Siculo-Arabic (or Sicilian Arabic) was a variety of Arabic spoken in Sicily, Malta, and Southern Italy between the ninth and the fourteenth centuries. It is extinct in Sicily, but it has developed into what is now the Maltese language on the islands of Malta.

[edit] Arab conquest of Sicily

During the seventh and eight centuries, Sicily had been raided from Ifriqiya. The eventual Arab-Muslim conquest of Byzantine Sicily was piecemeal and slow. The region became a frontier zone even after the fall of the Taormina in 902 which completed the invasion. By that time, Arabic had become the main language of the island. Its mixed population of Muslims and Greek Christians (mainly living in the north east) continued to use Arabic even after the Norman conquest of the island (1061-90). In the post-conquest period, Arabic and Greek were used by the new rulers. However, Arabic was dropped as a language of government between 1117 and 1132. Thereafter, it was revived as a royal language and used in the king's fiscal administration which managed royal lands and men in Sicily and Calabria. This Arab chancery office operated in Arabic, Greek and Latin. The many documents that it issued are one of the main and most important sources for Arabic in Sicily. Although the Norman rulers employed Arabic and were attested as Arabic-speakers themselves, after only a century the dynasty died out and their successors expelled the remaining Muslims in the 13th century.

Arabic influence is present in a relatively very small number of Sicilian words (compared to the influence in Spanish). Most of these terms relate to agriculture and related activities.

[edit] Maltese language

Although Siculo-Arabic died out quickly in Sicily after the expulsion of its Arab-Muslim population by 1240, it survived on Malta, with additional influences from Sicilian, Standard Italian, French, and more recently English.^[1] Some items of Siculo-Arabic vocabulary are comparable with later items found in Maltese language. These include:

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• D.A. Agius. 1996. Siculo Arabic. Kegan Paul International. London.
• Alex Metcalfe. 2003. Muslims and Christian in Norman Sicily. Arabic-speakers and the end of Islam. Routledge. London and New York.[1]
• Jeremy Johns. 2002. 'Arabic Administration in Norman Sicily. The Royal Diwan'. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.>
• D.A. Agius, "Who Spoke Siculo Arabic?"

[edit] See also

• Maltese language