Full Description
Dr. and Mrs. Privitera have written a philological study of Sanfratellan a Sicilian sub-dialect, whose origin has baffled scholars for a couple of centuries. They have demonstrated through language analysis, that when the Normans invaded Sicily in the eleventh century, they left in San Fratello, a large contingent of Frenchmen from southern France. They spoke Provencal, which over the years melded with the town's Proto Sicilian to form an amalgam which now sounds as French as it does Sicilian. This study will be an outstanding contribution to Italian dialectology.
