Gallo-siculo
Encyclopedia
The Gallo-Italic of Sicily is a group of Gallo-Italic dialects, linguistic set of Romance languages
, found in central-eastern Sicily
that date back to migrations from Northern Italy
during the time of Norman
Roger I of Sicily
and which continued after his death under his successor Roger II
(from around 1080 to 1120).
The towns that were populated by the new immigrants were to become known as the "Lombard communities" (or cumuna lummardi in the Sicilian language
). In truth, the colonisers, known as "Lombards of Sicily
" were not all from Lombardy
, but most parts of Northern Italy
, including Piedmont
, Liguria
and Emilia
. Apart from their geographic origin, the one common attribute that the colonisers had was that they brought with them their Gallo-Italic
idioms. These idioms were to add to the Gallic
influence of the newly developing Sicilian language
(influences which also include Norman
and Old Provençal
), but more importantly, in about nine isolated communities, the idioms would merge with Sicilian over the centuries to create distinctive Gallo-Sicilian dialects. They are far too unique to be considered dialects of Sicilian itself, nor can they be considered dialects of the Lombard language, and because of the differences in origin of each respective community, they share only a passing resemblance with each other.
Although Roger I took 30 years to take complete control of Sicily (1061 to 1091), by 1080 he had effective control over much of the island. In the course of this conquest, large parts of central Sicily became depopulated as the Saracens of the muslim
faith either fled to other Arabic communities that remained intact, or else fled the island entirely in the direction of North Africa
. Roger encouraged new migrations to these central parts, in particular, the migrations of Latins who were closely aligned with the Western church. The bulk of the migrations came from Northern Italy. The latter migrations were to provide the vulgar Latin
which would form the basis of the new Romance language, while the former migrations would both influence the development of the language profoundly, while at the same time, create altogether unique Gallo-Italic of Sicily idioms in some of the more isolated communities.
Other such communities existed also in the provinces of Catania
(for example, in Paternò
, Bronte and Randazzo
), Syracuse (Ferla
, Buccheri
, Cassaro
) and Palermo
(Corleone
).
Similar communities have survived in part outside of Sicily, in Basilicata
, which was subject to similar forces during the same period in question; the particular lucano dialects spoken by those communities are known as "Dialetti gallo-italici di Basilicata".
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
, found in central-eastern Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
that date back to migrations from Northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
during the time of Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
Roger I of Sicily
Roger I of Sicily
Roger I , called Bosso and the Great Count, was the Norman Count of Sicily from 1071 to 1101. He was the last great leader of the Norman conquest of southern Italy.-Conquest of Calabria and Sicily:...
and which continued after his death under his successor Roger II
Roger II of Sicily
Roger II was King of Sicily, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 1105, later became Duke of Apulia and Calabria , then King of Sicily...
(from around 1080 to 1120).
The towns that were populated by the new immigrants were to become known as the "Lombard communities" (or cumuna lummardi in the Sicilian language
Sicilian language
Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects make up the Extreme-Southern Italian language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria ; in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento ; and Campania, on the Italian mainland, where it is...
). In truth, the colonisers, known as "Lombards of Sicily
Lombards of Sicily
Lombards of Sicily are a linguistic minority living in Sicily, southern Italy, speaking an isolated variety of Gallo-Italic dialects, the so called Gallo-Italic of Sicily....
" were not all from Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, but most parts of Northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
, including Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
, Liguria
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...
and Emilia
Emilia (region of Italy)
Emilia is a historical region of northern Italy which approximately corresponds to the western and north-eastern portions of today’s Emilia-Romagna region...
. Apart from their geographic origin, the one common attribute that the colonisers had was that they brought with them their Gallo-Italic
Gallo-Italic languages
The Gallo-Italic or Gallo-Italian is a linguistic set of Romance languages. In accordance with a source such as Ethnologue is a subset of the Gallo-Romance languages, which also include French and Occitan, among others; in accordance with the major Italian linguists and dialectologists The...
idioms. These idioms were to add to the Gallic
Gauls
The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....
influence of the newly developing Sicilian language
Sicilian language
Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects make up the Extreme-Southern Italian language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria ; in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento ; and Campania, on the Italian mainland, where it is...
(influences which also include Norman
Norman language
Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified as one of the northern Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon...
and Old Provençal
Provençal
Provençal may refer to:*Provençal, meaning "of Provence", a region of France*Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the south-east of France*Provençal, meaning the whole Occitan language...
), but more importantly, in about nine isolated communities, the idioms would merge with Sicilian over the centuries to create distinctive Gallo-Sicilian dialects. They are far too unique to be considered dialects of Sicilian itself, nor can they be considered dialects of the Lombard language, and because of the differences in origin of each respective community, they share only a passing resemblance with each other.
History
Although Roger I took 30 years to take complete control of Sicily (1061 to 1091), by 1080 he had effective control over much of the island. In the course of this conquest, large parts of central Sicily became depopulated as the Saracens of the muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
faith either fled to other Arabic communities that remained intact, or else fled the island entirely in the direction of North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
. Roger encouraged new migrations to these central parts, in particular, the migrations of Latins who were closely aligned with the Western church. The bulk of the migrations came from Northern Italy. The latter migrations were to provide the vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
which would form the basis of the new Romance language, while the former migrations would both influence the development of the language profoundly, while at the same time, create altogether unique Gallo-Italic of Sicily idioms in some of the more isolated communities.
Area of diffusion
The main Gallo-italic dialects of Sicily are found in the following towns:- in the province of MessinaProvince of MessinaMessina is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. Its capital is the city of Messina.-Geography and demography :...
: AcquedolciAcquedolciAcquedolci is an Italian town and comune in the Province of Messina in Sicily.Its name, that can be translated in English as "fresh waters", probably came from the fresh water springs which are part of the town territory...
, Montalbano EliconaMontalbano EliconaMontalbano Elicona is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 150 km east of Palermo and about 50 km southwest of Messina...
, Novara di SiciliaNovara di SiciliaNovara di Sicilia is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 160 km east of Palermo and about 40 km southwest of Messina...
, San FratelloSan FratelloSan Fratello , formerly San Filadelfio, is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 110 km east of Palermo and about 90 km west of Messina...
e San Piero PattiSan Piero PattiSan Piero Patti is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 140 km east of Palermo and about 50 km southwest of Messina...
; - in the province of EnnaProvince of EnnaEnna is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. Its capital is the city of Enna.It has an area of 2,562 km², and a total population of 177,200 . There are 20 comunes in the province, see Comunes of the Province of Enna...
: AidoneAidoneAidone is a town and comune in the province of Enna, in region of Sicily in southern Italy.-Main sights:* Church of Santa Maria la Cava* Mother Church of San Lorenzo...
, NicosiaNicosia (EN)Nicosia is a city and comune of the province of Enna in Sicily, southern Italy. The vicinity traditionally contained are salt mines and arable lands...
, Piazza ArmerinaPiazza ArmerinaPiazza Armerina is an Italian comune in the province of Enna of the autonomous island region of Sicily.-History:...
e SperlingaSperlingaSperlinga is a comune in the province of Enna, in region of Sicily in southern Italy....
.
Other such communities existed also in the provinces of Catania
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
(for example, in Paternò
Paternò
Paternò is a town and comune in the Province of Catania, Sicily, southern Italy.-History:The site of Paternò was settled before 3500 BCE. Its inhabitants were probably the Sicani, although it was located in mainly Sicel territory; its initial name was Inessa. The modern name derives form the Greek...
, Bronte and Randazzo
Randazzo
Randazzo is a town and comune of Sicily, Italy, in the province of Catania. It is situated at the northern foot of Mount Etna, 70 km NW of Catania by rail. It is the nearest town to the summit of Etna, and is one of the points from which the ascent may be made.-History:In the 13th century the...
), Syracuse (Ferla
Ferla
Ferla is a town and comune in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily . As of 2007 Ferla had an estimated population of 2,622....
, Buccheri
Buccheri
Buccheri is a town and comune in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily ....
, Cassaro
Cassaro
Cassaro is a town and comune in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily . The name is originally from the Arabic word القصر meaning "the castle." Cassaro is 52 kilometers from Ragusa and 35 kilometers west from the city of Siracusa...
) and Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
(Corleone
Corleone
Corleone is a small town and comune of approximately 12,000 inhabitants in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy....
).
Similar communities have survived in part outside of Sicily, in Basilicata
Basilicata
Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...
, which was subject to similar forces during the same period in question; the particular lucano dialects spoken by those communities are known as "Dialetti gallo-italici di Basilicata".
See also
- Sicilian languageSicilian languageSicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects make up the Extreme-Southern Italian language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria ; in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento ; and Campania, on the Italian mainland, where it is...
- Lombard languages
- Western dialects of Lombard language