Italian Charities of America promotes the Regional Languages of Italy
Italian Charities of America firmly stands with respecting and celebrating each regional language in Italy. Our mission of promoting and preserving Italian and Italian American culture, history, heritage and culture is closely intertwined with the promotion of preserving Italian regional languages. Unfortunately, the tone and mindset for many years have degraded regional languages by simply referring to them as “dialects”. The actual meaning of a dialect is a form or branch of a language. How can we simply call regional languages dialects when in fact they are not a branch from one particular language but over centuries were already in use as independent languages deriving from years of ancient influences. Regional languages of Italy are all beautifully formulated with influences of their indigenous tribes, conquests, culture and history forming a distinct language of an area and its people. We must start looking at Italian regional languages as actual languages, as none of these languages are a form of or a branch of the Italian language. In fact, the Italian national language we know today was one of the regional languages of Tuscany before becoming the official language of all the regions in Italy. We must embrace the uniqueness of each Italian region by celebrating the diversity of each region’s history, culture and native languages. The native language/s of each region is a direct connection to its people, culture, heritage and should be preserved. Italian Charities of America recognizes each regional language as an independent language and not a dialect. As part of our mission, we have taken the lead in America as the premier organization to offer Sicilian language courses since 2009. Italian Charities of America is proud to expand on our regional language courses and is now offering Neapolitan language courses. We hope you join us on our mission to promote and preserve Italy’s magnificent regional languages.
Registration is now open for the Winter/Spring 2024 Semester!
Sicilian Language Courses
Italian Charities of America is proud to offer an extensive line up of Sicilian language courses for our Winter/Spring programs. Please see below for our Sicilian language course offerings.
Sicilian Level 1 –
Our Sicilian Level 1 language course is designed so that anyone who is interested can learn from a beginner level and no prior knowledge is necessary. This course will incorporate aspects that connect the Sicilian language to its people, history, culture and arts. Weekly course assignments will be offered to practice content learned in each lesson. This course is taught by a professor who is a native Sicilian speaker. As always, our courses are in a judgmental free atmosphere for your comfort. This course will be offered on either Thursday evening or Saturday morning, when registering please carefully choose which course you are joining. This course will be offered on Thursday evenings that begin on Thursday, March 7th from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm EST and ends on May 23rd. For those who prefer a weekend course, this course will also be offered from Saturday, February 24th from 9:30 am to 11:00 am EST ending on Saturday, May 18th (skipping over March 30th). The course will be offered virtually on ZOOM and will consist of 12 lessons. The registration fee is $200.00 which must be paid in full by the first day of the course. A textbook is required, and a confirmation email will be sent out to registrants along with the information to purchase the textbook.
Sicilian Level 2 –
Our Sicilian Level 2 language course is for students who have already completed our Sicilian Level 1 course or have a good sense of the basics of the language. This course starts off with a review of important aspects of Level 1 and then continues to dive deeper into the language with grammar, continuation of pronouns, imperfect, past and future tense. This course will also incorporate aspects that connect the Sicilian language to its people, history, culture and arts. Weekly course assignments will be offered to practice content learned in each lesson. This course is taught by a professor who is a native Sicilian speaker. As always, our courses are in a judgmental free atmosphere for your comfort. This course will begin on Saturday, February 24th from 9:30 am to 11:00 am EST and ends on Saturday, May 18th (skipping over March 30th). The course will be offered virtually on Zoom and will consist of 12 lessons. The registration fee is $200.00 which must be paid in full by the first day of the course. A textbook is required, and a confirmation email will be sent out to registrants along with the information to purchase the textbook.
Sicilian Level 3 –
Our Sicilian Level 3 language course is for students who have already completed our Sicilian Level 2 course and are confident to advance. This course starts off with a review of important aspects of Level 2 and then continues to dive deeper into the language with grammar, past perfect tense and more. Our Level 3 course will be focusing on reading, writing and conversation skills. This course will also incorporate aspects that connect the Sicilian language to its people, history, culture and arts. Weekly course assignments will be offered to practice content learned in each lesson. This course is taught by a professor who is a native Sicilian speaker. As always, our courses are in a judgmental free atmosphere for your comfort. This course will begin on Saturday, March 2nd from 11:15 am to 12:45 pm EST and ends on Saturday, May 25th (skipping over March 30th). The course will be offered virtually on Zoom and will consist of 12 lessons. The registration fee is $200.00 which must be paid in full by the first day of the course. A textbook is required, and a confirmation email will be sent out to registrants along with information to purchase the textbook.
Sicilian Conversation –
This course is aimed for anyone who has taken Sicilian Language Level 1, Level 2 or even Level 3 and needs to improve and practice speaking Sicilian as well as improve with pronunciation. If you already speak Sicilian and need to improve or practice more, than you are also welcome to take this course. A native Sicilian instructor will be teaching this course and guide you through proper pronunciations when speaking and push everyone to have conversations through exercises. Exercises will include reading, writing and speaking Sicilian and in a friendly virtual group setting. The aim is to make everyone more confident and more fluent in speaking Sicilian. This course will begin on Sunday, March 3rd from 10:00 am to 11:30 am EST and ends on Sunday, May 26th (skipping over March 31st). The course will be offered virtually on Zoom and will consist of 12 lessons. The registration fee is $200.00 which must be paid in full by the first day of the course. A textbook is required, and a confirmation email will be sent out to registrants along with the information to purchase the textbook.
Course Cancellation Policy: A refund of 50 percent will be given after the first lesson, no refunds honored after.
Further Sicilian Language Facts!
Sicilian is neither a dialect nor an accent. It’s not derived from Italian. It’s not spoken only in Sicily. Sicilian (u sicilianu in Sicilian and siciliana in Italian) is the oldest of the Romance languages derived from Latin, and it’s spoken in Sicily and in parts of southern Italy such as South Central Calabria and Southern Puglia. It’s derived from Latin, with Greek, Arabic, French, Provençal, German, Catalan and Spanish influences. The Sicilian language is recognized by UNESCO as a protected language and heritage.
Sicilian is currently spoken by most of the 5,000,000 inhabitants of Sicily: 1,250,000 in Calabria, 1,500,000 in Puglia, 250,000 in Campania and another 4,000,000 in the rest of Italy. This accounts for 20% of the Italian population not including another 10,000,000 Sicilians around the world.”