Symbols
80Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Sicilian alphabet
The grave accent marks stress (città, pirchì, sàbbatu); the circumflex marks a contraction (ô = a lu, dâ = di la). Ḍ ḍ, written doubled as ḍḍ, is the Sicilian retroflex d of beḍḍu. K, W, X and Y appear only in foreign words.
Apostrophe and quotes
Currency and where it’s spoken
Sicily in emoji
Etna, lemons, blood oranges, granita and olives.
On the map
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The Sicilian alphabet: Latin letters, three kinds of mark
Sicilian (sicilianu) is the Romance language of Sicily, written in the Latin alphabet with the letters A B C D Ḍ E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V Z. K, W, X and Y turn up only in foreign words and names. J, which modern Italian hardly uses, is everyday Sicilian: jornu (day), jiri (to go), and in the CLDR month names jinnaru (January) and maju (May).
Sicilian has only five vowels, and words end in -a, -i or -u where Italian often has -e or -o: pani (bread), mari (sea), Palermu, Missina. So on a page of Sicilian the marks do the work: a grave accent (à è ì ò ù) shows where the stress falls, a circumflex (â ê î ô û) marks a contraction or the merging of sounds, and a dot below (ḍ) marks a d sound Italian does not have.
Spelling has never been fully fixed, and the same word can appear as beḍḍu, beddu or beddhu depending on the writer. The Centro di studi filologici e linguistici siciliani in Palermo documents Sicilian varieties, while poets and families each keep their own spelling habits. The letters on this page cover the common systems.
Sicilian accents: à è ì ò ù and the circumflex â ê î ô û
The grave accent marks which syllable is stressed: città, pirchì (why, because), accussì (so, like this), chiù (more), ccà (here) and ddà (there). Careful writers and dictionaries also mark stress inside a word when it falls early, as in CLDR’s Sicilian calendar: dumìnica (Sunday), sàbbatu (Saturday), sittèmmiru (September). It also shows a stressed i or u next to another vowel, as in talìa (look!). È on its own is the verb is, as in Italian.
The circumflex is the most Sicilian mark of all. It marks contractions, often a preposition joined to an article: ô is a lu (to the), â is a la, ê is a li, dû is di lu (of the), dâ is di la, dî is di li, ntô is nta lu (in the) and câ is cu la (with the). Palermo’s famous street food pani câ meusa is literally bread with the spleen. Leaving the circumflex off turns dâ into da, a different word, so it is worth copying the real letter.
Ḍ ḍ, always doubled as ḍḍ, writes the retroflex d: the tongue curls back, and the sound is heard where Latin and Italian have a double l. Bello is beḍḍu, cavallo is cavaḍḍu (horse), stella is stiḍḍa (star), gallina is gaḍḍina (hen), and Etna’s Sicilian name is Mungibeḍḍu. Many writers simply type dd, and some write ddh; the dotted letter is the one scholars and many dictionaries use.
The apostrophe and quotation marks in Sicilian
Spoken Sicilian drops sounds at the start of short words, and writing often shows it with the apostrophe ’: ’u and ’a for the articles lu and la, ’nta for in. Many modern writers leave the apostrophe off and write u pani, a casa; both are common. Before a vowel the article is elided as in Italian: l’amuri (love), l’acqua.
Quotations follow Italian practice: angle quotes « » in books and print, “ ” in everyday typing. Use the curly ’ rather than the straight keyboard apostrophe when you want a text to look printed.
How to type Sicilian letters: à â ḍ and the rest
Windows: hold Alt and type on the number pad à 0224, â 0226, è 0232, ê 0234, ì 0236, î 0238, ò 0242, ô 0244, ù 0249, û 0251, and for capitals À 0192, Â 0194, È 0200, Ê 0202, Ì 0204, Î 0206, Ò 0210, Ô 0212, Ù 0217, Û 0219. On the United States-International layout type then a vowel for the grave and then a vowel for the circumflex. An Italian keyboard has keys for à è ì ò ù but none for the circumflex.
Mac: hold a vowel and pick from the pop-up, or press Option then the vowel for à, and Option I then the vowel for â. Phones: long-press the vowel on an Italian or English keyboard; both accents are in the pop-up.
Ḍ ḍ has no Alt code and no key, so copying it from this page is the easiest way. Its code points are Ḍ U1E0C and ḍ U1E0D. In Microsoft Word type 1E0D and press Alt X; on a Mac with the Unicode Hex Input source hold Option and type 1E0D; on Linux press Ctrl Shift U, type 1e0d and press Space. In HTML write ḍ, and à or â for à and â.
Where Sicilian is spoken, and Sicilian vs Italian
Sicilian is spoken across Sicily and its small islands, and closely related varieties are spoken in southern Calabria and the Salento peninsula. CLDR’s estimate is around 500,000 speakers, a cautious figure: Sicily has close to five million people, and counts of everyday speakers run to several million. Large communities of Sicilian descent in the United States, Argentina, Australia and Canada keep words and phrases alive. Sicily pays in euros, written after the number: 5 .
Sicilian is not a dialect of standard Italian but a sister language that grew from Latin on the island, with words left by Greeks, Arabs, Normans and Spaniards: zàgara (orange blossom) and giuggiulena (sesame) come from Arabic, accattari (to buy) from Old French. Italy’s 1999 law on historic minority languages does not include it, but the Sicilian Region has passed its own law to bring Sicilian language and literature into schools. For the neighbours, see the Italian, Neapolitan, Sardinian and Maltese collections.
There is no Sicily flag emoji. The red and yellow flag with the Trinacria, the three-legged head of Medusa, is not among the regional flags that emoji support, so people post with for its colours.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copySicilian Alphabet & Letters combos
14Worth knowing
- The sonnet was born in Sicilian: it is credited to Giacomo da Lentini, a poet of the Sicilian School at the court of Emperor Frederick II in the 13th century, the first group in Italy to write love poetry in a vernacular.
- Sicilian ḍḍ grew out of Latin double l, so the same word runs bello in Italian, beḍḍu in Sicilian; even Etna’s Italian name Mongibello is Mungibeḍḍu on the island.
- Palermo’s markets are famous for the abbanniata, the long sung cries in Sicilian with which vendors call out what they sell.
- Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano novels mix Sicilian words such as talìa into their Italian, and made that Sicilian-flavoured voice familiar to millions of readers.
Questions people ask
7What letters are in the Sicilian alphabet?
A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V Z, with the grave-accented vowels À È Ì Ò Ù, the circumflex vowels Â Ê Î Ô Û and the dotted Ḍ ḍ. K, W, X and Y appear only in foreign words.
What is the dd sound in Sicilian?
A retroflex d, made with the tongue curled back, heard where Italian has double l: beḍḍu for bello, cavaḍḍu for cavallo. It is written ḍḍ, dd or ddh.
What does the circumflex mean in Sicilian?
It marks contractions, including a preposition joined to an article: ô a lu, â a la, dû di lu, dâ di la, ntô nta lu, câ cu la, as in pani câ meusa.
How do I type ḍ (d with dot below)?
Copy it from this page, or use its code point U1E0D (capital Ḍ is U1E0C): 1E0D then Alt X in Word, Option 1E0D with Unicode Hex Input on a Mac, Ctrl Shift U 1e0d on Linux, or ḍ in HTML.
Is there a Sicilian flag emoji?
No. Emoji have no flag for Sicily or any Italian region, so people use together with , the red and yellow of the Sicilian flag.
Is Sicilian different from Italian?
Yes. Sicilian developed from Latin on the island alongside Italian, not out of it, with its own sounds (ḍḍ, final -u and -i), grammar and many words from Greek, Arabic, French and Spanish.
How many people speak Sicilian?
CLDR estimates around 500,000 speakers; other counts of everyday speakers in Sicily run to several million. Estimates vary widely with how fluency is counted.
