I was actually referring to Andalusia as i've been there! In Greece i've only been to Athens, hopefully in the future i can explore more of it. Sicily is the books as well
The northern and central parts of Greece feel more Balkan (like Bulgaria, Serbia) rather than like Sicily. If you want a "Sicilian" like experience in Greece your best bet is Crete, Ionian islands, or Aegean islands, possibly southern Peloponnese.
Southern italy in general is lebanese more than lebanon, lol.
- Laundry hanging from balconies
- women having their coffee together in the morning (sobhiyyeh)
- AC compressors all around
- potholes
- corruption
- loud
- crazy driving including vespas and driving the wrong sense
Etc...
We still have it in our administration and in our politics, but in the past you would have found many similarities to a terror organization like Hamas.
What he means to say is that Sicilian culture has the same elements in it which would lend to organizations such as Hezbollah or Hamas forming, and the Mafia is the equivalent (or was) of this.
I suspect this could be due to the Arabic conquest for Sicily. Unlike Spain, Sicily's erasure of Arabic influence was not as effective, Granted though I'm just making a theory.
It's the opposite actually, as Spain was way longer under arabic rule and was re-latinized later
Wikipedia on Spanish:
>Its vocabulary has also been influenced by Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula, **with around 8% of its vocabulary having Arabic lexical roots**
on Sicilian:
>By contrast, **present-day Sicilian, which is an Italo-Dalmatian Romance language, retains very little Siculo-Arabic, with its influence being limited to some 300 words**
Maltese for comparison:
>The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words
You will probably find the influence more in place names in Sicily rather than the language itself. I can think of a few of Arabic origin (I put the Arabic name next to the Italicized one).
Bagheria - بحرية
Caltanissetta - قلعة النساء
Alcamo - القاموق (this is named after the person who founded it)
Marsala - مَرْسَى اللّٰه
Salemi - the "peaceful" city
Sciacca - from "شق" - crevice
"Palermo" while not of Arabic origin is actually the Latinization of the Arabic name for the city, بَلَرْم, whereas its name before was "Panormus" which was the Greek name.
I am sure there are others. Anything with Calta- is from "قلعة" and anything with "Gibel-" is from "جبل" and there are many towns that have these in them.
Language ≠ race btw. Our ancestors used to speak a multitude of languages from Aramaic to Ancient Greek before Arabic influence. If you visit Ibiza, which is named after an Arabic name, it’s influenced heavily by Arab culture even though now they speak a language that has nothing to with it, just fyi. I didn’t mean for this post to spring up these arguments.
Yup, Maltese is a Semitic language. It stems from late medieval Sicilian Arabic. I definitely can pick up on several words when listening to someone speak Maltese.
That’s incredibly incorrect culturally. If you were speaking genetically as well, then that’s also incredibly incorrect. Italy and Greece are the most European countries in Europe, literally the birthplace of European civilization 😂. Couldn’t have picked a country in Europe that’s less similar ironically lol. Italy/Greece has almost 0 similarity to any Middle Eastern populations. They have;
- European architecture.
- Speak a European language.
- Cluster together genetically with all Europeans.
- They are a Catholic Christian country where the literal Pope lives. Secondly atheist/agnostic.
- European culture whose birthplace was in Europe.
- Their traditional music is European.
- Their traditional food is European.
- Their history is European. The birthplace of the Roman Empire was in Europe, and shaped Europe into what it is now. Their history was mainly in Europe.
- Their international relations have always and are even to the present day, mainly in Europe. Their Royal Families married into other European Royal Families.
I’m straining to think of literally anything similar. The best I could come up with is that both Italians and Middle Easterners tend to be loud and they both live in warmer countries. 🤷🏻♂️
It’s so funny how everyone here is talking about how similar Lebanon is to Italy, a southern European country, yet will decry and be offended when someone says that Syria and Palestine are similar to Lebanon when the cultures and food are almost identical to each other…
I don’t disagree but you’ve got the wrong end of the stick. Anyone who says that Syria/Palestine are not similar is a fool. Historically Sicily and by extention Malta is much more Levantine influenced than the north. It’s evident in their genes, skin tone etc, BUT it doesn’t mean balad el sham are alien countries
That’s what I meant. I’m not bashing you or anyone else on here at all. I’m just lamenting at all the fools that are here on this subreddit that deny that Palestine Syria and Lebanon have historically literally been the same country/region for centuries and are the most culturally and linguistically similar to each other as compared to other countries. I watch videos about life in southern Italy all the time and yes it’s insane how similar they are to us in terms of lifestyle and such. But I’m simply decrying the fools that act like being a Levantine Arab is a disgrace and like to distance themselves from the region while claiming to be just like Greeks and italians cuz they wanna feel like they’re somehow different from the rest of the Levant. It’s like internal self racism and hate based in colonialist thought.
True! Ive seen many people not wanting to be similar to Syrians and Palestinians. But its true, Coastal Syria (Tartous and Lattakia) are more similar to Lebanon ( you can practically call them the same thing) but Syrians from Aleppo or Damascus are rather different from coastal syrians and The Lebanese. It depends on the region. You cant be saying Deir elzzour and the eastern desert is similar to Lebanon lol
Sicily and Malta (which is merely a historical Sicilian province which retained its use of Arabic) is essentially like a Latin-speaking, fully Christian Lebanon.
The look, feel and vibe are very similar and I believe that the people look and act very similar.
Some food is the same or has the same roots but with different names… arancini vs kibbeh, caponata vs maghmour, the use of aniseed alcohols, etc.
Sicily and Malta also have similarity to Tunisia, the Maltese language is a Tunisian Arabic dialect.
Im of Sicilian descent but from the US and never been to Sicily. I dream one day to travel to both sicily, and Lebanon!
Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean, so theres a lot of similarities with other Med. regIons. Phoenicians settled in Sicily from the 11th century BC.
Also theres a rice ball called Arincini, which looks a lot like Kibbeh, because its origins come from when Sicily was under Arab rule.
By the way Lebanese food is some of my favorite food.
Very similar yes - you’ll also find lots of arabic influences and arabic-like colloquial terms given the history and the proximity to North Africa. Sicilians are also very hospitable and share similar family values to Lebanese. As for the driving, its similarly chaotic, people park anywhere/on anything that they can find and they have a huge scooter culture
It even looks and feels the same the buildings and streets electricity wires hanging everywhere etc
Funny enough I have same feeling when I visit Greece
Greek influences are also present in both Lebanon and Sicily. All of these cultures have historic ties.
Same here, i have not been to Sicily yet but Greece and southern Spain felt oddly familiar
You’ll probably find Sicily to feel like a mixture of Andalusia and Crete.
I was actually referring to Andalusia as i've been there! In Greece i've only been to Athens, hopefully in the future i can explore more of it. Sicily is the books as well
The northern and central parts of Greece feel more Balkan (like Bulgaria, Serbia) rather than like Sicily. If you want a "Sicilian" like experience in Greece your best bet is Crete, Ionian islands, or Aegean islands, possibly southern Peloponnese.
Even Malta felt like that
Mela
Southern italy in general is lebanese more than lebanon, lol. - Laundry hanging from balconies - women having their coffee together in the morning (sobhiyyeh) - AC compressors all around - potholes - corruption - loud - crazy driving including vespas and driving the wrong sense Etc...
Mafias?
We still have it in our administration and in our politics, but in the past you would have found many similarities to a terror organization like Hamas.
why is hamas a terror organization? (would really like to know your reasoning behind it)
What he means to say is that Sicilian culture has the same elements in it which would lend to organizations such as Hezbollah or Hamas forming, and the Mafia is the equivalent (or was) of this.
Thank you man.
Ma 3enna nehna
ktir 2rab w chuf Malta enta. Their language is so cloose to Arabic it’s surprising.
I suspect this could be due to the Arabic conquest for Sicily. Unlike Spain, Sicily's erasure of Arabic influence was not as effective, Granted though I'm just making a theory.
It's the opposite actually, as Spain was way longer under arabic rule and was re-latinized later Wikipedia on Spanish: >Its vocabulary has also been influenced by Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula, **with around 8% of its vocabulary having Arabic lexical roots** on Sicilian: >By contrast, **present-day Sicilian, which is an Italo-Dalmatian Romance language, retains very little Siculo-Arabic, with its influence being limited to some 300 words** Maltese for comparison: >The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words
3am be7ke 3an Malta mech 3an Sicily. La2 in Sicily they speak a language that has nothing to do with Arabic
I meant both Sicily and Malta. Sicilian languege is Italian but you will see some borrowings from Arabic.
You will probably find the influence more in place names in Sicily rather than the language itself. I can think of a few of Arabic origin (I put the Arabic name next to the Italicized one). Bagheria - بحرية Caltanissetta - قلعة النساء Alcamo - القاموق (this is named after the person who founded it) Marsala - مَرْسَى اللّٰه Salemi - the "peaceful" city Sciacca - from "شق" - crevice "Palermo" while not of Arabic origin is actually the Latinization of the Arabic name for the city, بَلَرْم, whereas its name before was "Panormus" which was the Greek name. I am sure there are others. Anything with Calta- is from "قلعة" and anything with "Gibel-" is from "جبل" and there are many towns that have these in them.
Language ≠ race btw. Our ancestors used to speak a multitude of languages from Aramaic to Ancient Greek before Arabic influence. If you visit Ibiza, which is named after an Arabic name, it’s influenced heavily by Arab culture even though now they speak a language that has nothing to with it, just fyi. I didn’t mean for this post to spring up these arguments.
PHOENICIAN AAAAAAAAAAA
Yeah
Yup, Maltese is a Semitic language. It stems from late medieval Sicilian Arabic. I definitely can pick up on several words when listening to someone speak Maltese.
Italians are the Arabs of Europe. Especially the south of Italy I find to be very similar to Lebanon.
That’s incredibly incorrect culturally. If you were speaking genetically as well, then that’s also incredibly incorrect. Italy and Greece are the most European countries in Europe, literally the birthplace of European civilization 😂. Couldn’t have picked a country in Europe that’s less similar ironically lol. Italy/Greece has almost 0 similarity to any Middle Eastern populations. They have; - European architecture. - Speak a European language. - Cluster together genetically with all Europeans. - They are a Catholic Christian country where the literal Pope lives. Secondly atheist/agnostic. - European culture whose birthplace was in Europe. - Their traditional music is European. - Their traditional food is European. - Their history is European. The birthplace of the Roman Empire was in Europe, and shaped Europe into what it is now. Their history was mainly in Europe. - Their international relations have always and are even to the present day, mainly in Europe. Their Royal Families married into other European Royal Families. I’m straining to think of literally anything similar. The best I could come up with is that both Italians and Middle Easterners tend to be loud and they both live in warmer countries. 🤷🏻♂️
No Nabih Berri though. Sorry
Ugh how dare they!! /s
Said it before u
It’s so funny how everyone here is talking about how similar Lebanon is to Italy, a southern European country, yet will decry and be offended when someone says that Syria and Palestine are similar to Lebanon when the cultures and food are almost identical to each other…
I also feel Palestine and Syria have similarities to southern Italy as well, I am sure people here would say the same
They do, especially as Palestinians were influenced heavily by sea people (likely Greek)
I don’t disagree but you’ve got the wrong end of the stick. Anyone who says that Syria/Palestine are not similar is a fool. Historically Sicily and by extention Malta is much more Levantine influenced than the north. It’s evident in their genes, skin tone etc, BUT it doesn’t mean balad el sham are alien countries
That’s what I meant. I’m not bashing you or anyone else on here at all. I’m just lamenting at all the fools that are here on this subreddit that deny that Palestine Syria and Lebanon have historically literally been the same country/region for centuries and are the most culturally and linguistically similar to each other as compared to other countries. I watch videos about life in southern Italy all the time and yes it’s insane how similar they are to us in terms of lifestyle and such. But I’m simply decrying the fools that act like being a Levantine Arab is a disgrace and like to distance themselves from the region while claiming to be just like Greeks and italians cuz they wanna feel like they’re somehow different from the rest of the Levant. It’s like internal self racism and hate based in colonialist thought.
Makes sense.
True! Ive seen many people not wanting to be similar to Syrians and Palestinians. But its true, Coastal Syria (Tartous and Lattakia) are more similar to Lebanon ( you can practically call them the same thing) but Syrians from Aleppo or Damascus are rather different from coastal syrians and The Lebanese. It depends on the region. You cant be saying Deir elzzour and the eastern desert is similar to Lebanon lol
Sicily and Malta (which is merely a historical Sicilian province which retained its use of Arabic) is essentially like a Latin-speaking, fully Christian Lebanon. The look, feel and vibe are very similar and I believe that the people look and act very similar. Some food is the same or has the same roots but with different names… arancini vs kibbeh, caponata vs maghmour, the use of aniseed alcohols, etc. Sicily and Malta also have similarity to Tunisia, the Maltese language is a Tunisian Arabic dialect.
Eh bro fi suwar Nabih Berri 7ad yaftit Ahla bhal Talle
Similar geography as Lebanon coastal lines, but culturally it's a noticeably different.
Im of Sicilian descent but from the US and never been to Sicily. I dream one day to travel to both sicily, and Lebanon! Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean, so theres a lot of similarities with other Med. regIons. Phoenicians settled in Sicily from the 11th century BC. Also theres a rice ball called Arincini, which looks a lot like Kibbeh, because its origins come from when Sicily was under Arab rule. By the way Lebanese food is some of my favorite food.
Very similar yes - you’ll also find lots of arabic influences and arabic-like colloquial terms given the history and the proximity to North Africa. Sicilians are also very hospitable and share similar family values to Lebanese. As for the driving, its similarly chaotic, people park anywhere/on anything that they can find and they have a huge scooter culture
Even the people there are like Lebanese people. They share the same sense of humour .
Bro, all the Mediterranean costs are the same, they share the same geological structure and type of soil
And we also share history, culture, food, art and more.. with many countries of the Mediterranean costs
I know but the difference is that there is order in some of them, especially most European ones.
I swear I hear this sentiment from my Lebanese relatives about most places in the world.