Siculian
Siculian refers to the " Sicilianization " of English words or phrases by Sicilian immigrants in the United States in the first half of the 20th century due to lack of words and for humorous purposes. Siculian was also often used by Siculian communities to Sicilianize American toponyms . So Bensonhurst became "Bensinosti", New York was transformed into "Nova Jorca" and Brooklyn into "Brucculinu".
Other forms of Sicul have also developed in other Anglophone countries such as Canada and Australia . The surprising similarities between these forms stem from transnational emigre movements, or, what is much more likely, from the logical alignment of English with the linguistic norms of Sicilian.
Some second generation immigrants often confuse Siculian words with the current Sicilian language. This mainly happens with words that have a common linguistic derivation with English, such as old Norman. For example: trubbulu and trouble ; damaggiu and damage ; raggia and rage (anger); tastari and to taste (taste, try); attruppicari and to trip (stumble).
In his story La zia d'America (from the Gli zii di Sicilia collection ), the writer Leonardo Sciascia uses some “Sicilianizations” of English words, such as the term storo from the English store , to denote a shop.
Examples
Some examples of Sicilian words
- beccasu from back and house (bathroom)
- bissinissi or bisinissa from business (shops)
- bossu by boss (boss)
- carru a fusion of the English car with the Sicilian carru (car)
- cciànza of chance (possibility)
- dràiu-uè from drive way (courtyard entrance)
- ferri-bottu by ferry boat (ferry)
- frenza von fence (fence, enclosure)
- furnàci of furnace (furnace)
- giobbu or giobba from job (work, occupation)
- iàrda by yard (garden, lawn)
- macìna from machine (machine in general, e.g. washing machine ⇒ macina pi lavari, washing machine)
- minnistritti from main street (main street)
- nepichina by napkin (napkin)
- pinè from penny (used for 'cent', cent of the dollar)
- ponti of pound (pound)
- sellu by cellar (cellar)
- tichetta von ticket (ticket, parking ticket )
- truccu by truck (truck)
- tupicu from toothpick ( toothpick )