Italian VS Sicilian - How Much Do They Differ?

Italian is a major European language, being one of the official languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers (13% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 14 million EU citizens (3%). Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland and Albania) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million.
Italian is the main working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and opera. Its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world
Throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, most literate Italian speakers were also literate in Latin; and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing-and eventually speech-in Italian. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian. Unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latin's contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive.
Sicilian (sicilianu; Italian: lingua siciliana;) is a Romance language spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands.
Sicilian has the oldest literary tradition of the Italic languages.
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[@Luniel]

That's why Italians use their hands, otherwise they couldn't understand the 9000 languages that they have.

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

Aromberion 15 major "Language" or dialect, 46 subdialect and, I think, 94 or 95 subsubdialect.

[@SidheKnight]

The joke ^ | | Your head

[@HarlanMalkavian]

over 9000

[@auriauri4668]

Imo hand gesture comes from the fact that we are in the middle of the mediterranean sea and we communicate with a huge amount of different cultures since ever. So It's somehow correct to me :)

[@iota-09]

i mean, that honestly sounds reasonable, signs are understood by everyone after all.

[@heronimousbrapson863]

The difference between Sicilian and Italian is that when you're offered something in Sicilian, you can't refuse.......

[@jmoney20106]

Tubmaster 5000 lol

[@kacperwoch4368]

UNDERRATED

[@empereur_du_congoeddy-malo2286]

If you won't sleep with the fish

[@trillyale9107]

Finalmente un ironico. Bravo!

[@luckyassassin1]

Pretty much

[@ЛукаСтанар]

In Italy, you walk 100 meters from your house and you're in new dialect.

[@acquinfuocata]

actually, just outside the door of your house is another dialect from the one within

[@rinoportier556]

Luka Stanar in some part of Italy is very similar to what you said😂😂. For doing an example I live in a 4000 people town that is between Ancona, 100000 people, and Jesi, 40000 people. I have Lived in a other very small town that is also a lot more close to Ancona and is under his administration, and I do the high school at Ancona and I went to Ancona in my life a very big amount of time,and I went to Jesi only a couple of time. Also at my birth house were speak the dialect of Ancona (even if not the true dialect) And the dialect of Ancona is different from the Jesi's one, and there are only 30km distance between the 2 city. The vocabulary is quite the same, but you can hear a difference in term of phonology.

[@ЛукаСтанар]

But my question is why?Why that doesn't happen in another countries?

[@ЛукаСтанар]

Yes, but if you think about political divisions for example.Germany used to be very fragmented but still there are no so huge differences in language(as far as I know).

[@rinoportier556]

Luka Stanar Germany medieval and modern history and Italy medieval and modern history are very similiar but Germany today doesn't have that big difference in dialect. I don' t know if in Germany there were a lot of dialects like in Italy and then they disappear. It is difficult to me to find a reason for this, but I think that the reason is in the Holy Roman Empire. Italy was in the Holy Roman Empire until the 1200- 1300, when in Italy born a lot of what in Italy are call "Comuni" ( a form of local administration). At the time Italy didn't have a local domination by the time of the romans, so it was in this period that born the different dialects, but the "Comuni" were split, so every "Comuni" made is tradition and language. In Germany they will be fragmented after the "Comuni" period, but they were still part of Holy Roman Empire, that had the ancient german as official language, so the little germans states don't need to create new languages. And this reason is also proven by the fact that all the states that were in the Holy Roman Empire territory, after the Italy exit, still today speak languages that are variations of german or are derivated, like the dutch.

[@leoinsf]

I am a product of an Italian mother (Tuscany) and a Sicilian father. My father was tough but had a heart of gold. (This describes Sicilians pretty well.) My father played jazz clarinet and tenor sax and played music jobs until he was 80. Sicilians are very musical and, in the old country, sing their folk songs constantly. Like all Italians, Sicilian are very emotional people whose poverty makes them macho when underneath, they are very loving. My father was a friendly, talented man who had good standard intelligence despite only going to the 7th grade. That American-Sicilian died at 83 after a rich full life of bringing six children into the world and guiding them 24 hours a day. He was a devout Catholic and for a jazz musician of his day, that was a pretty unusual accomplishment. God bless you Pop! I miss you and your loving heart! (Time out for a cry!!!)

[@winchesterpenobscot767]

...please, more sicilian... i've not heard any since my mamma e pappa have passed... please, more sicilian. it lifts my heart from the ground and warms my face... please more sicilian

[@winchesterpenobscot767]

@YoStefan ...yeah cant find a phone to accomodate my big assed fingers. surprised i actually tap anything out close to being spelled correctly. as for your correction... i never heard of anything close to that word with that meaning anywhere on the island and i've many friends and relatives all over sicily, sardinia and the mainland. idk, i guess it's one of those secret sicilian words.

[@whisperingsage]

I took care of an elderly Sicilian in a nursing home in Santa Cruz, CA, he was very special. He loved babies. He was usually pretty helpless, or so we thought, until anyone brought in a baby and he would bolt upright in the bed and ask to hold the baby, and he would kiss it, and he was so cute . He was from the Fishing culture of Sicilians in Santa Cruz. I got pretty good at Spanish as we had a lot of Mexicans we worked with, but he just spoke English to us. I had not realized Sicilian was it's own dialect. That's very interesting. Thanks for making it fun too.

[@d4rkf0x70]

Daddy=Papà No Pappa Noob

[@lucabralia5125]

@@winchesterpenobscot767 Well, maybe you haven't heard pappa becuase it's normally used while speaking to small children or babies, for example: "Apri la bocca che arriva la pappa" "Open your mouth food is coming" It's a type of food for small children, it can also be used for the word royal jelly (pappa reale)

[@Goldenskies__]

@@winchesterpenobscot767 it's not a secret word hahah it's only used with babies, "la pappa" is baby food. Perhaps that's the reason you've never heard of it. It's a very common word actually, only used with babies tho!

[@sheevpalpatine7092]

"In Sicily woman are more dangerous than shotguns."

[@Jaeger_Bishop]

Don't...just don't, Sicilians are known for their tempers and the women especially.

[@sigspearthumb3904]

That's almost as amusing as saying "all italians are mobsters" honestly they've been saying that for decades. lol...

[@firestorm165]

*books flight to Sicily

[@Jaeger_Bishop]

See this guy (or girl...not really sure) get's it, a little trolling goes a long way :p

[@auriauri4668]

High-Marshal_Jaeger I'm a girl and that was a joke

[@paramike97]

wtf is with italy it's like you have to know three dialects just to cross the street

[@nicholassama1572]

historical political divisions

[@tafua_a]

I am from Trento, and there is a town called Rovereto a few miles away. We can understand each other's dialect (it's still Trentini dialect), but they have a completely different accent.

[@wallyeva9490]

manitari97 no it's not. You can learn italian we do speak italian. You don't need to speak a dialet, none of them. Indeed I heard about a person that spoke just a dialet from naples, she is from Australia, she does not speak italian, just a dialet... well, she went for vacation in the north of Italy, no one could understand her, plus everyone avoided her cause no one in the north of Italy appreciate people from naples... I mean, it's a stereotypes, but, yes, nobody likes them.

[@tenienteramires4428]

Actually, they're languages, not dialects

[@tenienteramires4428]

@walt cuperidge Venetian, Sicilian, Catalan... Are also Italian languages, not dialects.

[@tonylarussa4046]

My father is from the province of Palermo and my mother is from the province of Ragusa. I grew up speaking two different sicilian dialects.

[@jeffhidalgo198]

My Grandmother was from Dellaperuta ( I'm sure I spelled that wrong) . A suburb of Palermo. Cheers!

[@michaelm-bs2er]

Did you find that one was more difficult to understand than the other?

[@ThePumpingiron27]

My great grandma was from Palermo and her mother was from Agrigento.

[@giulio1957]

provincia di ragusa dove precisamente?

[@glittermama]

As I noted in a response above, I could only understand my grandmother's family and not my grandfather's, as he wasn't a big talker and I spent most of my time with my grandmother. And these two families lived across town.

[@Fishhunter2014]

Sicilians are the only people in the world that can make a fedora look intimidating. It's like an ethnic superpower or something.

[@LMWelsh-oh5iu]

LMFAO!

[@ivanf.482]

Fishhunter2014 ahahahahahahaah

[@dorakemba2899]

Do you consider Sicilian as an ethnicity?

[@ivanf.482]

Dora Këmba Sicilian is not an ethnicity . But... is a kind of italian . Italy is much different

[@dorakemba2899]

@Namukolo Situmbeko According to who? I guess you've never met a Sicilian.

[@stefos6431]

As a Greek..........Sicilian sounds a lot more Greek than Italian does..........Naturally.

[@giyu1195]

Stefos becouse we're history brothers ;)

[@Gkogkas]

Yes I understand very much words

[@sincsys]

Because Sicilians are really descendants of ancient Greeks, even more so in neighboring Calabria. Calabrian ( or actually Sicilian spoken in Calabria)sounds really Greek

[@glittermama]

Stefos, did you know there is a dialect of Italian that is based on Greek? In Salento. See "Ballati Tutti Quanti: Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino." This music is "pizzica," and I love it. KZbin: kzbin.info

[@christoforoscharalampous3351]

We greeks are DNA brothers with greeks and Sicilian people and orthodox brothers with the serbs

[@parthiancapitalist2733]

"A language is a dialect with an army and a navy"

[@haoxin1131]

Not always true. Javanese is a language without army and navy

[@kenken8765]

yeah but Sicilians have the Mafia what does leave them?

[@andreavinci4939]

Sicilian Is linguage not dialect

[@ilcondottierocartografo6770]

Ò m g That is genuinly genius Woooooowwwww you made my day thank you man

[@tony72tony72]

...............yep

[@VivianaCusi_FeelGreatProject]

Loved this video! My father is Sicilian (from Siracusa) and he always speaks to us in Sicilian. Thanks to him I understand this beautiful lenguage... because it is beautiful! Great channel!

[@MrBegliocchi]

Something that worries me about videos explaining the differences between Italian and Sicilian is that, for some reason, no one ever seems to bother to mention that while it's true Sicilians speak Sicilian and Sardinians speak Sardinian, etc., Sicilians and Sardinians also speak Standard Italian. Sicilian is not an official language anywhere in the world, not even in Sicily. Sicilian remains a language for home/close friend use and Italian is the language of school, tv, radio, general formality, etc. If this is not mentioned, then people who want to vacation in Sicily/Sardinia will think they will not be able to speak Italian there and will try looking for Sicilian/Sardinian learning materials and find practically nothing. Rest assured, you can converse with almost anyone on those islands in Italian. You might not be able to in remote villages with very old people, but any Sicilian/Sardinian under 70 will be able to speak to you in Italian.

[@tilesetter1953]

You are absolutely right, they are not official languages and are not written or used except in speaking with friends and family.

[@lisalisatoejam2751]

Thanks. I was wondering about this.

[@franznarf]

Però quelli che vengono al nord parlano come dei contadini

[@darthdaddy6983]

True , i was in sicily last year & everybody spoke to me in proper italian , even the africans, but amongst themselves the sicilians spoke sicilian.

[@LionZ_]

of course when Rome has a foot on their neck about being a same state and culture with the rest. Italy as it is didn't exist until recently basically,

[@manuelmarchese3093]

sicilian is definitely a language. It's not derived from italian, but they have common roots. Moreover, it's a "romance" language. What You call different subgroups, are actually sicilian dialects.

[@billfilice6408]

Italiam derived from sicilian which is ghe direst root to vulgar latin. The word brother in latin is fratis, in Sicilian frati and Italian fratello. The Sicilian U at the end of words is because they drop the S from latin US

[@arbanu.comics]

@@billfilice6408 Italian derived from Tuscan dialect, you ignorant. Only Italian POETRY came from Sicilian language.

[@kaizersose7437]

Sicilian is very different bro. I was living in Milano and spoke with a Milanese accent and when I went to sicily I had to learn Sicilian like it was a new language but it was actually easy for me because I was already fluent in Spanish when I moved to Milano but most of the words that are different about Sicilian from Italian, I already knew the words because I knew Spanish and that word is used in Spanish for instance in Italy we say “lavore” for to work but in Sicily they say travvagiare, and in Spanish they say trabajar, basically the same as the Spanish word. And Sicilian has a lot more “I” sounds than Italian, it’s hard to explain, but also the verb iri in Sicilian is the same as Spanish ir where as in Italian it’s andar

[@kaizersose7437]

And I also speak a dialect of Italian that you guys never heard of but I’ll write a sentence in it and y’all tell if you can understand it or know the dialect. Io mi sò cresciùt neloi stati uniti y alloi ventitrei añi mi sò transferìt nell’Italia per vivir junti con mia tipa. A qui in Italia facio il directore delle vendite per un’azienda americana e vivo a Milano. Vollerei saver se voialtri pòdene capir tùd quello ch’he scrìt. È un dialecto meno conosciùt.

[@papalupa]

@@kaizersose7437 I speak Spanish, Portuguese and I am learning French, thinking hard, I could understand about 65% of what you said! you said " I only grew up in the United States and after 23 years I moved to Italy to live with my Aunty, in Italy I am the director of an american farm and I live in Milan, I would like to know if you could understand everything I wrote"

[@cluckcluck6494]

If Italians always use their hands in speaking, do I want to meet a talkative Italian barber?

[@NoName-yw1pt]

Try

[@georgeevangel3956]

All mediterranean people talk with their hands

[@MrWolf-xk8sl]

You should try Italian gynecologists ;)

[@QoraxAudio]

How about a surgeon? Better to avoid the hospital.. after an accident with a driver doing the sign language on the highway.

[@josephinerossello2967]

I always laugh when I hear that. I have notice many many people from America and other country use their hands a lot. My husband and I laugh when we hear remarks like yours. Your stupidity shows!

[@jivasini3770]

As a greek who has lived in Sicily for more than 3 years I can say that most of the times I could understand Sicilian much more than Italian. With both languages we have many things in common but with the south part of Italy we have more. It might be because until 1200 AD it was a place called Magna Grecia where greek was the dominant language. As for it's structure I believe that it's heavily influenced by Greek, Arabian, Latin and than goes the rest.

[@georgeevangel3956]

Greek naval terms are from the Venetians {Italian}

[@user-jf6yv8rj2s]

@@georgeevangel3956 And which are these terms?

[@georgeevangel3956]

@@user-jf6yv8rj2s The terms the Greeks use for naval terms.How much simpler do yo uo want it?

[@user-jf6yv8rj2s]

@@georgeevangel3956 Which terms use the Greeks? Because i m not a sailor and i dont know them. Can you tell me?

[@georgeevangel3956]

@@user-jf6yv8rj2s Terms like Mast.helmsman,.port,fathom,bulwark,riggin,stern,port You sir are not Greek,I am and wouldn’t know these things Greeks in middle ages had respect for the Venetians navy If you don’t know what youre talking about Stay out of it

[@teddybeddy123]

Just came back from Sicily a few days ago, visited some incredible historical sites, some amazing architecture. Definitely my best holiday in Europe.

[@auriauri4668]

❤️

[@Arturo124]

and not the chepest one

[@vallgron]

teddybeddy123 Where else have you been?

[@riccardoc.7256]

why should be the cheapest place in europe? impossible understand why people wanna come here and complain fos half price than other place, ¡¡ in all europe, same price in portugal and south spain, why don't people complain about other very expensive places????

[@georgeevangel2616]

Did you visit the Greek Parthenon at Segesta?-Still in mint condition

[@HS-su3cf]

The difference between a dialect and a language, is that a language has an army and a navy.

[@GabrieleSangrigoliNorway]

H S Sicilian has a navy, an army and also a "grannies-spy army".

[@robertogallo3491]

Gabriele Sangrigoli [RV-QTSS] ahhahahahah michia veru eni

[@apvtethic8818]

H S Sicily has Cosa Nostra.

[@frozendude707]

Unfortunately it's not always that simple, here in the north Sami and Meänkieli are considered distinct languages, and not dialects of Swedish, Norwegian, or Finnish, with an exception for Meänkieli which _might_ be close enough to be called a dialect of Finnish (Finnish is very dialectal as well, no Finn speaks standard Finnish in normal conversation). While Danish, Norwegian and Swedish _might_ be close enough to each other to be called dialects of each other, and even more so a bit in the past; before the Swedish monarchy changed the language specifically to distinct it from Danish, national borders dictated which is which. Language is complicated like that.

[@GabrieleSangrigoliNorway]

Ja, akkurat! Jeg vil si at Sisiliansk var et språk FØR italiensk blir et språk. Italiensk er egentlig som Bokmål. De har sett sammen alle italienske språk (med italienske mener jeg at de kommer fra den italienske halvøya, det handler mer om geografi enn om språk), og så blir italiensk skapet. Men italiensk er bare en måte for å forene alle kulturer og språk som Italia hadde. De var forskjellige Rikdommer med forskjellige måte å leve. Finnes det en SÅ STOR forskjellen mellom den svenske, norske og danske kulturen? Nei. De er ikke så forskjellige. Prøv å analysere LIVET, SPRÅK og LITTERATUR av Sicilia og Piemonto. Du skal oppfinne at de er helt forskjellige.

[@MrB16M4C]

they told me i couldn't make a joke about an Italian island. i said don't be sicily

[@PeachDragon_]

Little Dan McNamara fight me

[@shadowenighthawke3432]

Little Dan McNamara Al Italy have one thing in common they settle the matter with a gun

[@CrystalDatingCoach]

I'm American and lived in Milan for 30 years and now I'm living in SICILIA...the difference is ASTONDING! People. Food. Weather. Surrounded by the Beautiful Sea! I love SICILY!!

[@iamyourmother250]

I am a Sicilian Girl and of course I know both languages Italian and Sicilian, plus, I live in Germany so i can speak German and English! I feel blessed sometimes lol but cool video theres not much people that talk about our beautiful Sicily 🇮🇲♥️

[@bangxeloz]

I am YourMother du kannst dich glücklich schätzen! :)

[@АрутАрутюнян-з8м]

What a good girl!! I wanna marry you!

[@shadtofiq8057]

Love Italian culture. I live in Cologne

[@WolfCourtaud]

Nordic beauty. ;)

[@ChickenSoup736]

Leave the Gun and Take the Cannoli

[@dmjita]

italians know at least 5 languages. italian, own dialect and neighbour dialects

[@andreatavaglione6459]

uhm, that's not true AT ALL, I live in Milan and almost NO ONE knows a dialect.

[@flaviospadavecchia5126]

lol no

[@JenLaRock]

Andrea Tavaglione in Milan there are not even real milanesi anymore, you all come from different backgrounds. I think dialects are still alive in many italian regions and cities but as time goes by, they are disappearing

[@andreatavaglione6459]

that's right, but I know real "milanesi"who do not know their dialect and even if many people in italy still know their city's dialect that's far from knowing at least five languages.

[@Silen00]

Not to be an ass Andrea but I'm quite certain that was just a joke.

[@geosperspective]

I can see the Spanish influences on Sicilian! "Iri" sounds like "ir" (to go) in Spanish. "Travagghiu" sounds like "trabajo" (work). Btw, Sicilian sounds great! My grandparents were from Sicily (Siracusa), I can´t wait to visit there soon! Great video, thanks!

[@YUCAYEQUE]

Very true and agree but despite that overall I find standard Italian a little easier to understand as a Spanish speaker.

[@billfilice6408]

Or beach which is plaja

[@slkonnaris8477]

Fascinating!! Thank you for this video - I loved hearing the comparison of Italian vs Sicilian words. Bravissimo 👍

[@aileenemaldonado2229]

Just came back from Sicily! Loved it so much and you are so right about the dialects!!

[@ailbheskyfeather174]

For those people saying that Sicilian is just a dialect of Italian, consider that Sicilian and Tuscan (the regional language that modern Standard Italian is based on) come from two separate groups within the Italo-Dalmatian group of Romance languages. While, yes, they share a common overarching branch of the Romance language family, they are distinct enough to be considered separate languages, and, I believe, should be recognized as such. To put it in comparison, to say Sicilian is a dialect of Italian is as if you were to say Occitan was a dialect of French; both are Gallo-Romance languages, but French is a langue d'oïl while Occitan is from the Occitano-Romance branch. These are not dialects, but living, breathing languages of their own that deserve a seat at the table and a place in the classroom just as much as the standard languages of their respective countries.

[@АрутАрутюнян-з8м]

Who the fuck cares?

[@darthdaddy6983]

Yes ! The Etruscans , i so happened to have visited Pitigliano last august .. They said mine was the first bar brawl in about 20years. Lol I still have teeth marks on my chest from the maniac tuscan who bit me . Good times.

[@ajoajoajoaj]

@Ilir Cami Those are Cyrillic letters.

[@kaioconnor5023]

We also have a different language b/c for a while, we were a different country.

[@billfilice6408]

Correct Bon jornu or plaja are dalmation forms

[@liceozucchi]

"La lingua è un dialetto che ha fatto carriera".

[@gs7828]

Vercassivellauno Arverno Per la lingua italiana è proprio così che è andata.

[@MAnnnooo1]

I speak portuguese and I understood half both of you wrote. The language is a dialect that made career. Because italian language is ...

[@parthenope.]

Flávio Faive bravo 👏🏻 hahahaha

[@tifauniverse]

Extremely interesting! My mother's side of the family is Sicilian, but growing up in America, I haven't been able to experience the Sicilian culture as much as I would have appreciated. I'm researching more about the culture, the history, and my families histories to try and get a better grasp of my heritage, and videos like this really give me a better grasp about how the culture is! Thank you :)

[@yardogyuh2049]

Same my family in America wasn't very connected to there Sicilian. They didn't teach us Italian or visit the homeland. However, my mom changed that and now I have a beautiful relationship with my family in Sicily. Its great!

[@yolirich9984]

That was fun and educational ... thank you! I’m a Sicilian American.. I grew up with the Sicilian language as well as Standard Italian. Looking at the spelling of the words was eye opening 🌸🙏🏼🌸

[@ottolevine978]

The Roman Army consisted of Men from all over the Roman empire. I believe it was Crassus who led his Army to Sicily. The Moors had dark skinned Africans in their Army when they occupied Sicily. The Vikings established a kingdom in Sicily. Venice and Genoa sold Slavs as slaves all through Italy Sicily Sardinia and Corsica. The gene pool runs deep. I would not concentrate or worry about whether someone has one or 2 percent of something. The video was about language anyway.

[@proteus_9536]

beautiful video, it's very interesting, i'm sicilian and you have explained perfectly the speech , it's fantastic that you bring the language situation of sicily outside of our region at the other countrys, good job 😉

[@lexfacitregem]

I can relate so much to this video! My dad was born in Sicily (Alessandria della Rocca, in Agrigento), and my mom was from mainland Italy (Marche). They moved to America when I was a year old, so growing up, I was obviously taught american english in school, but only standard Italian at home (my dad never even told me anything about the Sicilian language, or that he could even speak it). So that is why I had no idea that he spoke Sicilian, or how different it was from the standard Italian I was taught. All this changed when I was 10 or so, as my dad invited one of his Sicilian relatives to stay with us for a few weeks. I was totally freaked out when he started talking to him. I honestly thought that he was speaking some bizarre foreign language. Now remember that he never took the time to tell me anything at all about Sicilian, so hearing him speak for the first time some freaky unintelligible language all of a sudden came as a shock to me. At first, I thought that he had this deep-dark secret identity, and that he was from this unknown foreign country! I mean, I literally could not understand one thing he was saying when he was speaking Sicilian with his relative! Funny thing about this is that even after I was educated on this subject, my dad still refused to speak Sicilian with my mom and me. To this day, he only speaks it with his Sicilian relatives... and he's not really given me any reason as to why. I almost think that he's somehow embarassed about it... which I find kinda sad.

[@ivanolamicela5193]

I can relate to your dad. I was born in Sicily and immigrated to the US at the age of eight. Both parents only spoke Sicilian - ever, in the house. I learned American English and growing up with my sister only spoke English with each other- still do. Speaking Sicilian does not benefit you if you call yourself Italian, as it is an inferior language. Most everyone in Sicily will be able to understand an Italian visitor from the north, but not vice-versa, and since most job opportunities are found in the mainland of Italy, I don't find valuable reason to speak or learn Sicilian. On a side note, I will only teach my son proper Italian.

[@АрутАрутюнян-з8м]

@@ivanolamicela5193 then you will loose your beautiful sicilian language, which is more noble than standard italian

[@ivanolamicela5193]

@@АрутАрутюнян-з8м If they ever need to make another mafia type movie, I'm all for playing a part. But that's about the extent of where speaking sicilian will come in handy.

[@giuliocaparra27]

Comu rinnigari i probbj radici.. je 'u m'scordarò mai u dialettu du miu e 'un a finirò mai 'e lu parrari.. anche si vivu a Roma. Si i cristiani giuvani vonnu parrari cummia han 'e 'mparari a capiri u dialettu du miu, u talianu u parru sulu cu' i genti adulti. Saluti da Calabbria!

[@cathyvento7446]

i am very upset and ANGRY our grandparents never spoke or taught us how to speak italian. they insisted on speaking english.. TERRIBLE .. the italian language and culture would still be thriving if they had passed their language and traditions onto their grandchildren. makes me very sad.

[@steveneardley7541]

I was in the airport in San Francisco, and these two guys seemed to be speaking Italian. But then I started listening, and had trouble understanding them. I thought "Oh, they must be from the South." But when I realized I couldn't understand almost anything, I thought "No, they must be Sicilian." One of them stood up, and he had a tattoo of Sicily on his arm.

[@DrLesleyStevens]

This was one of the most adorable videos I've ever seen from you. Don't know why I didn't catch it until now. Bravo.

[@danielzylberkan1587]

He's sicilian so he can use these exaggerated Godfather-esque mafiosi characters but goddamn it if it's not a stereotype

[@glenbellefonte9620]

We got enough snowflakes right here in America. Who cares if it's a stereotype and who cares who is racist. Fuck your feelings, nigga

[@shiningshores4808]

No shit

[@masterjunky863]

@BEST Normal sicilian people hate the mafia

[@naughtygawd3269]

@@glenbellefonte9620 Ok Mr. Keyboard Warrior

[@IvanIvanov-ni4rs]

@@naughtygawd3269 He's not a keyboard warrior, he just gave you some truth that you apparently can't handle.

[@СергейЧернышев-б6щ]

Me being a Russian, it really blows my mind, how many different dialects languages and accents you have on such a small territory! I meen, we have a large country and we have just a few accents, not even dialects, and all the difference is in emphasising certain vowels, but never the less everything is more or less intelligible.

[@paolotubo74]

because historically we italians like to be conquered unless many other populations. We never had a single revolution against the occupant civilizations. Greeks, Arabs, Normans, French, Spain etc... etc.. They all left something of their culture, languages to us over the centuries.

[@auriauri4668]

Exactly! That's what I asked to a russian friend once :D I was like "What? You guys don't have dialects?' I was a little bit surprised because your country is huge, but then I understood that's it's not a matter of size of the countries, but, as Paolo said, It's something that is connected to the history of a country (dominations), its geographic location (we are close to a lot of different countries) and so on..

[@СергейЧернышев-б6щ]

I guess in Russia imperialism is as strong as separatism in europe

[@jurii9486]

Ukrainian language has 5 dialects (3 of them in the mountains) and the standard language, which has a couple of its accents very close to each other. Nonetheless any slavic language (West/south/east) is more intelligable than Sicilian to Italian. =)

[@unrulycrow6299]

Strega Aura Hi neighbour! Here in France, while the politics established to centralize everything and bring some uniformity to the country kind of reduced the use of dialects and regional languages, the latters are coming back now, and it's pretty funny how different things are depending on where you are. It also reflects the history of the country very well, which is interesting! Of course, this aside, French is a rule and you mainly rely on the accents to determine where one person comes from, but yeah. I appreciate that we both have these particularities on such a small territory! :D

[@reginab722]

I’m crying like a baby. I miss my family so much.

[@syntex4209]

me too:( my entire family lives in palermo and i am in switzerland seeing them once a year is not enough bruh

[@maryraimond9359]

What family you have here on earth, go and see them now💕😘🙏🏼

[@fisstaschek]

Haven't you killed Jonny already though? You know, for risking family businesses for a woman...

[@SNinjaQK]

i thought he killed mario his nephew/grandson

[@breaden4381]

I feel like some day someone should link all of the killings together to create and actual story.

[@55super55]

Italian, Sicilian, English, Japanese... Wow, how many languages Metatron knows?

[@secutorprimus]

dyrak55d I think it was... 14?

[@jacobpietras]

He speaks 7 :) He's made a couple videos about it.

[@fisstaschek]

dyrak55d all of them

[@theswordofheros5857]

He has an implant in his brain that allows him to communicate with any person on earth in their native tongue

[@shannonstrobel6727]

the Metatron is the Voice of God. He speaks ALL Languages XD except maybe Finnish. Cuz nobody can speak Finnish.

[@chasingthetrail9375]

Found your channel many years before this because of your history and weapons videos but I’m glad this came up. Reminds me a lot of Catalan vs Spanish and Occitan vs French the Romance languages are truly beautiful I’ve spent a lot of time self studying and learning about them.

[@1310Gaytan]

We went to Sicilia a few months ago, I was surprised because I could not understand whole sentences. Although my Italian is not perfect (my native language is Spanish and from Mexico), on my previous visits to other parts of Italy I was able to communicate well. Still loved how it sounds.

[@eugenegm]

Sardinian, Friulian and Ladin are considered separate languages (the last two being sister languages of Switzerland's Rumantsch), but Italian dialects can be more different from each other than languages such as Swedish and Norwegian. I leave it to linguists to come up with a definition of a language versus a dialect that works in every situation.

[@deivytrajan]

As an Italian, you're pretty good at squatting like a real slav. ;)

[@cvsshred7]

life of boris

[@poonczey]

*Squatatron

[@deivytrajan]

I cant believe life of boris viewers also watch metatron, so that means I am not alone. ;D Damn, my viewed youtubers are so different... Like 3kliksphilip, AdoredTV, linusTechtips, CollegeHumor, BigDawsTV, granday, skallagrim, PBS Space Time... So basically from video gamers, anime channels, martial arts, sports to Physicists, phillosophers... xD

[@someliker]

Trajan from the stuff you're subscribed to we could be twins :I

[@themk4982]

Trajan An Italian who looks Spanish, squats like a Slav and has a kind of English sounding accent... Metatron I literally the future of humanity. Cheeki breeki

[@XX-gy7ue]

I love the Italians , all of them , and what helps to make them so interesting is that every ten people have their own culture ! - I grew up in a mixed marriage family , my father was from Mola and my mother and her family ( all 100 of them , very close ) are Castellano - my mother considered herself multilingual because she was fluent in several of the dialects ! , but even in the food , I was always made aware of what was Neapolitan and what was Baresi , especially at the holidays . - - a story to illustrate your video beautifully - - I have a cousin who as a child moved to the United States from Sicily . he made a friend , and tried very hard to copy his friends way of speaking , so that when he went to school he could understand , only later to find out that his friend was speaking Italian ! - I have to add one thing , of all the blessings that The Lord God can give , none is greater than having been given a Neapolitan mother !

[@dina113east]

My Mother and Father were of Neapolitan ancestry. No one could have loved their children more than my Mother. Both of my parents would do anything for their children. AND of course, the food we were raised on was some of the most delicious food we ever had. My Mother was often told she was not just a good cook, but a true chef. The world is not the same wonderful place without them.

[@XX-gy7ue]

@@dina113east , amen

[@glittermama]

I am mostly Sicilian but have a Neapolitan grandmother. I learned cooking from watching her; people say I'm a great cook. She and all her siblings and their children, including my father, were musicians. They were happy-go-lucky, with a special sense of humor. They laughed all the time, made fun of each other, and also particularly outsiders, unmercifully. They had names for each other, mostly hilarious. They were so unlike the Sicilians! My brothers have the Neapolitan temperament and musical ability, and I'm more of a Sicilian. I do play Neapolitan tambourine, though.

[@abdullahalshehri7050]

The only thing I noticed and we can agree on it. Arabs, Italians, Greeks, Spaniards, and Maltese people They all use their hands When they talk And if they get angry you cannot understand a single word from them . 😂😂😂😂😂 Greetings from Saudi Arabia ♥️🇸🇦✈️

[@alichinocalcabrina7282]

and jews too. I noticed manhattan jews, when talking, gesticulate exactly like sicilians, moving in the same way the hands between themselves and the person in front

[@emerdigiorgio3594]

@ a...Americans gesticulate too!!!

[@bsloow]

Sicilians and Arabs are really similar, sharing more than 300 years of history togheter

[@bsloow]

Sicily was an Emirate back in the days, and Sicilian language has many Arabic words in it

[@terrymiller111]

Too much of that Mediterranean water. That's the common link! :-/

[@d74mu]

Wow... This guy is amazing. I keep coming back to this video and the talent embedded in it never fails to impress me. I live in Milano now and I am trying to learn, this video has helped me get a gist of dialects/variations and I am thankful for being able to do it here in this channel.

[@s0fiavecchi0ni97]

I am from Rome and one of my friends is Sicilian and sometimes he comes up with words in dialect and I have no idea what they mean. So I have to look them up on the internet, or ask him, which usually leads to a ten minutes explanation involving ten more Sicilian words. We have fun though, my fav Sicilian word rn is "Scunzaioucu", which should mean something like "game ruiner", but I'm not entirely sure since his explanation was quite complex 😅

[@SarsTheSecond]

I would say GUASTAFESTE. It was in the book from high school. Text about some highschool guys.

[@dubbio8707]

Anche "Passa Pitittu" sarebbe "Game Ruiner", però letteralmente significa "Passa Appetito" ovvero, qualcuno che ti fa perdere la voglia ("l'appetito") di fare qualcosa.

[@charlesgehring8124]

Could it mean "spoil sport"?

[@goroakechi3593]

@@charlesgehring8124 I think this word is supposed to be mean that someone is a bad sport. Sore loser , not a fun game player. Etc

[@zampagrilli]

Guastajuocu....game spoiler...Cunzajuocu is one who fixes a game

[@TheIamtheoneandonly1]

I knew a girl from NYC who was half Sicilian half Irish. How about that for a potent mixture! You pissed her off at your peril let me tell you!!

[@tomcasarella6061]

My evil x was Sicilian and Azores Portuguese

[@user-zy9yg2eu5t]

Half sicillian half Irish 100% bullshit. Americans are Americans. If she ain't from a place she ain't from a place. Americans always try and give themselves ethnic identities with no understanding of the culture. Fuck off

[@yamaotostrike]

She was half shotgun and half RDX?

[@Robconnors7253]

@@user-zy9yg2eu5t Accura!

[@Robconnors7253]

@Ilir Cami Albania has some beautiful women. .

[@sagapoetic8990]

So fascinating - I learned so much here. I'm American with Sicilian heritage (Sciacca). I went on to study Arabic and went to Morocco. I do not speak Sicilian but from a bit of research I did, I discovered the influence of Arabic and Berber on Italian - the word 'mafia' itself comes from Arabic really. It's interesting to think of all the cultures exerting influence on Sicily.

[@Jordi_Llopis_i_Torregrosa96]

Sicily is super interesting and one of the richest places on earth historically IMO Such an ancient melting pot since the dawn of times, Romans, Greeks, French, Spaniards, Berbers, etc

[@esti-od1mz]

The arabic influence is small, and the berber one doesn't even exists... about the word "mafia": it is probably of romance origin. In Tuscan, there is the word "Maffia", which means "Misery". Since in ancient times "Mafia" was written "Maffia", it is more logic to think that the word doesn't have an arabic origin. Even more, there is no arabic word related to the concept of "Mafia"

[@Jordi_Llopis_i_Torregrosa96]

@@esti-od1mz As to the word Mafia I'm not certain, nor is anyone really, but I agree it's probably from romance origin, that being said, I've seen some of your other comments fighting this false narrative that Sicilians are "black/African", etc, which is granted, I'm not saying Sicilians are Arabic or anything (which isn't a bad thing by any means just wanted to clarify that) but Arabs ruled Sicily from 831 to 1091, and there were both Arabs and Berbers, some admixture obviously occured, as with any of Sicily's rulers, to varying degrees, I'm not an expert but I'm pretty sure Sicilians are sitting at a mostly "Italian" gene makeup, with some strokes of Arabic, Berber, French, Spanish, Greek, etc anyways, people usually have this miscontrued idea of territory takeovers, as opposed to the reality which is these were mostly ruling elites who didn't mingle with locals much.

[@esti-od1mz]

@@Jordi_Llopis_i_Torregrosa96 Your Comment is a well-Thought one. I want to be clear: I'm not racist at all. Unfortunately, some people want to manipulate History for their nationalistic reason, or sometimes they simply don't know History well... because of that, it happened to me to correct wrong opinions. Yes, Sicily is mostly Italic and Greek-anatolian (more correctly "near eastern"), with 6% of the sicilian DNA probably of MENA origin: as much as most of Spain and Portugal. We know that from recent studies... so I can't understand some nationalistic claim. About the word "Mafia": we don't know its etimology for sure, but the arabic origin is probably wrong because 1)we can't find an arabic word with a similar meaning 2) the arabic words suggested don't fit the phonetic "sicilian way" of adapting arabic phonemes. 3) it is pushed mostly by arabic nationalists. Furthemore, only 300 sicilian words have arabic origin, and most of them are used in agricolture. I know that my comment will be too long, but I'm really passionate about my island. Thanks for your comment

[@Jordi_Llopis_i_Torregrosa96]

@@esti-od1mz hey I'm passionate about your island too, as a fellow islander myself, greetings from Mallorca, Spain ... Sicily is definitely on my bucket list hopefully will visit it soon

[@ScipioWasHere]

"Ah-babadee boopie." - Peter Griffin

[@zacharyjohns1157]

@@TheBucketSkill incel

[@fuferito]

"Che cosa?" -Italian deli owner

[@ettoremorabito860]

It's stale now!

[@matteocolajanni777]

Yeah.. not funny, didn't laugh

[@ettoremorabito860]

Me too idiot! Even if I understand the teasing that was a show!You're just an Idiot!

[@vgatej9815]

I come from Como lake and I can speak western lombard dialect (even if i'm young and not many my age speak it nor know it nowadays) I love being able to mantain this language, and just for those who are curious these are the same words in my "dialect": guardare = vardà soldi = dané ragazzo = fiöö / bagaj lavoro - laurà / mesté si - si /sé attento! - ocio! /ociu! mangiare - magnà per favore - per piasè (but has a different connotation, not so polite) di dove sei? - dué ta vegnat? / da duè ca ta seet? andare - nà giù - giö fazzoletto - mantén gallina - galèna / pulèt melanzane - meresgian bello -béll seccatura - braghelada letto - lècc hai capito? - te capì?

[@Troy_KC-2-PH]

soldi is just weird to me, as a Spanish speaker, nothing like dinero, or peso, or peseta or even moneda. I can usually understand some Italian but ... soldi? that would have confused the hell out of me.

[@Goldenskies__]

@@Troy_KC-2-PH we also have denaro and moneta in Italian.

[@michaelm-bs2er]

@@Troy_KC-2-PH Did you ever here of a Roman coin called a Solidus?

[@michaelm-bs2er]

Very interesting to see some information on the northern dialects here too

[@BorgheAsAJungler]

3:00 HUMONGOUS WHAT

[@Tundra1919]

Crimen Silentii that's my name, Hugh mongous

[@BorgheAsAJungler]

How dare you! Disgusting! Disgusting! You just abused a woman!

[@am-en2qw]

Crimen Silentii don't touch me! don't touch me! don't touch me!

[@davidebonannini640]

he said humongous gazongas, what's unclear?

[@KingdomofSmileys]

You just abused a PUHSON OF CUHLAH!!!!

[@SageManeja]

The amount of cognates that i can see with Italian as a Spaniard is amazing

[@ctam79]

So dialects can have dialects?

[@giorgioj4557]

ctam79 as you can see, yes.

[@Arcanua]

Chinese is a good example of this, but yes.

[@CommanderJonny]

Yeah, they're called sub-dialects I think. Besides the Chinese example already given, just think of all the different dialects of English (British, American, Canadian, etc.), many of which have their own 'dialects'. Though it's harder to shift through this in English, since people sometimes confuse accents and dialects.

[@ctam79]

A dialect has its own distinct vocabulary. An accent is just distinct pronounciation of the same vocabulary.

[@CommanderJonny]

I know that, that's why I said some people sometimes confuse someone with a different accent as speaking a different dialect. I still stand by my argument for English dialects, as someone from the United States would use different words than someone from Great Britain, or someone from South Africa, or someone from Australia or New Zealand. While it may not be as... distinct as dialects of other languages, it's still present, and distinct enough in my opinion.

[@DreamIncorporation]

This is a very informative and funny video. But I have similar expierences with languages and dialects here in the Netherlands. I was raised in the middle of the country, where they speak "normal" Dutch. But my parents are originally from the province of Limburg, where they speak a dialect which is completely different than Dutch. There are some words in it that are the same, but a lot of words are influenced by German, French and typical Limburgian words. Most people in the Netherlands cannot understan Limburgian (the ones living above the major rivers can't), but I can and I speak it as well.

[@couchcamperTM]

same with my language, low German. spoken from the dutch border to the Polish border, every region has its own dialect. My mother was raised only 12km away from my father, but whatever she says using the ö umlaut, he said it with "oi" Pretty much every small village has a unique style, but we can all understand each others dialect. except for hardcore Frisian, maybe - and Saterland Platt is too different^^ BTW I can read and understand "normal" dutch and even the language of Luxembourg, but I don't understand much when I only listen to it. unless the speaker is very slow. Limburg, is that where they actually say "G" instead of "Gch" ? you know, the famous dutch g sound, that reminds foreigners of a sore throat? ;)

[@breaden4381]

Hardcore Frisian... I've heard it's similar to Old English.

[@couchcamperTM]

the northern Frisian sure is - it's anglic.

[@DreamIncorporation]

couchcamper Not only that, but it puts some extra vowels to Dutch words, making it more lyrical. And, like Chinese, there are some words that change in meaning in how the vowels are pronounced.

[@silviamic9295]

Italians take it to an other level 😹 we also have Wikipedia and Facebook In dialect, bilingual road signs and books, you can marry with the mayor reading the laws in your dialect (not in all the part of Italy). In some places people talks language that are quite similar to Latin (Sardinian, Ladino and Friulano) or German (search for Cimbrian Language on Wikipedia, it's fuking awersome) or Romanian, in Apulia we have some villages that talk in arbëreshe, that is ancient Albanian, and griko that is fukin ancient Greek😅

[@bobg5362]

Miei genitori sono di Campania. I'm relatively fluent in Italian, and understand their dialect quite well because I grew up hearing it. What I found amazing is that when you were doing the word by word comparison, the Sicilian versions were totally foreign. If you had said the Sicilian version first, I would not have been able to translate. But, when you spoke those full sentences at the end of the video, I completely understood. It was as if my brain heard the parts that I could recognize because they were close to Italian or Neapolitan, and then extrapolated the words that made sense to add in, even though I did not understand; and then translated it all into English for me.

[@xanbalinas3920]

Interesante. I didn't even knew they were so many dialectal variations in Sicilian language. These variations are a treasure that I hope never vanishing because are a testimony of the rich history of the island. And I can not finish with the comment without saying that you made my day with the Mafioso impression.

[@forestelfranger]

So what i got from this video is. Metatron needs to star in a mobster movie.

[@Linck192]

ikr, his character is so cool

[@Sylkenwolf]

Forest elfranger my thoughts exactly!

[@esmeraldagreen1992]

Nah he is trying to educate you bumpkins.

[@Iceblade2187]

"She didn't get offended, she's just busy...I think." 😂

[@north9849]

My mom is sicilian. The difference is the yelling. All of it.

[@ironmyno]

My sicilian Grandparents rarely raised their voice.but would give you a look that would silence the entire family.

[@francescozappala8822]

@@ironmyno ahahahaha same with my mom 😂

[@GraupeLie]

Fascinating! I've been to Sicily last summer and fell in love with it immediately. We stayed in the South-Eastern part and went on various trips, the longest being the one to the Etna. I studied Latin and know a few tiny bits of Italian, but I noticed how different Sicilian is! Wow, fascinating to actually have them compared side by side by a native speaker!

[@NathanForestguy]

My friend told me he was going to a fancy dress party as an Italian island. I said to him ‘Don’t be Sicily.’ - The legendary Tim Vine

[@matthagen67]

Today you are a LINK between Italian and Sicilian? :)

[@Bluesnow2964]

Lol! I see what you did there 🤣

[@ghostbusterguy20011]

Alucard J.B M.P very funny

[@kevinsullivan3448]

I think to many people failed to get this...

[@brandonvistan7444]

I see what you did there. The caps helped.

[@TroisioAsia]

I’m from Salento (south-eastern Italy) and we actually speak a variety of Sicilian. That’s pretty funny because my boyfriend is from Catania and we both talk our dialect and we still understand each other. It’s quite interesting for us (we both are linguistics lovers) seeing how many words and structures have in common speaking our native language. And yes, Sicilian is uncomprehensible for someone who speaks Standard Italian and who’s from the North of Italy, so I tend to consider it as a proper language (as my dialect, Salentino, which could be considered as a language due to the fact there’s literature and music, so a written tradition in Salentino dialect)

[@Kinotaurus]

Viva la pizzica!

[@krizalid2000]

I was looking for this video, thanks man, it was really necessary.

[@pepperpeppington6267]

You look real good in that suit.

[@metatronyt]

Thanks ^^

[@dexterzplace5553]

Metatron I was thinking he went full Italian mobster on us, like Al Capone was gonna sho up with his little friend Tommy

[@pepperpeppington6267]

Praise KEK!

[@clare5one]

Yes, blue is his color.

[@pinasabatino5804]

yeah i agree with you get on with the fricking show boring😛

[@Lineman-zs3zx]

It's a language, just like Calabrese and Napolitano and Barese

[@billfilice6408]

Yes but there is no language Calabrese. There is Sicilu Calabro and Cosentino Calabro. Cosenza speaks the latter which is closer to Napulitano while the rest of Calabria speaks the other which resembles Sicilian. My Grandfather was from Cosenza and my Nanna was from Catanzaro. We said Nanna not Nonna. We also said Tia not Zia or Zi Zi in slang. Italian is NOT one culture.

[@danielemenotti1989]

Wrong, calabrese and barese are dialects of the same language (Neapolitan)

[@billfilice6408]

First, there is no dialect called Calabrese. My Nanna was from Cosenza and spoke Cosentino Calabro. This is closer to Napulitano but is still Calabro. My Nonnu was from Catanzaro and spoke Sicilu Calabro which is closer to Sicilian. Notice I used Nanna/Nannu? Bisnonna or Catananna? Ragazzo or Picuottu or Carusu? Catanzarese and Cosentino have profound differences. BTW, 4 provinces speak Sicilu Calabro while only Cosenza speaks like Napulitanos do. I grew up listening to both and these stem from Vulgar Latin.

[@tommaso99]

@@billfilice6408 Interesting comment. I think we may all be getting bogged down in semantics and sophistry here though. You're absolutely correct about the technical classification of the languages (cosentino vs calabro vs siculo-calabrese etc...), but in common parlance it's perfectly acceptable to use the term "calabrian/calabrese" to refer to the collective group of spoken tongues throughout the region. Fascinating topic though, especially when looking at the little remnants of "sicilian" and "calabrese" that still exist in maltese, they still use nanna and nannu inter alia.

[@michaelparisi6593]

Barese is no good

[@fenghualiu2653]

Bad definition: language is a collection of intelligible dialects. Good definition: language is a dialect with an Army and a Navy 👍

[@sonofoi6840]

I absolutely love dialects and how far they can be from the "main language". I speak german, but I'm from the swiss alps, so i speak swiss german which is actualy a group of many german dialects. My dialect, called "Wallisertiitsch" or "Wallis German" in english, is so far away from standard german that most germans don't understand any of it. Even other swiss german speakers have difficulty understanding our special dialect. That's because our dialect has split off from the source way before modern german was even a thing, even further back than most other swiss german dialects. What is also special about our dialect is that we have plenty of french and italian words in common use here. French words are kinda common in swiss german, italian words not so much. As a little example, we don't say "Zopf" for that nice braided bread we eat on sundays, we say "Tretscha" which comes from the italian word "Treccia". Holy damn, i love languages and dialects, so awesome to see how they evolved in different places!

[@fabianpatrizio2865]

A country like Argentina would have Italian as its official language now and not Spanish because of the hundreds of thousands (over a million) of Italians who went there, mainly 100 years ago...problem was, they all spoke only their regional dialects so there was no unifying link...so they all eventually adopted Spanish...shame :)

[@SarsTheSecond]

You could add Croatian. I know there are lot of Croats in Argentina. Some of their descendents are now richest people there.

[@astrid2885]

Fabian I'm ashamed to tell you that even though I'm doing quite well on geography and bits and pieces of history (travel addict) it was only recently that I discovered that Argentina has a huge italian community. I've always thought you were mostly spanish.

[@billfilice6408]

Lots of Italian names in Argentina. I believe the word Argentina is Italian as Argento is silver. There is even Argentinian Italian cuisine

[@josebartoli9921]

fabian patrizio: Spanish rather than Italian in Argentina is not a shame as you stated, at all. It's much better and certainly preferred on an international level and hence much more useful .

[@josebartoli9921]

Bill Filice: Argentina is not an Italian word. It comes directly from the Latin name for silver: Argentum (pronounced 'arghentum', not 'arjentum')

[@strafrag1]

Well this old guy has a great old family story I'd like to share with you all. Ok, here goes. PICTURE this, Manhattan at Christmastime, 1952. My mom, 6 months pregnant with yours truly, and her mother-in-law, my little hurricane of a Sicilian Grandmother standing 4 foot 10 inches tall are on the subway headed back to the Bronx after doing xmas shopping in NYC. The trains were crowded and no man would give my pregnant mother, and me, a seat. Well Nana Ana (from Agrigento) insulted all the men sitting down in her broken English until one of them finally got up and gave mom, and me, a seat. Mom is still rocking here on earth and has always loved telling this story. Cheers.

[@johnarrao6837]

When I was in school an Italian teacher heard I spoke Italian . He started speaking to me and I told him I couldn't understand him because I spoke Scilian.

[@whisperingsage]

This is like Cajun French vs modern french. I had a Cajun brother and sister in a nursing home and one of our CNA's was modern french, i told her about our Cajun patients, and she said "they speak french from 300 years ago, I couldn't understand them"

[@jeanveneziano8656]

I Love You! * My mom is Roman and my dad, Sicilian, Palermo. My grandparents were from the old country. I enjoy you so much! I appreciate all that I learn from you*:) You make me laugh and I will always tune in to your videos and learn something new every day *:)!

[@carlosvega4704]

Your last name tells you where you come from.

[@DreamerxOfxThexNight]

After this and reading the comments, I now understand why the joke of never calling a Sicilian an Italian XD

[@kirkmooneyham]

I spent some months in Sicily many years ago. I learned some standard Italian, but then again, the words I remember I know I say a bit differently because of the accent in Sicily where I was at, specifically near Catania. Sometimes, I miss Bella Sicilia...the last part made me laugh because the accent brought back memories. Un mille di grazie!

[@spideraxis5582]

Meraviglioso! I was raised with Sicilian, now use mainly Fiorentino Italian. In honesty, I forgot much of the former. I loved hearing this! My only dislike is the Mafioso connection. Please, Sicilians are not murderous people!

[@francesvansiclen3245]

spideraxis- of course not !

[@sammiedog4]

Bullshit come to America they still are things always trying to make a fast dollars. Crooks even in city government, Unions fast hands

[@edmazzeo4734]

lol

[@PeachDragon_]

spideraxis ovvio che non siete cattive persone...però la mafia c'è

[@RJStockton]

Don't tell that to Sicilian-Americans. Everybody here pretends we have an uncle who knows somebody.

[@Estoia]

In portuguese we also say "ir" (iri), and "trabalho"(travaggio).

[@billfilice6408]

Or Unni like onde

[@billfilice6408]

jiri

[@xxxpoiled]

@@billfilice6408 aunni....

[@BirdTurdMemes]

hotel...

[@lexmole]

When I speak Sicilian (it's a different accent then his one, we use more i and u - and his mentioned heavy-usage of d instead of t), some people are always asking me if I'm speaking (European) Portuguese. Not sure if they are similar, but I noticed that Portuguese also shortens many vowels and have more u-sounds than Standard Italian ...

[@ludogalbiati]

Innanzitutto non esiste il Siciliano come lingua unica, ma ogni provincia e paese della Sicilia ha la propria cadenza e termini. Quello che sentite parlare nel video, è Palermitano, probabilmente perché l'autore del video è nativo di quelle parti.

[@masterjunky863]

Secondo questo ragionamento non esiste letteralmente nessuna lingua. L'italiano standard ad esempio è una lingua artificiale derivata dal toscano, in realtà si divide in molti dialetti toscani, umbri, marchigiani e laziali. La differenze tra il siciliano e una "vera lingua" è che quest'ultima ha uno standard, una variante scelta e perfezionata per essere la versione "ufficiale" della lingua (come se prendessimo il palermitano e dicessimo che quello è il siciliano standard). Letteralmente ogni lingua è così, francese, tedesco, giapponese si dividono tutti in vari dialetti e non esiste un francese, un tedesco o un giapponese unico, semplicemente è stato scelto uno standard. In poche parole la lingua siciliana esiste e si divide in vari dialetti. Catanese e palermotano sono due dialetti della stessa lingua.

[@tenienteramires4428]

Actually, Sicilian is not influenced by Spanish, but by Catalan

[@ceciliagamarra3278]

( Es la hora de los delirios de grandeza; como si el catalán no tuviese una gran influencia del español 😂😂😂 )

[@tenienteramires4428]

@@ceciliagamarra3278 El catalán tiene influencia del castellano a partir del siglo XVI, antes de hecho era al revés.

[@ceciliagamarra3278]

@@tenienteramires4428 ¿ Era al revés ?. ¿ Me estás diciendo, palabras más, palabras menos, que el castellano es una derivación del catalán ? 😳😳😳 (¡ Qué malas son las drogas ! ) 😂😂😂

[@tenienteramires4428]

@@ceciliagamarra3278 No sé de dónde has sacado que haya dicho eso, solo digo que antes del siglo XVI el castellano recibía mucha influencia del catalán, prueba de ello son los muchos catalanismos que hay en castellano: cordel, faena, bajel, papel, correo, metal, reloj, prensa, quijote, molde, viaje, pincel, litera, retrete, clavel, mercader, seo, cantimplora, sastre, borde, cohete...

[@ctam79]

You should to a video on Sardinian, which I heard is supposed to be closest to the original Latin.

[@franksinatra2624]

ctam79 no actually the closest language to latin today is a small language in southeastern switzerland called Romansch. It borders Italy and isnt very widely spoken but it is incredible how close it is.

[@orionbarbalate4350]

Lord Diamond ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh idk

[@Gamirca]

nope, sardinian is closer.

[@Philoglossos]

Incorrect. Romansh is a Gallo-Romance language and doesn't have any particularly archaic features. Sardinian, on the other hand, is full of extremely conservative features, such as retention of /k/ before vowels /i/ and /e/, the classical latin vowel system minus length distinction, etc. People just call Romansh similar to Latin because of the name lol. Many other romance languages (Standard Italian, Spanish, Catalan, etc.) are more like Latin than Romansh.

[@tonio103683]

Though romansh is the closest to latin of the Gallo-romance languages. Unrelated but just to state it out : in Wallis there is a dialect of Francoprovençal (Patois d'Evolène) that retains cases and is very conservative compared to other Gallo-romance as well. The only other latin language that retain cases is the one Battker mentionned : Romanian. Though I must agree, Sardinian is probably the closest to Latin overall in many aspects.

[@bonneburton116]

Just found you on KZbin and what you had to say regarding the difference in languages was very interesting. Thank you for sharing

[@RobertMihalache]

Hi mate! Thanks a lot for this interesting episode. I am Romanian and somehow I can understand a little bit from both dialects. I have never been to Sicilia but I hope one day I will come and visit. Sicilian dialect sounds very nice and so different from common Italian. Thanks again. Grazzie.

[@michaelfranco5191]

my grandmother and my great-grandfather's will be so mad with you right now you make Sicilian look like gangsters 😂

[@whisperingsage]

Or they might be amused.

[@Goldenskies__]

@@whisperingsage nope, You got the wrong idea on sicilians, if that is what you think of us.

[@Galenus1234]

I wonder if your relatives were so mad at the @Metatron for making Sicilians look like gangsters that they sent him a horse head.

[@caxaptt6514]

@@Galenus1234 I didn't laugh at that.

[@shotty2164]

Except that Sicilians literally created the mafia... so

[@sandrojones8068]

I'm Sicilian 😉😜 it's a separate language 😀 my mum is from Catania

[@LS994]

'mbare! :D Si scinni ti saluto!

[@giorgioingaliso3784]

Your Italian Pal picca siciliani ci su ca

[@LS994]

Megghiu accussì no? hahahaha ca tutti cumpari semu ;)

[@johnmartin3134]

My real last name is Martino. My grandparents are Italian, but my grandfather speaks Sicilian and my other nonno speaks standard Italian. It's funny because I'll speak standard Italian and he'll speak his Sicilian and he always complains that I need to learn his dialect.

[@GabrieleSangrigoliNorway]

Dovresti ! :') Povero nonno tuo!

[@anbarmarine2691]

Great video! My dad’s family is Sicilian, mom’s family is from Naples. My dad was in the US Navy and WWII and visited his grandparents in Mineo

[@dinosilone7613]

When I was growing up, the language that we spoke in the New York City neighborhood where we lived was a mixture of Southern dialects (Siciliano, Napoletano, Abruzzese, Pugliese, Calabrese, etc), simplified standard Italian (since most of the immigrant population hadn't gone to school very much), and some English words thrown in. Maybe because of that, or maybe because of the common elements among all the Southern dialects, (and maybe because of reading a lot of Camilleri :) ), Sicilian is pretty easy to follow. (My family was not Sicilian). On the other hand, Northern dialects are incomprehensible to me - they might as well be speaking French or German.

[@pp38pp]

In Italy we call that mixed language of southern dialects and English that the Italians of New York spoke up to the 1960s "Broccolino". In the 1980s, a distant cousin from New Jersey came to Italy and spoke that strange language to make himself understood. It was like hearing That's Amore by Dean Martin ;-)

[@dinosilone7613]

pp38pp: I LOVE that name “broccolino"! According to an Italian linguist that I know, there were several distinct varieties, depending on which immigrant population dominated. He distinguished “Queensese-Italiano” from "Brooklynese-Italiano". The immigrant population in the part of New Jersey where I now live is predominantly from Provincia Avellino, so it's much more napoletano then it is siciliano. Our part of Queens had a large Abruzzese population, so our dialect was closer to that. But I had neighbors from all over the South, so we mostly communicated in the simplified Italian that you'd expect from immigrants who came over in the first half of the 20th Century, and who hadn't had much education in Italy (or anywhere else). It was a pretty cool language, though ... mostly gone now.

[@pp38pp]

@@dinosilone7613 Yes, they seem to me interesting observations. I add that the variants of Italian used by the Italian communities in the US had to be a mix of conservative variants of the dialects of the motherland. In fact, when my relatives came to Italy they brought back ancient words that we had fallen into disuse. For example, the word "tragn" which had now been replaced by "sicchie", a dialectal version of the standard Italian "secchio" (bucket). Unfortunately these languages are used exclusively in speech and do not leave written documents. They should have been studied when they were still in use, but then dialectology didn't even exist and so we lost a piece of our cultural heritage.

[@dinosilone7613]

@pp38pp: In my father's hometown’s dialect, we would have said “gliù sicchjë” for il secchio. In our dialect, that change from the “e” to the “i” is common, e.g. Letto becomes “lit", petto becomes “pittë” (I'm using ë for the short schwa sound, since there's no easy way to show a schwa on an iPad...). It's interesting that you showed the same phenomenon - are you Abruzzese? It's been so many years since I actually heard our “broccolino” (I still love that name!), that I'm not sure how secchio was pronounced, but we definitely used a variant of the Italian word - I'd never heard “trajn” before. Yes, I wish someone had thought to document these languages while there was still a chance. It's like the song says, “you don't know what you've got ‘till it's gone". This is an interesting conversation! Have you seen any of the work of Hermann Haller? He wrote quite a few articles on Italian-American dialects over the last few decades, and at least two books. There's also a project currently underway to collect longer samples of the spoken language of Italian immigrant populations and their descendants, through the University of Utrecht.

[@pp38pp]

@@dinosilone7613 Sure, it's a really interesting conversation. I'm not from Abruzzo, I'm a Lucanian from the area where the province of Potenza borders the provinces of Foggia and Avellino and my family has always stayed here. A sister of my grandfather instead emigrated to the states before WWI. Until WWII the shepherds of that area followed the routes of transhumance towards Abruzzo in summer and towards the Foggia plain in winter. It is reasonable to assume that there have been mutual influences. No wonder you have never heard the word "tragn" (the group "gn" should be pronounced as in "ragno", but without the final vowel), after that time too I only heard it in a couple of cases from old farmer, when they referred to old metal or wooden buckets. But they too called the common plastic buckets "sicchie". I suppose that for an illiterate peasant the modern plastic bucket was ontologically different from the ancient handmade bucket and therefore he did not continue to use the old name for the new object, but adopted the one used by the merchant who sold it. I imagine that later, having become unobtainable the old handmade object, even the word that designates it has disappeared. I think the same happened to many other dialect words that designated objects that have fallen into disuse or replaced by modern versions: lu chianchiedd, la buffetta, lu 'mbastapan, li crujule, lu zambitt, lu tumbagn, lu laghenatur ... No, I have not had the opportunity to read the works of Herman Haller, but I am not an expert in dialectology, I am only an amateur who loves the dialects and languages ​​of southern Italy in all their infinite manifestations. I try to understand the way in which words change because I believe it is the mirror of how subaltern societies change, those of which no one writes the history. And then I like to read or listen to ancient stories in dialect. For example, these days I am re-reading "Lo Cunto de li cunti" by Giovanni Battista Basile, written in a wonderfully Baroque Neapolitan from the seventeenth century. It takes me back over half a century to when my grandfather (born in 1895) told me the same stories, handed down to him orally from the same sources that Basile had put in writing. In fact he was certainly not able to read the Neapolitan of the seventeenth century ;-) Sorry for this long post, but by now I've written it and patience. I do not do it anymore :-)

[@peppende]

Il video mi è piaciuto, molto ben fatto, non ho però apprezzato lo stereotipo mafioso, Palermo e la Sicilia intera non lo merita.

[@marcopolo5115]

Questo buffone non vive in Italia

[@ninocaruso6850]

Giuseppe, sono d'accordo con te.

[@gavev1996]

Verissimo, noi non siamo così e non ci sentiamo rappresentati dallo steorotipo filmesco del mafioso, queste rappresentazioni ci danneggiano soprattutto se rivolte verso stranieri che non conoscono da vicino la nostra cultura, finiscono per dare l'idea che essere così è una nostra caratteristica culturale e che siamo tutti violenti e con atteggiamenti minacciosi e mafiosi quando invece siamo un popolo di cuore molto caldo, accogliente e amichevole, io mi sento offeso nell'essere rappresentato così. Io vivo all'estero e non sapete quanto è brutto quando mi dicono "oh mafia!" appena dico di essere siciliano, capisci che all'estero quella merda della mafia, che è un fenomeno con cui tra l'altro non sono venuto mai neanche lontanamente a contatto, è la prima cosa che associano alla nostra terra

[@MrWolf-xk8sl]

@@marcopolo5115 perchè buffone? Avrai visto solo questo video scommetto...

[@josephinerossello2967]

Caro Giuseppe, parlano della Mafia in Sicily and forget to mention the Mafia in the USA. It's everywhere!

[@gaius_enceladus]

It's probably fair to say that Sicilians have a reputation for being "tough guys" and I really **like** that. I really like and respect folks who love their family, culture and values and stand up for them, no matter what, and I'm sure Sicilians would do that. They remind me of Corsicans in that respect - they have a BIG reputation for being tough and "taking no shit......".

[@emerdigiorgio3594]

@j4d3...👏👏👏👏👏👏👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@johnofthemount5044]

I speak Italian relatively well, and I always wondered why I couldn't understand a word of the Italian in Mobster movies and shows (The Godfather, Boardwalk Empire, etc...). It is crystal clear now. Thanks

[@z120p]

Almost certainly deserves classification as a separate language. It is an Italian language, rather than a dialect of Italian. As a speaker of standard Italian (second-language) it seems I have more trouble understanding Sicilian than I do understanding Spanish. I very this both amusing and incredibly strange.

[@darthdaddy6983]

True , i grew up speaking english french & italian .. i can understand spanish 1million times better than sicilian.

[@JenLaRock]

The only sad thing about this is that as time goes by, dialects are disappearing :/ new generations of italians hardly speak them, many have just passive knowledge of their dialects but struggle to speak it...

[@shattynatty27]

In many ways it’s a good thing and a natural outgrowth of standardized education and media. The easier it is for large groups of people to communicate the better

[@eogg25]

My father came from Sicili and my mother is Italian, my father was young when he came to the USA and learned Italian but he spoke with a mixture of both languages. They very seldom spoke Italian because they were just as fluent in English and my mother said my father was hard to understand in Italian. I did not realize how different the two languages were, until I heard my father speak Sicilian with my brother in law who spoke Sicilian.

[@dukefleedactarus6891]

I don't know how you think in America but Sicilians are also Italian and speak italian language. In the whole Italy there are many regional dialects but the main and official language is always Italian. 100 years ago when Italian immigrants arrived in America they were the poorest and most ignorant stratum and did not know Italian. Today, of course, things are different in Sicily people know the official Italian language as well as their own dialect. This is the case throughout Italy from north to south and islands. Metatron speaks a Palermitan (from Palermo) dialect but in other parts of Sicily they speak a different dialect for example Messina or Catania. Each regional capital has its own.

[@eogg25]

@@dukefleedactarus6891 I can understand why you think that, but my grandparents were not ignorant, they were poor in the US, not in Sicily. being young he learned English quickly and they did speak Sicilian to each other, my father spoke Sicilian because his parents spoke it at home. he was very young when he came to the US. He was not of school age yet while in Sicily, so he did not learn proper Italian that was taught in schools while in Sicily.

[@soulnirvanaspirituality4351]

Great video! Thank you 🙏🏼💕

[@nessuno1948]

There are multiple languages and dialects in Italy, even between nearby towns. They are disappearing, unfortunately and not only some are not understandable, from north to south east from west but also from a few km apart. (As where I live, in the northeastern border of the state) What is the mainland italian sound system? Mine is completely different from any other. If you do refer to the tv universal romano/sicilian/southern italian sound, It is not mine, neither the continental italian sound.

[@Kurtownia]

Interesting. In Poland everyone speaks Polish pretty much the same. No accents. I can't tell the difference between people living on the opposite sides of the country. I heard there are Poles who use a different word for "outside" than most, but I never met them. Other than that it's like 38 million of us were all born in the same town. Only Kashubians (0.04% of the population or less) and some guys in the mountains are different, but the latter are more like a tourist attraction than a separate ethnicity at this point ;p

[@SarsTheSecond]

Kurtownia. It is quite opposite in Croatia. We have 3 main dialects and million sub dialects and accents. Every town and willage can have different accents. Specially on islands. You can have 50 words for one thing.

[@comradexyz1598]

Polish alone is complicated enough, lol. Who needs even more dialects? 😄 Not that I'm learning it or something, but I heard it's a damn hard language to learn.

[@ХристоМартунковграфЛозенски]

We've still got some in Bulgaria, although IMHO it's more of an accent thing.

[@eutrepe03]

are you kidding me??? lol. I am from Poland too, please don't write such a crap.

[@АрутАрутюнян-з8м]

Polish is a dialect of Russian language

[@oehtsanolym8023]

WHY JOHNNY WHY, i feel theres some secret backstory going on here that could be made into a series lol

[@Buquenque]

Bravo metatron. I have been following your channel for some years and only recently found this gem. Grazie mille

[@irishdc9523]

Sounds like the difference between Italian and Sicilian is the same as the difference between Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Both come from the same family, but cultural differences rose enough to differentiate what were once two dialects. But they're similar enough that a fluent speaker from one language or the other would have a vague idea about what you're talking about, despite knowing little or none of it.

[@irishdc9523]

Interesting fact, by the way. One way how you could tell the difference between an English and Irish trader on the European continent during Medieval Times was that English traders would speak English and French, whereas Irish traders would speak Latin.

[@oppi2533]

It is a much bigger diference, it is basically a different language, such as official French vs official Italian, or Spanish.

[@genevievegalvan1516]

This is so awesome !! My great grandfather was Sicilian and I love learning more about my heritage. Maiorca is my family name

[@alichinocalcabrina7282]

typical surname of the area of Siracusa

[@ThePumpingiron27]

I wish my great grandma taught me Sicilian. Her parents were from Palermo and Agrigento, but moved to the US and it was during the time where the kids only speak English and would be punished for speaking their mother tongue.

[@LionelJunior]

Sooooo interesting! I'm a beginner in Italian and I met someone from Catania so I got interested in the differences between Sicilian and Italian. Thanks for the video!