Siculo-Arabic ( ar, الْلهجَة الْعَرَبِيَة الْصَقلِيَة), also known as Sicilian Arabic, is the term used for varieties of
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
that were spoken in the
Emirate of Sicily (which included
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
) from the 9th century, persisting under the subsequent
Norman rule until the 13th century. It was derived from
early Maghrebi Arabic following the
Abbasid conquest of Sicily in the 9th century and gradually marginalized following the
Norman conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...
in the 11th century.
Siculo-Arabic is extinct and is designated as a historical language that is attested only in writings from the 9th–13th centuries in Sicily. However, present-day
Maltese is considered to be its sole surviving descendant, it being in foundation a
Semitic language that evolved from one of the dialects of Siculo-Arabic over the past 800 years, though in a gradual process of
Latinisation that gave Maltese a significant
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
superstrate influence. By contrast, present-day
Sicilian, which is an
Italo-Dalmatian Romance language, retains very little Siculo-Arabic, with its influence being limited to some 300 words.
History
Introduction to Sicily
During the 7th and 8th centuries, Sicily was raided from
Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
, population_note =
, population_urban =
, population_metro = 2658816
, population_density_km2 =
, timezone1 = CET
, utc_offset1 ...
. The eventual Muslim Arab conquest of Byzantine Sicily was piecemeal and slow. The region was a frontier zone, even after the
fall of Taormina in 962, which completed the invasion. Romance languages such as
African Romance
African Romance or African Latin is an extinct Romance language that was spoken in the Roman province of Africa by the Roman Africans during the later Roman and early Byzantine Empires, and several centuries after the annexation of the region by ...
continued to be used in the island well after the Arabic conquest.
Its speakers were largely made up of Sicilian Muslims. However, based on the foundation charter on the
Church of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio (written in both Greek and Arabic), it can be speculated that Siculo-Arabic was also the mother tongue for many Sicilian, in this case Palermo’s,
Orthodox Christians.
Norman kingdom of Sicily
When the Normans entered Sicily, the island was divided into two main non-Latin linguistic groups:
* Arabic speakers mostly in
Palermo,
Agrigento
Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one o ...
,
Butera,
Enna
Enna ( or ; grc, Ἔννα; la, Henna, less frequently ), known from the Middle Ages until 1926 as Castrogiovanni ( scn, Castrugiuvanni ), is a city and located roughly at the center of Sicily, southern Italy, in the province of Enna, towering ...
and
Noto
Noto ( scn, Notu; la, Netum) is a city and in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. It is southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Iblean Mountains. It lends its name to the surrounding area Val di Noto. In 2002 Noto and i ...
* Greek speakers mostly in
Messina,
Taormina
Taormina ( , , also , ; scn, Taurmina) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina, on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy. Taormina has been a tourist destination since the 19th century. Its beaches on ...
,
Cefalù,
Catania and
Syracuse
In 1086, the Normans managed to secure the conversion of the last important
Kalbid ruler of
Enna
Enna ( or ; grc, Ἔννα; la, Henna, less frequently ), known from the Middle Ages until 1926 as Castrogiovanni ( scn, Castrugiuvanni ), is a city and located roughly at the center of Sicily, southern Italy, in the province of Enna, towering ...
Ibn Hamud. This conversion along with the Norman adoption of many Arab governing customs resulted in the emergence of a Christian Siculo-Arabic language. During the Norman era the
chancery office operated in Arabic, Greek and Latin.
The ''Nuzhat al-mushtāq fi'khtirāq al-āfāq'' ( ar, نزهة المشتاق في اختراق الآفاق, lit. "the book of pleasant journeys into faraway lands"), most often known as the ''
Tabula Rogeriana'' (lit. ''The Book of Roger'' in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
) is a description of the world and
world map created by the Palermo-based
Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi
Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti, or simply al-Idrisi ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي القرطبي الحسني السبتي; la, Dreses; 1100 – 1165), was a Muslim geographer, cartogra ...
in 1154. Al-Idrisi worked on the commentaries and illustrations of the map for fifteen years at the court of the
Norman King
Roger II of Sicily, who commissioned the work around 1138.
[Houben, 2002, pp. 102-104.][Harley & Woodward, 1992, pp. 156-161.]
Decline after 1200
In the post-conquest period, both Arabic and Greek were sometimes used by the new rulers and subsequently used in the king's fiscal administration, which managed royal lands and men in Sicily and
Calabria. The many documents that it issued are among the main and most important sources for Arabic in Sicily. However, when the
Hohenstaufen
The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...
replaced the Normans, Arabic was dropped as a language of government in 1194 and the Hohenstaufen expelled the remaining Muslims to
Lucera and North Africa in the 13th century. Due to the expulsions, the only remaining Siculo-Arabic speakers were Christians.
When the
Aragonese took Sicily they introduced Catalan nobility, made Latin the only official language; Greek and Arabic official records in Sicily ceased to exist by the 14th century.
Arabic influence continued in a number of
Sicilian words. Most of these terms relate to
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...
and related activities.
Maltese language
The modern language derived from the Siculo-Arabic spoken in
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
is known as the
Maltese language
Maltese ( mt, Malti, links=no, also ''L-Ilsien Malti'' or '), is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata spoken by the Maltese people. It is the national language of Malta and the only offic ...
. While "Siculo-Arabic" refers to the language spoken before 1300, hardly any records exist from the 14th century, and the earliest record in the Maltese language is ''
Il-Kantilena'' (''Xidew il-Qada'') by
Pietru Caxaro (late 15th century), which is written in the Latin script.
Maltese evolved from Siculo-Arabic through a gradual process of Latinisation following the re-Christianisation of Malta (which was complete by 1250).
Some items of Siculo-Arabic vocabulary are comparable with later items found in Maltese. Although Siculo-Arabic has had a relatively minor influence on modern-day
Sicilian, this language has also absorbed many Siculo-Arabic words, with those shown in the table a small sample:
See also
*
Varieties of Arabic
*
Maghrebi Arabic
*
Pantesco dialect, a dialect of Sicilian with unusually high levels of Arabic influence
References
Sources
*
*
*
External links
*Agius, Dionisius A
"Who Spoke Siculo Arabic?" ''XII Incontro Italiano di Linguistica Camitio-semitica (Afroasiatica), ATTI a cura di Marco Moriggi'', Rubbettino 2007. 25–33.
{{Varieties of Arabic
Arabic languages
Arabs in Italy
Emirate of Sicily
Extinct languages of Italy
Maghrebi Arabic
Languages of Sicily
Languages attested from the 9th century
Languages extinct in the 13th century
9th-century establishments in Europe
13th-century disestablishments in Europe
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