The Sicilian-Italian dictionary

It is well known that Sicilians love their dialect and guard it with jealousy. That is why this column was made, which we decided to call The Sicilian-Italian Dictionary.

Dialect or language?

In academic circles, the idiom of Sicily is often referred to as ”Sicilian dialect‘,’ being classifiable as ”primary roman dialect”. Other scholars, including UNESCO, believe that Sicilian is so far removed from typical Italian as to be considered a separate language. In fact, Sicilian does not derive from Italian, but from Vulgar Latin and constituted the first Italian literary language in the Scuola Siciliana, as early as the first half of the 13th century.

The characteristic of Sicilian dialect

There are multiple variants of the Sicilian dialect. In fact, contained within it are terms of very different origins, resulting from the many contaminations the island has undergone: Arabic, French, Spanish, Greek, Latin. Also strong is the onomatopoeic component and that linked to the cultural and commercial traditions of Sicily. Frequently, in the common imagination and in the prototype of Sicilian offered by the media, our language is linked to negative or ignorant characters. In reality, our difficult dialect, although spoken today by few, represents our cultural identity and therefore constitutes a heritage to be preserved and guarded, which differs with its uniqueness from all other italian dialects.

Our column

From the desire to raise awareness of our beautiful language, this column, a kind of Siculo-Italian dictionary, was born, hoping to arouse your interest and cooperation again.

Racina

racina

Today we will deal with several Sicilian terms. The first one was kindly pointed out by Elisa: “Racina”. “Racina” is the fruit of the life, from which wine, or grapes, is made. There are many sayings related to this word, such as, “nn’avi tanta racina appisa!” to say of someone who “already has so many of those misfortunes!”, a saying clearly related to wine production, and particularly used in eastern Sicily. Note the assonance of the Sicilian term “Racina” with the English and French translation “Raisin”.

We also bring you a very funny video in which a Sicilian grandmother talks to her English granddaughter, who seems to be doing quite well!

Amunì

If you are in Sicily and you are stalling on something, you might happen to hear yourself say, “Amunì!”

Don’t worry, it is not an insult at all! The word “Amunì”, known in variants of “Ninni”, “Ninniamo”, and “Amuninni”, simply means “Let’s go”, with exhortative meaning, typical of Sicilian dialects, but it is used in general to persuade someone to hurry up or to perform an action.

Curtigghiu

One of the favorite pastimes of the Sicilian, especially the woman, is the so-called “Curtigghiu”. The word ‘curtigghiu’ is used ”macari pi innicari lu spittigulizzu, propiu pi la sò etimuluggìa, picchì lu curtili era lu locu unni si sparlava di cchiù”. (the word curitgghiu is used to refer to gossip, precisely because of its etymology because the courtyard was the place where people gossiped the most). Curtigghiu is thus “gossip”, the actual cutting and stitching of facts, stories, people and events that etymologically derives from the “courtyard”, the place where women and men gathered to spend the sunny afternoon hours chatting and gossiping, in short, a substitute for modern magazines and television programs.

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Do you know of other terms to be included within the Sicilian-Italian dictionary? Write to us!