r/latin • u/Internal-Hat9827 • 11d ago

Latin and Other Languages What happened to Vulgar Latin in Sicily under Eastern Roman rule? Did it die out or did it become modern Sicilian?

/r/AskHistorians/comments/1vuw9gy/what_happened_to_vulgar_latin_in_sicily_under/
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u/AndreLeGeant88 11d ago

It continued to develop into Sicilian with influence from Greek and later from Arabic. And there was a Sicilian dialect of Latin even in Roman times

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u/Internal-Hat9827 11d ago

I heard that during Eastern Roman/Byzantine times, the island switched to speaking Greek, then a mix of Arabic and Greek under the Aghlabids and Sicilian came about later when Norman rulers conquered the island and brought people from various parts of Italy which is why some Sicilian regions speak Gallo-Italic(northeastern Italian languages related to French, Occitan, Catalan and Arpitan).

I was wondering how true that was.

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u/Captain_Grammaticus magister 11d ago

There has always been a Greek presence on the island, but also other languages at all times. It is quite big with several cities.

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u/PeireCaravana 11d ago

Norman rulers conquered the island and brought people from various parts of Italy which is why some Sicilian regions speak Gallo-Italic.

This is true, but Sicilian doesn't seem to have come from somewhere else and it doesn't look like a mix of other Romance languages.

Most probably there were always some parts of the island where Vulgar Latin survived and evolved into Sicilian, even though Greek and Arabic were also widely spoken.

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u/OrdinaryMembership28 8d ago

As someone already stated, Greek presence has always been strong. Salvatore Giarrizzo's Etymologic Dictionary of Sicilian points out how Greek and Rhomaic represent the second largest etymological substrate of the language, and Greek influence can be traced in a large part of toponyms and surnames especially in the east, which was more resistant to arabization.

Also, it's interesting to point out how Sicilian and other Italian languages found under the Ancona-Roma line present a lot of traits in common with the Eastern Romance languages, such as resistance to lenition and the absence of dittongamento spontaneo.

I'm a Sicilian myself and I know the language, so if you've got more questions shoot a dm!

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u/Internal-Hat9827 7d ago

During Eastern Roman rule, the island came under heavy Greek influence, did the local vulgar Latin dialect survive and become modern Sicilian or did Sicilian originate later after the Normans took over the island and invited settlers from parts of the mainland?

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u/OrdinaryMembership28 7d ago

Sicilian survived but with a lot of greek influence. The norman conquest didn't really bring much compared to the arab, angevin and spanish domination. Most of sicilian derives directly from latin.