Sicily truly has its own identity even though it is part of Italy and this can be seen mainly through its language. Sicilians like other parts of southern Italy ( Calabria) speak what is known as the "romance language", which compromises the Italiano meridionale-estremo language. It has yet to be officially recognized as a language in this world but certainly has enough impact to be seen as one. Spoken by 5,000,000 inhabitants of the island, not including others with Sicilian roots who have migrated to new countries such as the United States of America. Though this language is taught in schools, most all Sicilians are bilingual, speaking the mainland Italian language as well, for it is the official language of the country. The Sicilian language can be broken down even further into dialects depending on the region in which one lives.
- Western Sicilian
- Central Metafonetica
- Southeat Metafonetica
- Ennese
- Eastern Nonmetafonetica
- Messiness
- Aeolian
- Pantesco
- Southern Calabro
- Southern Pugliese
The Sicilian language has many influences stemming from Greek, Arab, Norman French, Gallic, and Spanish throughout its history. As for how the spoken tongue translates into the written language it is very similar to Italian in terms of its letter annunciations, 3 tenses, verbs, and sentence formatting. The best way to see this my viewing the prayers or poems side by side.
Links to sites:
Link1-
http://www.sicilyontour.com/eng/language.htm
It covers the history of the language and breaks down each different dialect spoken by region.
Link2-
http://www.linguasiciliana.org/
This site I found helpful to get a better understanding of how the language is written and it went into detail about how different regions use the language when one clicks on the language tab. It is an Italian ( Sicilian) website but when using Google chrome as ones browser you can translate the page to English.
FYI~ it is part of the spoken language for Italians to speak through gestures below is an example of an older Sicilian gentleman reciting a poem and using his hands to get the message across.
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