Gallo Italico (Spoken Alloglotta): Piazza Armerina
Gallo Italico (Spoken Alloglotta): Piazza Armerina
Property included in the Register of Intangible Heritage of Sicily (REIS)
The Gallo-Italics of Sicily (or Gallo-Italics of Sicily) are an alloglot linguistic island within central and eastern Sicily composed of dialects in which characteristics, above all phonetic, typical of northern Italian dominate, that is, belonging to the speeches of the linguistic group Gallo-Italic, in which there is a Gallo-Celtic substrate and a Germanic superstrate, widespread in much of Northern Italy and historically belonging to the macro-region south of the Alps that the Romans called Cisalpine Gaul.
The formation of these alloglot linguistic islands in Sicily dates back to the Norman period, when the Hautevilles favored a process of Latinization of Sicily by encouraging a policy of immigration of populations from France (Normans, Provençals and Bretons) and northern Italy (mainly Piedmontese and Ligurians) with the granting of lands and privileges.
The speech of these settlers coming from northern Italy has been maintained for a long time in Sicily, even if the linguistic islands created have begun to be eroded by the impact, first, with the Sicilian dialects, and in more recent times, with that of television and of compulsory school, envisaging the concrete danger of a disappearance of this ancient and precious historical and glottological Sicilian testimony.
The places included in the REIS – “Register of Intangible Heritage of Sicily” – Book of Expressions – Alloglot Gallo-Italic Speech – established by the Sicilian Region are:
Nicosia, Sperlinga, Piazza Armerina and Aidone in the province of Enna; San Fratello and Novara di Sicilia in the province of Messina.
Other places, although not included in the REIS, are interested in the spread of the Gallo-Italian language among these, to remain in the province of Messina:
- Fondachelli Fantina
- Francavilla di Sicilia
- St. Sunday Victory
- Roccella Valdemone
- San Piero Patti
- acquedolci
Photo: Di Ludvig14 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88715028
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Technical data sheets prepared by: Region of Sicily - Department of cultural heritage and Sicilian identity - CRicd: Regional center for inventory, cataloging and documentation and Sicilian regional film library
Technical data sheet n. 16 (Piazza Armerina)
No. Prog.
16
Bene
Gallo Italico (Speech Alloglotta)
Book
REI - Book of Expressions
Approval date
25-01-2006
Categories
Expressive practice
Town \ Province
Enna
Destination
district or localization that does not coincide with the municipality
Common
Piazza Armerina
Local denomination
Vernacular square or ciaccés' ncauccà
Chronological News
Gallo-Italian, an alloglot linguistic island in central and eastern Sicily, has phonetic characteristics typical of northern Italian.
The presence of Gallo-Italian can be explained through historical sources, finding in them a rational and logical justification.
The presence of Gallo-Italian can be explained through historical sources, finding in them a rational and logical justification.
The formation of these linguistic islands takes place between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, during the Norman period, when the Altavilla promoted an immigration policy of the populations settled in northern Italy, who repopulated the territories of central and eastern Sicily.
The presence of the Lombards in Sicily, however, is already attested to the year XNUMX when a handful of mercenaries, following the Byzantine Giorgio Maniace, fought against the Saracens at that time still masters of the island.
The foundation of the town of Piazza Armerina dates back to this historical period. Count Ruggero I d'Altavilla, for purely military reasons, had a Lombard detachment occupy the heights of the Erei and from those settlements two Lombard communities arose: Aidonis e platia.
The city of Piazza Armerina, elected nobilissimum Lombardorum oppidum, became the capital of the Lombard colonies in Sicily despite the strong Islamic presence in its territory.
The difficulty in outlining a detailed picture of the historical-literary evolution of the Lombard-Sicilian language of Piazza Armerina is linked to the hypothesis that it spread hand in hand with the congenital Sicilian dialect. This affirmation is justified by the fact that the Normans, once they conquered Sicily and settled there, could have imposed their culture and therefore their language, but, fascinated by the heritage of the Arabs, for the high degree of civilization achieved by them, favored the development of those values spread thanks to the Arab domination.
recurrence
Date
Deal
Function
Actors
Participants
Description
Piazza Armerina is one of the centers characterized by the presence of a Gallo-Italic dialect. In addition to it we remember Nicosia, Sperlinga, Aidone in the province of Enna and other centers in the Messina area.
The verbal repertoire of Piazza Armerina is made up not only of Gallo-Italic, but also of Sicilian and the national language. Literary sources attest that already in the nineteenth century in Piazza Armerina there was a marginal use of Gallo-Italic, reserving it only for the family and rural environment. In the older and more popular districts, however, it remained a language of ordinary use. The inhabitants conceived their language as archaic and incomprehensible to foreigners who called them “i francisi“, Or“ the French ”.
The Gallo-Italian of Piazza Armerina, as for the other linguistic islands sisters of Sicily, refined its characteristics in the local area without maintaining contact with the other Gallo-Italic dialects.
There are several factors that constantly undermined its survival. The awareness of a state of psychological inferiority spread among the Piazzesi, which generated in the population a crisis of rejection of their culture, seeking an alternative solution in the Sicilian model. Due to the strong resistance there was no absorption of the Gallo-Italic language, but its gradual acceptance determined a curious phenomenon: the creation of an idiomatic hybrid of the two cultures.
In Piazza Armerina, in fact, two distinct types of local expression coexist in the same environment, a sort of bilingualism:
U ciaccès' ncauccà (the vernacular piazzese)
U chiazzìs c'ttadìnu (the dialectal piazzese).
Currently the vernacular form is used for a playful and poetic function.
Among the poetic compositions of the beginning of the twentieth century, those of the Piazzese poets C. Scibona and R. Roccella deserve to be noted. From the latter follows a poem in verse:
U Sciuri and butterfly
O farfalédda mia - d'sgéva 'n sciuri -
p'rchì m basgi, run away and t 'n' go?
P'rchì tu t 'n' laugh at me amuri,
and you fly, fly, and never get tired?
Ié 'n' mpàum d terra 'ncainà,
and you give all the air yes to R'gina;
ié sign com a 'n om cunnannà
look at the ömbra my evening and morning!
But you d 'sciuri' n sciuri go vulànn
and au m'schìngh d 'me don't think about it;
you as I saw, to all you go basgiànn,
and to me always m ddasci 'mp'natu!
Spuntànn 'n cielu l'àuba come back to me,
e ié m sent tutto a cunsulé;
m basgi arréra, but m buff'ni,
p'rchì dop 'n m'nù you go back to vulé.
S'u Patatérn m dasgéva i mài,
ié t'avéss a 'ncagghiér nu mi pett,
and then don't s'ntéss ciù my troubles,
not m s'ntéss u cör tant strétt.
O s 'p' scàng m fasgéva l'ali,
t'avéss a s'cuté fina ni stéddi,
vulàss 'nsèmu a ti, p' such and such
com vòl'nu 'nzému i turturéddi!
( From New Poems in the local vernacular)
The flower and the butterfly
O my little butterfly - said the flower -
Why do you kiss me, run away and go?
Why do you laugh at my love,
and you fly, fly, and never get tired?
Me, in a palm of chained earth
And you of all the air are Queen;
I am like a condemned man
watching my shadow evening and morning!
But you go flying from flower to flower
and I mean no, you don't think anymore;
you, as soon as you see them, everyone goes kissing,
and you always leave me in pain!
As soon as dawn breaks in the sky you come back to me,
and I feel consoled by everything;
you kiss me again, but you make fun of me,
because after a minute you can fly again.
If the Eternal Father had given me his hands,
I would have tightened you to my chest,
and then don't hear my troubles anymore,
I wouldn't feel so tight in my heart.
Or if he had made me wings instead,
I would follow you to the stars,
I would fly with you, in the same way
how turtledoves fly together!
Catalog Sheet
Bibliography
Sources, Gioacchino. 1983. Grammar of the Gallo-Italian language spoken in Piazza Armerina. Caltagirone: Ed-If.
Masuzzo, Gaetano. 2008. Civil and ecclesiastical chronology of Piazza and surroundings - Palaces, churches, convents, religious orders, brotherhoods, family trees, illustrious men and memorable events in one of the most beautiful towns in central Sicily. Assoro: NovaGraf Editions.
Roccella, Remiglio. 1970. Vocabulary of the language spoken in Piazza Armerina. Bologna: Forni publisher.
Scibona, Carmelo. 1935. U Cardubu. Milan: Gilardoni Typographical Workshops.
Toso, Florence. 2008. Linguistic minorities in Italy. Bologna: The Mill.
Found, Salvatore. 1989. Galloitalici Project, Essays and Materials, Department of Medieval and Modern Literary Philological Linguistic Sciences, University of Catania.
Found it, Salvatore. 2002. Sicily. Turin: UTET.
Villari, Litterio. 1964. From Ibla Erea to Piazza Armerina. Rome.
Villari Litterio. 1973. History of the City of Piazza Armerina. Piacenza: The Tribune.
Sitography
On-line Encyclopedia Treccani - Gallo-Italic, community [Last consultation 27-04-2016]
Filmography
Discography
Note
According to the studies of WA Strewart, the galloitalico of Sicily can be defined as a vernacular (vernacular), as it presents itself as a native idiom. Proof of this is the almost total lack of dictionaries and grammars. For the Piazzese dialect there are some texts such as Vocabulary of the spoken language by R. Roccella or the Grammar of the Gallo-Italian language spoken in Piazza Armerina by G. Fonti, useful for the collected materials, but certainly not very rigorous in the theoretical-methodological apparatus and far from the required scientific requirements.
The notary knight Remiglio Roccella was born in Piazza Armerina on 07 May 1826, dying there in 1915. A man of great culture and multiple interests, he showed a marked poetic sensitivity appreciating the value of the Gallo-Italic culture. Considered the father of the Piazzese vernacular, his writings (in prose and verse) can be considered the first examples encoded in the Lombard-Sicilian language spoken in Piazza Armerina.
Remigio Roccella is the Vocabulary of the language spoken in Piazza Armerina, published in 1875 in Caltagirone. This volume is relevant both for the year of publication and for the important philological study conducted on the vernacular of Piazzese. The work also contains typical expressions and ancient popular sayings. Today the text can be considered a precious glossary for the content of expressions that are no longer in use or that are disappearing.
Author Card
Frances Maria Riccobene
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