3 ms·

That totally makes sense bshimmin, Sicilian is considered a language per-se for example, so it's not very understandable by people talking just Italian and not

by antirez 11y ago

That totally makes sense bshimmin, Sicilian is considered a language per-se for example, so it's not very understandable by people talking just Italian and not even a southern Italian dialect at least. But all the schools use Italian language so unless you talk with an 80 years old in Sicily that is not able to talk Italian at all (rare but possible), you can understand easily what people tell you. However within families or colloquially it is possible that most people in small towns use dialects.

bshimmin 11y ago
That absolutely mirrors my experience - I never spoke to anyone in Sicily or Venice who didn't immediately switch to non-dialect Italian as soon as they realised I was a foreigner (fairly obvious from my fair hair and blue eyes!) who could hopefully just about understand Italian but plainly couldn't understand their dialect. I did once watch a play entirely in Sicilian; it was very beautiful and mostly incomprehensible to me!
gotchange 11y ago
But in Sicily there are different dialects of the same mother language, is that right?
- davidw 11y ago
  Languages/dialects in Italy are complicated! http://vgsitaliansig.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Languages_spoken_in_Italy_svg.png http://vgsitaliansig.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Language... Many of them basically evolved from latin on their own, rather than from some kind of standard Italian. Standardization has come later, with TV/radio/travel spreading 'standard' Italian. For fun, here's "Where did the guy go?" in Italian, followed by some sort of Venetian: "Dov'e` andato il ragazzo?" "Dove xeo nda' el toso?"
  - antirez 11y ago
    To see how Sicilian is far away, and considered a separated idiom, the Sicilian translation is illuminating: "Dov'e` andato il ragazzo" -> "Unna sinni ji' lu carusu?"
- antirez 11y ago
  Sicilian is a single language that extends even in some part of near regions like Calabria and Puglia (the south parts), it predates Italian a lot, and was one of the main literature schools in ancient times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_School https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_School. So from one part to the other of Sicily there are a few different words and accents and there is a division by "groups", but it's pretty much the same thing.

by antirez 11y ago

bshimmin 11y ago

That absolutely mirrors my experience - I never spoke to anyone in Sicily or Venice who didn't immediately switch to non-dialect Italian as soon as they realised I was a foreigner (fairly obvious from my fair hair and blue eyes!) who could hopefully just about understand Italian but plainly couldn't understand their dialect. I did once watch a play entirely in Sicilian; it was very beautiful and mostly incomprehensible to me!

gotchange 11y ago

But in Sicily there are different dialects of the same mother language, is that right?

davidw 11y ago
Languages/dialects in Italy are complicated! http://vgsitaliansig.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Languages_spoken_in_Italy_svg.png http://vgsitaliansig.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Language... Many of them basically evolved from latin on their own, rather than from some kind of standard Italian. Standardization has come later, with TV/radio/travel spreading 'standard' Italian. For fun, here's "Where did the guy go?" in Italian, followed by some sort of Venetian: "Dov'e` andato il ragazzo?" "Dove xeo nda' el toso?"
- antirez 11y ago
  To see how Sicilian is far away, and considered a separated idiom, the Sicilian translation is illuminating: "Dov'e` andato il ragazzo" -> "Unna sinni ji' lu carusu?"
antirez 11y ago
Sicilian is a single language that extends even in some part of near regions like Calabria and Puglia (the south parts), it predates Italian a lot, and was one of the main literature schools in ancient times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_School https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_School. So from one part to the other of Sicily there are a few different words and accents and there is a division by "groups", but it's pretty much the same thing.