Customer Reviews

Introduction to Sicilian Grammar

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This is a must-have book for anyone interested in Sicilian as a language on its own, or interested in Italian dialects in general, or even anyone interested in Romance linguistics.

It manages to be both a teaching grammar and a reference grammar, and it is useful both for self-study and as a textbook for a class.

If you want to use this book for learning Sicilian on your own, it would help (but isn't necessary) if you are acquainted with standard Italian spelling system (so that letter-groups like "cchiù" won't seem too strange do you), and know a bit of another Romance language, so that the word order doesn't seem to strange to you, especially with verb forms like "portaccilli" ("carry them for him"). But this book is still useable (although more difficult) if you don't have that background, because the author carefully and clearly explains all the aspects of the grammar. As such, this book can almost serve as a model for teaching the more neglected Romance languages.

I should warn you about an inevitable problem you may face: the book uses the standard writing system for Sicilian, warts and all. For example, "in order to" is "pi" (pronounced like English "pea"), and "to go" is "iri", pronounced "yiri" (like English "yearly" without the "l"); but combining them produces a phonetic change that standard spelling sometimes writes as "pi iri" (not noting the change at all), or as "pi gghiri", expressing the geminate /g/ sound with the letter cluster "ggh" that is familiar only to students of standard mainland Italian. A more phonetic notation would always write "pi" with a symbol noting that it causes a phonetic change in the following word, and "iri" as "yiri", and would write the combined form as something like "pi-ggiri". However, if you learned from a book that used such a phonetic notation, you'd have a lot of trouble adjusting to the standard writing system that you'd see everywhere outside of such a book.

So the author works out a compromise: when he introduces a word like "pi" that changes the following word, he notes this by writing it "pi+" for a few pages; and when an unusual pronounciation occurs, the author very often marks it -- for example, noting that "pi iri" can also be written as "pi gghiri", or that "in vucca" (in the mouth) can also be written as "nvucca" or "mmucca", and so on.

Also, Italian stress is usually unmarked, but the author deals with that problem by boldfacing stressed syllables in some cases. But I wish that the author had done this everywhere, instead of just here and there. However, this is only a minor distraction for students. On the whole, the book is a model of clarity!

This book is a must-have for anyone interested in languages, cultures, and above all, the beautiful island of Sicily. This book is the most resourceful and complete work ever done in English on the Sicilian dialects. After reading the introduction, one will quickly discover that there are several different dialects in Sicily, the majority of which form a singular Sicilian language, and the others which attest to the rich history of this Mediterranean melting pot. In addition, this grammar is a tremendous tool for anyone interested in a brief history of the complex linguistic situation found in Sicily today. Dr. Bonner does an excellent job of presenting the dialects as unified, and offering a lingua scritta cumuni that all Sicilians can be proud of whether they are the descendants of Sicilian immigrants or live on the island herself. Above all, this book is a treasure that will appeal to all readers, Sicilian or not. Dr. Bonner has authored an easy-to-read, detailed, and standardized Sicilian grammar that is fuctionally modern, yet preserves the true essence of Sicily through the written word forever. Viva la lingua siciliana!

its a good book for anyone whos interested in learning sicilian. i like how it was somewhat standardized (anyone whos familar with sicilian knows that it is not generally written down, and therefore there is no real standard othography). its better for people that have some knowledge of italian or another romance language.

its not intended as a book for non-serious learners....there are no fun pictures of animals and whatnot to keep you entertained, as in other beginning language books.

As I live with a Sicilian, I decided to learn more about the Sicilian language in addition to Italian. The book is very well structured, starting with a very comprehensive pronunciation guide that also highlights the major differences to Italian - quite important if like me your also learning that language. It then covers all the major grammatical constructs in a clean and consistent way, before closing with a compact vocabulary.

However, putting what you learn from the book into practice may not be so straightforward. Sicilian has ten major dialects, which the book acknowledges, but they differ vastly in vocabulary and pronunciation. For instance the word "emu" (to go) is described as having a very soft "y" sound at the beginning followed by the fairly hard front vowel "a". Pronouncing it this way, rather than with just a very hard front vowel "a" is not how my partner pronounces it. Having run into this kind of problem a number of times, I asked my partner to read the book to see if it was my pronunciation that is at fault.

Her conclusion is that the book inadequately covers the differences between each dialect, something that is probably inevitable considering how poorly codified the language is. So while I recommend this book, I strongly suggest you also try to converse with a native speaker as early as possible. This is becoming more difficult though, as younger Sicilians (those born from the 1970's onwards) tend to know very little of the old language. As the book points out, this is a shame as it's very "earthy" and expressive.

Introduction to Sicilian Grammar is, without a shadow of a doubt, THE most comprehensive work of literature written in English about the Sicilian language. Dr. Bonner takes us on a wonderful journey from the multicultural roots of the language to our day and age's version, an amalgam of all the cultures who have passed through the island and have left linguistic traces in their wake. Of note, he explains peculiarities both in spelling and pronunciation all throughout the text. Another nice touch that this book has to offer is the standardized Sicilian. Though it may not please every speaker of Sicilian as there are many different dialects, this standardized form of the language serves as a stepping stone in the process of gaining status as an official language of the island. Anyone who is familiar with Sicilian knows how frustrating the fact that there exists no standard orthography is. Dr. Bonner sets out to, and does, rectify that issue. From the first page to the last, Introduction to Sicilian Grammar is a vital tool in learning (or brushing up on) the language (and it may help you in learning other romance languages as well).

I purchased this as a gift for my mom. A unique idea to have her go back to her sicilian roots. She loved it.

excelant book for someone that wants to learn the Sicilian grammar.