The Sicilian Dialect
Along with all Italian dialects, Sicilian belongs to the Italo-Romance language group. However, centuries of foreign occupation have exposed it to linguistic influences from many and varied sources, including Albanian, Arabic, French, Greek, Norman, Spanish and northern Italian dialects.
The grammatical structure of Sicilian is somewhat different from standard Italian: there’s no single verb conjugation for the future tense - instead, Sicilian uses a form akin to “I have (to do something)”; and the simple past (a literary form only in standard Italian) is used for the past perfect tense in everyday speech.
Pronunciation is difficult, and it is commonly claimed that only a Sicilian can pronounce the double “d” that regularly substitutes the standard Italian double “l” - the classic Sicilian protestation of sincerity, La bella madre e veramente (By the beautiful mother and truly), becomes La bedda madre e beramente.
Sicilian is also coloured with a rich range of metaphors and proverbs, some of which date back to the days of Arabic occupation. The English “All things in moderation” in Sicilian reads Nun essire duci sinno ti mancianu, nun essiri amaru sinno ti futtinu (Don’t be too sweet lest you be eaten, don’t be too sour lest you be shunned). The Sicilian way to say “Make the most of what you’ve got” is Camina chi pantofuli fino a quannu nun hai i scarpi (Walk in your slipper until you find your shoes).
Sicilians are also known for their epithets, which are used as insults of varying strength in a range of situations. If you want to call someone crazy, you refer to them as stunato; if there’s n excess of drink involved, it’s most likely that they’re scribbi di patata - literally, taken over by the “spirit of the potato”, a reference to the distillation of some alcoholic drinks from that vegetable. If you want to curse someone, you refer to them as having u mal’occhio (the evil eye), and if you really want to slander a Sicilian man, refer to him as cornuto (with horns), meaning that he is a cuckold.
While not an exclusively Sicilian insult, it suggests a loss of honour that is about as ignominious as it gets on the island - so be careful at whom you direct it!
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