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May 11, 2024 · At the coming of the Greeks, three peoples occupied Sicily: in the east the Siculi, or Sicels, who gave their name to the island but were reputed to be latecomers from Italy; to the west of the Gelas River, the Sicani; and in the extreme west the Elymians, a people to whom a Trojan origin was assigned, with their chief centres at Segesta and at ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The indigenous peoples of Sicily, long absorbed into the population, were tribes known to ancient Greek writers as the Elymians, the Sicanians and the Sicels (from whom the island derives its name).
Today, in Sicily, most people are bilingual and speak both Italian and Sicilian, a Romance language distinct from Italian. Some Sicilian words are loanwords from Greek, Catalan, Norman, French, Arabic, Spanish and other languages. Varieties related to Sicilian are also spoken in Calabria and Salento.
Long before the Normans, parts of Sicily were colonized by the Carthaginians — successors of the seafaring Phoenicians, and great foes of the Sicilian Greeks and the Romans. Few travelers are aware of the impact of Carthage in Europe (in part because losers don't get to write history).
Sicilians were also influenced by the Normans, specially during the Kingdom of Sicily. Italians originate mostly from these primary elements and, like the rest of Romance-speaking Southern Europe, share a common Latin heritage and history.
May 13, 2019 · Home to more than 25,000 immigrants, many from majority Muslim countries such as Bangladesh, Palermo, has become a symbol of multiculturalism and integration that has been built on Sicily’s ...
Jun 2, 2017 · In chronological order, Sicily has been possessed by the Greeks, Phoenicians/Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Byzantines, Muslims, Normans, Hohenstaufens, Spanish, Bourbons, and the US and England in modern times before being considered fully part of Italy.
