The non-Greek languages of Sicily
Sicily in the 1st millennium BC was described by Thucydides in a part of his Archeology (6.2-5). In addition to the Greek and Phoenician populations settled along the coasts, Thucydides mentions the Sicans (Sikanoi), a population of Iberian origin established in the central and southern part of the island; an Elymian population of Trojan origin occuping the western region and founder of the cities of Erice and Segesta; and the Siculan people (Sikeloi), of Italic origin, arrived in northern and eastern Sicily pushing the Sicans towards the central region.
The ethnic description by Thucydides can be useful to schematize the linguistic situation of ancient non-Greek Sicily which presents an unfortunately sparse and fragmentary epigraphic corpus, in some cases hardly attributable with certainty to one of the above-mentioned peoples. Even for the indirect attestations, which consist of about seventy words attributed to the Siculan, it is still debated whether they are indigenous words or belonging to some Greek dialect.
Starting from the north-western area, the Elymian epigraphy (6th-5th century BC) offers us a large number of legends on coins in Greek alphabet from Erice and Segesta, and a group of inscriptions on ceramics, mainly from Montelepre and Monte Castellazzo. In most cases these inscriptions consist of acronyms and abbreviations; the longer texts are mostly very fragmentary.
It is difficult to describe even only partially this language, except for a few evidences as the 1st person singular of the verb ‘to be’, emi, so apparently close to the Greek form. Elymian is unanimously attributed to the Indo-European family, although it is not possible to establish its more precise position.
Siculan epigraphy is more varied and geographically more extensive. The corpus consists of approximately 30 inscriptions dated between the 6th and 5th centuries BC and written in Greek alphabet. On the basis of graphic variations (concerning different adaptations of the Greek model), three writing areas are traditionally distinguished: the territory around Etna, the Hyblaean Mountains area and central Sicily. The epigraphic findings are constituted by graffiti on ceramics (Centuripe), funerary texts (Licodia Eubea), monumental texts of moderate length on tiles or on stone (Mendolito). The linguistic data emerging from Siculan documentation shows a patina of Sabellicity, which can be also deduced from lexical elements, such as the terms akara- and touta- in the Mendolito inscription, comparable with the Sabellian lexicon. An affinity is also present in onomastics, showing the two-member formula (ex. rukes hazsuie[s]); however, it is not a standardized system, the single-member formula being also recorded.
To the Sican language are attributed 4-6 fragmentary texts, including some graffiti from Montagna di Marzo, for which, unfortunately, there are currently no satisfactory interpretative proposals. Traditionally this language is considered not belonging to the Indo-European family.
Bibliography
- Agostiniani, L. 1977. Iscrizioni anelleniche di Sicilia. I. Le iscrizioni elime. Lingue e iscrizioni dell’Italia antica 1. Firenze: Olschki.
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- De Simone, C. 1999. «L’epigrafia sicana e sicula», AnnPisa. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia: Quaderni: 499–507.
- Prosdocimi, A. L. 1998. «Appunti sul verbo latino (e) italico. VIII: Siculo: la 3° persona singolare del preterito (e l’italicità del siculo), in do-ra-qe pe-re». In Studi in memoria di Adriana Quattordio Moreschini, 333–346. Pisa
Poccetti, P. 2012. «Language relations in Sicily: Evidence for the speech of the Σικανοί, the Σικελοί and others». In Language and Linguistic Contact in Ancient Sicily, ed by Olga Tribulato, 49–94. Cambridge Classical Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Marchesini, S. 2012. «The Elymian language». In Language and Linguistic Contact in Ancient Sicily, ed by Olga Tribulato, 95–114. Cambridge Classical Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Prag, J. 2020. «The indigenous languages of Sicily». Palaeohispanica 20: 531–551.
Last update
11.04.2021