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108-759: Built in 1939 as MS  Mangalia for the Romanian State Maritime Service by Cantieri Navali Riuniti, Palermo, Italy , was taken over while lying idle at New York City , 25 June 1941, by the U.S. Maritime Commission under the authority of Public Law 101 (77th Congress) and Executive Order 8771; acquired by the Navy on a bareboat charter from WSA , 11 August 1941; renamed Pleiades (AK-46), 3 September 1941; and commissioned 25 October 1941. Following an abbreviated shakedown , Pleiades loaded cargo at Quonset Point, Rhode Island , and on 22 November, got underway on her first convoy run through

216-706: A / , / ɔ / , / u / . The mid-vowels / ɛ / and / ɔ / do not occur in unstressed position in native words but may do so in modern borrowings from Italian, English, or other languages. Historically, Sicilian / i / and / u / each represent the confluence of three Latin vowels (or four in unstressed position), hence their high frequency. Unstressed / i / and / u / generally undergo reduction to [ ɪ ] and [ ʊ ] respectively, except in word-/phrase-final position, as in [pʊsˈsibbɪli] ‘possible’ and [kʊˈniɟɟu] ‘rabbit’. As in Italian, vowels are allophonically lengthened in stressed open syllables . In

324-589: A Greek origin (including some examples where it is unclear whether the word is derived directly from Greek, or via Latin): From 476 to 535, the Ostrogoths ruled Sicily, although their presence apparently did not affect the Sicilian language. The few Germanic influences to be found in Sicilian do not appear to originate from this period. One exception might be abbanniari or vanniari "to hawk goods, proclaim publicly", from Gothic bandwjan "to give

432-838: A basin, formed by the Papireto, Kemonia and Oreto rivers. The basin was named the Conca d'Oro (the Golden Basin) by the Arabs in the 9th century. The city is surrounded by a mountain range which is named after the city itself. These mountains face the Tyrrhenian Sea . Palermo is home to a natural port and offers views to the sea, especially from Monte Pellegrino . Palermo experiences a hot-summer subtropical Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification : Csa ) with moderate seasonality. Summers are very long, hot and dry due to

540-406: A comprehensive Sicilian language dictionary intended to capture the language universally spoken across Sicily in a common orthography. Later in the century, Giuseppe Pitrè established a common grammar in his Grammatica Siciliana (1875). Although it presents a common grammar, it also provides detailed notes on how the sounds of Sicilian differ across dialects. In the 20th century, researchers at

648-748: A fleet laid siege to the city in the Siege of Panormus , which had refused to surrender unlike all the other Ostrogothic-held cities in Sicily, and eventually prevailed. Justinian I solidified his rule in the following years. The Arabs took control of Palermo and most of Sicily in 831, and the Emirate of Sicily was established, though other cities persisted as Byzantine holdouts until as late as 965. Muslim rule in Palermo lasted for about 240 years. Palermo ( Bal'harm during Arab rule) displaced Syracuse as

756-483: A general stores issue vessel, she joined Service Force, Atlantic , 3 July, and three weeks later departed Lynnhaven Roads for the Mediterranean . She anchored at Naples, Italy , 17 August; discharged cargo there until 2 September; then, acting as flagship for a convoy of LCIs, got underway for southern France . Encountering a mistral en route, she delivered her charges to Saint-Tropez , 4 September. From

864-714: A language, Sicilian has its own dialects in the following main groupings: First let us turn our attention to the language of Sicily, since the Sicilian vernacular seems to hold itself in higher regard than any other, because all the poetry written by the Italians is called "Sicilian"... Because Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and many peoples have passed through it ( Phoenicians , Ancient Greeks , Carthaginians , Romans , Vandals , Jews , Byzantine Greeks , Arabs , Normans , Swabians , Spaniards , Austrians , Italians ), Sicilian displays

972-514: A language, not a dialect, in official communication. The language is officially recognized in the municipal statutes of some Sicilian towns, such as Caltagirone and Grammichele , in which the "inalienable historical and cultural value of the Sicilian language" is proclaimed. Furthermore, the Sicilian language would be protected and promoted under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML). Although Italy has signed

1080-521: A long siege. Indeed, the feat proved difficult because the Normans had never besieged such a populous city with such powerful walls. After 5 months siege, Normans built numerous stairs and war machines and finally conquered the city. The family who returned the city to Christianity were called the Hautevilles , including Robert Guiscard and his army, who is regarded as a hero by the natives. It

1188-513: A particular word has a prehistoric derivation, but it is not known whether the Sicilians inherited it directly from the indigenous populations, or whether it came via another route. Similarly, it might be known that a particular word has a Greek origin but it is not known from which Greek period the Sicilians first used it (ancient Magna Grecia or the Byzantine period ), or once again, whether

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1296-404: A rich and varied influence from several languages in its lexical stock and grammar. These languages include Latin (as Sicilian is a Romance language itself), Ancient Greek , Byzantine Greek , Spanish , Norman , Lombard , Hebrew , Catalan , Occitan , Arabic and Germanic languages , and the languages of the island's aboriginal Indo-European and pre-Indo-European inhabitants, known as

1404-599: A separate language", and it is recognized as a minority language by UNESCO . It has been referred to as a language by the Sicilian Region. It has the oldest literary tradition of the Italo-Romance languages . A version of the UNESCO Courier is also available in Sicilian. Sicilian is spoken by most inhabitants of Sicily and by emigrant populations around the world. The latter are found in

1512-586: A series of sugar runs to the Caribbean which continued until after the end of World War II. On 4 November, she arrived at New York to complete her last cargo run as a U.S. Navy ship. Decommissioned 21 November, she was returned, the same day, to the Maritime Commission, under which she resumed merchant service with the name SS  Scepter . Pleiades (AK-46) earned two battle stars for World War II service. Her crew members were eligible for

1620-460: A signal". Also possible is schimmenti "diagonal" from Gothic slimbs "slanting". Other sources of Germanic influences include the Hohenstaufen rule of the 13th century, words of Germanic origin contained within the speech of 11th-century Normans and Lombard settlers, and the short period of Austrian rule in the 18th century. Many Germanic influences date back to the time of

1728-603: A significant underground economy . For cultural, artistic and economic reasons, Palermo is one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean and is now among the top tourist destinations in both Italy and Europe. It is the main seat of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale . The city is also going through careful redevelopment, preparing to become one of

1836-691: A significant influence on the Sicilian vocabulary. The following words are of Spanish derivation: Since the Italian Unification (the Risorgimento of 1860–1861), the Sicilian language has been significantly influenced by (Tuscan) Italian. During the Fascist period it became obligatory that Italian be taught and spoken in all schools, whereas up to that point, Sicilian had been used extensively in schools. This process has quickened since World War II due to improving educational standards and

1944-537: Is a city in southern Italy , the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo , the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is in the northwest of the island of Sicily, by the Gulf of Palermo in

2052-530: Is a city rich in history , culture , art , music and food . Numerous tourists are attracted to the city for its appealing Mediterranean climate, its renowned gastronomy and restaurants , its Romanesque , Gothic , Baroque and Art Nouveau churches , palaces and buildings , and its nightlife and music . Palermo is the main Sicilian industrial and commercial center: the main industrial sectors include tourism , services , commerce and agriculture . Palermo has an international airport and

2160-415: Is a rare occurrence having snowed about a dozen times since 1945. Since the 1940s to nowadays there have been at least five times when considerable snowfall has occurred. In 1949 and in 1956, when the minimum temperature went down to 0 °C (32 °F), the city was blanketed by some centimetres of snow. Snowfalls also occurred in 1981, 1986, 1999 and 2014. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Palermo

2268-444: Is distinctive for most consonant phonemes, but a few can be geminated only after a vowel: / b / , / dʒ / , / ɖ / , / ɲ / , / ʃ / and / ts / . Rarely indicated in writing, spoken Sicilian also exhibits syntactic gemination (or dubbramentu ), which means that the first consonant of a word is lengthened when it is preceded by words like è, ma, e, a, di, pi, chi - meaning ‘it is, but, and, to, of, for, what’. For instance in

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2376-513: Is geographically separated from the rest of the range by a plain with the mount lying right in front of the Tyrrhenian Sea . Monte Pellegrino's cliff was described in the 19th century by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , as "the most beautiful promontory in the world", in his essay Italian Journey . Today both the Papireto river and the Kemonia are covered up by buildings. However, the shape of

2484-493: Is less clear is the extent to which a Latin-speaking population survived on the island. While a form of Vulgar Latin clearly survived in isolated communities during the Islamic epoch, there is much debate as to the influence it had (if any) on the development of the Sicilian language, following the re-Latinisation of Sicily (discussed in the next section). By AD 1000, the whole of what is today Southern Italy , including Sicily,

2592-408: Is quite simple: a tiny hole in one of the minor domes acts as pinhole camera , projecting an image of the sun onto the floor at solar noon (12:00 in winter, 13:00 in summer). There is a bronze line, la Meridiana , on the floor, running precisely north–south. The ends of the line mark the positions as at the summer and winter solstices ; signs of the zodiac show the various other dates throughout

2700-408: Is surrounded by mountains, which form a cirque around the city. Some districts of the city are divided by the mountains themselves. Historically, it was relatively difficult to reach the inner part of Sicily from the city because of the mounts. The tallest peak of the range is La Pizzuta, about 1,333 m (4,373 ft) high. However, historically, the most important mount is Monte Pellegrino , which

2808-631: Is the fifth most populated in Italy with around 1.2 million people. In the central area, the city has a population of around 676,000 people. The inhabitants are known as Palermitani or, poetically, panormiti . The languages spoken by its inhabitants are the Italian language and the Palermitano dialect of the Sicilian language . Palermo is Sicily's cultural , economic and tourism capital. It

2916-460: The Angevin army over the Sicilians at Benevento in 1266 not only marked the end of the 136-year Norman- Swabian reign in Sicily but also effectively ensured that the centre of literary influence would eventually move from Sicily to Tuscany. While Sicilian, as both an official and a literary language, would continue to exist for another two centuries, the language would soon follow the fortunes of

3024-564: The Aragon and Barcelona dynasties. By 1330, Palermo's population had declined to 51,000. From 1479 until 1713 Palermo was ruled by the Kingdom of Spain , and again between 1717 and 1718. Palermo was also under Savoy control between 1713 and 1717 and 1718–1720 as a result of the Treaty of Utrecht . It was ruled by Austria between 1720 and 1734. After the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Sicily

3132-714: The Cappella Palatina , the Chiesa di San Giovanni degli Eremiti , the Chiesa di Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio , the Chiesa di San Cataldo , the Cattedrale di Palermo , the Palazzo della Zisa and the Ponte dell’Ammiraglio , adding to the list that makes Italy the country with most UNESCO world heritage sites. In 2010, there were 1.2 million people living in the greater Palermo area, 655,875 of which resided in

3240-526: The Centro di studi filologici e linguistici siciliani developed an extensive descriptivist orthography which aims to represent every sound in the natural range of Sicilian accurately. This system is also used extensively in the Vocabolario siciliano and by Gaetano Cipolla in his Learn Sicilian series of textbooks and by Arba Sicula in its journal. In initially 2017, with an updated version in 2024

3348-663: The Elymians arrived between the second and first millennia BC. These aboriginal populations in turn were followed by the Phoenicians (between the 10th and 8th centuries BC) and the Greeks . The heavy Greek-language influence remains strongly visible, while the influences from the other groups are smaller and less obvious. What can be stated with certainty is that in Sicilian remain pre-Indo-European words of an ancient Mediterranean origin, but one cannot be more precise than that: of

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3456-786: The Florio , the Ducrot, the Rutelli , the Sandron , the Whitaker, the Utveggio , and others. In the early twentieth century, Palermo expanded outside the old city walls, mostly to the north along the new boulevards Via Roma , Via Dante , Via Notarbartolo , and Viale della Libertà . These roads would soon boast a huge number of villas in the Art Nouveau style. Many of these were designed by

3564-669: The French Revolution in 1798. His son Alberto died on the way to Palermo and is buried in the city. When the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was founded, the original capital city was Palermo (1816) but a year later moved to Naples . From 1820 to 1848 Sicily was shaken by upheavals, which culminated on 12 January 1848, with a popular insurrection , the first one in Europe that year, led by Giuseppe La Masa . A parliament and constitution were proclaimed. The first president

3672-553: The Greek language to a position of prestige, at least on an official level. At this time the island could be considered a border zone with moderate levels of bilingualism : Latinisation was mostly concentrated in western Sicily, largely among the upper class, whereas Eastern Sicily remained predominantly Greek. As the power of the Byzantine Empire waned, Sicily was progressively conquered by Saracens from Ifriqiya , from

3780-584: The Greeks named the settlement Pánormos or 'wide haven' due to its large anchorage, from which the present name of the city developed. The Carthaginians began using the Greek name on the city's coinage from the 5th century   BC. It was from Palermo that Hamilcar I 's fleet (which was defeated at the Battle of Himera ) was launched. In 409 BC the city was looted by Hermocrates of Syracuse . The Sicilian Wars ended in 265 BC when Syracuse allied with

3888-592: The Mussolini era in the stripped classicism architectural style. It was designed by the rationalist and later fascist government architect, Angiolo Mazzoni . Perhaps its most famous feature is the five mural cycle in the Futurist style painted by the artist Benedetta Cappa titled "Sintesi delle Comunicazioni" (Synthesis of Communication). UNESCO World Heritage Sites include the Palazzo Reale with

3996-647: The Regional Parliament , as capital of a Special Status Region (1947) whose seat is in the Palazzo dei Normanni . In 1948 the element Technetium was discovered in the University of Palermo . A theme in the city's modern age has been the struggle against the Sicilian Mafia , Red Brigades and outlaws such as Salvatore Giuliano , who controlled the neighbouring area of Montelepre . The Italian state effectively has had to share control of

4104-660: The Roman Empire was falling apart, Palermo fell under the control of several Germanic tribes . The first were the Vandals in 440 AD under the rule of their king Geiseric . The Vandals had occupied all the Roman provinces in North Africa by 455 establishing themselves as a significant force. They acquired Corsica , Sardinia and Sicily shortly afterwards. However, they soon lost these newly acquired possessions to

4212-492: The Saracens introduced to Sicily their advanced irrigation and farming techniques and a new range of crops, nearly all of which remain endemic to the island to this day. Some words of Arabic origin : Throughout the Islamic epoch of Sicilian history, a significant Greek-speaking population remained on the island and continued to use the Greek language, or most certainly a variant of Greek influenced by Tunisian Arabic. What

4320-624: The Second World War , Palermo was heavily bombed by the Allied air forces in 1942 and 1943, until its capture during the Allied invasion of Sicily on 22 July 1943. The harbour (main objective of the air attacks) and the surrounding quarters were effectively destroyed, as was a considerable part of the city, with heavy civilian casualties. When American troops entered Palermo in 1943 they were greeted with "a thunderous welcome by what seemed

4428-589: The Sicels , Sicanians and Elymians . The very earliest influences, visible in Sicilian to this day, exhibit both prehistoric Mediterranean elements and prehistoric Indo-European elements, and occasionally a blending of both. Before the Roman conquest (3rd century BC), Sicily was occupied by various populations. The earliest of these populations were the Sicanians , considered to be autochthonous. The Sicels and

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4536-551: The Tyrrhenian Sea . The city was founded in 734 BC by the Phoenicians as Sis ("flower"). Palermo then became a possession of Carthage . Two Greek colonies were established, known collectively as Panormos ; the Carthaginians used this name on their coins after the 5th century   BC. As Panormus , the town became part of the Roman Republic and Empire for over a thousand years. From 831 to 1072

4644-803: The U-boat infested waters of the North Atlantic Ocean to Iceland . Returning to New York the day after the United States entered World War II, Pleiades completed ten more convoy runs, six to Iceland and four to the United Kingdom by July 1943. Of those, convoys ON 67 in February and Convoy SC 107 , which departed New York 24 October 1942, were the most hazardous. On 1 November, with five ships in each column, 9 column convoy SC 107 took departure from Canada for Iceland, and

4752-505: The 13th century. The Northern Italian influence is of particular interest. Even to the present day, Gallo-Italic of Sicily exists in the areas where the Northern Italian colonies were the strongest, namely Novara , Nicosia , Sperlinga , Aidone and Piazza Armerina . The Siculo-Gallic dialect did not survive in other major Italian colonies, such as Randazzo , Caltagirone , Bronte and Paternò (although they influenced

4860-515: The 5th through the 23rd, she distributed supplies to U.S. 8th Fleet units at St. Tropez, San Raphael, and Marseilles , then sailed to Bizerte , whence she returned to the United States, mooring at Boston, Massachusetts , 29 October. Following alterations, Pleiades steamed to Bayonne, New Jersey , to load cargo for Brazil . She completed that Belém - Recife - Bahia run at New York, 12 January 1945; underwent repairs; and then commenced

4968-491: The Chain). The sea-side wall was along the western side of Foro Italico Umberto. The wall turns west along the northern side of Via Abramo Lincoln, continues along Corso Tukory. The wall turns north approximately on Via Benedetto, to Palazzo dei Normanni and back to Porta Nuova. Several gates in the city wall survive. Up until the beginning of the 20th century there were hundreds of small opera theatres known as magazzeni in

5076-483: The City boundaries, of whom 47.4% were male and 52.6% were female. People under age 15 totalled 15.6% compared to pensioners who composed 17.2% of the population. This compares with the Italian average of 14.1% people under 15 years and 20.2% pensioners. The average age of a Palermo resident is 40.4 compared to the Italian average of 42.8. In the ten years between 2001 and 2010, the population of Palermo declined by 4.5%, while

5184-731: The Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Carthage was Palermo's major trading partner under the Phoenicians and the city enjoyed a prolonged peace during this period. Palermo came into contact with the Ancient Greeks between the 6th and the 5th centuries BC which preceded the Sicilian Wars , a conflict fought between the Greeks of Syracuse and the Carthaginians for control over the island of Sicily. During this war

5292-464: The Ostrogoths. The Ostrogothic conquest under Theodoric the Great began in 488; Theodoric supported Roman culture and government unlike the Germanic Goths. The Gothic War took place between the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire . Sicily was the first part of Italy to be taken under control of General Belisarius who was commissioned by the Eastern Emperor . In late 535 his Byzantine army of 7,500–9,000 and

5400-417: The Paleapolis and the port. The new district expanded rapidly, exceeding the size of the old quarter, and soon became the site of markets, artisan and commercial activities. The walls were extended to embrace the new urban perimeter and two new gates were made, while the old gate at the port was moved to make room for the new buildings. In total there were 4 gates, one on each side of the city. The walls followed

5508-594: The Romans of Italy and pushed the Carthaginians off of the island during the First Punic War . In 276 BC, during the Pyrrhic War , Panormos briefly became a Greek colony after being conquered by Pyrrhus of Epirus , but returned to Phoenician Carthage in 275 BC. In 254 BC Panormos was besieged and conquered by the Romans. Carthage attempted to reconquer Panormus in the battle of Panormus 250 BC but failed. In Roman times luxurious residences were built and have been found in several locations (piazza Sett'Angeli, Palazzo Sclafani, piazza della Vittoria). As

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5616-410: The Savoy kingdom; in 1866, Palermo became the seat of a week-long popular rebellion, which was finally crushed after martial law was declared. The Italian government blamed anarchists and the Church, specifically the Archbishop of Palermo, for the rebellion and began enacting anti-Sicilian and anti-clerical policies. A new cultural, economic and industrial growth was spurred by several families, like

5724-406: The Sicilian language continues to adopt Italian vocabulary and grammatical forms to such an extent that many Sicilians themselves cannot distinguish between correct and incorrect Sicilian language usage. Sicilian has a number of consonant sounds that set it apart from the other major Romance languages, notably its retroflex consonants . Sicilian has five phonemic vowels: / i / , / ɛ / , /

5832-421: The Swabian kings (amongst whom Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor enjoyed the longest reign). Some of the words below are "reintroductions" of Latin words (also found in modern Italian) that had been Germanicized at some point (e.g. vastāre in Latin to guastare in modern Italian). Words that probably originate from this era include: In 535, Justinian I made Sicily a Byzantine province, which returned

5940-462: The United Kingdom. Shortly before 20:00, a wolfpack closed on the convoy, and, for almost 70 hours, struck at the columns, repeatedly scoring hits. At 18:37, 4 November, they sank their last ship and departed, having sunk 15, and damaged one other. Steaming south, 25 July 1943, Pleiades spent August, September, and October on a Brazilian run, then, in mid-November returned to the North Atlantic to ply those waters again until June 1944. Converted to

6048-564: The ancient core of the Phoenician city, the Palaeopolis or Paleapolis (in the area east of Porta Nuova) and the Neapolis . Via Vittorio Emanuele was the main road east–west through this early walled city. The eastern edge of the walled city was on Via Roma and the ancient port in the vicinity of Piazza Marina. The wall circuit was approximately Porto Nuovo, Corso Alberti, Piazza Peranni, Via Isodoro, Via Candela, Via Venezia, Via Roma, Piazza Paninni, Via Biscottari, Via Del Bastione, Palazzo dei Normanni and back to Porto Nuovo. The walls followed

6156-419: The architect Ernesto Basile . The Grand Hotel Villa Igiea , designed by Ernesto Basile for the Florio family, is a good example of Palermitan Art Nouveau. The huge Teatro Massimo was designed in the same period by Giovan Battista Filippo Basile , Ernesto's father, and built by the Rutelli & Machì building firm of the industrial and old Rutelli Italian family in Palermo, and was opened in 1897. During

6264-508: The area now known as Palermo goes back to at least the Mesolithic period, perhaps around 8000 BC , where a group of cave drawings at nearby Addaura from that period have been found. The original inhabitants were Sicani people who, according to Thucydides , arrived from the Iberian Peninsula (perhaps Catalonia ). In the 8th c. BC the Phoenicians built a small settlement on the natural harbour of Palermo, which became known as Ziz ( Punic : 𐤑‬𐤉𐤑 , ṢYṢ ). It became one of

6372-409: The borough of Mondello . Shown above are the thirty five quarters of Palermo: these thirty five neighbourhoods or " quartiere " as they are known, are further divided into eight governmental community boards. Palermo has a large architectural heritage and is notable for its many Norman buildings . Palermo had two rings of city walls , many parts of which still survive. The first ring surrounded

6480-419: The capital of Sicily. It was said to have then begun to compete with Córdoba and Cairo in terms of importance and splendor. For more than a hundred years Palermo was the capital of a flourishing emirate . The Arabs also introduced many agricultural crops which remain a mainstay of Sicilian cuisine . After dynastic quarrels however, there was a Norman conquest in 1072. Normans conquered Palermo after

6588-424: The city of Palermo. The " Wall of Legality " ( Il Muro Della Legalità ) depicts 38 important persons who helped in fighting the mafia. The street art project was inaugurated in July 2022 and is a joint effort by 19 artists. It can be found at Piazza degli Aragonesi. The cathedral has a heliometer (solar observatory) dating to 1690, one of a number built in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. The device itself

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6696-418: The city was under Arab rule in the Emirate of Sicily when the city became the capital of Sicily for the first time. During this time the city was known as Balarm . Following the Norman conquest , Palermo became the capital of a new kingdom, the Kingdom of Sicily , that lasted from 1130 to 1816. The population of Palermo urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 855,285, while its metropolitan area

6804-437: The correct date for Easter . The Orto botanico di Palermo (Palermo Botanical Garden), founded in 1785, is the largest in Italy with a surface of 10 ha (25 acres). One site of interest is the Capuchin Catacombs , with many mummified corpses in varying degrees of preservation. Close to the city is the 600 m-high (2,000 ft) Monte Pellegrino , offering a panorama of the city, its surrounding mountains and

6912-400: The countries that attracted large numbers of Sicilian immigrants during the course of the past century or so, especially the United States (specifically in the Gravesend and Bensonhurst neighborhoods of Brooklyn , New York City , and in Buffalo and Western New York State), Canada (especially in Montreal , Toronto and Hamilton ), Australia , Venezuela and Argentina . During

7020-424: The course of the two rivers that surround the city, the Kemonia and the Papireto, creating a natural moat and improving the military security of the city. During the Roman era they were reinforced. The Cassaro district was probably named after the walls themselves; the word Cassaro deriving from the Arab al-qaṣr (castle, stronghold, see also alcázar ). The colony developed around a central street ( decumanus ) now

7128-411: The course of the two rivers that surround the city, the Kemonia and the Papireto, creating a natural moat and improving the military security of the city. During the Roman era, they were certainly implemented, as deducible from the subsequent account of Procopius of Caesarea about the capture of Palermo. In the medieval period the city was expanded with a second wall. Via Vittorio Emanuele continued to be

7236-563: The definite article: di lu = dû ("of the"), a lu = ô ("to the"), pi lu = pû ("for the"), nta lu = ntô ("in the"), etc. Most feminine nouns and adjectives end in -a in the singular: casa ('house'), porta ('door'), carta ('paper'). Exceptions include soru ('sister') and ficu ('fig'). The usual masculine singular ending is -u : omu ('man'), libbru ('book'), nomu ('name'). The singular ending -i can be either masculine or feminine. Unlike Standard Italian, Sicilian uses

7344-442: The domination of subtropical high pressure system, while winters are mild and changeable, with rainy weather due to the polar front. Temperatures in autumn and spring are typically warm. Palermo is one of the warmest cities in Europe (mainly due to its warm nights), with an average annual air temperature of 18 °C (64 °F); it is one of the warmest cities in Italy. It receives approximately 2,530 hours of sunshine per year. Snow

7452-450: The education system have been slow. The CSFLS created a textbook "Dialektos" to comply with the law but does not provide an orthography to write the language. In Sicily, it is taught only as part of dialectology courses, but outside Italy, Sicilian has been taught at the University of Pennsylvania , Brooklyn College and Manouba University . Since 2009, it has been taught at the Italian Charities of America , in New York City (home to

7560-402: The entire population demonstrating their feelings about Fascist rule." The two captured Italian generals claimed that they were happy because in their view "the Sicilians were not human beings but animals". Anti-Sicilian prejudice was part of the fascist regime's world view, being promoted by pro-fascist newspapers, particularly in the north of Italy. In 1946 the city was declared the seat of

7668-425: The far south of Italy ( Apulia and Calabria ). It took Roger 30 years to complete the conquest of Sicily (Robert died in 1085). In the aftermath of the Norman conquest of Sicily, the reintroduction of Latin in Sicily had begun, and some Norman words would be absorbed, that would be accompanied with an additional wave of Parisian French loanwords during the rule of Charles I from the Capetian House of Anjou in

7776-435: The first of the modern Italic languages to be used as a literary language . The influence of the school and the use of Sicilian itself as a poetic language was acknowledged by the two great Tuscan writers of the early Renaissance period, Dante and Petrarch . The influence of the Sicilian language should not be underestimated in the eventual formulation of a lingua franca that was to become modern Italian . The victory of

7884-510: The following medals: [REDACTED]   This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships . The entry can be found here . Palermo, Italy Palermo ( / p ə ˈ l ɛər m oʊ , - ˈ l ɜːr -/ pə- LAIR -moh, -⁠ LUR - ; Italian: [paˈlɛrmo] ; Sicilian : Palermu , locally also Paliemmu [paˈljɛmmʊ] or Palèimmu )

7992-479: The former watercourses can still be recognised today, because the streets that were built on them follow their shapes. Today the only waterway not drained yet is the Oreto river that divides the downtown of the city from the western uptown and the industrial districts. In the basins there were, though, many seasonal torrents that helped formed swampy plains, reclaimed during history; a good example of which can be found in

8100-430: The impact of mass media, such that increasingly, even within the family home, Sicilian is not necessarily the language of choice. The Sicilian Regional Assembly voted to make the teaching of Sicilian a part of the school curriculum at primary school level, but as of 2007 only a fraction of schools teach Sicilian. There is also little in the way of mass media offered in Sicilian. The combination of these factors means that

8208-576: The kingdom itself in terms of prestige and influence. Following the Sicilian Vespers of 1282, the kingdom came under the influence of the Crown of Aragon , and the Catalan language (and the closely related Aragonese ) added a new layer of vocabulary in the succeeding century. For the whole of the 14th century, both Catalan and Sicilian were the official languages of the royal court. Sicilian

8316-485: The language in Sicily itself: specifically, the term sìculu originally describes one of the larger prehistoric groups living in Sicily (the Italic Sicels or Siculi ) before the arrival of Greeks in the 8th century BC (see below ). It can also be used as a prefix to qualify or to elaborate further on the origins of a person, for example: Siculo-American ( sìculu-miricanu ) or Siculo-Australian. As

8424-444: The language via any of the major language groups normally associated with Sicilian, i.e. they have been independently derived from a very early Indo-European source. The Sicels are a possible source of such words, but there is also the possibility of a cross-over between ancient Mediterranean words and introduced Indo-European forms. Some examples of Sicilian words with an ancient Indo-European origin: The following Sicilian words are of

8532-457: The largest Sicilian speaking community outside of Sicily and Italy) and it is also preserved and taught by family association, church organisations and societies, social and ethnic historical clubs and even Internet social groups, mainly in Gravesend and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn . On 15 May 2018, the Sicilian Region once again mandated the teaching of Sicilian in schools and referred to it as

8640-558: The last four or five decades, large numbers of Sicilians were also attracted to the industrial zones of Northern Italy and areas of the European Union . Although the Sicilian language does not have official status (including in Sicily), in addition to the standard Sicilian of the medieval Sicilian school, academics have developed a standardized form. Such efforts began in the mid-19th century when Vincenzo Mortillaro published

8748-479: The local Sicilian vernacular). The Gallo-Italic influence was also felt on the Sicilian language itself, as follows: The origins of another Romance influence, that of Occitan , had three reasons: Some examples of Sicilian words derived from Occitan: It was during the reign of Frederick II (or Frederick I of Sicily) between 1198 and 1250, with his patronage of the Sicilian School, that Sicilian became

8856-482: The main road east–west through the walled city. The west gate was still Porta Nuova, the walls continued to Corso Alberti, to Piazza Vittorio Emanuele Orlando where it turned east along Via Volturno to Piazza Verdi and along the line of Via Cavour. At this northeast corner the Castello a Mare protected the port at La Cala. A huge chain was used to block La Cala with the other end at Santa Maria della Catena (St Mary of

8964-554: The major cities of the Euro-Mediterranean area. Roman Catholicism is highly important in Palermitan culture. The Patron Saint of Palermo is Santa Rosalia whose Feast Day is celebrated on 15 July. The area attracts significant numbers of tourists each year and is widely known for its colourful fruit, vegetable and fish markets at the heart of Palermo, known as Vucciria , Ballarò and Capo . Palermo lies in

9072-544: The mid 9th to mid 10th centuries. The Emirate of Sicily persisted long enough to develop a distinctive local variety of Arabic, Siculo-Arabic (at present extinct in Sicily but surviving as the Maltese language ). Its influence is noticeable in around 300 Sicilian words, most of which relate to agriculture and related activities. This is understandable because of the Arab Agricultural Revolution ;

9180-493: The nonprofit organisation Cademia Siciliana created an orthographic proposal to help to normalise the language's written form. This orthography was used by the organisation in their collaboration with Google to bring the Sicilian Language to Google Translate. The autonomous regional parliament of Sicily has legislated Regional Law No. 9/2011 to encourage the teaching of Sicilian at all schools, but inroads into

9288-511: The parliamentary and court records had commenced. By 1543 this process was virtually complete, with the Tuscan dialect of Italian becoming the lingua franca of the Italian peninsula and supplanting written Sicilian. Spanish rule had hastened this process in two important ways: Spanish rule lasted over three centuries (not counting the Aragonese and Bourbon periods on either side) and had

9396-728: The particular word may even have come to Sicily via another route. For instance, by the time the Romans had occupied Sicily, the Latin language had made its own borrowings from Greek. The words with a prehistoric Mediterranean derivation often refer to plants native to the Mediterranean region or to other natural features. Bearing in mind the qualifiers mentioned above (alternative sources are provided where known), examples of such words include: There are also Sicilian words with an ancient Indo-European origin that do not appear to have come to

9504-498: The phrase è bonu ‘it's good’, there is a doubled /bb/ in pronunciation. The letter ⟨j⟩ at the start of a word can have two separate sounds depending on what precedes the word. For instance, in jornu ("day"), it is pronounced [ j ] . However, after a nasal consonant or if it is triggered by syntactic gemination, it is pronounced [ ɟ ] as in un jornu with [nɟ] or tri jorna ("three days") with [ɟɟ] . Another difference between

9612-506: The plural: manu ('hand[s]'), ficu ('fig[s]') and soru ('sister[s]'). Sicilian has only one auxiliary verb , aviri , 'to have'. It is also used to denote obligation (e.g. avi a jiri , '[he/she] has to go'), and to form the future tense, as Sicilian for the most part no longer has a synthetic future tense: avi a cantari , '[he/she] will sing'. As in English and like most other Romance languages, Sicilian may use

9720-664: The population of Italy, as a whole, grew by 6.0%. The reason for Palermo's decline is a population flight to the suburbs, and to Northern Italy . The current birth rate of Palermo is 10.2 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.3 births. As of 2006 , 97.79% of the population was of Italian descent. The largest immigrant group came from South Asia (mostly from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (Mostly Tamils )): 0.80%, other European countries (mostly from Albania , Romania , Serbia , North Macedonia and Ukraine ): 0.3%, and North Africa (mostly from Tunisia and Morocco ): 0.28%. Evidence of human settlement in

9828-731: The same standard plural ending -i for both masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives: casi ('houses' or 'cases'), porti ('doors' or 'harbors'), tàuli ('tables'). Some masculine plural nouns end in -a instead, a feature that is derived from the Latin neuter endings -um, -a : libbra ('books'), jorna ('days'), vrazza ('arms', compare Italian braccio , braccia ), jardina ('gardens'), scrittura ('writers'), signa ('signs'). Some nouns have irregular plurals: omu has òmini (compare Italian uomo , uomini ), jocu ('game') jòcura (Italian gioco , giochi ) and lettu ("bed") letta (Italian letto , ' letti ). Three feminine nouns are invariable in

9936-466: The sea. Another good panoramic viewpoint is the promontory of Monte Gallo (586 m; 1,923 ft), near Mondello Beach. Moreton Bay fig of >30 m girth and of 32m height can be found on the Piazza Marina. This Ficus macrophylla is most probably the thickest tree in Europe. On the boulevard Via Roma is the Palazzo delle Poste , an official Italian government building created during

10044-598: The territory, economically and administratively, with the Mafia. Sicilian language Sicilian (Sicilian: sicilianu , Sicilian: [sɪ(t)ʃɪˈljaːnu] ; Italian : siciliano ) is a Romance language that is spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands. It belongs to the broader Extreme Southern Italian language group (in Italian italiano meridionale estremo ). Ethnologue (see below for more detail) describes Sicilian as being "distinct enough from Standard Italian to be considered

10152-474: The three main Phoenician colonies of Sicily, along with Motya and Soluntum . The first settlement was later known as Paleapolis meaning "Old City". The site chosen by the Phoenicians was connected to the mountains with two roads that today have become Via Cappuccini and Corso Pisani. The Neapolis or "New City", the nucleus of the subsequent expansion of the colony, soon developed in the area between

10260-513: The three main prehistoric groups, only the Sicels were known to be Indo-European with a degree of certainty, and their speech is likely to have been closely related to that of the Romans. The following table, listing words for "twins", illustrates the difficulty linguists face in tackling the various substrata of the Sicilian language. A similar qualifier can be applied to many of the words that appear in this article. Sometimes it may be known that

10368-555: The treaty, the Italian Parliament has not ratified it. It is not included in Italian Law No. 482/1999 although some other minority languages of Sicily are. Alternative names of Sicilian are Calabro-Sicilian , sicilianu , and sìculu . The first term refers to the fact that a form of Sicilian is spoken in southern Calabria, particularly in the province of Reggio Calabria . The other two are names for

10476-455: The vast majority of instances in which the originating word had an initial /i/ , Sicilian has dropped it completely. That has also happened when there was once an initial /e/ and, to a lesser extent, /a/ and /o/ : mpurtanti "important", gnuranti "ignorant", nimicu "enemy", ntirissanti "interesting", llustrari "to illustrate", mmàggini "image", cona "icon", miricanu "American". In Sicilian, gemination

10584-408: The verb jiri , 'to go', to signify the act of being about to do something. Vaiu a cantari , 'I'm going to sing'. In this way, jiri + a + infinitive can also be a way to form the simple future construction. The main conjugations in Sicilian are illustrated below with the verb èssiri , 'to be'. Extracts from three of Sicily's more celebrated poets are offered below to illustrate

10692-511: The wealthiest states in Europe. Thanks to the marriage between Constance, Queen of Sicily , and Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor , Palermo and the whole Sicily was inherited by their son Frederick II , who became King of Sicily in 1198 and Holy Roman Emperor in 1220. Palermo was the capital of Emperor Frederick II 's vast empire and also his favorite city. Muslims of Palermo emigrated or were expelled during Frederick's rule. After an interval of Angevin rule (1266–1282), Sicily came under control of

10800-427: The written and the spoken languages is the extent to which contractions occur in everyday speech. Thus a common expression such as avemu a accattari... ("we have to go and buy...") is generally reduced to âma 'ccattari in talking to family and friends. The circumflex accent is commonly used in denoting a wide range of contractions in the written language, particularly the joining of simple prepositions and

10908-527: The year. The purpose of the instrument was to standardise the measurement of time and the calendar . The convention in Sicily had been that the (24‑hour) day was measured from the moment of dawn, which of course meant that no two locations had the same time and, more importantly, did not have the same time as in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome . It was also important to know when the vernal equinox occurred, to provide

11016-589: Was Ruggero Settimo . The Bourbons reconquered Palermo in 1849, and it remained under their rule until the Expedition of the Thousand , led by Giuseppe Garibaldi , conquered the city after the Siege of Palermo in May 1860. After the plebiscite later that year Palermo, along with the rest of Sicily, became part of the new Kingdom of Italy (1861). The majority of Sicilians preferred independence to annexation to

11124-495: Was a complex mix of small states and principalities , languages and religions. The whole of Sicily was controlled by Saracens, at the elite level, but the general population remained a mix of Muslims and Christians who spoke Greek, Latin or Siculo-Arabic. The far south of the Italian peninsula was part of the Byzantine empire although many communities were reasonably independent from Constantinople . The Principality of Salerno

11232-604: Was also used to record the proceedings of the Parliament of Sicily (one of the oldest parliaments in Europe) and for other official purposes. While it is often difficult to determine whether a word came directly from Catalan (as opposed to Occitan), the following are likely to be such examples: By the time the crowns of Castille and Aragon were united in the late 15th century, the Italianisation of written Sicilian in

11340-500: Was controlled by Lombards (or Langobards), who had also started to make some incursions into Byzantine territory and had managed to establish some isolated independent city-states . It was into this climate that the Normans thrust themselves with increasing numbers during the first half of the 11th century. When the two most famous of Southern Italy's Norman adventurers, Roger of Hauteville and his brother, Robert Guiscard , began their conquest of Sicily in 1061, they already controlled

11448-651: Was handed over to the House of Savoy , but by 1734 it was in Bourbon possession. Charles III chose Palermo for his coronation as King of Sicily . Charles had new houses built for the growing population, while trade and industry grew as well. However, Palermo had become just another provincial city as the Royal Court resided in Naples. Charles' son Ferdinand , though disliked by the population, took refuge in Palermo after

11556-590: Was under his nephew Roger II of Sicily that Norman holdings in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula were promoted from the County of Sicily into the Kingdom of Sicily . The kingdom's capital was Palermo, with the King's Court held at the Palazzo dei Normanni . Much construction was undertaken during this period, such as the building of Palermo Cathedral . The Kingdom of Sicily became one of

11664-464: Was −2.5 °C (27 °F) in February 1967. The average annual temperature of the sea is above 19 °C (66 °F); from 14 °C (57 °F) in February to 26 °C (79 °F) in August. In the period from November to May, the average sea temperature exceeds 18 °C (64 °F) and in the period from June to October, the average sea temperature exceeds 21 °C (70 °F). Palermo

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