Hi Daniel - good to hear from you again after at least two years
away from the forum.

For those who follow Sicilian politics and the Sicilian language
question closely, Catalunya definitely represents an attainable
ideal, and certainly groups such as L'Altra Sicilia and Frunti
Nnipinnenti di Siclia are both quite fond of citing Catalunya as
something to emulate.

In many senses we have very much in common:
1. A shared history - some of Sicily's most independently minded
kings were aragonese and spoke Catalan as the court language (and
thus the strong influence of Catalan in the vocabulary of
Sicilian). This occurred at a time when Sicilian was the official
language of the parliament and the courts. Perhaps the only time in
history when Sicily was an independent nation-state using Sicilian
as its official language.
2. As once proud kingdoms, we were gobbled up by larger kingdoms
and suffered periods of oppression.
3. Our respective languages have both suffered periods of neglect
and government mandated discrimination (obviously Catalan has
recovered strongly from their lows, whereas Sicilian continues its
terminal decline into oblivion).
4. Both our regions are amongst the most autonomous in their
respective countries, although the Catalan have learned to use their
autonomy to make their region amongst the strongest and most
prosperous in Spain, whereas Sicilian politicians remain the lackeys
of either centralist power mongers, the mafia, or both.

It is unbelievable that Sicilians often dispair of their situation,
and yet are blessed with the capacity to act almost completely
autonomously from the rest of Italy - but they choose not to, and
continue to vote in politicians who have no intention of following
any aspects of the self-governing legislation.

Sicilians have never quite grasped the gift that is within reach
(autonomy), and that choosing their mother tongue as their official
language would bring the advantages of self-esteem and confidence
that the Catalan now possess in bucket loads. Instead they continue
to downgrade their language to the status of a sub-vernacular while
they maintain a dream of being accepted as equals by North Italians
who are amongst the most xenophobic people on Earth and will never
accept Sicilians as their equals.

I have to look on in envy as our nearby cousins, the Maltese, all
400,000 of them, enjoy nation statehood and the ability to use their
own language in parliament, in universities and in the courts. They
are part of the EU and thus Maltese is an official language of
Europe, and they have a GDP that is probably streaks ahead of
Sicily's. Sicilians have chosen to hitch their star to Northern
Italy and have become the poorer for it. In the meantime, the tiny
island of Malta zooms ahead in economic prosperity and national self-
esteem and prestige.

In short, Sicilians have made their bed and have to sleep in it.

pippu d'angelo, canberra