Giulia Franzone, SCN UNPLI 2018
With the adjective gallo-italic we refer to some dialects spoken in North Italy. However, the term is also used in connection to linguistic islands located outside of North Italy, in particular in Sicily and in some areas of Southern Calabria and Basilicata. In Sicily there are a lot of communities characterized by this idiom, mainly centered between the provinces of Messina and Enna, and, more sporadically, in the provinces of Syracuse and Catania. These towns form the so-called gallo-italic alloglot linguistic island of Sicily, or, more commonly, the Lombard Sicily (it’s necessary to clarify that the term Lombard does not refer to the present Italian region of Lombardy, but indicates broadly, in the medieval Latin meaning of the word, the area generically known as North Italy).
Scholars divide the linguistic island of Lombard Sicily into two groups: the first includes those towns where the gallo-italic dialect is still spoken in alternation to Sicilian; the second includes towns where the Sicilian language shows traits of northern origin.
The first group includes the towns of San Fratello, Acquedolci, San Piero Patti, Montalbano Elicona, Novara di Sicilia and Fondachelli Fantina in the province of Messina. In the province of Enna we find Nicosia, Sperlinga, Piazza Armerina and Aidone; Randazzo in the province of Catania, and Ferla in the province of Syracuse. The second group includes the towns of Roccella Valdemone, Santa Domenica Vittoria and Francavilla in the province of Messina, Bronte, Maletto, Caltagirone, Mirabella Imbaccari and San Michele di Ganzaria in the province of Catania, Valguarnera Caropepe in the province of Enna, Buccheri and Cassano in the province of Syracuse, and Corleone in the province of Palermo.
Why, then, are areas so far from each other characterized by dialects included in the same linguistic classification?
We need to go back to the XI century to understand how these gallo-italic idioms spread in Sicily. Until the Norman conquest, which took place during the XI century, Sicily was under Arab rule, meaning that the Arab (and, therefore, Muslim) element was predominant in the island: even if it didn’t cause the total disappearance of the Greek and Latin (and, therefore, Christian) elements, the perception was, anyway, one of a heavy Arab influence on the area. Once Sicily was conquered, the Norman family of the Altavillas decided to favor a new Latinization of the island, encouraging, through the granting of lands and privileges, an immigration policy that drove people from the North (both from France and Lombardy) towards the Sicilian territories that, in the meantime, had been in part emptied of the Arab element. From the end of the XI century to the entire XIII, the new colonization of areas of – mainly inland – Sicily continued to be practiced. The political significance of these measures is clear: it was necessary to reinforce the Latin element to the detriment of the Greek and Arab ones in order to be able to easily affirm the power of the Norman kings and of the Church of Rome on the land. Integrating colonies of Lombard people loyal to the Altavillas and to Rome in towns already existent was the most efficient way to obtain this result. For the northern people the appeal exercised upon them by a new settlement in Sicily was, as well, not insignificant: the island was rich and presented itself as the ideal place where to start a new life.
Here is explained, therefore, the reason why, nowadays, some Sicilian communities still preserve a gallo-italic dialect: the Lombard people mingled, through the centuries, with the Sicilian element found in place conditioning their language in a crucial way. This does not entail that the gallo-italic dialects are all identical to each other: the settlement of the Lombard colonists in different Sicilian towns meant that their idiom influenced or mixed with the one found in place, and, as it is known, there is not one Sicilian dialect totally identical to another.
What are, then, the characteristics of the gall-italic dialect spoken in San Piero Patti? Some of these peculiarities are described in the book ‘A nnuccilla by Rosetta Tripoli and are listed here:
1. absence of the ddu/dda sound typical of the Sicilian language and conservation of the double l
E.g. capilli (hair), cappellu (hat);
2. (sporadic) doubling of the l at the beginning of a word
E.g. llièvitu (yeast), llupu (wolf);
3. rhoticism of the l in intervocalic position
E.g. tavuru (table), suri (sun);
4. (sporadic) transition of the labial p to v
E.g. scuva (broom), avertu (open);
5. (sporadic) transition of c to g
E.g. amigo (friend), fuogu (fire);
6. transition of t in d or in r in the last sillable
E.g. jurnara or jurnada (day), passiara or passiada (walk);
7. frequent transition of c in sg if it is followed by i
E.g. pasgi (peace), cornisgi (frame);
8. articulate sound of the r;
9. nasal sound of the n;
10. sonorous alveolar fricative pronunciation of the s in intervocalic position
E.g. casa (house), rosa (rose);
11. the s has a hard fricative pronunciation in initial position before a vowel
E.g. santu (saint), soru (sister).
Following, a poem in the dialect of San Piero Patti:
Ô Murinu
– Camora eni (1) cuntentu ’u murinaru:
quannu havi r’acqua si pò ’cattari ’u vinu. (2)
Ntra ’lla trimuoria (3) metti ’u frumentu
chi diventa farina ’nt’ôn mumentu.
Guarda, guarda comu ’sta mora (4) gira
e quanta acqua passa ’ntra ’lla saja (5)!
’U frumentu chi lassammu stamattina
è masginaru, divintò farina.
È un sacchittellu, pigghiaru, mma figghia,
e fatti dari un pugnu ri canigghia.
Fa’ prestu, va’, listimuni ’ntra nenti,
non haju cchiù ar(i)ca (6) ppi jiri avanti. –
Translation
The mill
Right now the miller is more serene:/ when he has water, he can buy wine. / He puts in the hopper the wheat that soon will be flour. / Look how the stone wheel is moving/ and how much water passes through that canal! / The wheat that we left this morning / has been ground, it has become flour. / It’s just a bagful, take it, daughter, and ask for some bran. / Go, quick, let’s hurry, / I have no more strength to walk.
Poem by Rosetta Tripoli from the book ‘A nnuccilla
Notes
1. Eni: paragoge of the third singular person of the verb to be. It’s a form in disuse. The form evi also exists.
2. An old saying goes: “’u mulinaru, quannu havi acqua, bivi vinu e quannu non havi acqua, bivi acqua”. The miller activated the mill only when there was enough water and, therefore, he could work and buy wine. When there was no water, he didn’t work and didn’t have the money to buy wine.
3. Trimuoria, hopper. From Latin trimodium, made of tres, three + a derivative of modi(um), modius, old measure of capacity for grain.
4. Mora (sic. mola), stone wheel used to grind. From Latin mol(am).
5. Saja, water canal used for irrigation or for the mills. From the Arab sakia: canal.
6. Arca (sic. alica): strength. From Latin halitu(m): spirit, strength.
Bibliography
Cartaregia M. C. (2000-2005), Carandariu Sampirottu.
Florio A. (2002), Storia di un’anima, MAGI Editore, Patti.
Giacomarra M. G. (2015), Il trattamento dell’identità in due minoranze storiche di Sicilia, in Bardhyl Demiraj, Matteo Mandalà, Shaban Sinani (a cura di), Studi in onore del Prof. Francesco Altimari in occasione del 60° compleanno, pp. 227 – 250.
Tripoli R. (2017), ‘A nnuccilla.
Web sites
Delfino G. (2017), I Lombardi di Sicilia, http://patrimonilinguistici.it/i-lombardi-di-sicilia/, date consulted: 11/02/2018.
Dialetti gallo-italici di Sicilia, https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialetti_gallo-italici_di_Sicilia#Storia, date consulted: 12/02/2018.
Toso F. (2010), Comunità gallo-italica, in Enciclopedia dell’italiano, http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/comunita-gallo-italica_%28Enciclopedia-dell%27Italiano%29/, date consulted: 11/02/2018.
Pro Loco "Teresa Martino" San Piero Patti 