Review Essay: The Sicilian World of Gaetano Cipolla

Gaetano Cipolla probably knows more about Sicilian language and culture than anyone outside of Sicily. He puts his vast knowledge at our disposal in this new book, a sequel to his previous Learn Sicilian/Mmparramu Lu Sicilianu (rev. Italian Americana 2014, 32n2: 225–226), which he used as a textbook for introductory courses in Sicilian at St. John's University. This second volume, intended for advanced courses, offers a thorough presentation of the grammar and many idiosyncratic characteristics of Sicilian, along with essays on the history and culture of the island and a large selection of readings. Although some of these are written by the author, the majority are taken from prose and poetry by Sicilian writers, folktales and legends, humorous stories, popular verse, proverbs, and riddles. Except for the introduction on different dialects within Sicily, the entire book is written in Sicilian. Italian is sometimes used for contrast, and English is used to translate vocabulary and explain difficult words and phrases.It goes without saying that Sicilian is not a dialect of Italian but is a separate Romance language, with nearly five million speakers in Sicily and perhaps as many as two million elsewhere in the world.There are many distinct dialects within Sicily itself, and Cipolla has a strong interest in these parrati (Italian parlate). Their phonetic variation raises the question of how to spell Sicilian in print. Cipolla decides on a form of generic Sicilian that any regional speaker will understand even when that speaker's own pronunciation differs. The personal pronoun “I” is written as jo, even though it might be pronounced iu or eu in certain parts of the island. He keeps this normalization consistent, although the word for “big” (Italian grande), printed as granni, sometimes appears as ranni, a frequently found variant. Italian is called Taliano, and the masculine definite article is lu, more formal and typical of written Sicilian, whereas in speech u is normally used and the feminine definite article is usually a.The grammar and vocabulary are presented in textbook fashion, with inflection of verbs, agreement of adjectives, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, idiomatic expressions, and so on, and exercises for the student to complete. Readers interested in the expressive potential of language will enjoy encountering some distinctively Sicilian usages. We find an especially well-developed set of suffixes that are augmentative, diminutive, pejorative, or endearing. For example, the word cat, gattu, may appear as gattuni, gattuneddu, gattareddu, gattuzzu, gattitu, and gattazzu, the first two meaning “young cat,” the third meaning “little cat,” the next two meaning “sweet cat,” and the last meaning “mean cat.” On pages 218–19, we find these examples and a longer list of suffixes, usable also with adjectives and proper names. For example, we can add -liddu to finu to say finuliddu, expressing extra refinement; -icchiu to pueta creating, puiticchiu, pejorative but sometimes playfully endearing; and -ozza, turning the word for daughter (figghia) into figghiozza, connoting family connection. Calling a plump woman grossulidda instead of grossa puts a positive spin on the word implying delicacy. Italian has similar suffixes but fewer, so Sicilian offers a more nuanced spectrum of expression. A particularly Sicilian way of intensifying expression is the frequent use of the Latin-derived prefix ad assimilated to an initial consonant; so that in addition to bagnari, bruciari, dumannari, pigghiari, rubbari (to bathe, to burn, to ask, to take, to steal), we find abbagnari, abbruciari, addumannari, appighiari, arrubari. The fundamental meaning of the verb is intensified by a more impressive sound. Still another characteristic feature is the avoidance of the future tense in verb forms. Sicilian normally refers to the future with a present tense verb plus a word or phrase indicating future time, such as tomorrow, this afternoon, at five o'clock, next week, on Saturday, etc. An inflected future verb form does exist but is rarely used.There are other major differences from Italian. Sicilian uses only aviri, “to have,” as auxiliary with the past participle whereas Italian uses “to have” (avere) and “to be” (essere), depending on the nature of the action. Also, contrary-to-fact conditions in Sicilian (except for the Messina dialect) use the imperfect subjunctive in both clauses and no conditional. For past action, no matter how recent, Sicilian tends to use the remote past rather than the perfect tense. An example from personal experience: my grandfather at the end of a meal would ask “mangiasti beni?” not “hai mangiatu beni?” A peculiar usage in some parrati is that a parent or older relative addressing a child or someone close to them may identify themselves at the end of the statement, for example, “Sta attentu a non cadiri, u papà” (be careful not to fall, Papà) when Papà is in fact the speaker. Cipolla says this usage is also found in Romanian and Arabic (pp. 75–76).A striking phenomenon is the continuing replacement of older Sicilian vocabulary with Sicilianized Italian words. On page 279, the author lists 16 words in Sicilian, modernized Sicilian, and Italian, so we can see how an Italian word like foglia has been taken into modern Sicilian as fogghia, replacing the more archaic (and more musical) pampina.Many of the readings written by the author emphasize Sicilian culture and beauty. The island is called “an open-air museum” because of its great history of architecture and art. We learn that Sicily had the first poetry in the Italian Middle Ages; that several Sicilian towns were voted the most beautiful in all Italy; and that “Sicilian writers have dominated the Italian literary scene for the last two centuries: Capuana, Verga, Pirandello, De Roberto, Quasimodo, Sciascia, Bufalino, Consolo . . . . ” (p. 220). We learn about Andrea Camilleri who has been translated into more than 30 languages, and composer Vincenzo Bellini, “the Swan of Catania.” Cipolla is proud of his native island and its language and unhappy with the way Sicilian speakers have been stigmatized as users of an inferior version of Italian. His praise may sound chauvinistic, but his intent is frankly laudatory. Unpleasant realities, like the weak economy, corruption in politics, and the Mafia are not mentioned.Offering Learn Sicilian II as a textbook for advanced language classes, the author envisions an academic world where courses in Sicilian based on these two volumes will be taught in colleges and universities. But realistically speaking, how many would enroll in these courses? And how many people would be qualified to teach them? Not many readers of volume I would be interested in this book's detailed treatment of regional dialect differences, more suited to specialists than to the ordinary reader. Although volume II may serve as a classroom text in a few places, I see its principal value as a treasure trove of Sicilian language and culture, not to be found anywhere in a single book.In a book this lengthy with so much detail in different languages, there are bound to be misprints and errors, of which I list only the most important. Cipolla does not handle Latin well. On pages 17–20, to illustrate Latin consonant combinations that evolved into Sicilian, he writes (in capitals) nonexistent PLUMBU and GLOMERU for Latin PLUMBUM and GLOMUS; LJ for the LI in FILIO; and inconsistently cites Latin nouns in different case endings. He misunderstands Messinese mi and Italian affinché as deriving from Latin ut (“so that”), an etymological impossibility (p. 132). I believe this mi is exactly what it looks like, a personal pronoun functioning as a dative of interest (“for my sake,” “on my behalf,” essentially “please”) referring back to the speaker of the sentence. In sentences like Mi si lava li Manu and Mi trasi ntâ mi casa (p. 133), “so that” isn't likely to be the first word. All Cipolla's examples have the first-person singular as subject or speaker, to whose interest the mi refers. We would need to find mi used with the first-person plural or the second or third person to invalidate this interpretation.On page 131, Cipolla says the Messina dialect retains Latin ND and MB as in mundu, palumba, whereas most dialects have munnu, palumma. But elsewhere he cites ranni as Messsinese for granni (grande). Moreover, Latin unde becomes unni in Messina and elsewhere, so this phonetic rule is not very strict. On page 112, in the third line of the first poem by Veneziano, difensari cu lu stoccu must mean “defend yourself with a staff” (or sword, an older meaning appropriate for Renaissance poetry), not “to protect your stock.” The entire translation of this poem, attempting rhymed couplets, becomes too free to be helpful to the student. On page 116, in the section on direct and indirect pronouns, line 5 should have ndirettu not direttu, On page 69, sentence 6, the word “straighten” should be “smoke.” In sentence 12, “bottom, depth” should be replaced by “crowd” (fudda is confused with funnu). In sentence 18, “dawn” is misprinted as “sawn.” On page 341, n.22, corvi, “crows,” is mistranslated as “blackbirds.” On page 77 in the dialect map of Sicily, three of the four little squares representing distinct linguistic zones are equally dark so we cannot make easy use of the map. On page 340, the last paragraph begins with Lu which should be changed to La.The book contains a CD keyed to the exercises and readings, offering answers to questions asked in the text, translations, and further readings presented bilingually. Unfortunately, the disc was unplayable on both my CD players; I hope other users have better luck.For decades, Gaetano Cipolla has made important contributions to our knowledge of Sicily, its literature, language, culture, history, and sociology. He has published numerous editions with translation of Sicilian poetry in the series “Sicilian Studies” that he edits for the publisher Legas, and Sicilian prose and verse in his journal Arba Sicula (Sicilian Dawn). This volume, rich in linguistic and cultural material, is a major continuation of that work.