Sicilian Language Questions???

Question

Hi! I would prefer a sicilian to answer this but anyone with knowledge is welcome!

I was wondering how you say a few basic to intermediate words. Oh and does pregu mean prego? Also, I am told my grandmother is a sicilian but her last name is Lovato. Does that sound sicilian? Thanks!

Answer 1

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here's the basics. any word that ends with the letter O gets switched to U. (Giardino to Giardinu)

words with an L sound usually get switched to either Gs or Ds (Bello to Beddu. Figlia to Figghia. famiglia- famigghia)

verbs ending with "are" go to "ari" parlare-parrari

IL ("the" masculine) goes to LU or 'U

LA("the" feminine) stays LA

Iddu-him/he

Idda-her/she

Iddi-them

some words are completely different. for example, sorella is soru. feretro-tambutu.

Sometimes its just slight pronunciation differences. for example, words such as "Aspetta" (wait) and Pasqua (easter) are pronounced with a "sh" sound. Uh-shpet-tuh, Pash-kwa. use it with any word that contains a and s together. sometimes, words starting with C are pronounced with G (cannoli to gah-no-lee)

for plural, in standard italian, I is for plural masculine. E is for plural feminine. in sicilian, I is used for both.

Some words are not even close to standard italian which makes it tough to learn

here are some examples that cover a lot of what I said. left is sicilian, right is standard italian.

Patri nostru, ca siti ntrô celu,---Padre nostro, che sei nei cieli,

Santificatu fussi lu Vostru nomu.---Sia santificato il tuo nome.

Viatu vinissi lu Vostru regnu.---Venga il tuo regno.

It's a very interesting language, but it is unfortunately starting to die off. And "Lovato" doesn't sound too sicilian lol.

note: believe it or not, but there are actually different sicilian dialects within sicily.

Source(s): I'm almost fluent in Italian. I'm a Sicilian American.

Answer 2

Apparently not! It's originally a last name from Northern Italy, pretty common in the Veneto region.

It comes from the Latin word "lupus" (= wolf).

Here you can see a map with its distribution in Italy today (1817 people with this last name, none of them in Sicily):

http://cognome.alfemminile.com/w/cognomi/cognome-l...

I'm not Sicilian myself, so I cannot help you with your questions about the Sicilian dialect, sorry!

Source(s): Italian native speaker

Answer 3

italy sucks. food sucks. culture sucks. and the stupid pronunciations of things suck. jersey shore sucks too.