Siculo_Arabic_language | TriviaQuestions.online

⭐ In the context of the Three Valli of Sicily, the term used to designate each administrative region – Val di Noto, Val Demone, and Val di Mazara – has linguistic roots in which language?

The term 'val' or 'vallo', used to define the administrative regions of Sicily under Muslim rule, is derived from the Siculo-Arabic word 'walāya', which translates to 'province'.

⭐ Core Definition: Siculo Arabic language

Siculo-Arabic or Sicilian Arabic is a group of Arabic varieties that were spoken in the Emirate of Sicily (which included Malta) from the 9th century, persisting under the subsequent Norman rule until the 13th century. It was derived from Arabic following the Abbasid conquest of Sicily in the 9th century and gradually marginalized following the Norman conquest in the 11th century.

Siculo-Arabic is extinct and is designated as a historical language that is attested only in writings from the 9th–13th centuries in Sicily. However, present-day Maltese is considered to be its sole surviving descendant. Maltese evolved from one of the dialects of Siculo-Arabic over the past 800 years and a gradual process of Latinisation that gave Maltese a significant superstrate influence from Romance languages. By contrast, present-day Sicilian, which is an Italo-Dalmatian language, retains relatively little Siculo-Arabic vocabulary; its influence is limited to some 300 words.

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👉 Siculo Arabic language in the context of Three valli of Sicily

During the Muslim rule on Sicily, the island was divided into three different administrative regions: the Val di Noto in the southeast, the Val Demone in the northeast and the Val di Mazara in the west. Each zone has a noticeably different agriculture and topography and they converged near Castrogiovanni (Enna). The term val or vallo (plural: valli) is derived from Arabic (Siculo Arabic: وَلاية, romanized: walāya; compare وَلِيّ, waliyy), with the administrative meaning of 'province', and was retained for various administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Sicily until the 19th century.

There are many Arab-derived names in the Val di Mazara (and more Christians converted to Islam from this region), are more mixed in the Val di Noto, while Christian (particularly Greek) identities survived strongest in the Val Demone (with the least Arab-derived names), which was the last to fall to the Muslims, where Christian refugees from other parts of Sicily had assembled, and which furthermore remained in contact with Byzantine southern Italy. Even in present-day Sicily, differences between the east and west of the island are often explained by locals as being due to the Greek and Arab descent of the populations, respectively. Later Christian Lombard settlements would split the remaining Muslims of Sicily in half, separating the Val di Mazara and the Val di Noto.

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