Sicilian connexions of some medieval Maltese surnames (original) (raw)
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L’onomastica di Malta è multistrato e multilingue. In modo particolare i cognomi sono penetrati nell’isola lungo alcuni secoli, conformemente alla complessità delle vicende storiche e linguistiche. alcuni dei cognomi più antichi sono di origine etimologica araba ma la deportazione dei musulmani nel Duecento ruppe i legami dell’isola con il mondo arabo-berbero. Da quei tempi, a parte il recente influsso inglese, le maggiori fonti culturali sono state la Sicilia, l’Italia e altre nazioni europee, in ispecie del mediterraneo. La lunga presenza dei Cavalieri di San Giovanni (1530-1798) moltiplicò la popolazione e il conseguente influsso di cognomi neolatini e continentali. Il presente studio esamina tre documenti rappresentativi che forniscono un quadro affidabile dei loro tempi: (a) l’elenco della Militia del 1419-20, che è il vero punto di partenza per lo studio demografico dell’isola nel periodo tardo-medievale; (b) lo Status Animarum, cioè il censimento diocesano del 1687, che illustra i cognomi del periodo dei Cavalieri; e (c) il censimento nazionale del 2005, che ritrae il profilo sociodemografico della popolazione isolana nel primo decennio del secolo XXI. Maltese onomastics is polystratal and polyglot. Family names, in particular, have reached the island over many centuries in complicated historical and linguistic conditions. Some of the oldest Maltese surnames are of Arabic origin; however, the expulsion of the Muslims in the thirteenth century brought about the final rupture of the powerful cultural ties which had bound Malta to the Arabo-Berber world. Since then, barring latter-day English influence, the dominant cultural driving force in Malta has come from Sicily, Italy and other European, mainly Mediterranean, countries. The prolonged presence of the Knights of St John (1530-1798) produced, in a more pronounced manner, an influx of neo-Latin and continental surnames. The present paper discusses three representative documents which serve as reliable snapshots of their times: (a) the militia List of c. 1419/20, which is truly a starting point for the study of Malta’s demographic make-up in the Late middle ages; (b) the Status Animarum or diocesan census of 1687, which throws significant light on Malta’s cognominal pool in the Hospitaller era; and (c) the national Census of 2005, which provides a socio-demographic profile of the local population in the early years of the twenty-first century.
The geopolitical, cultural and religious connections between Malta and Sicily have been extensively reviewed by several historians and ethnographers. In my case, I would like to back up this manifest bond in a collateral way. In fact, the aim of this paper is to enhance the long-standing ties between the two neighbouring islands via the scrutiny of their overlapping cognominal pool. The number of Sicilian surnames in Malta is simply staggering; however, Maltese surnames are equally discernable in Sicily. Thereby, this cross-fertilization of family names has undoubtedly been a two-way affair. The conditions and circumstances underlying this intriguing process are therefore worthy of examination.
Malta and Sicily : an overview of their cognominal kinship
2021
The geopolitical, cultural and religious connections between Malta and Sicily have been extensively reviewed by several historians and ethnographers. In my case, I would like to back up this manifest bond in a collateral way. In fact, the aim of this paper is to enhance the long-standing ties between the two neighbouring islands via the scrutiny of their overlapping cognominal pool. The number of Sicilian surnames in Malta is simply staggering; however, Maltese surnames are equally discernible in Sicily. Thereby, this cross-fertilization of family names has undoubtedly been a two-way affair. The conditions and circumstances underlying this intriguing process are therefore worthy of examination.peer-reviewe
Riassunto: I cognomi derivati da toponimi sono particolarmente diffusi nella folta schiera dei cognomi esistenti a Malta. Questi sono a loro volta derivati da una toponomastica eterogenea di nomi già preesistenti: fattorie, villaggi, borghi, città, e anche altre denominazioni abitate come distretti, province, regioni e addirittura paesi. Questo saggio prende in analisi una selezione di cognomi maltesi di origine italiana che sono derivati dalle seguenti fonti diverse: toponimi siciliani (p.es. Messina, Delicata); toponimi di regioni e di province italiane (Genovese, Salerno); toponimi di regioni e di città straniere (Navarro, Desira); comunità etniche diverse (Albanese, Spagnol). Questo studio mette a fuoco alcuni cognomi, i quali a prescindere dalla loro localizzazione precisa, sono soggetti a interpretazioni ambivalenti.
Late medieval Maltese surnames of Arabic and Greek origin
2015
As a contribution to the historical study of Maltese and Greater Sicilian onomastics, this article is an analysis of fifteenth-century Maltese surnames of low frequency (5 or less occurrences in the militia lists of 1419 and 1480) which are of certain Greek or Arabic origin. Each surname is analysed in terms of its etymology, meaning and known geographical distribution in Sicily or elsewhere in Italy.
This paper is divided in two sections. The first (and preliminary) part includes (a) a brief account of the Semitic strain in the Maltese language, and (b) a brief account of Arabic naming practices, particulalry the use of ism, kunyah, nisba, and laqab. The second (and main) part analyzes the etymology of several extant Maltese surnames, such as Saliba, Cassar, Abdilla, Farrugia, Micallef, Sammut, Fenech, and Zammit (all dating back to medieval times) which, in some way or another, reflect such Arabic nomenclature. It will be observed that most of these surnames also prevail in present-day Sicily, which was similarly under Arab rule.
Maltese habitational surnames : the Mediterranean context
2017
Riassunto: I cognomi derivati da toponimi sono particolarmente diffusi nella folta schiera dei cognomi esistenti a Malta. Questi sono a loro volta derivati da una toponomastica eterogenea di nomi già preesistenti: fattorie, villaggi, borghi, città, e anche altre denominazioni abitate come distretti, province, regioni e addirittura paesi. Questo saggio prende in analisi una selezione di cognomi maltesi di origine italiana che sono derivati dalle seguenti fonti diverse: toponimi siciliani (p.es. Messina, Delicata); toponimi di regioni e di province italiane (Genovese, Salerno); toponimi di regioni e di città straniere (Navarro, Desira); comunità etniche diverse (Albanese, Spagnol). Questo studio mette a fuoco alcuni cognomi, i quali a prescindere dalla loro localizzazione precisa, sono soggetti a interpretazioni ambivalenti.
Defining " Sicilian " : Identity and Romanization in Ancient Sicily
Just like in modern times, trying to define what it means to be a Sicilian during antiquity is no easy task. Even today Sicilians will argue that they are not Italian, although politically they are so. As a crossroads and melting pot in the middle of the Mediterranean, so many different cultures have left their mark on Sicily’s soil, muddling the waters and thus making it more difficult to define Sicilian. My research looks at how identity in Sicily changed during the Roman period. Although Sicily still consisted of multiple cultures, the Romans facilitated the forging of a more cohesive Sicilian identity which consisted mostly of mixed Hellenized-Roman culture. This formation was a process of blending which may have taken place naturally, but the Romans served as a catalyst. The Roman period is when we can begin to call the inhabitants of the island Sicilians.
Playing with identities in the multilingual place–names of Medieval Sicily
Molinelli Piera (ed.), Language and Identity in Multilingual Mediterranean settings. Challenges for Historical Sociolinguistics. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS. STUDIES AND MONOGRAPHS, vol. 310, 2017
This paper centres around the usability of onomastic and more specifically toponomastic material in the construction of a research method of historical socio-linguistics. The scenario is the Sicily of the twelfth century under the dominion of the Norman kings who organised a complex tri-lingual administration which fostered cooperation between functionaries who spoke Arabic, Greek or Latin. This case study concerns the use of tri-lingual place names in Sicily during the reign of William II. In a Greek act of sale of 1177 an area of central-northern Sicily is recorded ‘in the Latin language as Scandali, in the Greek language as Chandachi, and in the Arabic language as Alcastani’. In addition to etymological problems, the parallelism of the names provokes socio-linguistic questions. The very order in which the names, which refer to the same area, are listed is in itself significant. Whereas the Greek form should be seen as a partial transliteration of the Arabic, as is evinced from another Greek diploma of 1186 which records the place name χάνδακ ἐλκαστάνι, the Latin denomination Scandali is enigmatic inasmuch as it would appear to be a Greek place name. The hypothesis is that here for ‘Latin’ the scribe meant, rather, ‘vulgar’, that is to say neither Greek or Arabic. In this case we would have the survival of an ancient Latin lexical sub-stratum in Sicilian Romance, and this agrees with the well known propensity for the conservation of place names. This is an important yardstick for the study of the effects of contact over long periods of time. An analysis of onomastic material in this socio-linguistic dimension could provide an important contribution to the social and linguistic history of Sicily.
Pseudo-Sephardic Surnames from Italy
The article discusses examples of mixtures between groups of Italian Jews of various origins (Ashkenazic, Italiani, Sephardic), mixtures that can lead to confusion about the origin of names and show the complexity of the origins of Italian Jews. These examples illustrate a general point, namely that the onomastic approach can provide valuable information for history and genealogy.