Utenti:Michiluzzu Scalisi/English/Sicilian Language
| The Sicilian Language | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Sicily, central-southern Calabria, Puglia and communities of immigrants |
| Speakers: | Native: c. 10 million total |
| Typology: | SVU |
| Rank | not within top 100 |
| Phylogeny: | Indo-European languages |
| Official Status | |
| Nation |  Sicily
|
| Classification Code | |
| ISO 639-1 | scn |
| ISO 639-2 | scn |
| SIL | SCN |
| Abstract in Sicilian | |
| Universal Declaration of the Rights of Men - Art. 1 "Tutti li cristiani náscinu líbbari e pari cu l'autri pi dignitati e ghiussi. Iddi annu ogni d'unu lu senziu e la cuscenzia, e annu a campari l'unu cu l'autru cu spíritu di fratirnitati." | |
| Language - Rank of the languages - Linguistics | |
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Sicilian is a language spoken on the Island of Sicily and in the extreme southern tip of Italy, that is, in Salento and in central-southern Calabria. Sicilian belongs to the family of Romance languages. Ethnologue and many other philologists describe Sicilian as "distinct enough from Standard Italian to be considered a separate idiom".
Today Sicilian is spoken by almost 5,000,000 people on the Island of Sicily, plus those who speak it in Salento in Puglia and in central-southern Calabria, where it's the native language of the population, although there it's sometimes referred to as "Calabro-Siculo". There are also those who have emigrated, as well as their descendants, who speak it, who live abroad in: the USA, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Germany and in southern France.
The Sicilian language must been retained as "regional or minority language" in accordance with theCharter, which, in Article I, says " 'regional or minority languages' means languages that are:... ii. different from the official language(s) of that State". The Charter was approved on 25 June 1992 and entered into power on 1 March 1998. Italy signed this Charter on 27 June 2000 although it is yet to ratify it.