Sicilian vs Italian: A Comparison

If you’re learning Italian or you’re passionate about Italian culture, one of the most charming aspects to explore is a comparison of the Sicilian vs. Italian language. Sicilian is one of several regional languages which are still widely spoken today on the Italian peninsula.

The Sicilian language is one of the most well-known and fascinating languages spoken in Italy. An interesting aspect of Sicilian is that it spread worldwide as people moved from Sicily to other parts of Italy and the world, like Australia, Canada and Venezuela.

Most famously, Sicilian spread to the United States, particularly to Brooklyn and some other areas of New York City. Here Sicilian mixed with the local languages and gave rise to some iconic accents and dialects, like the so-called ‘Siculish’ (Sicilian-English).

Are you ready to delve into the world of Sicilian vs. Italian? In this article you will learn about the history of the Sicilian and Italian languages and the major differences between the two.

Sicilian vs Italian: Some history

Italy is a young country that has only officially existed since 1861, the year of the Italian unification. Before then, Italian did not exist as a national language – each smaller area, state or even city had its own language. This is one factor that explains Italy’s exceptional linguistic variety and energy.

Even after 1861, it took a long time for Italian to become widely spoken throughout the peninsula, while local languages continued to be used for everyday communication for a long time. Even today, local languages are important for daily communication, at least in some regions.

These regional or local languages are often referred to as ‘dialects,’ which means they are varieties of standard Italian. However, some of these are actually languages in their own right, as they have specific characteristics that make them very different from Italian.

Local dialects or languages?

Can we talk about the Sicilian dialect vs. Italian language? There is little agreement over which varieties can be called ‘languages’ and which ones are ‘dialects,’ or even what exactly defines these two different terms.

However, Sicilian is usually considered a separate language rather than a dialect of Italian, not only because it differs widely from Italian (an Italian speaker would not be able to understand Sicilian), but also because Sicilian has its own literary tradition.

This dates back to the thirteenth century, when the Sicilian School of poetry developed under the reign of Frederick II. As such, it not only predates the Italian literary tradition, but it means that Sicilian was the first Italo-Romance language to be used as a literary language.

The status of the Sicilian language

So, what is the status of the Sicilian language? Although it does not have official status, which means that it is not recognized as the official language of Sicily, it is recognized as a language by the region of Sicily and the European Union and as a minority language by UNESCO.

Besides having an ancient literary tradition, it has been codified and standardized by various experts who over the years have written grammar books, vocabularies and textbooks of the Sicilian language.

Sicilian is still widely spoken today and used throughout Sicily as the main language of everyday communication. It even has its own sub-varieties, that is, Sicilian dialects spoken in different cities or areas of Sicily (and to a lesser extent, outside of Sicily).

The origins of Sicilian language vs Italian

Do Sicilian and Italian share the same linguistic roots? They broadly do, as they are both Romance languages, which means they both came from Latin. However, standard Italian developed out of Tuscan, precisely the Florentine dialect, while Sicilian belongs to the Extreme Southern Italian group of languages.

A study carried out by Salvatore Giarrizzo, author of the 1989 Sicilian Etymological Dictionary, has found that more than 50% of the Sicilian vocabulary comes from Latin. However, the grammar and vocabulary of the Sicilian language have been influenced by many other languages, some more ancient than Latin.

This is because of the position of Sicily in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and the fact that many peoples invaded the island at different times in its history. Sicilian has been influenced by Greek, Spanish, Catalan, Arabic, French and Occitan, among other languages.

Features of Sicilian vs Italian

Now that you have the historical context, we can move on to illustrate the main differences between Sicilian and Italian.

Pronunciation (phonetic) differences

1) The vowel system is partially different. Italian has a seven-vowel system (called ‘sistema eptavocalico’). These vowels are /a/, /é/, /è/, /i/, /ó/, /ò/ and /u/ ._ If you want to know more about the Italian vowels and their pronunciation, check out our article on Italian accents.

On the other hand, Sicilian has a five-vowel system (in Italian, this is called ‘sistema pentavocalico’). These vowels are /a/, /è/, /i/, /ò/ and /u/. Essentially, this means that the vowels ‘e’ and ‘o’ do not have two possible pronunciations like in Italian, but only the more ‘open’ sounds that you hear in the words caffè and però.

2) Compared to Italian, vowel sounds tend to change when they come at the end of words. In particular, ‘o’ tends to become ‘u’ and ‘e’ tends to become ‘i.’ Here are a few examples of these changes:

Italian > Sicilian

• giorno > jornu (day)
• figlio > figghiu (son or boy)
• freddo > friddu (cold)
• alto > autu (tall or high, masculine singular)
• sporco > lordu (dirty, masculine singular)
• maltempo > malutempu (bad weather)
• andare > iri (to go)
• portare > purtari (to take or carry)
• cuore > cori (heart)
• grande > ranni (big, singular)
• luce > luci (light)
• mala sorte > mala sorti (bad luck)

3) Vowels, especially the vowel ‘i,’ are often dropped at the beginning of a word. Some examples are in the words ntirissanti (Italian ‘interessante,’ English ‘interesting’), mportanti (Italian ‘importante,’ English ‘important’) and miricanu (Italian ‘americano,’ English ‘American’).

Something similar happens with the letter ‘g,’ which is hardly pronounced when it comes at the beginning of a word. This happens in the words attu (Italian ‘gatto,’ English ‘cat’), ranni (Italian ‘grande,’ English ‘big’), and iornu, usually written as jornu (Italian ‘giorno,’ English ‘day’).

4) The consonant group ‘tr’ is pronounced as ‘chr,’ as in the words trasiri (to enter) and travagghiu (work).

5) The consonant groups ‘str’ and ‘sdr’ are pronounced like ‘shr,’ with the three letters combining together. For example, strata (street) is pronounced ‘shrata.’

6) The consonant ‘r’ is often doubled when it comes at the beginning of a word. For example, the word rarica (root) is pronounced ‘rrarica,’ and ‘revorbaru’ (gun) is pronounced ‘rrevorbaru.’

7) The Italian double ‘l’ sound is usually a double ‘d’ in Sicilian. You can see this in the words beddu (Italian ‘bello,' English ‘beautiful’), spadda (Italian ‘spalla,’ English ‘shoulder’), and oceddu (Italian ‘uccello,’ English ‘bird’).

The pronunciation of the double ‘d’ sound itself is different from Italian, as it is retroflex in Sicilian, which means it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue raised and bent backwards, so that the underside of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth.

Grammar differences

1) The Sicilian ending vowel ‘-u’ is associated with masculine and ‘-a’ with feminine, while in Italian ‘-o’ is generally associated with masculine singular and ‘-a’ with feminine singular.

In addition, the ending ‘-e,’ which can be masculine and feminine in Italian, is replaced by ‘-i’ in Sicilian. This difference comes from the vowel change described above. Here are a few examples to illustrate this major difference between Sicilian and Italian:

Italian > Sicilian

• L’uomo > l’omu (the man, masculine singular)
• La donna > la fimmina (the woman, feminine singular)
• Il cavallo > lu cavaddu (the horse, masculine singular)
• La pecora > la pecura (the sheep, feminine singular)
• Il cane > lu cani (the dog, masculine singular)
• La torre > la turri (the tower, feminine singular)

2) Sicilian tends to have one ending for both masculine and feminine plural, ‘-i,’ while Italian has two separate endings for masculine and feminine plural. Here are some examples:

Italian > Sicilain

• I ragazzi > Li carusi (the boys, masculine plural)
• I cani > Li cani (the dogs, masculine plural)
• Le donne > Li fimmini (the women, feminine plural)
• Le case > Li casi (the houses, feminine plural)

3) Sicilian and Italian have different definite articles. The mixing of masculine and feminine in the plural is also reflected in the definite articles, as there are two separate forms for masculine and feminine singular, but masculine and feminine plural use one and the same form. You can see this in the table below:

In spoken Sicilian, lu is often pronounced ‘u,’ la as ‘a,’ and li as ‘i.’

4) Irregular plural nouns ending in ‘-a’ seem to occur more often in Sicilian than in Italian. These come from Latin neutral nouns. Here are a few examples:

Italian > Sicilian

• i giorni > li jurna (the days)
• i pomodori > li pumadora (the tomatoes)
• i libri > li libbra (the books)
• i giochi > li jocura (the games)
• I soldi > li rana (the money)

5) The ‘passato remoto’ tense tends to be used much more frequently in Sicilian. In Italian, ‘passato prossimo’ tense is used to describe recent events, while ‘passato remoto’ is used to talk about events that are further away in the past. However, in Sicilian ‘passato remoto’ tends to be used even to describe actions that happened very recently.

Here are some examples of this:

Italian > Sicilian

• Ho mangiato la pasta (passato prossimo) > Manciai la pasta (passato remoto)
  (Meaning: “I ate pasta”)
  
• Siamo andati al mare (passato prossimo) > Jemu a mmari (passato remoto)
  (Meaning: “We went to the seaside”)
• Ho visto tuo fratello (passato prossimo) > Vitti a tò frati (passato remoto)
  (Meaning: “I saw your brother”)

6) The future tense has practically disappeared from the Sicilian verb system. In its place, Sicilian speakers use the present tense or the construction ‘verb jiri (to go) + a + infinitive.’

Using the present tense instead of the future tense is also common in Italian, but only when talking about events that have already been scheduled or are definitely going to happen. On the other hand, the construction ‘to go + a + infinitive,’ which exists in most Romance languages and also in English, does not exist in Italian. To talk about events that are about to happen, in Italian the structure ‘stare per + infinitive’ is used instead.

Here are a few examples:

Italian > Sicilian

• Domani lavoro > Dumani travagghiu (present tense in Italian and Sicilian)
  (Meaning: “I work tomorrow”)
  
• Non lavorerò mai più > Nun travagghiu mai chiù (future tense in Italian, present tense in Sicilian)
  (Meaning: “I will never work again”)
  
• Sto per mangiare > Vaiu a manciari (‘stare + per + infinitive’ in Italian, ‘jiri + a + infinitive’ in Sicilian)
  (Meaning: “I’m going to eat”)
  

Wrapping up

Italy is a rich and multifaceted country, and learning Italian means much more than learning a language – it means exploring its fascinating culture and society.

In this article we’ve engaged with an important aspect of Italian society, its wealth of languages. We have illustrated the history of the region’s languages and looked at one of the most significant languages spoken in Italy, the Sicilian language. Finally, we’ve looked at key differences in the Sicilian vs. Italian language.

We hope this brief introduction to Sicilian has sparked your curiosity to learn more about the wonderful languages of Italy and the world beyond. With so many languages out there, you’ll never run out of things to learn and practice!