The Survival of the Sicilian Dialect of Tampa, Florida

Susan M. Taylor

The University of Tampa

Introduction

The title of this study, “The Survival of the Sicilian Dialect of Tampa, Florida,” suggests at least three meanings of the word survival. The first stems from the fact that a Sicilian dialect is still spoken by third-generation Italians. The second concerns its future survival. The third has to do with the nature of the dialect itself, which despite some lexical and grammatical interference, remains similar to the dialect spoken by the original immigrants. In this study I will address the question of language loyalty and maintenance by describing the circumstances which brought about and fostered the continued use of Sicilian in Tampa. I will include one representative text that gives an idea of the character of the dialect itself.

Discussions of language loyalty and maintenance point to the importance of a number of interrelated factors. Among those mentioned by Fishman and Glazer are time of immigration, area and settlement patterns, social and cultural relationships, schools, the influence of mass culture, attitudes, and degrees of bilingualism. A consideration of these factors provides an approach to the examination of a particular case.

What circumstances have fostered the continued use of Sicilian in Tampa? In the discussion that follows, I will attempt to answer this question, keeping the above-mentioned factors in mind as I describe the particular situation of the Tampa Sicilian community. I will contend that the most important reason that Sicilian has survived is because people continue to use it .

Italians in Tampa

A convergence of various historical factors in the latter part of the 19th century led to the arrival of the first Italians in Tampa, Florida.^[1] It was a period of difficult economic conditions in Italy and those who left were attracted by the promise of finding work in the Americas. The overwhelming majority of Italians who immigrated to Tampa came from Santo Stefano Quisquina, Alessandria della Rocca, and a few other neighboring villages in the Val di Magazzolo, an area in southwestern Sicily (see Appendix I—Map 1) in the province of Agrigento.^[2] Prior to immigration they had shared a long history of contact and interaction (Mormino and Pozzetta 17). This was also the period of the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain. The tensions resulting from the political upheaval convinced some of the Spaniards that maintaining their interests in the cigar industry in Cuba was no longer desirable. Among the many Spaniards who decided to move their cigar factories from Cuba to Key West was a certain Vincente Martínez Ybor. But, unhappy with the labor unrest that he also encountered in Key West, Mr. Martínez Ybor and three partners sought a more hospitable location (Pizzo 127). For a number of reasons, they decided to move their business to Tampa, where they founded Ybor City.

The growing cigar industry offered the possibility of work that Italians and other immigrants sought. The last decade of the 19th century witnessed an influx of immigrants, the majority of whom gathered in Ybor City and West Tampa (see Appendix I—Map 2), where they formed a multiethnic community of Spaniards born mainly in Asturias and Galicia, Cubans, Afro-Cubans and Italians.^[3] Its members came to be known as Tampa Latins.^[4] The hostility of the Anglos may have initially united a somewhat insular Latin community (Mormino and Pozzetta 91–92), but as second- and third-generation Latins went to school and learned English, they were able to function in the Anglo world. A particular culture grew out of the contact within this multiethnic group where Spanish became the lingua franca and speaking a language other than English was not stigmatized. In a description of one of the cultural centers Massari writes: “All languages were freely blended. English, Spanish and Italian were common, but Spanish was more or less the official language, and we all understood each other quite well” (107). One of the informants for this study remarked: “We kids used to play together. We would speak to each other in Spanish, Italian or English. We thought everyone did. For us it was normal” (Informant #7). Ybor City was a thriving community until the Depression, when people began to move away. After the Depression it was economic prosperity that led others to change their residence, thus beginning a trend that continued until the 1960s, when in the guise of “urban renewal,” most of the dwellings were torn down and never replaced.^[5] Today Ybor City is beginning to experience a cultural revival, but most of the Latins live elsewhere (many in West Tampa).

Continued Use of Sicilian

Many authors have commented on the close-knit nature of Italian-American communities and Tampa is no different. Although dispersed throughout the city, the Italian community is sizable.^[6] Many members of the older generation, and some of the younger, continue to communicate among themselves in Sicilian.

What circumstances have fostered this continued use of the dialect? Fishman writes: “Language maintenance may be vigorous and central whether or not it is ideologically elaborated. Certainly, the traditional ethnic community was a staunch fortress of language maintenance without any ideological-symbolic commitment, indeed even without language consciousness per se” (170). As Informant #7 remarked above: “We thought it was normal (to speak three languages).” It is my contention that this is as good an explanation as any, but I will qualify what I mean by “normal.” Many of the informants commented that Sicilian had been their first language and that they learned English when they went to school. Others also learned Spanish, if it was necessary. Fishman speaks of the “pragmatic utility of bilingualism” (30). Among Tampa Sicilians, one could speak of the pragmatic utility of trilingualism that has grown out of particular circumstances. The early Italian immigrants learned Spanish in order to work in the cigar factories, to carry on business with Spanish speakers or, simply, to communicate with their neighbors. The Italians may have tended initially to marry within their own group, but today many of them have Spanish (and “American”) surnames. When I asked informants how they had learned Spanish, a surprising number of them had studied it in high school, where they had a choice of studying Spanish, French or Latin, but not Italian. But, regardless of the path taken to becoming trilingual, these polyglots are one example of what is meant by the term Tampa Latin. They are likely to use all three languages on a daily basis.

I believe that it is precisely the use of the languages that has fostered their survival. Thus Sicilian in Tampa has survived because people continue to use it. Among the factors that contribute to the continued use of the dialect are the number of first- and second-generation Italians who are still alive; the contact that has been maintained with Sicily; the existence of clubs; the social interaction that takes place within families and among friends; and, finally, the relative uniformity of the dialect spoken in Tampa due to the geographic proximity of the birthplaces of the original immigrants.

Generations and Contact with Sicily

The following information is based on 37 responses to an informal survey I conducted. Although the survey was limited and not scientific, it suggested to me that the questions of generation and continued contact with Sicily are pertinent ones. The purpose of the survey was to find linguistic informants but it also furnished interesting information.^[7] Among the respondents are seven who were born in either Santo Stefano or Alessandria della Rocca; 28 who were born in Tampa; two who were born elsewhere in the United States but have parents or grandparents from Santo Stefano and Alessandria della Rocca. Of the first seven, only two are more that 90 years old; the others have come to Tampa since the 1960s, but all had relatives living in Tampa with whom they had remained in contact over the years. Of the 28 born in Tampa, 22 are second generation and five are third generation (information incomplete for 1 respondent). Of the two born elsewhere in the United States, one is second generation and the other is third. All members of the first and second generations speak Sicilian (most of them also speak Spanish). Of the third generation, four speak Sicilian and the remaining two do not speak it with any fluency but do understand it.

The arrival of more recent immigrants is testimony to the continued contact that has been maintained with Sicily. I was shown letters that had been received as long ago as 70 years and as recently as last month. When I conducted the tape-recorded interviews I always asked if the informant had ever visited Sicily and discovered that many either had, or had plans to visit in the near future. Those who had visited Sicily liked it, and almost all of them related a story of the reaction to their version of the Sicilian dialect. One respondent to the survey, describing his own personal experience, sent me a four-page letter from which I quote the following:

In 1977 and again in 1985, I had occasion to visit Italy, and Sicily in particular. In that span of 8 years I found the Sicilian dialect to have eroded to a mere nothing. The conversations we engaged in were primarily in the pure Italian language. . . . To my surprise, I spoke far more in the Sicilian dialect than my relatives; in fact some words and phrases I used had to be translated into the pure Italian for me to be understood.

I was also told some amusing stories of these visits to Sicily, mainly from mature, married women who were surprised when they were not allowed out of the house by themselves. Other less amusing stories told of ill treatment received outside of Sicily when the traveler tried to communicate using Sicilian.

One other contact worth mentioning is the recent establishment of a sister city relationship between Tampa and Agrigento. Cultural exchanges have already taken place and a folkloric group visited Tampa for the second time this past summer. A trip to Sicily to attend the Santa Rosalia celebration is planned for next summer. This effort to maintain contact with Sicily has been enthusiastically supported by younger Tampa Italians, signaling a continued interest in their cultural heritage.

Social Interaction

L’Unione Italiana (The Italian Club) of Tampa will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1994, and a fund raising campaign has been undertaken to restore the building located in Ybor City. A number of activities are planned for the entire year. The club tradition in Tampa grew out of the various mutual aid societies that were formed in the early years to serve the needs of the immigrant community. Although those needs were long ago superseded, the Italians continue to belong to a number of clubs such as the three lodges of the Sons of Italy, the Italian Cultural Center, and the Circulo italiano at a local university.^[8] The clubs’ activities, which may consist of an organized meal, dancing, or a bocce tournament, take place throughout the year and provide occasions for speaking Sicilian. Many of the older men even continue to gather in the clubs, sometimes on a daily basis.^[9] Until about 15 years ago, some of the clubs were exclusively male, but now they admit women who are very active and often serve on the Boards of Directors.

In the survey I conducted, I asked the following two questions: How frequently do you speak Sicilian and with whom do you speak it? Most of the respondents reported that they spoke it daily or weekly with friends and relatives. As stated earlier, the Sicilians who immigrated to Tampa had shared a history of contact. They have continued that contact in Tampa, where it is not unusual for someone to have one parent or set of grandparents from Santo Stefano and another from Alessandria della Rocca.^[10] Glazer asserts that language maintenance was more successful in smaller towns with a relatively large concentration of a particular immigrant group (362). This configuration describes Tampa very well. An outsider might be tempted to think that “they all seem to know each other.” Although there is now less interaction within the group as a whole than in the “golden days” of Ybor City, the Tampa Italians continue to congregate at certain times and places where they have an opportunity to speak Sicilian to each other. For example, there is a restaurant in Ybor City where Tampa Latins regularly gather in the morning. Once again, using the metaphor of the outsider, it must sound like the Tower of Babel. The point I wish to make is that Sicilian, along with other languages, is used on a daily basis. Speaking languages other than English is an integral part of the Tampa Latin culture.

Interaction within the family is also of importance and I would like to mention a few traditions that were described to me by one of the informants. In answer to my question about occasions for interaction among friends and family he told me that his and other families usually get together around wine-making time. He described it as a sort of Italian “Oktoberfest.” He then described another very interesting tradition, which entails giving thanks and may be associated with San Giuseppe because it usually occurs in March. Individuals announce that they are going to open their house and feed whoever comes. One is reminded of Gambino’s phrase that “to all Mediterranean people food is the symbol of life” (15). These occasions provide yet another reason for gathering and speaking Sicilian.

The Dialect

Map 3 (see Appendix I), which is taken from the Pellegrini’s Carta dei Dialetti d’Italia and includes Piccitto’s classification of Sicilian dialects (191), shows the location of Santo Stefano and Alessandria della Rocca within the Western Sicilian dialect area (agrigentino centro-occidentale). I believe that an additional factor has contributed to the survival of the dialect in Tampa. One might say that everyone speaks the same language.

When I first began to study the Sicilian spoken in Tampa I was particularly interested in questions of linguistic interference. Earlier studies had concentrated on this phenomenon and I expected to find similar instances of lexical borrowing with concurrent phonological adaptations. The sample texts show that the speakers do borrow from English and Spanish, as one would expect from bilingual, and in this case of Tampa, trilingual speakers. More than a few informants told me “we mix,” but the data I collected demonstrate that, among fluent Sicilian speakers, the interference is minimal. Individuals are much more likely to code-switch. In my presence, they switch mainly to English, but when a Spanish speaker is present they also switch to Spanish. I do not have extensive data on the Spanish of Sicilian speakers, but in one tape recording a Sicilian speaker carries on a conversation in Sicilian with a Spanish speaker who understands but does not speak Sicilian. The informant had been speaking Sicilian for my benefit, eventually switching to Spanish, which she speaks like a native. She had worked for a number of years in the cigar factories and had been married to a Spaniard. Her Spanish shows influence from Sicilian. But in all the various configurations of the linguistic behavior of fluent trilingual speakers, the one that is constant is the relative lack of interference. This circumstance can be attributed to a number of factors specific to the Tampa Sicilian community. The knowledge of other languages has allowed the Sicilian speakers to retain the dialect for those occasions when they associate with other Sicilian speakers. Because most of the immigrants came from the same geographical area, the dialect did not undergo the extensive leveling that has occurred among the groups who, although originating from different areas of Italy, came into contact when they settled in large urban areas. In a study of the language of Italian Americans, Correa-Zoli reports that “San Francisco Bay area speakers rarely lapse into stretches of speech which could be identified as Venetian, Genoese, Sicilian, etc.” (246). Timiras’s study of the fishing terminology used among Sicilian fishermen in Monterey presents a situation similar to that of Tampa where close contact among the speakers has been maintained over the years. He concluded that: “the Monterey Sicilians have generally preserved their native fishing terminology . . . due to special, geographical, historical, social and cultural circumstances” (366).

I was able to analyze the data I gathered from informants who spoke fluent Sicilian with the aid of Pitrè’s Grammatica siciliana which first appeared in 1875. It is because I found little evidence of forms that differed from Pitrè’s description that I believe the Sicilian spoken in Tampa is the survival of the dialect as it was spoken by the early immigrants. The sample text will help to illustrate my contention. The brief comments point out that the information was taken from the works of Rohlfs, Pitrè, Piccitto, and the various dictionaries I consulted.

Linguistic Data

A list of the informants and certain particulars are contained in Appendix II, in which I have included a few brief texts. The corpus I gathered consisted of approximately 20 hours of tape recordings. In some cases I interviewed the informant using Standard Italian. On other occasions I taped social situations (shared meals). I usually began by telling the informant that although I didn’t speak Sicilian, I could understand it. Most of the informants understood that I wanted them to speak Sicilian and had little trouble doing so, but the data I obtained from anyone who had been exposed to Standard Italian showed its influence to a greater or lesser extent. Many of the informants warned me that “we mix” or that “the majority of people here in Tampa speak a slang of the Sicilian language,” but as I transcribed the tapes I was struck by the dialect’s similarity to dialects described in Pitrè’s grammar.

The text I include here gives an idea of how the dialect is spoken and is illustrative of certain experiences and attitudes. For the present study I have left aside questions of phonology and have adopted Italian orthography for the most part.^[11] Underlined tr indicates a retroflex, ∫ indicates a palatalized s, [∫] before consonants and j is used to indicate a palatal [j]. Written accents are used when a word is not accented on the penultimate syllable. Spaces indicate pauses. A series of dots indicate that a portion of the text has been omitted.

Informant #9 was born in Tampa in 1923. She speaks native English and learned Spanish when she married a Spanish speaker. She has traveled to Sicily a number of times and is very proud of her heritage. A manifestation of that pride is her daily use of Sicilian. In the text that follows she resorts to English only in a few instances; the rest is what she herself might call veru veru sicilianu. The story concerns the death of her grandmother.

1. allura unn’e ch’amu cominciari   e cominciari cu lu . . . lu patri di me ma   pirchini iddu

2. jera papanannu   lu chiamamu papanannu    papanannu e la mama angilidda   idda murí

3. quannu ji avía sett’anni   idda avía settantadu anni   quissa dumínica   jéramu ne la casa

4. di me ma . . . e iddi avíanu la propietá darreni . . . e avíanu assa addini . . . e me nan   e me

5. nonna angilidda   chianá ncap’ un pedi di “mulberries” pir farici un nidu cciu meju . . . pir

6. li (g)addini pir fari l’ova   e cadí e se ruppi   la   comu si dice   non sugnu sicuru

7. in.inglese si dice “hip” . . . e ‘un si potíanu ‘zzizzari   quisti cosi nissi tempi   e tutti

8. sapíamu . . . ch’avía mori   issu jornu   avía ji sett’anni lu jornu di lu ‘nterru   ma ancora

9. l’aju ne la testa propiu comu jera   bínniru di li famiji . . . e tutti ‘ntra la casa   e me nanna

10. jera cunzata dintra la casa ne la   ne lu primu quartu   ch’era una stanza di dórmiri   ‘un

11. era una sala jer’una stanza di dórmiri   e éranu assa stanzi di dórmiri in issa casa   e jera

12. davanzi . . . di la casa unni che stava ji . . . e jéranu di nzoccu nuatri chiamamu “bungalows”

13. e allura . . . quistu ‘nterru fu lu primu ‘nterru pir mía   e ‘un mi facíanu jiri a bbídiri   a me

14. nanna morta . . . pirchini   mezzu ‘∫ti siciliani dissi tempi ‘un vulíanu li fiji fímmini   che

15. ’un vidíanu assa cosi   ojinjornu comprennemu ch’un e la cosa di fari no . . . ji ‘un la vitti

16. morta no   ji la vitti curcata ne la strátamorta darré di la casa   ∫trupiata   chiangennu

17. per auito   allura   nzoccu ji vitti issa jurnata m’ arre∫tá ne la testa pikkini gridávanu

18. gridávanu abbuciforti comu genti nesciuti foddi pirkí avía mortu mama angilidda . . . 

(Well, then, where are we going to start? I will start with the father of my mother because he was “papanannu.” We called him “papanannu.” “Papanannu” and “mama Angilidda.” She died when I was seven years old. She was seventy-two. That Sunday we were in my mother’s house, and they had the property in back and they had many hens. My grandmother Angilidda climbed up a mulberry tree to make a better nest for the hens to lay eggs and she fell and broke her . . . how do you say . . . I’m not sure, in English you say hip and they couldn’t fix that in those days and we all knew that she was going to die. That day, I was seven years old the day of the burial, but I still have it in my head just like it was. Some families came, everyone inside the house, in the first room which was a bedroom, it wasn’t a living room, it was a bedroom. There were many bedrooms in that house and it was in front of the house where I lived. They were what we call bungalows. And so, this burial was the first for me and they didn’t let me see my grandmother dead because among these Sicilians of those times they didn’t want girls to see too much. Today we understand that it is not the thing to do. No, I didn’t see her dead. I saw her lying down in the back alley behind the house, hurt, crying for help. So, what I saw that day stayed in my head because they were screaming, screaming loudly as if they had gone crazy because mama Angilidda had died . . .)

Line 1: amu cominciari (Pitrè 71); e cominciari (Pitrè 61)

These are two forms of the analytic future. Pitrè states that the futuro semplice is rarely used. The first-person form of the verb aviri is usually aju but, when used for the future, is e.

Line 2: murí (Pitrè 65)

Pitrè mentions the third-person forms of the passato remoto that end with an accented vowel in the Agrigentino dialects.

Line 4: addini ‘galline’ (Scavuzzo 8)

Line 5: chianá ncap’ un pedi di “mulberries” (Pitrè 56)

According to Pitrè, the names of trees include the word pedi or peri [piede].

Line 7: ’zzizzari (Giarrizzo 88)

In most of the dictionaries I consulted the meaning of this word is given as adornare, ripulire. Giarrizzo derives it from Arabic ’aziz. Here it means ‘to fix’.

Line 8: nzoccu ‘ciò che’ (Giarrizzo 239)

Line 9: ojinjornu (Rohlfs 3, 264)

Rohlfs mentions the Sicilian òji ‘oggi’. This form is similar to Spanish hoy. The speakers of Tampa Sicilian borrow from Spanish, but one must be careful. Although some Sicilian words resemble Spanish words, they may be a result of the regular Sicilian development.

Conclusion

Of the three meanings suggested by the title of this study, the one concerning the future survival of Sicilian is the most difficult to interpret. The Sicilians in Tampa have spoken a relatively uniform dialect for over one hundred years. The use of other languages (as well as English) has always been a part of Tampa Latin culture and remains important even today. The number of Spanish speakers continues to increase with the immigration of groups from various parts of Latin America. But when the first and second generations of Italians are gone, the community in which the Sicilian dialect was spoken will also be gone. Although some third-generation Italians still speak the dialect, their sons and daughters do not. Perhaps the fourth generation will study what one informant called the “pure Italian language,” thus continuing the tradition of multilingualism that has been such an important element of the Italian culture in Tampa.

The question of the future fate of the Sicilian dialect is an important one, but in the meantime, it is also important that the dialect be studied and documented. I hope that this study contributes to that endeavor.

Works Cited

Correa-Zoli, Yole. “The Language of Italian Americans.” Language in the USA. Ed. Charles A. Ferguson and Shirley Brice Heath. New York: Cambridge UP, 1981. 239–56.

Gambino, Richard. Blood of My Blood. Garden City: Doubleday, 1974.

Fishman, Joshua A. Language Loyalty in the United States. The Hague: Mouton, 1966.

Giarrizzo, Salvatore. Dizionario etimologico siciliano. Palermo: Herbita, 1989.

Glazer, Nathan. “The Process and Problems of Language Maintenance: An Integrative Review.” Fishman 358–68.

Massari, Angelo. The Wonderful Life of Angelo Massari. Trans. Arthur D. Massolo. New York: Exposition, 1965.

Mormino, Gary and George Pozzetta. The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885–1985. Urbana and Chicago: U of Illinois P, 1987.

Pellegrini, Giovan Battista. Carta dei Dialetti d’Italia. Pisa: Pacini, 1977.

Piccitto. Giorgio. “Il siciliano dialetto italiano.” Orbis 8 (1959): 183–99.

Pitrè, Giuseppe. Grammatica siciliana. Palermo: Sellerio, 1979.

Pizzo, Anthony. “The Italian Heritage in Tampa.” Little Italies in North America. Ed. Robert F. Harney and J. Vincenza Scarpaci. Toronto: The Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1981. 123–40.

Rohlfs, Gerhard. Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti: Vol. 1, Fonetica. Trans. Salvatore Persichino; Vol. 2, Morfologia. Trans. Temistocle Franceschi; Vol. 3, Sintassi e formazione delle parole. Trans. Temistocle Franceschi and Maria Caciagli Fancelli. Torino: Einaudi, 1966–1969.

Scavuzzo, Carmelo. Dizionario del parlar siciliano. Palermo: Edikronos, 1982.

Timiras, Nicolas. “The Sicilian Dialect Spoken by the Monterey (California) Fishermen.” Orbis 4 (1955): 349–66.

Appendix I

Map 1

(Source Mormino and Pozzetta 19)

Map 2

(Source Mormino and Pozzetta 48)

Map 3

(Source Pellegrini)

III siciliano

a occidentale

b area metafonetica centrale

c area metafonetica sud-orientale

d area orientale non metafonetica

e messinese

31 Diffusione della metafonia in Sicilia

32 Limite dell’antica area prevalentemente grecofona nella Sicilia nord-orientale

33 Limite di cl-, pl- > - (non kj-); -cl-, -pl- >

Piccitto’s Classification of Sicilian Dialects

Palermitano

Siciliano occidentale Trapanese

Agrigentino centro-occidentale

Parlate delle Madonie

Centrale Nisseno-ennese

Agrigentino orientale

Siciliano centro-orientale

Parlate del sud-est

Parlate del nord-est

Orientale Catanese-siracusano

Messinese

Appendix II

Informant #1^[12]

Born: 1891 Place of birth: Alessandria della Rocca

. . . c’era una fímmina   ce avía una fija orba    nasciuta propri’   orba e idda jeva a cojje finocchi . . . e la (m)attacava   e la vennía che era poveredda.

(There was a woman. She had a blind daughter, born blind. And she [the woman] used to go around gathering fennel. And she bound it and sold it because she was poor.)

Informant #2

Born: 1902 Place of birth: Santo Stefano

Informant #3

Born: 1905 Place of birth: Tampa

(Mother: Santo Stefano; Father: Contessa Entellina)

Informant #4

Born: 1910 Place of birth: Tampa

(Mother: Santo Stefano; Father: Contessa Entellina)

Informant #5

Born: 1918 Place of birth: Tampa

(Parents: Santo Stefano)

. . . accusí non c’era speranza   non c’era nenti    dicéseru di veniri a la mérica a trovari la fortuna e accusí comu finí.

(Thus, there was no hope. There wasn’t anything. They decided to come to America to find [their] fortune, and that is how it ended up.)

Informant #6

Born: 1920 Place of birth: Tampa

(Father and Grandparents: Santo Stefano)

. . . ma ji ∫tetti a napoli   a roma   ddocu avíamu li parenti.

(But I stayed in Naples, in Rome. There we had relatives.)

Informant #7

Born: 1920 Place of birth: New York, NY

(Mother: Santo Stefano; Father: Alessandria della Rocca)

‘un sacciu si me fiju ti lu dissi quannu ji arri..arrivav’ a la sicilia ncominciamu a parlari e la genti mi dicíanu quant’ avi che ti ni ji∫ti di cca (ci dissi) no ji sugnu mercanu ji nascevu l’america ma comu parla accusí e ci dicía ji parlu siclianu komu vuatri parlavu cca sessanta sesant’anni in arré   vuatri cangia∫ti ma ji no ji parlu lu ∫tessu.

(I don’t know if my son told you. When I arrived in Sicily, we began to speak and people would say to me, how long ago did you leave here? No, I’m American, I was born in America. But how is it you speak that way? And I would tell them: I speak Sicilian like you used to speak it 60, 70 years ago. You changed, but I didn’t. I speak the same.)

Informant #8

Born: 1922 Place of birth: Tampa

(Parents: Alessandria della Rocca)

me nanna   me patri   me zía rusina arrivaru n’américa l’annu milli novicentu dúi

(My grandmother, my father, [and] my aunt Rosina arrived in America in 1902.)

Informant #9

Born: 1923 Place of birth: Tampa

(Parents: Santo Stefano)

Informant #10

Born: 1926 Place of birth: Tampa

(Parents: Santo Stefano)

. . . c’era lu beddu petrusinu   ddu cu je che vinni   lu pisciá . . .

(There was the nice parsley, someone came along and pissed on it.)

Informant #11

Born: 1926 Place of birth: Tampa

(Parents: Santo Stefano)

. . . qui∫ta e la cícchera pir lu café . . .

(This is the cup for coffee [this is a coffee cup]).

Informant #12

Born: 1930 Place of birth: Santo Stefano

. . . bergi l’a sentutu diri.

(Peaches, have you heard it said?)

Informant #13

Born: 1930 Place of birth: Tampa

(Maternal Grandmother: Santo Stefano)

. . . [oh well] iddu era [you know] un picciottu nissi tempi   quannu intisiru di li fattoríi cca a tampa    unni potíanu travagliari . . .

(Oh, well, he was, you know, a little boy in those days. When they heard about the factories here in Tampa, where they could work.)

Informant #14

Born: 1930 Place of birth: Santo Stefano

. . . e c’e statu tantu che a cangiatu   tante cose.

(There has been so much that has changed, so many things.)

Informant #15

Born: 1931 Place of birth: Tampa

(Mother: Alessandria della Rocca; Father: Santo Stefano)

Informant #16

Born: 1932 Place of birth: Tampa

(Mother: Santo Stefano;

Maternal Grandfather: Alessandria della Rocca)

Informant #17

Born: 1935 Place of birth: Tampa

(Paternal Grandfather: Santo Stefano)

. . . finsina lu primu nasciutu fiju di la famija   pijamu lu nomu di lu nannu.

(Even to the point that the first born son of the family, we take the name of the grandfather.)

Informant #18

Born: 1946 Place of birth: Tampa

(Maternal Grandparents: Alessandria della Rocca;

Paternal Grandparents: Santo Stefano)

me patri jera ∫tefanisi   me matri jera ∫annarisi . . . e ora ne agosto ji c’e ghiri a santu ∫téfanu pir vídiri la famija mía pikké komu me nonna parte di me patri vinni . . . dda lassá tre frati e du sori   dda ne santu ∫téfanu . . . ne disiembre . . . vinni una di li cu∫ini . . . e vonno m’imbitari pi jiri dda   ji c’e ghiri komu ji l’aju familia   ji c’e voju vídiri   ji voju vídiri lu paísi di   unni vinni me patri   e c’e ghiri a nu paísi de me matri . . . tuttu c’e   e lu voju vídiri

(My father was Stefanese, my mother was Sciannarese and now in August I will go to Santo Stefano to see my family because, as my grandmother on my father’s side came, there she left three brothers and two sisters, there in Santo Stefano. In December one of the cousins came and they want to invite me to go there. I will go since I have family. I want to see them. I want to see the town where my father [actually her grandparents] came from and I will go to my mother’s [parents’] town. Everything is there and I want to see it.)

Informant #19

Born: 1955 Place of birth: Santo Stefano

. . . lu minutu che ci diceva che sugnu siciliana    tutti mi facevanu   mmm   they’re goin’   I thought, what the hell   mmm   for what   I go, pikké fa accusí   mmm la mafia   ji ‘un sapeva nenti della mafia   okay   tutti mmm la mafia    ancora oji quannu ci dicu che sugnu siciliana   fannu o la mafia.

(The minute I used to say that I’m Sicilian. Everyone used to go, mmm, they’re going . . . I go, why are you doing that ,mmm the mafia. I didn’t know anything about the mafia, okay? Everybody, mmm the mafia. Even today when I tell them that I’m Sicilian, they go, oh the mafia.)

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^[1]According to Pizzo (125), a few Italians had already settled in Tampa, but the wave of Sicilian immigration began in the latter part of the 19th century.

^[2]Cianciana, Bivona, Prizzi, Contessa Entellina, Ribera were the most frequent.

^[3]One would not use the designation Latin for the Jewish merchants, but even they participated in the culture of Ybor City. I was told by more than one informant that some of the Jews even learned to speak Spanish and Sicilian. When I asked the son of one of the early merchants if his father spoke Sicilian, he said that his father, who had been born in Rumania but raised in Austria, spoke at least five languages: German, Yiddish, English, Spanish, and Italian. His father regretted having forgotten Rumanian.

^[4]A group of immigrants from Contessa Entellina spoke Albanian as well as Sicilian. I have been told that there remain some speakers of “Gheg Gheg.”

^[5]Some moved away from Tampa, but later returned. A few of my informants were not born in Tampa, but had connections and eventually moved back.

^[6]I have no official statistics but many of the informants estimated a population of 30,000 to 40,000.

^[7]The first bit of interesting information was that the choice of the word “informant” was perhaps less than felicitous. I have no way of knowing whether some of the people who received the survey were put off by this term but it reminded me of the importance of choosing one’s words carefully.

^[8]The Pan-American University Women, previously known as the Lucerna Club, was founded by Italian and Hispanic women to convince fathers to allow their daughters to go to school. This information was given to me by one of the informants.

^[9]In yet another illustration of the interaction within the Tampa Latin community; when the cantina of the Italian Club closed, most of the men moved over to the cantina at the Centro Asturiano, where they pass the time playing dominos, drinking Cuban coffee, and smoking Cuban cigars (just as they had done when they frequented the Italian club).

^[10]In an informal survey I conducted there were a number of combinations, but the unifying factor was always at least one relative who had been born in one of the Val di Magazzolo villages.

^[11]Although I have chosen not to address questions of phonology, it is interesting to note that the dialect spoken in Tampa retains [h] from Latin FL-, so that the typical Sicilian sciuri ‘flowers’, is pronounced [hjúri].

^[12]I would like to thank all the people who consented to be linguistic informants for this study. Their assistance was essential and their humor was uplifting.