Before we leave Sicily, we thought we'd look closer at the language spoken in Sicily. While there are many dialects of the Italian language spoken throughout Italy, Sicilian is considered distinct enough to be classified as a separate language. Some even consider Sicilian to be the oldest Romance language that came from Latin! While it is not an official language anywhere, it is widely spoken in Sicily, along with Italian. In total it has about 8 million speakers and is also spoken in Campania, Calabria, and Apulia. Just like Sicily itself, Sicilian was influenced by many neighboring languages, including Greek, Italian, Latin, Arabic, French, Spanish, and German. If you are interested in learning more about the linguistics of Sicilian language, you can visit the following websites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_language
http://italian.about.com/od/sicilian/Sicilian_Siciliana_Sicilianu.htm
Some Sicilian words and phrases:
Ten'accura!--Be careful!
Iddu--him/he
Idda--her/she
Vossìa--you (polite form, in Italian "Lei")
Omu--man
Fìmmina--woman
Happy Traveling!
Flora and Leanne
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