Lamezia Terme and Galati Mamertino (Province of Messina): a comparison of two languages

Despite phonetic differences, the Lamezian idiom seems interwoven with the Galatian, problem containing many elements but which lets itself be unraveled without difficulty with such terms as bbattiri (from the Latin battere, meaning "to knock"), bisolu (from the Latin bis-solum, in Lamezian pisualu), brizziari (from the vulgar Latin briciare, meaning "to dazzle"), cannizza (from the Latin cannicium), capiri (from the Latin capere, meaning "to seize"), cattivu (from the Latin word captivus, or prisoner, used to designate a widower who is prisoner of his marital state), ccattari (from the Latin captare, which means to take possession of, and used to mean "to buy"), cerniri (from the Latin cemere, used to mean "to sift"), dimurari (from the Latin demorari, meaning "to delay"), dissapitu (from the Latin dis-sapidum, meaning "bad-flavored"), fetiri (from the Latin foetere, meaning "to stink"), lancedda (either from the Latin lagoenam or the Greek lagynos meaning "a jug"), musci (used as a vocative, from the Latin musio meaning "cat"), 'nzitari (from the Latin insitum, the supine stem of inserere, meaning "to insert" or "to engage" in something), papula (from the Latin papula, meaning "a blister"), ridduciri (from the Latin reducere, meaning "to lead back" or "to escort"), runcari (from the Latin runcare, meaning "to weed out"), sdirrupari or sdurrupari (from the Latin sdi-rupem-from a cliff-meaning "to hurl down"), sdirrinari (meaning "to weaken one's flanks"), strudiri (from the Latin de-struere-to demolish-meaning "to consume"), trastri (from the Latin transire, in Sicilian tra'siri, in Lamezian trasi'ri, meaning "to enter"), tintu (from the Latin tingere-to dip, as in baptizing-meaning "bad," in sense of how one was before he was baptized ).

Regarding the last example, Pagliaro traces the term back to the 4th century when the Catholic Church was lacerated by heresies; in such a case, one who is tinctus would be a "Christian baptized in a non-Orthodox manner." From this assumption, the term would have gradually assumed the deprecatory meaning of "bad" or "reprobate." One could write a novel regarding one of the other form of speech (be it Galatian or Lamezian), based on the fascinating framework of language. It is not disputed that over time there are words that on a phonetic level have been conserved unaltered. One is the form grasta-a vase of flowers-widely used in Sicily, from the Greek word gaster, meaning stomach, which led to one of those slips of meaning wherein the stomach is seen metaphorically as a storage container. Another form is gurna-a ditch or well-a term used with the same meaning at Montalbano Elicona, from the Greek gronos meaning something dug in stone, or a grotto. Is it a Greek linguistic fossil, or a Ligurian footprint that penetrated the South?

Even the syntax of the period reveals points of contact between the Lamezian idiom and the Galatian vernacular. For the verb dovere (=to be re required to do something), in Galatian speech one uses ebbe (=have) followed by the auxiliary da, in turn followed by the infinitive of the thing one has to do. Instead of devetti andare a Messina (=I am required to go to Messina) someone would write ebbi da andare a Messina, or in spoken language one would say ebb'a iri a Messina. This construction has survived in French (avoir a followed by the infinitive), and has passed into both Sicilian and Calabrian speech. There is also a similarity in grammatically-hypothetical forms, as in the Lamezian si flussi and Galatian si fora (=if I were), or in the Galatian s'ava iutu and st'ura fora turnatu (=if I had gone; if I had returned at this time), which in Lamezian are rendered s'avia iutu and a st'ura fhussi turnatu. Upon rereading the "trisyllabic verse of an eternal poem" of Nino Ferrau, I allow myself to lose the sense of togetherness with the poetic text, for my thoughts jump to the language itself which sinuously ties the stanzas to an epic cycle of lives. . .so the closing of my contribution can be no other than the same voice of Ferrau, the glue between two cultures-the Lamezian and the Galatian-that are embraced by language, despite their geographic distance.