WHEN YOU TEACH SICILIAN TO A FOREIGNER
by Giuseppe Raciti

The Sicilian dialect for Sicilians is worth more than the Italian language, in short, for them it is THE LANGUAGE. And a Sicilian like me who has lived four years abroad take it with them as an asset to pass on, to be made known to those who are not Sicilian.

I remember that when I went to work in an interpreting department three years ago I taught an Egyptian gentleman some expressions typical of my dialect, I taught him so well that in the morning when he arrived at the office instead of saying "GUTEN MORGEN" (we spoke in German) he would say to me: “CIAO 'MBARE”.
An interpreting colleague who was Tunisian, on the other hand, really lived in Sicily for a year and when we worked together he sometimes came up with the expression "CAM'A FARI?" A Georgian friend of mine, on the other hand, loved the word “APPIDDAVERU”. When together we were surprised by something I always said to her "Katia, APPIDDAVERU?" and she replied with conviction "APPIDDAVERU!" To a Kazakh classmate of mine, on the other hand, when we saw that something was not right, I said to him “SEMU PESSI” and he replied “SEMU PESSI” but he never knew the meaning of this dialect expression.

As always, at the end of everything there were always friends and colleagues who greeted me when we went away saying "Hello Mafiusu!", But that is known to be part of our DNA and nobody takes it away from us.

Glossary
MBARE: Amico
CAM’A FARI?: What should we do?
APPIDDAVERU!: Really!
SEMU PESSI: We are lost