This book re-examines the socio-linguistic situation in Sicily during both the Islamic (213-485/827-1091) and the Norman (485-681/1091-1282) rules. Together with Islam and Christianity, the customs of the local people mixed with those of the Arabs, Berbers, Normans, Lombards and others. This assimilation is called Siculo Arabic. It became cemented with linguistic features fusing Arabic and Romance elements.

It is evident from this study that three linguistic communities emerged during the Islamic and Norman periods. One was isolated culturally and linguistically from Islam and Arabic, the second had a common cultural affiliation into which Muslims were brought up with a common language, i.e. Arabic, and the third commonly accultured to Islam and spoke a pidginized and later creolized form of Arabic but remained affiliated to Christianity.

The data collected in these varieties facilitates the reconstruction of a phonological and, to some extent, morphological patterning that will allow future researchers to compare the results given here with other collateral material.