Sicilians

Sicilians

Siciliani / Siculi (Italian) Siciliani (Sicilian)
Regions with significant populations
Sicily (inhabitants of Sicily)	5,029,675
Languages
Italian • Sicilian • Gallo-Sicilian
Religion
Christianity: Predominantly Roman Catholic (Latin and Byzantine Rites)

Sicilians or the Sicilian people (Siciliani in Italian and Sicilian, or also Siculi in Italian) are a Romance and Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Italian island of Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the largest and most populous of the autonomous regions of Italy.

Origin and influences

See also: History of Sicily

The Sicilian people are indigenous to the island of Sicily, which was first populated beginning in the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods.

Prehistory

The aboriginal inhabitants of Sicily, long absorbed into the population, were tribes known to the ancient Greek writers as the Elymians, the Sicanians, and the Sicels, the latter being an Indo-European-speaking people of possible Italic affiliation, who migrated from the Italian mainland (likely from the Amalfi Coast or Calabria) during the second millennium BC, after whom the island was named. The Elymian tribes have been speculated to be a pre-Indo-European people who migrated to Sicily from either Central Anatolia, the Mediterranean-Anatolian Coastal-Basin, Liguria (Cinque Terre Coast), or one of the Aegean Islands, or perhaps were a collection of native migratory maritime-based tribes from all previously mentioned regions. When the Elymians migrated to Sicily is unknown, however scholars of antiquity considered them to be the second oldest inhabitants, while the Sicanians, thought to be the oldest inhabitants of Sicily by scholars of antiquity, were speculated to also be a pre-Indo-European tribe, who migrated via boat from the Xúquer river basin in Castellón, Cuenca, Valencia and Alicante.

All three tribes lived both a sedentary pastoral farming and orchard farming lifestyle, and a semi-nomadic fishing and mixed farming lifestyle. The river Salsu was the territorial boundary between the Sicels and Sicanians. They wore basic clothing made of wool, plant fibre, papyrus, esparto grass, animal skins, palm leaves, leather and fur, and created tools and weapons using metal forging and pottery. They typically lived in a nuclear family unit, with some extended family members as well, usually within a drystone hut, a neolithic long house or a simple hut made of mud, stones, wood, palm leaves or grass. Their main methods of transportation were horseback, donkeys and chariots. Evidence of pet wildcats, cirneco dogs and children toys have been discovered in archaeological digs, especially in cemetery tombs. Their diet was a typical Mediterranean diet, including unique food varieties such as Gaglioppo, Acitana and Diamante citron, while in modern times the Calabrian Salami, which is also produced in Sicily, and sometimes used to make spicy 'Nduja spreadable paste/sauce, is a popular type of salami sold in Brazil and the Anglosphere. The Sicelian polytheistic worship of the ancient and native chthonic, animistic-cult deities associated with geysers known as the Palici, and of the volcano-fire god by the name of Adranos, were also worshipped throughout Sicily by the Elymians and Sicanians. The Elymians inhabited the western parts of Sicily, while the Sicanians inhabitated the central parts, and the Sicels inhabitated the eastern parts.

Map of early settlements of Sicily

Ancient history

See also: Magna Graecia, Ancient Carthage, and Phoenicia

From the 11th century BC, Phoenicians began to settle in western Sicily, having already started colonies on the nearby parts of North Africa and Malta. Sicily was later colonized and heavily settled by Greeks, beginning in the 8th century BC. Initially, this was restricted to the eastern and southern parts of the island. As the Greek and Phoenician communities grew more populous and more powerful, the Sicels and Sicanians were pushed further into the centre of the island. The independent Phoenician colonial settlements were eventually absorbed by Carthage during the 6th Century BC. By the 3rd century BC, Syracuse was the most populous Greek city state in the world. Sicilian politics was intertwined with politics in Greece itself, leading Athens, for example, to mount the disastrous Sicilian Expedition in 415-413 BC during the Peloponnesian War, which ended up severely affecting a defeated Athens, both politically and economically, in the following years to come. The constant warfare between Ancient Carthage and the Greek city-states eventually opened the door to an emerging third power. In the 3rd century BC the Messanan Crisis, caused by Mamertine mercenaries from Campania, when the city-states of Messina (Carthaginian-owned) and Syracuse (Dorian-owned) were being constantly raided and pillaged by Mamertines, during the period (282-240 BC) when Central (including Western) and Northeast Sicily were put under Carthaginian rule, motivated the intervention of the Roman Republic into Sicilian affairs, and led to the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. By the end of the war in 242 BC, and with the death of Hiero II, all of Sicily except Syracuse was in Roman hands, becoming Rome's first province outside of the Italian peninsula. For the next 600 years, Sicily would be a province of the Roman Republic and later Empire. Prior to Roman rule, there were three native Elymian towns by the names of Segesta, Eryx and Entella, as well as several Siculian towns called Agyrion, Enna and Pantalica.

Sometime after Carthage conquered most of Sicily except for the Southeast which was still controlled by Syracuse, Pyrrhus of Epirus, the Molossian king of Epirus, was installed as King/Tyrant of Sicily from 278-275 BC, even capturing the native Elymian mountain-city of Eryx, which was previously under Carthaginian fortification & protection before he captured it. Pyrrhus even attempted to capture Lilybaeum (Siege of Lilybaeum) from the Punics, which didn't succeed. A couple years later (275 BC), Envoys from Southern Italy had notified him that of all the Greek cities in Italy, only Tarentum hadn't fallen to the Romans. Upon hearing this, coinciding with the fact that the Sicilian city-states had started becoming hostile towards him, due to him trying to force Sicily into becoming a martial state, Pyrrhus made his decision to depart from the island and dethrone himself, leaving Syracuse and Carthage in charge of the island again. As his ship left the island, he turned and, foreshadowing the Punic Wars, said to his companions: "What a wrestling ground we are leaving, my friends, for the Carthaginians and the Romans." While his army was being transported by ship to mainland Italy, Pyrrhus' navy was destroyed by the Carthaginians at the Battle of the Strait of Messina, with 98 warships sunk or disabled out of 110. After Pyrrhus of Epirus landed on Mainland Italy, his Roman opponents had mastered up a large army under Roman consul Manius Curius Dentatus, while he was still Tyrant of Sicily. After Pyrrhus was defeated at the Battle of Beneventum (275 BC) by the Romans, he decided to end his campaigns against Southern Italy, and return to Epirus, resulting in the loss of all his territorial gains in Italy. The city of Tarentum however still remained under Epirote control.

The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus who wrote and recorded the monumental works of manuscripts about universal world/human history called Bibliotheca historica, and the ancient Doric-Greek revolutionary scientist, inventor and mathematician Archimedes who anticipated modern calculus, and analysis by applying methods of infinitesimals and exhaustion to rigorously derive and prove the range of geometric theorems, and invented the innovative Archimedean screw, compound pulleys, and defensive war machines to protect his native town of Syracuse from invasions, were both born, grew up in, lived and died in Sicily.

Middle ages

As the Roman Empire was falling apart, a Germanic tribe known as the Vandals along with an Iranian tribe known as the Alans took over Sicily for a relatively brief period beginning in 468 AD under the rule of their king Geiseric, forming the Kingdom of the Vandals. The Vandals & Alans gained a monopoly on the Mediterranean grain trade during their monarchical reign, with all grain taxes being monitored by them. Due to the Western Roman Empire being too preoccupied with war in Gaul, when the Vandals & Alans started invading Sicily in 440, the Romans could not respond. Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II sent a failed expeditionary force to deal with them in 441, which ended in a Vandal-Alan counter-victory. However, they soon lost these newly acquired possessions, except for one toehold in Lilybaeum, to Odoacer (an Arian Christian Barbarian statesman & general of possible East Germanic & Hunnic descent, and client king under Zeno whose reign over Italy marked the Fall of the Western Roman Empire) in 476 and completely to the Ostrogothic conquest of Sicily by Theodoric the Great which began in 488; although the Goths were Germanic, Theodoric sought to revive Roman culture and government and allowed freedom of religion. In contrast to the prior Carthaginian, Syracusan (Dorian) and Roman Empires which ruled Sicily in the past, Sicily did not serve as a distinct province or administrative region under Germanic control, although it did retain a certain amount of autonomy. The Gothic War took place between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantine Empire (with its capital-city based at Constantinople, modern Istanbul), and during the reign of Justinian I, Sicily was brought back under Greco-Roman rule under the military expeditions of Byzantine generals Flavius Belisarius and Narses, resulting in Byzantine-Greek language and religion being embraced by the majority of the population. It was Syracuse where the Byzantine Emperor Constans II desired to move his capital in 663 AD, a decision which eventually led to his assassination. Sicily remained under autonomous stable Byzantine rule as the Theme/Province of Sicily (Theme (Byzantine district) for several peaceful centuries, until an invasion by Arab Muslims (Aghlabids from the Banu Tamim Clan) in the 9th century.

Besides Sicily, the Theme or Province of Sicily also included the adjacent region of Calabria in Mainland Italy. The capital city of Byzantine Sicily was Syracuse. The province was looked after by the imperial governor known as a Praetor, and was militarily protected under a general by the title of Dux. Sicily itself was divided into many districts known as a Turma. The Byzantine Exarch of Ravennan Italy named Theophylact, between 702-709, originally came from Sicily. The garrison of Ravenna tried to kill him in 701, for reasons unknown. He also marched to Rome in 701 shortly after his promotion in the Exarchate for unknown reasons, which angered the Romans and local soldiers living there, however he was able to speak to the Pope, who calmed the Romans down. While Theophylact was still Exarch, Byzantine Emperor Justinian II seized all the leading citizens and officials of Ravenna at a local banquet, and dragged them abroad a ship to Constantinople. He sentenced many of them to death, while sparing some. This was due to a recent rebellion which Ravenna took part in, in 695. Justinian II later sacked Ravenna, weakening the Exarchate in charge of it. Theophylact was not a victim of the catastrophe, but was the first Exarch to experience a weakened Ravenna. Theophylact possibly moved back to Sicily after he retired from the Exarchate in 709. Theophylact might have also been the Strategos of Sicily from 700-710. The Strategos of Sicily was also able to exercise some control over the autonomous duchies of Naples, Gaeta and Amalfi, depending on the local political situation or faction at the time.

The Aghlabid invasions were in part caused by the Byzantine-Sicilian military commander Euphemius, who invited the Aghlabids to aid him in his rebellion against the imperial governor of Sicily in 826 AD. A similar situation happened a century prior, when the imperial governor of Sicily (Sergios), had declared a Byzantine official from Constantinople by the name of Basil Onomagoulos (regnal name Tiberius) as rival emperor, when false news reached Sicily that Constantinople had fallen to the Umayyads. When Emperor Leo the Syrian sent an administrative official named Paul to Sicily, the people and army of Syracuse surrendered Basil and his rebels up to him, leading to the beheading of Basil, while the former governor Sergios was able to escape to the parts of Mainland Italy controlled by the Lombards. Another rebellion took place between the years 781-793, when the aristocratic governor of Sicily, Elpidius, was accused of conspiring against Empress Irene in favour of Nikephoros. After Elpidius's forces were militarily defeated by Empress Irene's large fleet dispatched in Sicily, he, along with his lieutenant, the dux of Calabria named Nikephoros, defected to the Abbasid Caliphate, where he was humorously acknowledged as rival emperor. After losing another military expedition, this time against Asia Minor with the help of the Abbasids, he advised the Abbasid Emir of Mesopotamia, Abd al-Malik ibn Salih, to "throw away his silk and put on his armour", warning him against the aggressive new reign of Nikephoros I. The Muslim conquest was a see-saw affair; the local population resisted fiercely and the Arabs suffered considerable dissension and infighting among themselves during this process. Not until 965 was the island's conquest successfully completed by the Fatimid Caliphate, with Syracuse in particular resisting almost to the end (Siege of Syracuse (877-878)).

The first phase of Muslim rule began with the conquests of the third Aghlabid Emir Ziyadat Allah I of Ifriqiya, and consolidated with the reign of the ninth Emir Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya after the conquest of Taormina. The first attempt to capture Syracuse was under general Asad ibn al-Furat, although it ended in a Byzantine victory. A strong combination of Ifriqiyan and Andalusian troops helped to capture the Island between 830-831. After a revolt was suppressed, the Fatimid Caliph Al-Mansur Billah appointed a member of the Kalbid dynasty, Al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi, as First Emir of Sicily. The Kalbids ruled Sicily from 948 to 1053. Al-Mu'izz ibn Badis, fourth ruler of the Zirid Sanhaja dynasty in North Africa, attempted to annex the island for the Zirids, but his attempts failed. The new Arab-Berber rulers initiated revolutionary land reforms, which in turn increased productivity and encouraged the growth of smallholdings, a dent to the dominance of the landed estates. The Arabs further improved irrigation systems through Qanats, introducing oranges, lemons, pistachio and sugarcane to Sicily. Ibn Hawqal, a Baghdadi merchant who visited Sicily in 950, commented that a walled suburb called the Kasr (the palace) was the center of Palermo, with the great Friday mosque on the site of the later Roman Catholic cathedral. The suburb of Al-Khalisa (Kalsa) contained the Sultan's palace, baths, a mosque, government offices, and a private prison. Ibn Hawqual reckoned there were 7,000 individual butchers trading in 150 shops. By 1050, Palermo had a population of 350,000, making it one of the largest cities in Europe, behind Islamic-Spain's capital Córdoba and the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, which had populations over 450-500,000. Palermo's population dropped to 150,000 under Norman rule. By 1330 Palermo's population had declined to 51,000, possibly due to the inhabitants of the region being deported to other regions of Norman Sicily or to the Norman County of Apulia and Calabria. The Arab traveler Ibn Jubayr from Al-Andalus stated that the buildings built during this period were made of limestone. The latinized Catholic Sicilians in Western Sicily still continued to revolt until Norman rule, and the Greek-speaking Byzantine Orthodox-Catholic Sicilians in the East almost secured their independence several times during their revolts. Christians and Jews were tolerated in Muslim Sicily as dhimmis, and had to pay the Jizya poll tax, and Kharaj land tax, but were exempt from the Zakat alms-giving tax Muslims had to pay. Many Jews immigrated to Sicily during Muslim rule, but left after the Normans arrived.

Sicilians in traditional dress

In the 11th century, the mainland southern Italian powers were hiring Norman mercenaries, who were Christian descendants of the Vikings; it was the Normans under Roger I (of the Hauteville dynasty) who conquered Sicily from the Muslims over a period of thirty years until finally controlling the entire island by 1091 as the County of Sicily. In 1130, Roger II founded the Kingdom of Sicily as an independent state with its own Parliament, language, schooling, army and currency, while the Sicilian culture evolved distinct traditions, clothing, linguistic changes, cuisine and customs not found in mainland Italy. A great number of mainland Southern Italian and Norman families began settling in Sicily during this time.

The Siculo-Norman rule of the Hauteville dynasty continued until 1198, when Frederick I of Sicily, the son of a Siculo-Norman queen and a Swabian-German emperor ascended the throne. In fact it was during the reign of this Hohenstaufen (Swabian-German) king Frederick I, that the poetic form known as a sonnet was invented by Giacomo da Lentini, the head Poet, Teacher and Notary of the Sicilian School for Poetry. His (Frederick I) descendants governed Sicily until the Papacy invited a French prince to take the throne, which led to a decade-and-a-half of French rule under Charles I of Sicily; he was later deposed in the War of the Sicilian Vespers against French rule, which put the daughter of Manfred of Sicily - Constance II and her husband Peter III of Aragon, a member of the House of Barcelona, on the throne. Their descendants ruled the Kingdom of Sicily until 1401. Following the Compromise of Caspe in 1412 the Sicilian throne passed to the Iberian monarchs from Aragon and Castille.

Modern and Contemporary history

In 1735, the Spanish era ended when Charles V from the House of Bourbon was crowned king. For the better part of the next century-and-a-half, Sicily was in personal union with the other Southern Italian Kingdom of Naples, with the official residence located in Naples, under the Bourbon dynasty. In 1861, however, Sicily became part of the Kingdom of Italy as a result of the Risorgimento. After the unification of Italy and the Fascist era, a wave of Sicilian nationalism led to the adoption of the Statute of Sicily, under which the island has become an autonomous region. Since 1946, the island enjoys the most advanced special status of all the autonomous regions, which allows the Sicilian residents to keep 100% of the revenue from all the taxes, without giving back any to the central government in Rome.

Demographics

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1861	2,409,000	—
1871	2,590,000	+7.5%
1881	2,933,000	+13.2%
1901	3,568,000	+21.7%
1911	3,812,000	+6.8%
1921	4,223,000	+10.8%
1931	3,906,000	−7.5%
1936	4,000,000	+2.4%
1951	4,487,000	+12.2%
1961	4,721,000	+5.2%
1971	4,681,000	−0.8%
1981	4,907,000	+4.8%
1991	4,966,000	+1.2%
2001	4,969,000	+0.1%
2011	5,002,904	+0.7%
2017	5,029,615	+0.5%
Source: ISTAT 2017

The city of Palermo in 2005

Sicily has experienced the presence of a number of different cultures and ethnicities in its vast history, including the aboriginal peoples (Sicani, Siculi and Elymians), Phoenicians and Carthaginians, Ancient Greeks (Magna Graecia), Bruttians, Lucanians, Mamertines & Iapygians (Mainland Southern Italians), Eurasian nomads (Scythia), Numidians, Ligures, Lycians, Romans and Jews during the ancient and classical periods. Due to being in a strategic location right in the lower-middle of the Mediterranean Sea as a moderately sized island, Sicily experienced prosperious trade-relations with ancient & classical civilizations and cultures such as the Gauls, Bell Beaker culture, Ancient Egypt, Iberians, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Illyria, Numidia, Minoan & Mycenaean Greece, Nuragic Sardinia, Canaan, Etruscans and Anatolia.

In the early medieval era, Sicily experienced the rule of Germanic Vandals & Iranic Alans during the Vandal-Alan Kingdom, while under Byzantine, Saracen and Norman rule, there were Byzantine Greeks, Arabs, Berbers, Persians, Normans, Swabians, Lombards and Italians settling on the island. From the late medieval period into the modern era, Aragonese, Spaniards, Sardinians, Occitans, Austro-Hungarians, Lebanese Maronites and Druzes, Ottoman Turks, Maltese Armenians and French people left an impact on the island, while Albanians settled and formed communities which still exist today known as the Arbereshe.

About five million people live in Sicily, making it the fourth most populated region in Italy. However, in the first century after the Italian unification, Sicily had one of the most negative net migration rates among the regions of Italy because of millions of people moving to the Italian mainland and countries like Germany, Sweden, Norway, The Soviet Union, Belgium, Poland, the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, The United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, Albania, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Turkey, The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, South Korea, China, Malaysia and Singapore. Many Sicilian communities, including those formed by the descendants of the Sicilian migrants, are all over the world. It is estimated that the number of people of Sicilian descent in the world is more than six million. The most famous community is represented by the Sicilian Americans. Like the other parts of Southern Italy, immigration to the island is relatively low compared to other regions of Italy because workers tend to head to Northern Italy instead, in search of better employment and industrial opportunities. The most recent ISTAT figures show around 175,000 immigrants out of the total of almost 5.1 million population (nearly 3.5% of the population); Romanians with more than 50,000 make up the most immigrants, followed by Tunisians, Moroccans, Sri Lankans, Albanians, and others mostly from Eastern Europe. As in the rest of Italy, the primary religion is Roman Catholicism (but with combined Latin & Byzantine Rites) and the official language is Italian; Sicilian is currently not a recognised language by the Italian Government.

Major settlements

In Sicily, there are three metropolitan areas:

1. Palermo, which has a Larger Urban Zone of 1,044,169 people
2. Catania, whose LUZ's populous numbers some 801,280 people
3. Messina and its LUZ, with a total of 418,916 people.

Overall, there are fifteen cities and towns with a population above 50,000 people, these are:

1. Palermo (677,854)
2. Catania (315,576)
3. Messina (242,121)
4. Syracuse (123,248)
5. Marsala (82,812)
6. Gela (77,295)
7. Ragusa (73,756)
8. Trapani (70,642)
9. Vittoria (63,393)
10. Caltanissetta (60,221)
11. Agrigento (59,190)
12. Bagheria (56,421)
13. Modica (55,294)
14. Acireale (53,205)
15. Mazara del Vallo (51,413).

Population genetics

Autosomal studies

According to one study, Sicilians cluster genetically close to Southern Italians from Calabria, Salento and Basilicata, as well as to Malta and certain population groups from several Greek-speaking islands such as the Ionian and Aegean Islands. Other studies have also confirmed that the population of Sicily is genetically similar, but not identical, to that of Crete, Cyprus and the Peloponnese (Such as the Peloponnesian Greek Maniots), while they do not seem to cluster or show any sort of genetic affinity to any population groups from Mainland Greece, Albania or the Balkans.

However, Sicilians do also cluster, albeit to a lesser extent, in varying degrees to native populations from the Maghreb (Maghrebians), Iberia (Spaniards, Basques & Portuguese), Crimea (including the Crimean Tatars), the Levant, Sinai Peninsula & Iraq, Anatolian ethnolinguistic groups like the Turks, Yörüks, Hemshins, Zazas & Pontic Greeks, Southern France (Occitans), Sardinia (mostly clustering to Sardinians from the former Province of Cagliari), and the Southern Caucasus (Armenians, Azerbaijanis & Georgians). Despite being genetically similar to the aforementioned regions, Sicilians still constitute a distinct and separate ethnic group, with the Maltese and Calabrese being the two populations most closely related, genetically and culturally speaking, to Sicilians.

MtDna and Y DNA studies

According to one study, Y-Dna haplogroups were found at the following frequencies in Sicily: R1 (36.76%), J (29.65%), E1b1b (18.21%), I (7.62%), G (5.93%), T (5.51%), Q (2.54%). R1 and I haplogroups are typical in West European populations while J, T, G and E1b1b consist of lineages with differential distribution across West Asia, North Africa and Southern Europe. Y-DNA haplogroup Q is mainly found in the Americas and Siberia, which may suggest that minor Turkic or possible Tatar immigration took place in the past. The five most common MtDNA haplogroups in Sicily are haplogroups H, K, X, W and U, which are also the five most commonly found MtDNA-haplogroups in Europe and the Middle East. Further medieval migrations by the Vandals, Alans, Normans, Byzantine Greeks, Albanian Tosks, Iranians, Saracens, Moors, Lombards, Occitans, Catalans, Swabians, Armenian Maltese and Turks left a small, yet noticable, change in the general Sicilian genepool.

The Norman civilisation proliferated for several centuries on the island, with a strong impact on the culture, and Normans and especially mainland Southern Italians repopulated the island during this time. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily was created in 1130, with Palermo as its capital, and would last until the 18th century. Nowadays, it is in north-west Sicily, around Palermo and Trapani, that Norman Y-DNA is the most common, with 15 to 20% of the lineages belonging to haplogroup I. Today, ancient & medieval Greek (Cretan, Islander Greek, Peloponnesian) genetic paternal legacy is estimated at 37% in Sicily, and North African (Arab-Berber) at 6-7%. A recent genetic study of Southern Italian and Sicilian populations has shown that Sicilians are very closely related to mainland Italians from the adjacent regions of Calabria, Basilicata and Apulia, as well as to the Maltese people with whom they share the most genetic similarity with besides the Calabrese, and Cypriots of any ethnolinguistic origin or cultural identity.

File:Haplogroups europe.png

Y-Dna Haplogroups in Europe.

Frequencies (in %) of haplogroups.
Y-chromosome	mtDNA
3,5% I1	5% HV
3,5% I2	45,2% H
4,5% R1a	2,3% HV0+V
30,5% R1b	6,7% J
9% G	7,1% T
23% J2	10% U*
3% J* + J1	6,3% K
18% E1b1b	6% N1+I
4% T	1% N2+W
0% L	3,7% X
1% Q	6,7% Other

Names & Surnames

The most common Sicilian names are Giuseppe, Maria and Salvatore. The most common Sicilian surnames are Russo, Messina and Lombardo.

Most common names and surnames
1	Giuseppe	Russo
2	Maria	Messina
3	Salvatore	Lombardo
4	Francesco	Caruso
5	Giovanni	Marino
6	Vincenzo	Rizzo
7	Giuseppa	Grasso
8	Carmelo	Greco
9	Rosa	Romano
10	Concetta	Parisi
11	Carmela	Amato
12	Anna	Puglisi
13	Angelo	La Rosa
14	Pietro	Costa
15	Antonio	Vitale
16	Francesca	Arena
17	Angela	Pappalardo
18	Rosario	Bruno
19	Gaetano	Catalano
20	Giovanna	Randazzo

Culture

Languages

Main articles: Sicilian language, Gallo-Italic of Sicily, Greek language, Griko language, Italian language, Siculo-Arabic, Arbëresh, and Siculish

Languages of Sicily.

Today in Sicily most people are bilingual and speak both Italian and Sicilian, a distinct and historical Romance language of the Italo-Dalmatian family. Many Sicilian words are of Greek origin, while smaller number of other loan words are from Norman, Arabic, Berber, Catalan, Occitan, Spanish and other languages. Dialects related to Sicilian are also spoken in far south Calabria and Apulia (Salento); it had a significant influence on the Maltese language. However the use of Sicilian is limited to informal contexts (mostly in family).

Sicilian was an early influence in the development of standard Italian, although its use remained confined to an intellectual elite. This was a literary language in Sicily created under the auspices of Frederick II and his court of notaries or Magna Curia which, headed by Giacomo da Lentini, also gave birth to the Sicilian School, widely inspired by troubadour literature. It is in this language that appeared the first sonnet, whose invention is attributed to Giacomo da Lentini himself. Sicilian was also the official language of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1300 to 1543. Prior to the 20th century, large numbers of Sicilian people spoke only Sicilian as their mother tongue, with little or no fluent knowledge of Italian. Today, while Sicilian is an unrecognized language being used as part of many people's daily life, Italian is the only official language and predominates in the public arena.

The Siculo-Arabic dialect was a vernacular variety of Arabic once spoken in Sicily and neighbouring Malta between the end of the ninth century and the end of the twelfth century. The language became extinct in Sicily, but in Malta it eventually evolved into what is now the Maltese language.

The Siculish dialect is the macaronic "Sicilianization" of English language words and phrases by immigrants from Sicily to the United States in the early 20th century. Forms of Siculish are also to be found in other Sicilian immigrant communities of English-speaking countries, namely Canada and Australia. A surprising similarity can often be found between these forms, through either coincidence, trans-national movements of Sicilian immigrants, or more likely, through the logical adaptation of English using linguistic norms from the Sicilian language.

Ethno-linguistic minorities

There are two main historical ethno-linguistic minorities in Sicily, the Lombards of Sicily and the Arbëreshë.

• The Lombards of Sicily are a linguistic minority living in Sicily who speak an isolated variety of Gallo-Italic dialects, the so-called Gallo-Italic of Sicily. The Gallo-Italic of Sicily is a group of Gallo-Italic languages found in about 15 isolated communities of central eastern Sicily. Forming a language island in the Sicilian language, it dates back to migrations from Northern Italy during the era of Roger I of Sicily and his successors. The Lombards of Sicily, who originally hailed from Northern Italy, settled the central and eastern part of Sicily about 900 years ago, during the Norman conquest of Sicily. Because of linguistic differences among the Gallo-Italic dialects of Sicily, it is supposed that there were different immigration routes. From Piedmont, Liguria, Emilia, and Lombardy they began to spread south between the 11th and 14th centuries. The most important areas where the Gallo-Italic of Sicily is spoken are Acquedolci, Montalbano Elicona, Novara di Sicilia, Fondachelli-Fantina San Fratello and San Piero Patti (Province of Messina), Aidone, Nicosia, Piazza Armerina and Sperlinga (Province of Enna).

Bilingual road signs, in Italian and Arbëresh in Piana degli Albanesi.

• The Arbëreshë people settled in Southern Italy in the 15th to 18th centuries in several waves of migrations. They are the descendants of mostly Tosk Albanian refugees of Christian faith who fled to Italy after the Albanian conquest and subsequent Islamisation by the Ottoman Turks in the Balkans. They speak their own variant of the Arbëresh language. There are three identified Arbëreshë communities in the province of Palermo, which have maintained unchanged, with different aspects together, the ethnic, linguistic and religious origins. The areas are: Contessa Entellina, Piana degli Albanesi and Santa Cristina Gela; while the varieties of Piana and Santa Cristina Gela are similar enough to be entirely mutually intelligible, the variety of Contessa Entellina is not entirely intelligible. The largest centre is Piana degli Albanesi which, besides being the hub of religious and socio-cultural communities, has guarded and defended their peculiarities intact over time. There are two other communities with a strong historical and linguistic heritage.

• The community of the Greeks of Messina (or Siculo-Greeks) speaks modern Greek with some elements of the ancient Greek language spoken in the island, and Calabrian Greek. The Greek community was reconstituted in 2003 with the name of "Comunità Hellenica dello Stretto" (Hellenic Community of the Strait).

Religion

Virgin Hodegetria, Monreale Cathedral.

The vast majority of Sicilians are baptized as Roman Catholic. The Catholic religion represents one of the most important elements of the Sicilian identity. The Virgin Hodegetria is the patroness of Sicily. The Sicilian people are also known for their deep devotion to some Sicilian female saints: the martyrs Agatha and Lucy, respectively patroness of Catania and Syracuse, and the hermitess Rosalia, patroness of Palermo. The Sicilian people have significantly contributed to the history of Christianity. There were four Sicilian Popes (Agatho, Leo II, Sergius I, Stephen III) and a Sicilian Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (Methodios I).

Art and architecture

Main articles: Norman-Sicilian culture and Sicilian Baroque

Cuisine

Main article: Sicilian cuisine

Main articles: List of people from Sicily and List of Sicilian Americans

Gallery

• Sicilian folk costumes and traditions
• 
  Sicilian artigiana at a presepe vivente at Santa Maria La Stella, Sicily
• 
  Women in Arbëreshë dress
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  Boy in Sicilian costume of the 1880s
• 
  Girl wearing a costume of the 1880s period in Sicily
• 
  Sicilian family, 1880s.
• 
  Sicilian band in medieval costumes
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  Arbëreshë in Piana degli Albanesi
• 
• 
  A Sicilian artisan in Sutera
• 
  Two peasants wearing a Sicilian costume, 1880s
• 
  Fisherman from Catania, 1890s.
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  A girl holding an amphora, Limina, 1880/1890
• 
  Catacombe dei Cappuccini, Palermo

See also

• List of people from Sicily
• Sicilian Americans
• Kingdom of Sicily
• History of Sicily
• Sicilian language
• Magna Graecia
• Crown of Aragon
• Maltese people
• Italians
• Griko people
• Arbëreshë people