little differences as well.
00:37I once heard Joe Rogan say that his Sicilian ancestors didn't speak real Italian.
00:42They actually spoke some pig Latin type shit.
00:44But Sicilian is not a pig Latin version of Italian or broken Italian.
00:48It's a different language that's similar to Italian.
00:51History.
00:52Not much is known about the original languages of Sicily,
00:54which were gradually displaced by Greek during the period of Hellenic colonization.
00:59But then by the year 241 BC,
01:01the Roman Empire had conquered Sicily in the First Punic War and ruled it until the 5th century.
01:06Latin began spreading and was the language of administration and the elite,
01:10while Greek was still spoken by much of the general population,
01:13especially in urban areas and in eastern Sicily.
01:15Many people became bilingual in vulgar Latin and Greek.
01:18In the year 535, the Western Roman Empire fell,
01:21leaving Sicily as part of the Byzantine Empire.
01:24Its official language was Greek.
01:26Greek experienced a revival in some areas,
01:28but others remained Latin-speaking, especially Western Sicily.
01:31Then in the 9th century, Sicily came under Arab rule,
01:34first under the Aglibid dynasty and then the Fatimid caliphate.
01:37Greek and Latin declined as a form of Arabic called Siculo-Arabic became widely spoken.
01:42This variety of Arabic is actually the ancestor of the Maltese language.
01:46After the Normans conquered Sicily in the 11th century,
01:49they encouraged the use of Latin and Romance dialects,
01:52meaning vulgar Latin and Norman French, and Arabic declined.
01:55The variety of vulgar Latin spoken there was beginning to develop into a distinct language,
02:00Sicilian, with some influence from Arabic and Norman French, as well as Greek.
02:04As Sicilian developed, Sicily continued to be ruled by a succession of different rulers,
02:09including the Crown of Aragon, which brought Catalan influence,
02:12and the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, which brought Castilian influence.
02:16Words of Arabic origin.
02:18It doesn't seem to me like a huge number of Arabic loanwords are still used in Sicilian,
02:22but some are.
02:23For example, the word
02:24Balata, meaning stone, or a slab or a tile, from Arabic, Balat.
02:30The word
02:30Jelo, meaning ice, comes from Arabic, Jalat.
02:34Tabuto, meaning coffin, comes from Arabic, Tabut.
02:38There were also some words that were borrowed from Norman French,
02:41though these may not stand out as much,
02:43because they were borrowed from one Romance language into another.
02:46The word
02:46Ammociare, meaning to hide, comes from Norman French,
02:50Musée.
02:51Bucciere, meaning butcher, comes from Norman French,
02:53Boutier.
02:55Fodde, meaning mad or foolish, comes from Norman French,
02:58Foul.
02:59Rageina, meaning grape, comes from Norman French,
03:02Razine.
03:04Zadja, meaning rage,
03:05comes from Norman French, Raj.
03:08The Italian word is
03:09Rabbia.
03:10Both the Italian and the Norman French word came from Latin,
03:14Rabbia.
03:14So the Sicilian and Italian words are related, but in a roundabout way.
03:18There was also Greek influence on Sicilian, like I mentioned.
03:21Here are a few examples.
03:23Babbiare.
03:24To joke.
03:25This comes from the ancient Greek word, Babazo,
03:27which means something like to speak incomprehensibly.
03:31Apotea, meaning the shop.
03:33This comes from Greek, Apoteke.
03:35Apoteke.
03:35The word Tempolata, meaning slap,
03:38from Greek, Kipto.
03:40The word Strommula, meaning spinning top,
03:43from Greek, Strombos.
03:45The word Schetto, and Schetta, meaning single,
03:49as in unmarried, from Greek, Schettos, meaning simple.
03:53Some words like these are generally common in Sicilian,
03:56but I understand that there are more words of Greek origin
03:58in Sicilian dialects spoken further to the East.
04:02Variation in vocabulary is not limited to Greek loanwords, of course.
04:05Actually, my father, he told me that in some area of Palermo itself,
04:12the word butcher that we translated with bucciere can have two other words.
04:19Because, for example, the word that I know for butcher is bucciere and also caineziere.
04:25But caineziere comes from the Spanish carnecero, and it's completely different from Italian macellaio.
04:31And my father told me that actually there is another word or another two words.
04:36And then one of these two words was said more in an area of Palermo.
04:42And that's very weird, of course, because, like, you want to learn a language that is not written yet.
04:51Despite its particular influences, Sicilian is undeniably Italo-romance,
04:55and when we look at it alongside Italian, the general similarities are obvious.
04:59This Italian sentence means, I want to buy bread.
05:04An equivalent sentence in Sicilian is
05:08Word for word, both sentences are
05:10I want to buy the bread.
05:12They look and sound similar, right?
05:14But you probably noticed that Italian and Sicilian use some different vocabulary.
05:17In this case, the verb's meaning to buy.
05:20In Italian and
05:22In Sicilian.
05:24In Italian, there's the related verb
05:26which used to have the meaning of buy, but more recently it meant something more like
05:31to beg or to scrounge.
05:32You can also see that the definite article is different.
05:35In Italian, il, and Sicilian, u, which can also be
05:38depending on the variety of Sicilian.
05:41You can also see that the equivalent words are pronounced and spelled somewhat differently
05:45in Italian and Sicilian.
05:46It's very common for words in Italian with an
05:49e-sound, spelled with e, to have an
05:51e-sound, spelled with i, in Sicilian.
05:53We see this in the Italian word
05:55and Sicilian
05:57We can also see it in the infinitive form of the first verb
06:00in Italian and
06:02in Sicilian.
06:04Another example is the Italian word for love
06:07and Sicilian
06:09In these examples, you can also see that
06:11o in Italian often corresponds to
06:14u in Sicilian, Italian
06:16meaning color, and Sicilian
06:19Italian
06:20and Sicilian
06:22Another thing to note is that in some varieties of Sicilian,
06:25in Italian, d becomes r, an alveolar tap when followed by a vowel.
06:29That's a consonant you might associate with r more than d, especially at the beginning of a word.
07:02In Palermo it's
07:04Similarly, Latin, pl became Italian, pi, but in Sicilian it becomes chi.
07:09Planta, Latin for plant, became pianta in Italian and pianta in Sicilian.
07:16Plangere, the Latin verb meaning to wail or lament, became piangere in Italian and piangere in Sicilian, which both mean
07:24to cry.
07:25Also, where Latin l, l, is followed by an i, together pronounced li, in Italian it becomes y, and in
07:33Sicilian it becomes a doubled y or g, usually followed by the vowel sound e.
07:38Latin familia, meaning family, became famiglia in Sicilian in Sicilian.
07:45Latin for wife became moglie in Italian and mugiere in Sicilian.
07:51And one more, Latin doubled l, l, is a doubled l in Italian as well, but in Sicilian it's a
07:58doubled d, d, or dj.
08:00Latin bellus, meaning beautiful or pleasant, became bello in Italian, but bedro in Sicilian.
08:07Another element of Sicilian pronunciation that's worth pointing out is that most of the voiced consonants tend to be pronounced
08:13as doubled at the beginning of a word.
08:15Amiglia, meaning to me, sounds like amiglia, the word for red, jusso.
08:22There are other pronunciation quirks of the various dialects too.
08:26The speaker in this video is from Palermo, the largest city in Sicily.
08:29In the Palermo dialect, when r is followed by a consonant, it's pronounced like i.
08:34The word for door, porta, is pronounced poita.
08:37The word for late, tardo, becomes taido.
08:40There's also diphthongization in some vowels.
08:43For example, feissa, meaning party, becomes fiesa.
08:47Also notice that the cluster st is pronounced like s, with the t silent, at least in some accents.
08:54Folcu, meaning fire, becomes fuoco.
08:57And don't forget the feature I mentioned earlier, d at the beginning of a word followed by a vowel becomes
09:02an alveolar trill.
09:03Romani.
09:05Grammar.
09:06In terms of grammar, Sicilian is very similar to standard Italian, but there are some different tendencies.
09:11One tendency is that Italian prefers the passato prossimo, like the present perfect tense, to express basic past tense meaning.
09:18While Sicilian prefers the passato remoto, the remote past tense.
09:22For example, the sentence is meaning, I saw a movie.
09:24In Italian, ho visto un film.
09:27In Sicilian, vette na pellecola.
09:30Italian does have an equivalent past tense form, vidi, but the passato remoto is used more in literary Italian,
09:37and for talking about things in the distant past, like historical events.
09:41Some people claim that Sicilian's preference for the passato remoto is due to Greek influence,
09:46being more like the Greek aorist tense.
09:47And while both languages have equivalent tenses and conjugations, the conjugated forms are usually a little different,
09:54and sometimes quite different.
09:55Other differences in grammar between the two languages are mainly differences in words,
09:59like definite and indefinite articles that have evolved differently.
10:03Like we saw before,
10:04Il pane.
10:05Versus.
10:05Upani.
10:06Lupani.
10:08Le donne.
10:09Versus.
10:09I femmini.
10:11Un amico.
10:12Meaning a friend.
10:13Versus.
10:13Namico.
10:14And so on.
10:15This is also the case for personal pronouns.
10:17Some are very similar.
10:19For example, in Italian, I is io.
10:21While in Sicilian, it's io.
10:23Others are different.
10:24He and she are lui.
10:26And lei.
10:27In Italian, but idu.
10:29And idu.
10:30In Sicilian.
10:31As we saw in another word earlier, the double d is pronounced like a doubled d or d.
10:37Idu.
10:38In Italian, the negation marker is non.
10:41While in Sicilian, it's nun or un.
10:43I don't understand.
10:45In Italian is non capisco.
10:47In Sicilian.
10:47Un capiscio.
10:49Some prepositions are a little different too.
10:51The word for with is con.
10:53In Italian and co.
10:54In Sicilian.
10:55I talk with him.
10:56In Italian is parlo con lui.
10:58In Sicilian it's paggio coeddu.
11:01The preposition for is per in Italian and pi in Sicilian.
11:06Like in the expression meaning please.
11:07In Italian per favore.
11:09And in Sicilian.
11:10Per favore.
11:12Possessives are also a little different, appearing together with the different definite articles.
11:16For example.
11:17In Italian.
11:18Il mio libro.
11:19Meaning my book.
11:20In Sicilian.
11:21Un mio libro.
11:22In Italian.
11:23La tua casa.
11:24Meaning your house.
11:25In Sicilian.
11:26A tua casa.
11:27In Sicilian, the possessive can also come after.
11:30Un libro mio.
11:31A casa tua.
11:33Okay.
11:33We've looked at some features of Sicilian.
11:35Now let's focus on some basic everyday phrases and sentences.
11:38The words for hi.
11:39Ciao.
11:40Or.
11:41Salutamo.
11:41These are the equivalent of Italian.
11:43Ciao.
11:44And.
11:44Salve.
11:45Salutamo and salve.
11:47Both derived from Latin salus, meaning health or well-being.
11:51Salutamo comes from the verb salutare, meaning to greet or to wish well upon someone.
11:56Salve comes from the verb salvere, meaning to be well or to be healthy.
12:00You can also use a time-specific greeting.
12:03Good morning.
12:04Buongiorno.
12:04This is like Italian.
12:06Buongiorno.
12:06Good evening.
12:07Buonasera.
12:08Like Italian.
12:09Buonasera.
12:10Good night.
12:11Buonanotte.
12:11Like Italian.
12:12Buonanotte.
12:13These ones are very similar, they're just pronounced slightly differently.
12:16To say bye, you can say.
12:18Appresso.
12:19Word for word, at, soon.
12:20As in, at a point in time that's pretty soon.
12:23Which is like Italian.
12:24Appresto.
12:25Or for goodbye, you can say.
12:27Ne vettemo.
12:27Word for word, each other we see.
12:29Which is like Italian.
12:31Ci vediamo.
12:32You can see that the reciprocal pronoun is different.
12:35Ne in Sicilian and ci in Italian.
12:38How are you to one person is.
12:40Come stai?
12:40Word for word, how you are, singular.
12:43Like Italian.
12:44Come stai?
12:45How are you to more than one person is.
12:47Come stati?
12:48Word for word, how you are, plural.
12:50Like Italian.
12:51Come state?
12:51I'm fine, thanks.
12:53Sei un buono, grazie.
12:55Word for word, I am, good, thanks.
12:57Like Italian.
12:58Sto bene, grazie.
13:00Notice that thanks is.
13:01Grazie.
13:02Like Italian.
13:03Grazie.
13:04To say you're welcome in Sicilian, you can say.
13:06Re niente.
13:07Like.
13:08Di niente.
13:09In Italian.
13:10What's your name?
13:11Come ti chiami?
13:12Word for word, how, yourself, you call.
13:15Like Italian.
13:16Come ti chiami?
13:17My name's Paul.
13:18Mi chiamo Paul.
13:19With the word, myself, I call Paul.
13:22Like Italian.
13:23Mi chiamo Paul.
13:25Nice to meet you.
13:26Piacere.
13:27This common everyday expression is short for.
13:30Piacere di conosceriti.
13:31With the word, it's pleasure of to know you.
13:34Like Italian.
13:35Piacere.
13:36And the longer version.
13:37Piacere di conoscerti.
13:39Where are you from?
13:41Di un ne si?
13:42With the word, from where you are.
13:44Like Italian.
13:45Di dove sei.
13:46Notice that the word for where is different from the Italian word.
13:49But similar to the word used in many other Romance languages.
13:52Like Spanish.
13:53Donde.
13:54Portuguese.
13:54Unde.
13:55And Romanian.
13:56Unde.
13:57I'm from Palermo.
13:58Sogno de Palermo.
13:59Word for word.
14:00I am from Palermo.
14:02Like Italian.
14:03Sono di Palermo.
14:04Notice the different form of the verb to be.
14:07Sicilian.
14:08Sogno.
14:08And Italian.
14:09Sono.
14:09These are the first person singular forms of Sicilian essere and Italian essere.
14:14The verb meaning to be for permanent states.
14:17This book is interesting.
14:19Suo libro è interessante.
14:21Word for word.
14:22This book is interesting.
14:24Like Italian.
14:24Questo libro è interessante.
14:27E.
14:27Is the third person singular form of Sicilian essere and Italian essere.
14:31And notice that the demonstrative pronoun is questo in Italian but abbreviated to su in Sicilian.
14:39I'd like a glass of wine please.
14:40Volesso un bicchiere di vino per favore.
14:43Word for word it's I would like a glass of wine please.
14:47Like Italian.
14:48Vorrei un bicchiere di vino per favore.
14:50The words in these sentences are all similar but with somewhat different word forms.
14:54While the verbs at the beginning are equivalent.
14:56The Sicilian verb volisse is the imperfect subjunctive form.
15:00While the Italian verb volere is the conditional form.
15:04This wine is better than the one I drank yesterday.
15:07Suo vino è meglio di chiedru cavevea iere.
15:10Word for word it's this wine is better than that one that I drank yesterday.
15:15Like Italian.
15:16Questo vino è meglio di quello che ho bevuto ieri.
15:19Again see that GL in Italian is equivalent to double G or G in Sicilian.
15:26And similarly see that the double L in quello becomes double D in chiedru.
15:31And Q in Italian sometimes corresponds to C in Sicilian.
15:35And again notice that the past tense is expressed differently.
15:38With Italian using the passato prossimo and Sicilian using the passato remoto.
15:44He told me that he's coming tomorrow.
15:47Word for word it's he to me told that he comes tomorrow.
15:52Like Italian.
15:53Lui mi ha detto che viene domani.
15:55Again notice that the subject pronoun is different.
15:57And again we see the different past tenses.
16:00And the present tense verb takes a different form.
16:02Sicilian venne and Italian viene.
16:05Again there are a couple of examples here of how an initial D can be pronounced like an alveolar tap
16:10in some accents.
16:11A sound you might associate with R.
16:14Il giumeresse che vene romane.
16:16The little boy wants to eat.
16:18Il picciriddo vuole mangiare.
16:20Word for word it's the little boy wants to eat.
16:23In Italian.
16:24Il bambino vuole mangiare.
16:26These two sentences are fairly similar with one big difference.
16:29The word for little boy.
16:31In Italian it's bambino.
16:32And little girl would be bambina.
16:34While in Sicilian it's picciriddu.
16:36And little girl would be picciridda.
16:39Bambino is also used in Sicilian.
16:41But picciriddu is the more common everyday word.
16:44All of the samples so far in this video have been from Giacomo who's from Palermo.
16:48But as I mentioned earlier there are lots of different accents spoken across the island of Sicily
16:52and in other areas where Sicilian is spoken.
16:55Let's go back to this sentence here and hear a few examples.
16:58And pay attention to the way D is pronounced.
17:00Here's the Palermo accent again.
17:04This is the accent of Agrigento in southwestern Sicily.
17:09This is the accent of Enna in central Sicily.
17:15And this is the accent of Catania on the east coast of Sicily.
17:21In the Agrigento recording I think I hear the initial D pronounced like an R,
17:26as in an alveolar tap, like in the Palermo accent.
17:29At least in the word Risse.
17:30In the others it sounds more like a clear D sound.
17:33Also notice that the doubled D in this pronoun is pronounced like G in both Palermo and Agrigento.
17:39In the other samples it sounds more like a doubled D or D.
17:43In the Catania sample it sounds like lots of the initial consonants are elated,
17:47or at least not articulated very clearly.
17:52But despite some variation in accent and vocabulary,
17:55Sicilian speakers don't have trouble understanding each other.
17:58If I go to Catania and I speak my way of speaking Sicilian, the Palermitan one,
18:03and I hear someone speaking their way of speaking Sicilian, the Catanian one,
18:09we can understand probably 95 or 97% of what we said, of course.
18:13The accent is different.
18:15Maybe sometimes I can find it funny.
18:17And sometimes they can find my accent funny.
18:21But because we're just not used to it.
18:23But we for sure can understand each other.
18:26So after seeing all of those examples of Sicilian alongside their equivalents in Italian,
18:30what do you think?
18:31From my point of view, they're obviously very similar,
18:33but a lot of the little differences add up to make them as different from each other
18:37as other pairs of Romance languages are.
18:39Part of the reason that Sicilian isn't always thought of as a distinct language
18:42is that it doesn't have an official standardized form and people use it alongside standard Italian,
18:47with a Sicilian accent, of course.
18:49UNESCO classifies Sicilian as a vulnerable language
18:52because with each generation it's losing ground to the national language Italian.
18:57As I probably mentioned in one of my emails,
19:00Sicilian is not widely spoken anymore in the island.
19:04Actually, probably only 20% of the population is very fluent in Sicilian.
19:09I'm a native and I'm kind of fluent, but since I was a kid I've been taught not to speak
19:15Sicilian.
19:15Actually, in South Italy I think it was very unrecommended to our parents and to us to speak the local
19:28language.
19:29Some Sicilian speakers have told me that they themselves are sometimes unaware of whether they're speaking Sicilian or Italian,
19:34at least until they think about it, because they sort of function like two registers of one language being spoken
19:40on a continuum.
19:41But the distinction becomes clearer when I think about the children of Sicilian migrants around the world
19:45who learned Sicilian as a native language but never formally learned standard Italian.
19:50I've heard from some of them that standard Italian is like a foreign language to them, just like Spanish or
19:54another Romance language is.
19:56So that tells me that Sicilian is a distinct language from Italian while still being a language of Italy.
20:01The question of the day, to native speakers of Sicilian, how much do you speak Sicilian and how much do
20:05you speak Italian?
20:06Does it depend on the situation? Do you think of them as two distinct languages?
20:10And to other people, what's your impression of Sicilian and its differences from Italian?
20:14Leave your answers in the comments, or be banned from Italy.
20:17And now it's time to give a shout out to all of the Langfocus Patreon supporters, especially the ones you
20:22see right here on the screen.
20:23They are the top tier Patreon supporters, so let's give them a round of applause.
20:28Whoa, you watched the whole video. If you liked it that much, then I bet you'll like this one about
20:32Neapolitan.
20:33Click the thumbnail on the screen to check it out.
20:35Wait a minute.
20:40Wait a minute.
20:46Whoa.
20:48Bye.
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