Bobbi

Husband and I are in the early stages of planning a 2 week trip to sicily next May. One of our main goals is to try out the Italian we have been studying for the past 2 years. Ideally we envision visiting some small villages of the interior where English would not be spoken at all and we could really immerse ourselves in the language. Now, after doing more research, I am confused as to what language is more prevalent, Italian or Sicilian dialect? Or is it a combination of both?

ellen

My understanding is that the Sicilian dialect is primarily in use. And it is quite different. My Italian teacher, native of Italy, has a difficult time understanding the dialect. You might not be able to understand them, but I think they will be able to understand your "real" Italian.

carol

Generally, people speak Sicilian with their friends and family. However, when I was there, everyone spoke Italian to me, and, to be polite, when I was with a group of people in a small town, they also spoke Italian to each other so I wouldn't feel left out. The only people who might not speak much Italian are very elderly unschooled people. I was so worried beofe I went on my own to visit a little remote town that I wouldn't be able to communicate, but there was no problem at all. <BR> <BR>However, you're right to assume that in SMALL towns probably no one will speak English. People with the equivalent of a high school education will generally have a working knowlege of French. Young educated people who study English at the university level will generally not find appropriate work locally, so they move to the north or to foreign countries (or occasionally to the larger Sicilian cities) to find decent jobs. Therefore, while people from small towns DO learn English, you probably won't find them in their home town, unless you just happen to visit the town during the August summer vacation period or during a local patron saint festa when lots of people go back home.

Bobbi

Thanks for the info Ellen and Carol. <BR>Carol, so, can we assume that even in remote areas the locals are also fluent in Italian? Are menus in restaurants and newspaper etc. in Italian or dialect? I guess the perseverance of the Sicilian dialect is part of the old world charm of Sicily. However, my husband has invested a ton of time and effort in studying the language is REALLY looking forward to talking in Italian to the locals!

vito

If you show up in Sicily speaking textbook Italian, you'll be fine. It'll be sort of like visiting Georgia and speaking with a British accent. People will understand what you're saying and be happy to converse with you.

carol

I went by myself to San Salvatore di Fitalia. If you look it up on a map, you'll see that it's a tiny town in the Nebrodi Mts. a little inland from Capo d'Orlando, which is on the coast. Until a few years ago, I think it used to be rather isolated, but now there's a fast modern road leading to various towns in that area. I had very little trouble at all communicating in Italian, which I'd studied in college the 1960's, but had made an effort to revive before the trip. However, some people were easier to understand than others. If they spoke clearly and slowly, I understood; if their speech was very soft or a little too slurred and casual, i had trouble. I carrried a lightweight Collins Gem dictionary with me at all times, much to the amusement of my cousins. Everyone seemed to understand me, however, though my Italian was by no means perfect. I really wanted to get to know some of the people I was meeting, and I was unwilling to let a little language difficulty stand in my way; apparently they felt the same way, because we had interesting conversations on emigration history, economic problems, family history, cooking, horticulture, diffs. between Ital. and USA towns and roads, etc. (When I didn't know the "right" word, I got around it with 20 words somehow.) I'd been really worried that I would be unable to communicate, since the only word I knew in Sicilian was the word for donkey, and usually I was a little timid about speaking italian and making a lot of mistakes. (Well, I'm exaggerating; I did know maybe about 20 words in Sicilian, but hardly enough to get by if sicilian were the only lang. spoken.) Before going on my own to S. Salvatore, i'd been on a walking tour in eastern Sicily. I didn't HAVE to speak Italian, but I made more effort than usual to do so, because i was trying to get ready for my scary solo visit. The people i spoke to in shops and hotels and the countryside all understood me. Generally, they spoke Italian and I understood them. However, our group met an old goat herd outside la cava d'Ispica. He spoke very indistinctly, but I more or less understood him. A tour companion, who was an American of Friulan/Venetian ancestry, understood him better than i because she's grown up hearing Italian at home (though of a very different region). But then I told him that I was half Sicilian and that my father had grown up in Sicily. Well, at that point he switched, i guess, to pure Sicilian, and neither of us understood him, so we just smiled a lot in I hope the right places. But he was 80 years old (he said that in italian) and probably unschooled and his speech had become soft and cloudy with age. <BR> <BR>Where will you be going in Sicily? <BR> <BR>If you feel like writing to me directly, that would be fine.

carol

P.S. Sicilian itself would be worth learnig, too. it is a "language" with its own history of written literature that existed even BEFORE Dante started writing in his Tuscan vulgate, which eventually developed into "standard" Italian. I met young educated people who articulated their views on Sicilian. They were making a conscious effort to promote the preservation of their ancestral language by continuing to speak it among themselves, even though they had perfect command of standard Italian and spoke it with complete ease with non-Sicilians and in professional situations. It is not a mostly "dead" language that people are trying to revive by learning to speak it (e.g., like Occitan in southern France?). People simply know it anyway, and well educated young people are choosing not to abandon its use.

micia

Bobbi, <BR> <BR>Like Carol, very nicely put it, you will find that most of the elderly in small towns or villages do not speak Italian. <BR>If you find yourself having a problem understanding someone, it is because others tend to mix words (speaking mainly italian to you but with sicilian words thrown in). They do not usually do this on purpose, most cannot help it or do not realize they are doing it. <BR> <BR>However, you will find that pratically all the younger people speak italian and will understand you with no problem. <BR> <BR>Menus are in italian and though you may understand what is written, you may not know what it is and have to ask. <BR>Local dishes are on the menu with a name of their own. <BR>Just ask and your waiter will tell you what it is. <BR> <BR>Don't worry about the language problem, they love it when they see us speaking their language. <BR> <BR>The sicilians are very nice people, and I bet you will come away having met some of the best people ever and some of the best new friends you can have. <BR> <BR>Have a great time and enjoy. <BR> <BR>

Bobbi

Thank you all, can't tell you all how much your input helps with this. Sicily sounds like such a great place to mingle with the local inhabitants. The more I read and hear the more anxious I am to go there. I'm currently reading "On Persephone's Island" by Mary Taylor Simeti. It's a journal of an American woman married to a Sicilian and living in Sicily for 20 yrs. Seems a good background of cultural influences, food, architecture and all things Sicilian. I've also purchased but have not read yet "Midnight in Sicily". Now I just have to reassure my husband that his insecure Italian will still be very useful. <BR>Carol, thanks for the offer to write you. I will definitely take you up on that. We are still trying to layout a plan but so far only have plotted the arrival in Palermo from Rome for 2 days. Places we have in mind to visit are Cefalu, Castlebouno, Monreale, Agrigento, Syracuse, Noto, Enna, Piazza Armerina. We would like to spend some time in small villages and overnight in agritourismos. Any recommendations? Still in the planning stages and I know we may have to pare down the scope of our travels as we do not want to have too hectic of a trip.

micia

Bobbi, <BR> <BR>If you want small places to stay in, don't stay in Agrigento or Syracusa though they are both lovely and must sees, they are the larger of the cities you mentioned. <BR>Are you interested by chance in Caltigirone? Lots of pottery and nice. <BR>The other places you mentioned are going to be good getting out of the city. <BR>I really liked Piazza Armerina. <BR>If you have a sense of humor, there is a really funny place to go to above Toarmina. <BR>When you get there, ask about it. Rather different. <BR>

carol

Coincidentally, after posting on this thread a few times this afternoon, I just opened my mail and found a newletter with an interesting item: apparently the Sicilian Parliament has passed a law mandating that public schools in Sicily teach the Sicilian language. I cannot verify the accuracy of this news but have no reason to doubt it. However the article also refers to the the Sicilians' reluctance to speak Sicilian in public, and I have to say that I saw no evidence of that. I heard lots of Sicilian spoken, but just not TO ME--and that was because the people were being polite--though they had fun trying to teach me a tiny bit of Sicilian when I asked them to

carol

This is the address of an interesting article re the Sicilian language that someone e-mailed to me earliere this week. The author of the article wrote a book of Sicilian grammar that just renetly came out. I'm thinking of buying it. <BR> <BR>http://www.capital.net/~soialban/siclang.html

topper

interesting

cmt

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