«So Many Sicilies»: Introducing Language and Linguistic Contact in Ancient Sicily.

Tante Sicilie, perché? Perché la Sicilia ha avuto la sorte ritrovarsi a far da cerniera nei secoli fra la grande cultura occidentale e le tentazioni del deserto e del sole, tra la ragione e la magia, le temperie del sentimento e le canicole della passione. Soffre, la Sicilia, di un eccesso d'identità, né so se sia un bene o sia un male. G. Bufalino, Cento Sicilie (Milan, 2008) Drawing the threads together The contributions in this volume revolve around the idea of providing a linguistic history of ancient Sicily. All chapters across the three parts that make up the volume (I: Non-classical languages, II: Greek, III: Latin) follow two different criteria: firstly, we have attempted to provide comprehensive yet accessible introductions to the languages spoken in Sicily in Antiquity; then, the second set of contributions uses linguistic evidence for talking about language contact – and hence peoples and cultures. In Part I, Paolo Poccetti’s careful reconsideration of the linguistic evidence for the identity of the elusive Sikeloi and Sikanoi (Chapter 1), Simona Marchesini’s outline of Elymian epigraphy and language (Chapter 2), Maria Giulia Amadasi Guzzo’s contribution on Phoenician and Punic (Chapter 3) and finally James Clackson’s discussion of Oscan at Messana (Chapter 4) all follow the same agenda: to provide a state-of-the-art discussion of these ancient languages while at the same time offering original insights or suggesting future lines of research. Basic descriptions of phonological and morphological features are combined with what may be termed a ‘cultural’ approach, whereby epigraphy is examined in the light of literature, history and archaeology, so as to locate the development of these languages within a wider framework. These contributions vary in terms of length, detail and the approaches adopted, as well as the subjects they address. Take the two ends of the spectrum: while Phoenician and Punic are so well-known as to enable an in-depth description of their linguistic and cultural status in Sicily, evidence for Elymian is scant and linguistically hard to pin down.